In the years leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the country had a succession of wars. These were, The Crimean War (1854-56), The Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and World War I (1914-18).
All of these required a lot from the state, including tax dollars and manpower. Russia suffered defeat in all, except against Turkey. This series of war caused great discontent among the people and caused suffering in the country’s economy and government.
Along with these wars, there were three major parties that contributed to the cause of the revolution. First, there were the peasants, who maintained the majority of the population in Russia. They were excessively poor and could barely escape famine from harvest to harvest. The population boom in Russia from 1867-1896 was felt most drastically by the peasants. The increase of 30 million people in less than 30 years was too great that the land to the peasants’ disposal did not increase sufficiently. The government tried to help, but war took precedence. Second, there was a rise of the industrial working class. These workers were employed in the mines, factories and workshops of the major cities. They suffered low wages, poor housing and many accidents. Again, the government tried to help by passing factory acts to restrict the amount of hours one could work. However, their efforts were at too small a scale to have any real effect. As a result, there were many strikes and constant conflicts between the workers and the police. Lastly, the tsar of Russia was the cause of much disapproval. Tsar Nicholas II was much more interested in his family life, than matters of the state. He had an obsession with retaining all his privileges and the belief that he was chosen by God to rule. Also, he didn’t understand the forces of industrialization and nationalism that were growing throughout Russia. His disregard for the struggles of the people led them to lose faith in him and the long-standing tradition of autocracy. The people were not content and were ready to revolt. They just needed a good reason and a strong leader.
The Term Paper on Austro Hungarian War Russia Germany
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was assassinated along with his wife while touring the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The assassin was a student radical associated with a Slav nationalist terrorist group known as the Black Hand, which was fighting for independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the empire's Slavic minorities. From the ...
