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Example research essay topic: Haven Yale University York Vintage Books - 1,761 words

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... russia lost to Germany, losing Poland and other lands. Russians could not believe that they lost and so blamed the loss on treason. The wife of the Tsar, a German, though fully devoted to Russia, took the blame. There were more suspicions of "treason in high places" (24) when a Russian with a German name was appointed Prime Minister in 1916: Boris Strmer. (25) While none of the beliefs of treason were true, they created much "animosity toward the Crown" (26), eventually leaving it "friendless and defenceless. " (27) Economic troubles began on July 27, 1914 when the government suspended the ability to convert rubles into gold and gave the treasury permission to print paper money without any regard to the amount of gold that was in the vaults in order to repay loans and pay for the war. (28) As a result, the amount of paper money in Russia increased by around 600 %. In July of 1914, the ruble was backed 98 % by gold in the vaults.

In January of 1917, though, this had dropped to 16. 2 %. (29) By the second half of 1916, with over 7, 972 million rubles in circulation, prices had risen by over 398 %. (30) Inflation did not hurt the peasants too much as they controlled the food. (31) They hoarded what grain that they produced, and were reasonably comfortable. In contrast, inflation was very much felt by those who lived in the cities, and it hurt. For workers, salaries rose in paper rubles from 85. 5 rubles per month in 1913 to 255. 6 in 1917. However, that was in paper rubles. As more were being printed and as inflation rose the actual value of the wages dropped from 85. 5 gold rubles 1913 to 38 gold rubles in 1917. (32) Prices increased with inflation, and many people could not afford to buy what little food was available. Long bread lines formed in the cities.

Scores of poor people waited in line for hours in the cold to purchase a little bit of bread. The industrial situation in Russia during the war added to the peoples' problems. The government gave contracts to many companies, and according to Michael Florinsky, this had "a detrimental effect upon the general economic conditions of the country by monopolizing for the use of the army most of the output of articles of general consumption. " (33) As a result of the war effort, 78 % of the machine-construction business was given to army requirements. The production of agricultural tools dropped by 80 % compared with figures prior the war. (34) The output for the civilian market suffered with the emphasis on war goods.

Service writes, "There was little a peasant could buy" (35) This shortage of goods prompted the farmers hoard their food. (36) Peasants received money that was declining in value. They could not buy the products that they required, and thus did not bother to sell their produce. (37) In 1915, a fuel and metal shortage impaired the manufacturing of civilian and military goods, aggravating the economic problem. As these problems grew, the citizens of the towns grew more and more irritated. They began to voice their anger at those who they believed were at the root of the problem -- the government. Labour unrest began again and "waves of strikes pounded official Russia in late 1915 and again in late 1916. " (38) Internally the government, by 1917, had been significantly weakened because of the power that it had given the Dumas. Political opposition was so great that, when the feelings of the nation were released in the riots that began toward the end of February, the Tsar could do nothing but abdicate.

The fourth Duma (1912 - 1917) was conservative. However, Pipes writes that: .".. during the war, the tsarist government attempted to make peace with the opposition by granting the Duma in fact, if not in name, much of what it wanted, such as the power informally to approve of ministerial appointments... The intelligentsia treated every conciliatory move by the government as another sign of weakness and an opportunity to press for more demands. " (39) There was unrelenting hostility between the government and the opposition. Liberals and socialists took the war as an opportunity to denounce the government and claim that they were the real enemy. (40) Dangerous speeches, such as Kerensky's on the first of November 1916, were given under protection of parliamentary immunity.

In that speech he called for the removal of those who "ruin, humiliate, and insult it [the country]. " (41) Later in 1916, the Duma managed to get Strmer, the Tsar-appointed Prime-Minister, dismissed. This first success was followed by further successful ministerial dismissals, including Protopopov. (42) Political activism was escalating. Radicals from within the Duma and from without openly incited the country to rebellion. All of the political parties united against the monarchy in face of its increasing weakness. (43) The conservatives started to believe that "the only way to save the monarchy was to remove the monarch. " (44). Calls were made to the workers to strike and to call for the removal of the autocratic regime.

