World War One was the Deciding Factor in the Collapse of...

World War One was the Deciding Factor in the Collapse of Tsarism in Russia Nicholas II’s abdication in February 1917 marked the end of Tsarism in Russia and the end of over 100 years of Romanov rule. By the time the war broke out in 1914 almost every section of Russian society felt betrayed by the autocracy, in particular the peasants and the growing number of urban workers. The peasants increasingly resented being exploited by the nobility and governing elite, and although Tsar Alexander II had started to make reforms beginning with the Emancipation act in 1861, most of these reforms had little or no effect on the everyday lives of the peasantry. Although the war exacerbated these social problems,†¦show more content†¦It was not until the unforeseen 1905 ‘revolution’ that the governing elites finally realised the urgency to create a class of peasant farmers as a reliable support to the social order against propaganda of left-wing groups. This attempt took the form of two decrees in 1907 and 1910 that broke up the peasant com mune as a binding foundation through the allocation of land to individual peasants and the capability to disband the communes into a number of individual proprietors. But in 1917 a great bulk of the peasantry was still commune governed, though agrarian reform intended at removing this was progressively spreading. It is likely if the movement had continued it would have resulted in the formation of a substantial class of farmers, but was interrupted by the war and revolution. When Russia entered into WW1 the vast majority of peasants were still fighting for their individual land. But it was not a mere desire for land that constituted such a powerful political incentive; the peasants believed they had a right to the land as they had maintained and worked on it. The war also greatly affected the peasants as they bore the brunt of the war casualties after peasant conscription was introduced. The peasants not recruited to the front line were forced to hand over their