RUS Lecture 5

Nicholas II (1894-1917) was no more qualified to be the autocratic ruler of the world's largest empire than I am to be a ballerina. But he did not ask to be born the son of Tsar Alexander III, and he did his very limited best. He was also a loving husband and a doting father. So much for his good points. If Lenin could have ordered up an ideal Tsar to prepare the way for the Bolshevik Revolution, he couldn't have done better than Nicholas II.

Determined to preserve his role as autocrat, Nicholas II used up and/or dismissed his most able ministers and paid careful attention to sycophants. His decision to set up Russia's Far Eastern possessions as a viceroyalty led to friction with the rising Japanese Empire. The Japanese were bent on obtaiing [Lebensraum], while Nicholas II thought a nice short little war over the port of Port Arthur, China (now Darien) would be good for the Russian people. The [Russo Japanese War] broke out in 1904 and ended in 1905 as a resounding Russian loss.

Another far-reaching consequence of this absurd war was the [Revolution Of1905], which was also caused by poor food supplies and frustration over the entrenched autocracy. Although the Revolution was short-lived and brutally stamped out, it gave many Russians a taste of revolution and a predilection for setting up Soviets, or elective councils. Nicholas II was, however, forced to grant a limited consitution and create an elective assembly called the Duma, which he basically ignored and dismissed until he got one full of sockpuppets. His decision to enter the First World War on the side of France and England probably saved France from falling to the Germans in 1914. But despite heroic sacrifices, the underequipped and poorly led Russian armies were beaten back farther and farther. Nicholas II himself "took command" in 1916, leaving St. Petersburg to a coterie revolving around his wife, Tsaritsa Alexandra, and her, uh, friend, Rasputin. When he realized that he could not put down the February Revolution of 1917 simply by sending a telegram, Nicholas II abdicated, thereby ending 304 years of Romanov rule.

Political chaos ensued. The Duma rearranged itself into a "Provisional Government" intended to govern Russia and keep on fighting Germany until Russia could devise an appropriate constitutional democracy. At the same time, [the [Petrograd Soviet] had begun to wield tremendous influence, claiming that it alone had authority to rule. Using the slogan "All Power To The Soviets," the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin effectively grabbed power in October 1917. They proceeded to invent and impose a completely new totalitarian system supposedly based on Marxism but in fact based on [Leninism]. Meanwhile, military chaos intensified. The Bolsheviks ceded large areas of Ukraine and European Russia to the Germans, who were in the process of losing on the Western Front. Moreover, various "White" warlords tried to wrest Russia from their hands. The Whites' efforts were doomed to failure but came dangerously close to success. Implementing the workers' paradise promised by Marx would have to wait for secure borders.

With the civil war mostly won, the Bolshevik regime was able to turn back a Polish invasion. They repelled the DYT's countrymen so decisively they decided to attempt carrying the revolution to the oppressed Polish working masses. This turned out to be not such a good idea. Peace with Poland having been made, the Bolsheviks were at last free to invent their ideal socialist state.