Explain why revolutions happen? Use one example.
There is no possible way of reliably defining why revolutions happen. However it is possible to outline the main causal variables. The relevant factors are: socio-economic structures; short term economic circumstances; the existence of political opposition; the capacity of governments to deal with it. Though saying these are the causes would make it grossly-oversimplified and even though they are separate here it is not just black and white, there are also shades of grey. In broad term it is necessary to distinguish between background factors and the precipitants of revolutionary action.
Anachronistic socio-economic structures in war time Russia contributed to the start of the revolution. The Russian population was incredibly backwards and trapped within archaic structures. A whole 70% of the Russian population was illiterate. There was very little education, medical relief or general public health. This was compounded by widespread vodka addiction. They had only extremely primitive tools to work with when trying to make a living on agricultural produce. To strike was considered mutiny and there was no press to help them get their message across to the tsar. This meant they had to be radicalized if they wanted change, for any action they could have made would have been illegal. Antiquated socio-economic organization is clearly a main factor in causing revolutions.
Short term economic circumstances compounded this backward socio-economic situation. The war was financed through borrowing, printing money and heavy taxes. Wages did not keep pace with inflation and food became scarce, as the corn rich Ukraine was lost during the war. All the men were fighting and therefore left only the women, the elderly and children to do the work around the farm. The price of corn was fixed but the price of goods went up massively due to inflation. Thanks to this many peasants were unwillingly drawn into factory work. You then have a centralized and militant population making it much easier to organize a revolution. There was an irresistible pressure building up to a revolution because of the antiquated structures and the economic circumstances.
The political opposition obviously made a huge impact and made the tsar look even worse than he already appeared. The growing discontent among the masses manifested itself in all aspects of national life. The working classes were very intrigued about and receptive of Marxist ideas. In 1893, the social democratic party was founded and in 1903 was split in two becoming the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The Mensheviks came to argue for predominantly legal methods and trade union work, while the Bolsheviks favored armed violence. This meant that the Mensheviks were almost always in the majority. With the political opposition bringing out the worst in the tsar’s rule the civilians were led to believe the situation was worse than it really was.
The government’s inability to deal with all these problems was inevitably going to cause a revolution. A clear example of this is bloody Sunday. On Sunday 22nd January 1905, more than 200000 workers took part in a peaceful demonstration in St.Petersburg. When proceeding to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the tsar they were shot at. The people of Russia demanded a Duma and although 4 Dumas were eventually provided they were nowhere near sufficient and very soon after 3 of the 4 were shut down. Another example is Rasputin. Rasputin claimed to be a holy monk who could cure the tsar’s son of his haemophilia. Granted he was able to ease some of the pain for Alexis but it never healed. The tsarina devoted her trust to him and he abused it greatly. The time when Rasputin caused most damage was when the tsar went to the front line where he hoped his “Brilliant tactics marvellous manoeuvring and royal presence” would spur the army to victory. Unfortunately this ended in controversy as his lack of military expertise humiliated him greatly. Meanwhile, Rasputin was replacing good ministers with members of his own family and friends which greatly angered the public. This naturally was a time when the people were easily shaken and the government did not live up to the expectations of the country.
Overall every revolution is different; however there are some general headings under which you can categorise all the main causes of the revolution. These are: socio-economic structures; short term economic circumstances; the power of political opposition and the capacity of governments to deal with this. Although this is not precise these are the main causes of revolutions.