The Tsars autocracy was very badly organized and caused many conflicts between the people and the Russian government. It had been like this for a long time and needed a complete change. The Tsarist system meant that the Tsar had complete power and authority. He was the head of the state and had control over the Russian Orthodox Church. All the important decisions were made in St.Petersburg, without asking the people of Russia what their views were - decisions that were made were announced by 1000's of officials and bureaucrats. This angered the people as they felt the Tsar was ignoring them and did not care about their opinions. Nearly 90% of people were peasants and most were poverty stricken. They worked with the most basic tools. Half the farming land belonged to 300,000 landowners but the other half was shared with 15 million peasant families. In the cities and countryside the government and bureaucrats and secret police appeared to be in control, but underneath Russia was seething with discontent especially the living and working conditions of the poor.



This outbreak of war at first helped the Tsar. All the classes rallied together and initially wanted to help the Tsar and looked at him for leadership, but then after their first defeat at Tannenburg, everything changed after the Tsar made some fatal mistakes.

In August 1915, the Tsar left Petrograd to command the Russian army. He therefore received the blame personally for all their defeats and lost control of his troops as he left Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule Russia. His army also consisted of millions of poor, starving peasants with bad equipment, poor supplies of rifles and ammunition. In 1916, two million soldiers were killed or seriously wounded, and one third of a million taken prisoner and the civilian population were horrified. They considered the Tsar irresponsible for taking over the army and held him responsible for everything; as a result more conflicts between the people were started.

All these long-term causes were ongoing (namely the living and working conditions of the poor, the effects of the first world war and Lenin's personality and skill as a speaker), and Russia almost had a complete revolution in 1905. This was caused by Russia's defeat by Japan and this almost overthrew the Tsar and he was forced to introduce a Duma. This was a supposed 'parliament' that could only give advice to the Tsar and this was ignored - members who opposed the Tsar were executed/imprisoned. The Tsar still kept the majority of political power but it did weaken his authority. After the 1905 revolution and the Duma being introduced, they did introduce some reforms such as opening schools and giving efficient peasants more land, but still little for town workers

Then in 1917 the inevitable happened. Russia was plunged into revolution. This had been expected for a long time. Event after event in history triggered conflicts and more discontent. All the long term causes over the years included opposition to the Tsar, the social structure of the Royal Family, economic and industrial hardship and so on. These triggered events nearer to 1917 such as the various strikes and food shortages that were short-term causes. This proves that you always need long term and short term causes for something major to happen. The revolution was a milestone in the history of Russia and constituted of a much-needed change in the daily lives and conditions of the working classes.

Initially, this outbreak of war helped the Tsar as the classes looked to the 'Little Father' as Nicholas was known by, for help and leadership - they thought this would be a time when Russia would 'pull together'. At first the Russian armies did well but war enthusiasm did not last. However, at Tannenburg in August, there was a heavy defeat of one of two main Russian armies by Germans. Then in September 1914, the second Russian army was driven out of East Germany. The Russian armies then reformed and counter attacked Galacia, the army was in full retreat and had lost over one million men. However the Russians did have a victory over the Austrians on the Galician front. From 1915, large parts of the Russian Empire fell into enemy hands.

In August 1915, Nicholas II left Petrograd to take over the Russian army. This was a fatal mistake as he received the blame personally for Russia's defeats and he lost control of his troops. It also meant leaving his German wife, Tsarina Alexandra and her adviser, Gregory Rasputin better known as Rasputin to rule Russia. The people were losing trust in the Tsarina, as she was German. Rasputin was introduced to the Royal Family in 1905 and had increasing importance and influence over them, especially after he cured Alexei (the Tsars son) of hemophilia. The people of Russia did not trust this mysterious new figure due to his rebellious background and the disturbing rumors regarding his social life that surrounded him. They considered the Tsar very naive to leave Rasputin and the Tsarina to rule Russia after he had gone toe command the Russian armies.

Without this WWI, the opposition parties would have not had such a great impact on Russia and the Tsar, the Tsar would not have made those fatal mistakes he made, even though the economic and industrial situation was not great before the war, after the revolution things changed for the better. It helped all the people realise what was needed a complete reform in the practices and lives of the Russians. Conditions before the war had not improved at all as well. Prices of good were constantly rising but wages were not going up at all. Families were in a mess, workers asked for more hours to make end meet. Peasants were constricted into the army, which meant fewer workers that caused food shortages and a drop in the living standards of the peasants. Without the war, these things would have carried on getting more and more out of control because the main trigger of the Russian 1917 revolution was the strikes and Nicholas's behavior in War. The working conditions did not improve under the provisional government, which therefore meant there was more support for the Marxists who made preparations for the revolution.

I therefore consider this long-term cause of the First World War to be the main cause that contributed to all the others - without this main cause the Revolution may not have happened at all. That would have caused immense chaos and uproar because eventually the situation would have reached breaking point. All of these causes are made worse in conjunction with others. The working conditions did not improve under the provisional government, which therefore meant there was more support for the Marxists who made preparations for the revolution.