Leadership of Czar Nicholas II
Actions and Effects of Czar Nicholas IIUnder the leadership of Czar Nicholas II, Russia, already being politically, economically, and militarily backward, was worsened.
"I pity the Tsar. I pity Russia. He is a poor and unhappy sovereign. What did he inherit and what will he leave? He is obviously a good and quite intelligent man, but he lacks willpower, and it is from that character that his state defects developed, that is, his defects as a ruler, especially an autocratic and absolute ruler." "Nicholas II was uninspiring and ineffective at meeting either...internal problems or...pressures presented by the increasingly threatening outside world." |
"With its great gap between autocratic rich and illiterate poor, its prisoners, censorship, and secret police, and its all-powerful tsar, the old Russia cried out for drastic change." -Adam Hochschild, author of The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin |
Dissatisfaction Towards Czar Nicholas II
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"...dissatisfaction with the existing order of life not only keeps growing, but is spreading all the time and has taken hold millions of the laboring people, a vast majority of the whole nation. It is evident that the dissatisfaction is not due to the restless and bad people, but to something else...you need only stop believing this to be able to see clearly the cause which produces the dissatisfaction among the masses and finds its expression in agitations, which are constantly assuming wider and deeper dimensions... |
Personal Interview with Alexis PogorelskinWhat conditions were prevalent in the leadership of Czar Nicholas II that led to widespread dissent and the resulting revolution?
"Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna were unpopular because the Tsarina as a German was perceived as disloyal to Russia. It was believed that Rasputin controlled them and he was notoriously pro-German. Nicholas had taken over control of the army from his uncle just when military disasters plagued the Russian armies fighting the Germans. By 1917 the supply and transport system was breaking down and the major cities of Russia were facing serious food shortages."
Navigate to: Alexis Pogorelskin
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