On 23 February 1917, a women's procession organized by socialists marched in Petrograd. (45) The following day, workers began to strike. Then the soldiers mutinied as they had had enough of war and no longer had any faith in their officers and the regime because of continued defeats. (46) As Robert Service writes, "No civilian or military group wanted autocracy preserved. " (47) (Italics mine) After being pressured by an unofficial group of politicians from the Duma, Nicholas II abdicated on March 2, 1917. It was the end of the autocracy in Russia. World War I, even though it started out by pacifying the nation and creating a sense of nationalism, ended up bringing about large anti-governmental feelings from all aspects of society, from the peasants to the workers, from the army to the nobility.

Could the revolution have occurred without the war? Alan Wood writes in his book The Origins of the Russian Revolution 1861 - 1917, that this has been a question that historians have thought about since the event occurred and that each answer has historians which support it. Wood himself takes the stand that the conditions in Russia before the war were so severe that the revolution was inevitable. It is true that by August 1914, Russia had reached a point of crisis with the large number of strikes and demonstrations that called for change, the massive anti-governmental feelings that resulted from events such as the repression of university students whose actions that were suppressed had no political goals, and the Dumas that had begun to work subtly against the government. But the revolution would not have happened as quickly as it did had the war not occurred. There were still many in society who supported the Tsar -- the anti-government feelings were really only limited to the revolutionaries, students, and some workers.

The Duma had only begun to work in such a way as to take power away from the government, revolutionary groups were weak as they had been penetrated heavily by the police, and the Tsar could still rely on the army to put down any disturbances. The war, however, changed that. Though there was a brief period of relative calm, anti-Tsarist feelings began to arise again after situations on the home and real fronts, including losses and the lack of food and consumer goods, became increasingly prevalent. It was not only the workers, students, and revolutionaries: there was no group that wanted the Tsar to stay. The economic problems faced by Russia were certainly not around before the war, and they had huge effects. During the course of the war the Duma had begun to take power away from the government.

Revolutionaries began to incite the population even more, eventually bringing about the strikes and demonstrations of February-March 1917. In addition, the Tsar could no longer count on his army for support in suppressing the population, as moral dropped lower with each recurring defeat. They no longer wanted to fight and showed this by joining with others who did not want the government to remain in power. In short, the revolution was accelerated by the First World War. Endnotes 1.

Who subsequently abdicated in favor of a provisional government led by Prince Lvov. 2. Alan Wood, The Origins of the Russian Revolution 1861 - 1917 (London: Methuen, 1987), 5. 3. Wood, 40. 4. Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 79. 5. Robert Service, The Russian Revolution 1900 - 1927 (Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International, 1986), 7. 6. Service [The Russian Revolution 1900 - 1927 (Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International, 1986), 6 ] writes that 47 % of Russian securities were owned by foreigners by 1914. 7.

Ibid. 8. Wood, 27. 9. Service, 23. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13.

Ibid. 14. Ibid. 15. Service, 7. 16. Ibid. , 7. 17. Ibid. , 8. 18. Robert Wolfson, Years of Change (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1978), 104. 19.

Harold Shukman, "Causes of the Russian Revolution, " Modern History Review, September 1995, 2. 20. Service, 16. 21. Pipes, The Russian Revolution, 179. 22. Service, 16. 23.

Ibid. , 16. 24. Richard Pipes, Three "Whys" of the Russian Revolution (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1995), 26. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. , 27. 27. Ibid. 28.

Michael T. Florinsky, The End of the Russian Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931), 41. 29. Pipes, The Russian Revolution, 235. 30. Ibid. , 236. 31.

Ibid. , 236. 32. Florinsky, 126. 33. Ibid. , 43. 34. Ibid. , 43. 35.

Service, 27. 36. Florinsky, 43 - 44. 37. Ibid. , 44. 38. Service, 29. 39.

Pipes, Three "Whys" of the Russian Revolution, 24. 40. Ibid. , 25. 41. Pipes, The Russian Revolution, 253. 42. Ibid. , 257. 43. Ibid. , 258. 44.

Ibid. , 269. 45. Ibid. , 274. 46. Wolfson, 326. 47. Service, 31.

Bibliography Florinsky, Michael T. The End of the Russian Empire. Hew Haven: Yale University Press, 1931. Microsoft. Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia.

Redmond: Microsoft, 1996. Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Pipes, Richard. Three "Whys" of the Russian Revolution. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1995. Service, Robert. The Russian Revolution 1900 - 1927. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International, Inc. , 1986.

Wolfson, Robert. Years of Change. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1978. Wood, Alan.

The Origins of the Russian Revolution 1861 - 1917. London: Methuen, 1987. [/b]


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