Great War to Abdication

Rasputin

Grigory Rasputin was a starets or a holy man who arrived from Serbia to the royal court. Rasputin was rumoured to be in a religious cult that believed that the only way to get closer with God is through sexual acts and pleasure, which was known as the Kylysty. He also was famously known to have a healing power that could heal anything and he was also known to use some kind of hypnotic powers to seduce women. Most of these claims were just rumours they could or could not have been true, but the Russian people believed it.

Rasputin had become friends with the royal family thru his magical powers of healing. The next heir to the throne, Alexis, had a sickness called haemophilia. This abnormality causes the blood to not clot up which means that the body couldn’t heal cuts and wounds fast enough and it also followed with a lot of bleeding and pain. In 1907, Rasputin was called by the royal family to heal the boy and to their surprise Alexis has recovered from a near-death experience. This had strengthen the bond between the royal family and Rasputin.

He was hated by a lot of people and made many enemies throughout Russia. He was hated due to the fact that he became the Tsarina’s ear and came from a small village in Siberia. His weakness over sex was another aspect that the people hated. But the when the Great War in 1914 had emerged Rasputin had made the entire Russian population hate him.

The Great War and the soldiers

A war has broken lose against Germany in 1914. People all over Russia had the support for the Tsar because they had a common enemy. Many citizens of Russia had congratulated and cheered the troops that were fighting against this war. But this didn’t end well for the Tsar and the soldiers. The first few conflicts that they had was a massive success and the people were filled with joy and enthusiasm, but as soon as the Germans completely obliterated the Russian Army in Tennenberg and Masurian Lakes. After their first loos they couldn’t win any other war from that point on. On top of that, millions of soldiers died due to this war that they participated in. Many soldiers died from not even having weapons equipped on them. This had a huge effect on the people, the Tsar and the soldiers that were fighting.

The Great War and the people

Remember the Russo-Japanese war, when the Tsar thought it was a great idea to fight against the Japanese and were completely decimated by the Japanese. Which did not only create distrust towards the Tsar, but it created a lot of economic problems and created shortages in food and resources. This what exactly happened when they led the soldiers to fight against the Germans. The people were upset that all the supplies were going to the soldiers who were incompetent and weren’t able to win a conflict. This led to them becoming hungry and miserable. Shortages on coal and fuel caused many Russians to become cold and hungry throughout the Great War. The prices of certain goods has increased due to the collapsing economy caused by the war and many factories had to close due to the war which caused poverty and unemployment.

Tsar and his mistake

He knew about these problems and thought that he was at fault. This is when he decided to join his troops in war and fight with them. He thought that this will increase their chances in winning the war against the Germans. But with this one act for fighting with his men, he created many problems that occurred in Russia which led to the down fall of the autocracy. By leaving the power of Tsarina this caused a lot of problems in Russia. The problem was that Rasputin had a strong bond with the Tsarina that it was even rumoured that they were lovers. But with this bond, Rasputin can manipulate and influence the decisions of Alexandra to fit his own needs. This made the entire Russian Empire hate him because a little man like this had manipulated the Tsarina into doing things that was good for him, but not good for the people of Russia.

The downfall of the Tsarist Autocracy

The horrible choices of the Tsarina due to the influence of Rasputin had caused the people to get more desperate and the support for the Tsar and his wife has dramatically decreased. The people had become tired of Rasputin taking control of the government. Food was a growing problem in Russia when the Tsarina was in power because the ministers that helped organize the resources in the country has been kicked out of the Parliament which caused a lot of difficulties in the Russian Empire. Food was depleting fast and people were starved and angry.

Revolution of 1917

March of 1917 was a turning point and many people had become desperate for food and fuel so they went into a strike and demanded changes in the government and demanded for food and fuel.

March 7 1917, was when 40,000 workers gathered in the city of Petrograd (this was the new name of the city St. Petersburg) and demanded higher wages and better living conditions. As it progressed more and more people joined in and rioted in the street. They demanded for food and fuel all day and night. It got to a point that the soldiers of the Tsar joined in with the people and fought against the Tsar and it got to a point that no one can stop these people to take over the government.

The abdication of Nicholas II

The Tsar thought he could make it back to the city and change the way things are. But unfortunately, he was too late. The people had refused entering him into the country. In March 15, the Tsar had abdicated and gave the throne to his brother, Michael. But sadly, this couldn’t stop the people into forming a new government and abolishing the monarchy in Russia.