Account for the Decline and Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
Essay Preview: Account for the Decline and Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
Report this essay
The collapse of the Romanov Dynasty transpired as a result of numerous short-term and long-term factors which contributed to its decline. Nicholas ignorance of the unhappiness and struggle of the people, the social, economical and political status of the nation and bloody sunday were all factors that gradually escalated to a widespread dissatisfaction in the twentieth century society of Russia.
Prior to the decline of the Romanov Dynasty, Russia had been experiencing major problems, politically, socially and economically. Social freedom was unheard of and there were major gaps between the two extreme classes of wealth and poverty. With a population of 132 million people, the majority of the population were peasants, and approximately 1 per cent nobility. The rest of the population were priests, urban workers and officials. Peasant poverty had been a longstanding problem in Russia and the peasants were distressed. They had poor living conditions, and were forced to work long hours in bad conditions with low wages. They had no rights and as the prices of essential goods rose and their wages declined due to enormous tax rates, the workers had no chance to stand up for themselves. This made the peasants more susceptible to the preachings of the revolutionary activists. Economically, there was no industrialisation, the crops were failing, a famine was occuring, Russia was an economic disaster. The previous rule of Russia was by Alexander the second, the liberator, who carried out reforms and gave his people rights, freed the serfs and tried to modernise the Russian society. The people felt the recoil of society with the rule of Alexander the third who undid the work of his father and took repressive measures to uphold the autocratic rule. His son Nicholas the Second, followed closely in his footsteps clutching to this absolute power. As the people realised that they werent progressing as a society, compared to other societies they wanted to limit the tsars powers with democracy. Socially, during this time, the ancient regime, was outdated and inefficient with the turn of the century as Russia was falling drastically behind European countries. As urbanization occurred the people became more literate and the people began to question their social expectations and rules. They recognised the injustice and wanted to fix the inequality. As a result of these problems in Russia in the early 1900s and Nicholas negligence towards them, illegal revolutionary groups were formed to request and fight for a democratic society.
Bloody Sunday, the trigger of the 1905 revolutions, was a mitigating factor that led to the collapse of the Romanov Dynasty. The peaceful protest that took place on Sunday the 9th of January 1905 was led by a local priest who in collaboration with the people of Russia, marched through St Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the Romanov Family to respectfully present a petition