The Romanov Dynasty: The Russian Revolution

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Conflict is what has changed the world to what it is today, whether conflict be over the maintenance or gaining of land or power. One of the very first conflicts of the 20th century was the Russian Revolution. The Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia for over 300 years, it was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. Nicholas II, yet another Romanov, came to power in 1894 and he ruled with a strong iron first of autocracy. This meant that he had absolute power. In the year of 1917, Nicholas II was responsible for his own downfall due to many issues which he had brought upon himself. This included that Nicholas ruled Russia with an autocracy, he was personally not fit for the role as emperor as well as he did not make rational decisions when it came to warfare. Nicholas II maintained an autocratic regime in which he had…show more content…
This meant that Nicholas II had all newspapers and books censored so that there was no freedom of speech or freedom of expression. Anybody who did speak freely were thrown in jail and he used the Okhrana to do so. In Tolstoy’s letter to the tsar he also stated- “ The censorship has reached a level not known since the 1840’s…” (Waugh 2006, p.11) This shows that Nicholas had been told of the censorship issues but continued to use censorship across Russia. The October Manifesto came about as a result of Bloody Sunday. This was the peoples way of demonstrating that they were not happy with the choices Nicholas was making. The October Manifesto showed the people’s dislike for the censorship which they were under. This is further supported by the October Manifesto because the people that they wanted freedom of speech as well as an end to censorship. This is seen when the people stated in the October Manifesto - “To grant the population the unshakable foundations of civil freedom, rooted in the principles of the true inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and union.”.

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