Was Nicholas II responsible for his own downfall?
Nicholas II acted as an autocratic monarch rather than a constitutional
leader, and this was a factor in his eventual downfall and abdication.
Other factors included, him leaving Russia in the incapable h and of his
wife, Alexandra, who herself was greatly influenced by Rasputin. The
‘Holy Man’ Rasputin was becoming more and more popular with
Alexandra for helping their only son, Alexis’s with his haemophilia, and
his strange but powerful brand of spirituality certainly affected both
Alexandra and Nicholas. It could be argued that Nicholas was himself
responsible for allowing the power of Rasputin to extend so far and to
influence his political decisions.
Historians are in agreement that Nicholas lacke d the necessary skills and
qualities to rule a rapidly changing country. There were however factors
outside of Nicholas’ control, including his son’s illness, that he could not
be held directly responsible for. Indeed Russia was a huge country which
was very hard to govern even for the most competent Tsar.
One of the first factors which Nicholas was responsible for was his weak
character and the fact that he allowed Alexandra to be so dominant.
She encouraged him to hold on to his absolute power when a change in
his style of leadership may have been a more politically useful tactic.
A very significant contributing factor to Nicholas’ downfall was the
Russo-Japanese war in 1904-05. Russia and Japan went to war over
control of Manchuria and Korea. Russia was alleged to have a quick and
decisive victory over Japan. However the war did not go to plan and
Russia was defeated. Japan destroyed Russia’s army in May 1905 at
Tsushima later in September 1905 Russia accepted Japan’s treaty. The
Japanese then had control of Korea and most of Manchuria. This made
the Russian government and especially Nicholas very unpopular and
although it could be said that it was not directly Nicholas’ fault that the
Russian armies were defeated this did contribute greatly to his
downfall.
Another contributing factor to Nicholas’ downfall was Bloody Sunday,
which was mainly Nicholas’ fault because he should have stopped his
troops from firing at the crowds. On January 22 nd Farther Gapon led
over 20,000 people through the streets of St Petersburg with a petition
complaining about the poor conditions in which they had to live. As the
people moved closer to the palace they faced a line of Cossack Calvary
and with one command from the captain the troops began to shoot at
the crowds and throw their swords into the crowds of people killing
hundreds. As the people ran the troops chased them and kill them. Many
innocent bystanders got caught in the crossfire and were killed in their
own homes. Official figures said that 96 were killed and 333 were injured
but the actual figures were probably much higher. The Bloody Sunday
massacre shocked people all around the world, it caused a wave of
protests against the Tsar more than half a million workers went on strike
and later on the 17th February the Tsar’s uncle was killed. Nicholas
wrote in his diary, “There has been serious disorder in St Petersburg
because workmen wanted to come to the winter palace. Troops had to
open fire; there were many killed and wounded. God, how painful and
sad.” Following this incident more and more people began to join unions
and peasants revolted by killing the landowners. Nicholas could be held
responsible for this contributing factor towards his own downfall.
Another reason Nicholas could be seen as being responsible for his own
downfall concerned the Duma. Nicholas was forced to set up a Duma ,
parliament, as a result of the October Manifesto to give Russian people
more rights. However Nicholas made sure that the Duma had no real
power and that he would have the final say in every decision they were
to make. In March 1906 the first Duma was elected. The voting system
was not in favour of peasants, even so the majority of the Duma were
critics of the Tsar and Nicholas was not comfortable with this political
situation. Nicholas made sure the Duma would have very little power.
Two months after the elections were held Nicholas issued a set of
fundamental laws; that gave him total control once again. The Duma
lasted just over two months before Nicholas dissolved it for demanding
the right to appoint ministers. The next Duma was elected in 1907 and
lasted for five months before it too was dissolved. Nicholas then decided
to change the voting system so that he would not get any trouble from
the next Duma; he changed it so that the richest two percent of the
country represented two thirds of the whole vote. Nicholas did not have
any problems with the Duma’s from then on but this did make him even
more unpopular with the peasants of the country and did nothing to
silence the rising voices of rebellion.
Nicholas regretted signing the October Manifesto and he dismissed
Witte, the man who encouraged him to sign it. In Witte’s place he
appointed a man called Peter Stolypin. Stolypin got to work immediately;
he set up a special court for people who were obviously guilty it was
called ‘field court for civilians’. The people who were being tried could
not be found innocent. They were either sentenced to exile or execution.
