Essay about the causes for revolution in pre-communist Russia

Essay by SteamboatHigh School, 12th grade May 2006

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In 1917, a country covering thousands of miles with millions of citizens changed radically in under a year. Through political and military means, the Russian state, its people; and the world had transformed from a crumbling empire of royal dictators into an idealistic young nation. The revolution had many causes and factors, many leaders and heroes for every faction. The revolution struck with speed and intensity, and when it was over, the government that was in place had changed into a whole kind of governance, filled with promise and hope for the Russian people. The story of the Russian Revolution was almost legendary.

At the time of and in the time leading up to the Russian Revolution Russia was fertile ground for revolution. Many hardships and pressures, economic, social, and political had combined to put the people into a state of revolution.

There were many economic reasons for evolution.

The economy was outdated, and Russia was behind the rest of Europe in terms of modernizing its economic system. Russia was still almost medieval; in terms of organization, with peasants organized by village communes, working someone else's land with outdated farming techniques. Given the fact that Russia's farming season is only 6 months long, the primary source of income, agriculture, was not enough to support the people. Due to the lack of industrialization, the economy was stuck in an inefficient system with no real future in sight due to the Tsars inability to see the conditions on the country and its people. The food that was grown was not transported to feed the people in the cities due to the total lack of infrastructure. This inability to transport food to cities led to famines, one of the greatest motivators in human history. In cities, an effort had been made to...