Russia coursework

How effective was the Tsar,s government?

The russia Tsarist system was extremely resistant to change in all forms. Reforms were only broght in to preserve, littel improvement resulted from these reforms. This made the Tsar's government ineffective. Reform was needed within Russia to improve the country in economic military terms. However while the Tsar maintained absolute power, improvement was near impossible. Even war had no impact on the Tsar,s intent to preserve the Tsarist system.

The Tsar was rulling a country that covered a 6th of the earths total land surface. Only 40 persentage of the people were ethnic russians, 80 persentage where peasants and 60 persentage of the people were illiterate. Life expectancy was age 40 and land ownership was rare. Droght and crop failure was common, which lead to famine and poor health. 64 persentage of peasants who were called up for military were declared unfit.

Desppite all this still many Russians worshiped the Tsar and peasants typically had a picture of the Tsar on the wall of their hut. some peasants did prosper and it was generally the shortage of land rather shortage of food that was the irritant. The rural population grew, but land owned by the peasants failed to keep pace. Faith in the Tsar remained strong but hunger for land would grow.

The Tsar wanted to show the russian people that he was a strong leader and decided to fight japan for control of Korea and Manchuria. He expected this to be an easy war and that Russia would gain victory easily. This was not to be the case and Russia suffered defeats on land an sea. Japan destroyed Russia's Navy. This resulted in the Tsar becoming more unpopular; people felt that Russia had been humiliated. The conditions for the people got much worse; there were food shortages, price rises and more unemployment.

Russia was an unfair society that desperately needed social, economic and political reform.