Why did the revolution occur:
There were 2 major revolutions in Russia. One during 1905 and then a series of revolutions during 1917. The first revolution transferred the power of the Tsar to Duma. However, by 1917, the citizens did not see significant change/improvement in their lives, and once again grew dissatisfied. This led to the overthrow of the Tsar and the provisional government taking his place, but when the general population still did not feel positive change, the more radical Bolsheviks led the 1917 October Russian revolution, which transferred the power to Lenin, turning Russia into the world's first communist, totalitarian country, which significantly improved the lives of the peasants.
There were 2 major revolutions in Russia. One during 1905 and then a series of revolutions during 1917. The first revolution transferred the power of the Tsar to Duma. However, by 1917, the citizens did not see significant change/improvement in their lives, and once again grew dissatisfied. This led to the overthrow of the Tsar and the provisional government taking his place, but when the general population still did not feel positive change, the more radical Bolsheviks led the 1917 October Russian revolution, which transferred the power to Lenin, turning Russia into the world's first communist, totalitarian country, which significantly improved the lives of the peasants.
1905 Revolution
The general population felt that the problems they experienced prior to the 1905 revolution still existed, and paired with their humiliating defeats during WWI, is what led to the 1917 revolution.
- Political Factors: People were dissatisfied with the Tsar, who took no interest in politics and the military. When the Tsar took personal command of the army, it led to many humiliating defeats which the citizens blamed him for. The Tsar then left the Tsarina in charge, causing the government to erupt in chaos. The citizens thought he was an incapable leader, and wanted him gone.
- Economic/Social factors: There was huge wealth gaps and inequality between the landless peasants and wealthy nobles/aristocrats. The aristocrats owned almost all the land, living luxuriously with excessive amounts of food and resources, while the peasants owned almost no land and could not grow crops, and as a result, only had the bare minimum of food and resources (shelter, electricity, heat, clothes etc) to survive on , which made life extremely difficult, especially during Russia’s harsh winter, and many people died due to starvation and hypothermia. On top of this, the people had to pay outrageous amounts of taxes, which they thought was extremely unfair and were unsatisfied with.
- Economic/Social factors: Government corruption was very common, the Russian economy was very poor. Russia was not industrialized, and workers were taken advantage of by the industrialists, to their own selfish needs. For example being forced to work for many hours, payed the minimum wage and given very little food and very terrible living conditions. This caused many to lose faith in their political system.
The general population felt that the problems they experienced prior to the 1905 revolution still existed, and paired with their humiliating defeats during WWI, is what led to the 1917 revolution.
- Political Factors: During World war 1, the Tsar led the military so badly and they were so poorly equipped that they suffered many defeats, and lost over 200,000 men, and eventually the governments support of the army.
- The war took over 15 million men from the farms and their jobs, so they could not grow crops, and as a result there were food shortages. During the winter of 1916-1917, this problem was extremely severe, a famine occurred in the cities, which caused a lot of discontent. Finally, on March 8th, 1917, because the food shortages and living conditions were so bad, riots started taking place. This lead the the army abandoning the Tsar on March 12th.