Question by : What bad political decisions did Tsar Nicholas II make?
During his reign of Russia in the 1900’s Tsar Nicholas II (the last Tsar of Russia) made many bad political decisions that lead to the Russian Revolution of 1917. What were they?
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Answer by Randy
After Russia’s stinging defeat in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, there was great upheaval. Nicky made a lot of promises for democratic reform but then reneged on them. Even so, the people were much better off under the Czar than they were under the Bolsheviks.
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Spellbound says
Nicholas II was an autocrat, in other words he ruled by himself, no parliament, only advisors and ministers to carry out his orders. Unfortunately for him, and for Russia, he was vain, stupid, overly religious and badly advised.
Nicholas made a lot of very poor decisions, beginning in 1904 when he decided to attack the Japanese over the ownership of Port Arthur. This “easy victory” turned into a resounding defeat and led directly to the 1905 Revolution.
The 1905 Revolution established a parliament – the State Duma, which should have seen Russia on the road to be coming a constitutional monarchy, like Britain or Sweden. However, Nicholas allowed it to meet, and then politically neutered it, robbing it of its authority and powers.
He could have weathered this storm, perhaps, if he hadn’t plunged Russia into WWI. The war was a disaster for Russia, and, when the he took personal command of the army – the people blamed him for the way that the war was turning out.
Eventually the resentment turned from anger to hatred and, in February 1917, the women of Petrograd marched on the Winter Palace and Nicholas abdicated.
He was arrested on charges of treason, and held in various locations until he ended up, with his family in the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg in Western Siberia. Here, on July 17 1918 he, along with his entire family and their servants were taken to the basement and shot.
See:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nicholas_ii.shtml
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nicholas.htm