What factors led to the fall of the Romanov dynasty in Russia? Which factor was the greatest? Please explain.?

Answer 1

The Great War and also the rise of communism and the workers revolt were both major factors in the fall of the Tsar in 1917. However, there are several other factors that added to this. These include the failure of the nobility to respond to a modern world setting and the utter weakness of the Tsar and his family. He was totally and completely out of touch with the people of Russia and the modern world. He didn't respond to the challenges that were presented to them, at all.

To add to this, perhaps Russia had its greatest opportunity to pull itself out of its backward status in the person of Stolypin, the minister of the interior. He was a man who was perhaps too radical for the noblity, he wanted land reform, and too conservative for the revolutionaries, because he wanted to approach it with a degree of pacing and respect for the traditions of the country.

One could also throw Rasputin into the mix and his odd connection to the Tsarina and the royal family. In his odd and weird way he was part of the mix and added to the loss of respect for the royalty and nobility.

Had Russia been able to stay out of the Great War they might have had a chance. However, it was the War that fed the revolutionaries, and the changed the country.

Answer 2

The greatest factor, the source of all other factors, was the resistance and inability to change. The regime was working on an extremely outdated system that was unable and unwilling to adapt to modern, industrial civilization (though it can be argued Tsarist Russia was not industrialized). This inability to change was most strongly felt in the countryside among the peasants who resentfully owned no property and were still ruled by feudal landlords. Additionally, some of the upper classes and the class Marxists would call the intelligentsia, who had knowledge of the current European systems, saw errors in the Tsarist system and wanted change in the form of representative government as existed in most of Europe at the time. The Tsars were unwilling to cede any power to the masses, which led to the revolution of 1905 in which Nicholas II did give some, mostly artificial powers to a Duma. These powers were unsubstantial and gave nothing to the lower classes whose plight was worsening, the outbreak and tumult of the First World War exacerbated the problems leading to greater poverty and famine, the war and Tsar's failures led to his ousting by a bourgeois revolution in February of 1917, setting up what is know as the Provisional Government led by Kerensky, whose inability to consolidate power, end the Russian people's plight and get Russia out of the ever unpopular war led to coup attempts and the eventual Bolshevik (communist) revolution in October 1917.

Answer 3

You can add the fact that the sheer size of Russia was a cause too, the Russians burned everything (crops and villages) and retreated because they had even more land behind them and they could afford that temporary loss without fearing famine for their army, and western Europeans couldn't understand that tactic, having difficutly conceptualising a single country with more land than all the rest of Europe. So the French army advanced on burnt land they had hope would feed them.

Answer 4

WWI and the russian communist revolution, of course.
The Tsar, who had gotten Russia involved in the war,was disliked bc of the war.During the russian revolution led by Lenin,
the Romanovs were executed.As the russian people had other problems at that time (having lost the war and a revolution taking place) nobody really wondered what had happened to them.

Answer 5

Complete incompetence. WW1.
WW1 was a greater factor. Many Russian rulers (and other rulers) were completely incompetent politicians, but stayed in power. The main problem in this case was that WW1 happened.

Answer 6

Jeff Dale and Mike Hopkins asked the same question. You should read the answers side by side.