1917 Russia 1a

• Issues in 1917 Russia- Church

  • censored and corrupt
  • "takes from the living and the dead" - charged for weddings and funerals
• Issues in 1917 Russia- Peasants

  • around 80% of the population were peasants
  • lived in terrible conditions, worsened by the serf emancipation 1861 where they forced into loans and given the worst parts of the land
• Issues in 1917 Russia- people

  • 126 million population
  • ethnically and linguistically diverse
  • many minorities wanted self determination
• Issues in 1917 Russia- geography

  • russia is the largest country in the world
  • physically divided by vast space and mountains, affecting communication
  • geography so diverse some places were tundra and others arable greenland, leading to disparities in agriculture effecting economic development
  • russia had gone through rapid industrialisation but still couldn't rival other european powers and had terrible working conditions
• Issues in 1917 Russia- Tsar/nobility


  • Romanov Dynasty had ruled as autocrats for over 300 years through the divine right and imperial edicts (orders)
  • created a police state with limited free speech and surveilance done by the okrahna who could arrest anyone
  • Tsar lived in luxury while his people starved
  • 1905 Bloody Sunday- 50000 protestors marched to the Tsar's palace demanding political reform and were openly shot at
  • BS lead to the October Manifesto which established the Duma (first representative body of legislative power) but the tsar issued fundamental laws which reaffirmed his autocracy
• Russia and the war effort- leadership


  • Tsar took control of the army as commander in chief, but had no experience and Russia continued to lose, making him seem responsible for it
  • Tsarina Alexandra and Rasputin were left in charge in petrpgrad and hated by the people for being german rumored to be sabotagging the war effort, R being killed in 1916
  • the Tsar continued to be loathed, now even more so because failure in war was placed solely on his shoulders, he also refused to cooperate with the union of zemstva
• Russia and the war effort

  • joined in 1914 with the Allies / Entente
  • St Petersburg is changed to Petrograd as to not sound german
  • suffered losses, for example 300k dead or wounded in the battle of Tannenberg
  • poorly equipped, conscripted peasants in 1914 it was 2 rifles : 3 soldiers. relied on looting corpses
  • war led to a shortage of men for agriculture, food prices rose and railways were delegated to the war effort, further worsening food distribution
• Issues in 1917 Russia- Tsar

  • nicholas II was awkward in public and not fond of politics and struggled to make decisions, weakening his political authority. he seemed unaware of the discontent in russia, celebrating the 300 year anniversary, quoted saying "my people love me"
  • his wife alexandra was a german princess, often gave misguided advice and was close with the quack "holy man" rasputin who eased their haemophiliac son aleksi's pain and had much influence on government despite his reputation as a womanising drunkard
• opposition parties- liberal parties


  political parties became legal in 1906, by 1917 there were many which fell into two majour catagories

  • octobrists- moderates, urged the tsar to honour the october manifesto; loyal to the tsar, thought the system could be improved through reform and saw the duma as positive advancement
  • kadets (constitutional democrats)- the largest liberal party wanted to develop constitutional monarchy, restricting the Tsar's power with a democratically elected constituent
• opposition parties- revolutionary parties

  • social revolutionaries (SRs)- began as a movement within peasantry, supported by urban workers. the left SRs claimed only terror could lead to change, the right believed in working with other partes for revolution and improvement in worker and peasant conditions
  • social democrats (SDs)- formed 1898 following marx, in 1903 they split into. The Mensheviks: socialist coalition should work to bring down tsardom, democratic policy making. Bolsheviks: led by Lenin believed a revolutionary party should be made of proffessionals under centralised leadership
• Issues in 1917 Russia- economy


  • taxes increaed to pay for war and russia was indebted with loans from the allies
  • the damage to exports produced massive inflation, money became basically worthless by 1917, prices were higher than wages
  • the millions of conscripted peasants left a shortage of agricultural workers, so a shortage of food
  • unemployment in petrograd and russia soared as many factories closed, 300% rise in the cost of living
• discontent


  • loss of confidence in tsarist regime, losing patriotism as everyday became a struggle to survive
  • pessimism and defeatism over the war grew as poorly equipped and organised soliders continued to fail, desertion and mutiny was high
  • the majority of duma members saw the tsar as an inept leader, no one had any desire to save him or his system