By the end of 1906 over one thousand terrorists or revolutionaries were
sentenced to execution and another 20,000 were sentenced to exile. His
measures were tough but effective, the number of Russian
revolutionaries went down from lOO,OOO in l9O5 to lO,OOO in l9lO. This
settled the revolutionaries and helped Nicholas greatly but still people
were annoyed at these harsh measures. Stolypin also tried to reduce
revolutionaries by helping the peasants because they made up the
majority of the population. He tried to give them better standards of
living and encouraged them to buy their own land. The government
provided loans for the peasants but still only the wealthier of them
could afford loans. Although Stolypin’s h arsh measures had worked
the economy remained weak. Appointing Stolypin helped the Tsar and
shows that he was not totally responsible for his own downfall because
he helped reduce opposition to his rule, but it could be argued that these
brutal methods were in fact only delaying the inevitable Revolution
against his government.
World War l had a huge impact on Russia not only because Nicholas left
Russia in the hands of Alexandra and Rasputin but also because of how
badly the war went for Russia. In l9l4 Russia Joined in World War l. At
first the war went well and there was a lot of support for the war but as it
went on the Russians lost two major battles and the worst case was in
Tannenbourg. German forces trapped Russian troops in swampland over
lOO,OOO Russians drowned and 9O,OOO more were captured. Russia was
not doing well and in under a year they had lost over l million men in
battle. The injured were in appalling conditions as there were not the
resources to help them, “soon after the first battles, shocking reports came
through of how the wounded were being treated at the front. “I visited the
station there I saw l8,OOO wounded men lying on the ground”. Later in
spring l9l5 the Germans invaded and advanced over three hundred miles.
This was when Nicholas decided to dismiss his chief minister and take the
role on himself this was a mistake as now the Russian people blamed him
not the ministers. Many battles were lost and more soldiers were being
wounded soldiers began to give up drop their guns and run for home,
when this begins to happen within an army all discipline is lost.
The war had a devastating effect on Russia and its economy. Its was not
totally Nicholas’ fault that the war had gone so wrong but his actions
made things worse and he was seen as a bad leader.
The influence of Rasputin was a major factor in the downfall of Nicholas.
It was a huge mistake for Nicholas to leave the country to fight in World
War I. After Stolypin had restored the Tsars authority and his harsh
punishments had cut revolutionaries he was assassinated, some people
believed that his assassination may have something to do with his
criticism of Rasputin. Rasputin was a peasant who called himself a ‘Holy
Man’ and believed he had power to cure people of their illnesses. After
Nicholas and Alexandra had tried everything to help their son’s illness
they turned to Rasputin who seemed to help calm Alexis and sometimes
stop the bleeding. This impressed the Tsarina and Tsar very much and
he started to become a permanent part of their family. He became very
influential in court and with Military operations. This would not have
mattered as much if Rastutin was not such an inefficient Ruler. It was
during Rasputin’s time at court that things started to go disastrously
wrong. All the good ministers were being replaced by incompetent
ministers and soon there were huge problems with the government and
Nicholas started to loose the support of his people once again. Although
it was not totally Nicholas’ fault it was his fault that he had let Rasputin
virtually take over the government of this huge country.
All these factors led to a serious rebellion in March 1917. Many
historians argue that the March revolution was caused not only by the
factors that have already been discussed, but also because the winter
before had been particularly cold and although the weather can not be
controlled this all added up to create a riot. The revolution was not
planned and began in the capital, Petrograd. People were dissatisfied
with the government, rising prices, and food shortages. Women were
queuing for hours outside the bakery only to be told that there was no
bread left. The women stormed the bakeries and by the next day
thousands of workers were on strike, crowds gathered and chanted anti government slogans. The crowds were getting out of hand attacking
shops and setting buildings alight. The Tsar ordered the commander of
the military forces to put an end to the disorders but the generals troops
were new recruits and had sympathy for the people as they too were
suffering. Nicholas did not realise the seriousness of the riots until too
late and on March 15 th Nicholas was forced to abdicate.
After looking at all the factors that contributed to Nicholas’ downfall , it
would appear that Nicholas was to a very great extent responsible for his
own downfall. It could not be said that he was totally the cause of his
own ruin but certainly his actions contributed greatly to the increased
unrest within Russia. The brutal treatment of his political enemies was
only effective in the short term, and his lack of successful leadership on
the battlefields led to more suffering for his already starving people.
Nicholas made many bad decisions such as leaving the country in the
control of with his wife and allowing Rasputin’s astonishing rise to
power. There were other factors which contributed which Nicholas had
no control over such as his son’s illness, the harsh Russian Winters, the
unstable political situation outside of his borders and the very size of his
country.