February Russian Revolution

By February 1917, the Russian people were starving due to the food shortages, freezing because of fuel shortages and worn out from the war struggle. They had enough of the Tsar\'s failing leadership and poor decisiveness to help those in desperate need. The First World War placed an unbearable strain on Russia\'s weak government and economy, resulting in mass supply shortages and famine. Reform was needed, and all major revolutionary leaders were abroad. Turning misery into hope, the workers in Petrograd transformed their protests from general individual strikes into one mass general strike and brought the government to its knees. This sent a strong message to the Tsar, who was clearly unfit to govern such a nation, with such opposition. The four main factors that had the most influence on the February Revolution were the Tsar’s inability to relate to the masses, the struggle for victory in the war effort, the food and supply shortages, and the frigid weather conditions.



The Tsar was the head of government at this time, which meant he had the most influence and power available to his disposal, which made his mistakes a predominate factor in causing the February revolution. During his reign as the Emperor of Russia between 1894-1917, Nicholas II, made numerous mistakes. The Tsar’s first mistake was when he took personal command of the army, which did not help the war effort and meant he was personally blamed for the all defeats. “...whether soldier or civilian...had learnt to blame the Tsar for every disaster” (The February Revolution by Ronald Hingley, page 57). Each defeat resulted in a loss of support the Russian people had for the Tsar and his Army. There was also a large unequally between the poor and the rich people. The Tsar did nothing to minimize this effect, which is why he was so hated over a widespread area. While the Tsar commanded the army he left his wife Alexandra, the tsarina, in charge. However, the Tsarina was unfit for the...