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The Russian Revolution Of 1917

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World War I was a direct catalyst, though arguably not the sole cause of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Even before the outbreak of war, the Russian population were largely dissatisfied with the government under the Tsarist regime. Though the Great War played a role in sparking the Russian Revolution, with much of the unstable faith in the Tsar collapsing in Military Russia, it would be naïve to discredit the mounting economic and social pressures that contributed to the fall of the Tsarist Regime, and the beginning of the Revolution.
Leading up to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, tensions in Russia were already starting to rise as Tsar Nicholas II proved he was inexperienced and ruinous at most every turn. 1894 saw the wholly unprepared 26 year old Nicholas rise to the position of Tsar of Russia after the death of his father, though he wrote to his brother-in-law that he was “not prepared to be a Tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.” Under the autocratic rule of Nicholas’ father, Russia had seen famine in the hands of the all-powerful Tsar and had placed their hopes on Nicholas for the reinstatement of the liberalization that his father had revoked. These hopes were quickly dashed when Nicholas made it very clear that he wished to wield the same power that his father had, and that he had every intention of continuing the autocratic rule of Russia. While Nicholas “indulged in a fantasy of absolute power” his poorest people grew

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