WHY?

• • Tsarists Russia was a huge country, with a diverse popularity, which made it a difficult country to govern.
• • In 1900, an overwhelming majority of the population was peasants.
• Russia was an autocracy, ruled by a Tsar who was the head of a vast and unresponsive bureaucracy.
• • The Tsars used repressive measures to keep control but despite this, a number of oppositions parties developed.
• • The last Tsar, Nicholas II, was an ineffective and weak leader, unable to cope with the pressure of modernising Russia whilst trying to retain autocratic institutions.
• • The task of modernising Russia was one of that even the ablest leader would have found difficult, as it was so far behind the rest of Europe.
• • Nicholas received a warning in 1905 when revolution broke out all over Russia. He survived the 1905 revolution by making the move to become more democratic, representative form of government.
• • WW1 put the Tsar and his regime under tremendous pressure and in February 1917 it collapsed.