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Why Was There a Russian Revolution?

In: Historical Events

Submitted By Harri
Words 419
Pages 2
Firstly, Russia was without parliamentary institutions or political parties to express or resolve problems held by the people of Russia until 1906. This meant that high levels of tension existed within the Russian Empire. This was not helped by the fact that over 80% of the population were peasants who were closely regulated, were redistributed land allotments and only had somewhat primitive farming techniques available. This led to underproduction, land hunger and even famine. As a result of no one solving these issues, there were incidents of peasant violence that forced the government to introduce a new series of reforms. However this had happened far too late and peasantry rebellions became a recurring dilemma for the government until a long time after the 1917 revolution.

However, it was not just Russian peasantry that caused reason for a revolution but the industrial working class too. In a very short amount of time, the working class had developed into a highly militant force with regards to both economic standing and politics. This was indicated by strikes in October 1905 that left which caused the Russian economy to temporarily collapse. This huge change in the working class that helped spur a revolution was a result of several factors. Firstly, the horrific living and working conditions that they were subjected to but also the result of propaganda and the organisation of Marxist revolutionary activists who looked to over-throw tsarism. Workers formed revolutionary parties such as the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party, split into two groups the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, that also helped spur the Russian Revolution through spreading their ideologies.
Finally, the many pre-existing conflicts and tensions within tsarist Russia were subject to immense strain during the First World War due to huge governmental mismanagement of both the military

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