The name “Romano” was taken from the first wife of Ivan the Terrible who was Anastasia Romano, he daughter of Roman You’re. The children of Anastasia brother, Nikkei, took the surname Romano to honor their grandfather, the father of a tsarina. Michael Romano, Manikin’s grandson, became the first Romano tsar (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). The dynasty began after the Time of Troubles, when the smoky sober, or the Assembly of the Land, elected a 16 year old boyar, Michael Romano, to become the new tsar (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014).
The new tsar imposed autocratic rule and created strong alliance with foreign countries. Other notable Romans include Peter the Great, who made many reforms and modernized Russia. There was also Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, who improved the trade and industry of Russia, and returned its economic stability. Then there was Catherine the Great who increased Russian’s borders and strengthened the country’s army and naval fleet. Another prominent Romano was Alexander l, who was known for organizing the serfs and the nobles, and for defeating Napoleon.
There was also Alexander II, who was called the Tsar Liberator, by freeing the serfs after many years of serfdom. The dynasty ended only with the execution f the royal family of Nicholas II during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The last tsar, along With his wife and five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. By killing them all, it assured the new rulers of Russia that the Romans cannot ever reclaim the throne again. This paper aims to analyze the events that led to the fall of the Romano dynasty in 1917.
Different political, social, and economic factors which may have contributed to the fall of the dynasty will be discussed. There will then be an analysis of all the factors presented to find out which of the causes was the most important in eating to the fall of the dynasty; CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE DYNASTY Long-Term Causes Grievances of the Peasants For more than three centuries, the tsar of Russia always had an unchallenged autocratic rule over all his people. However, in the 19th century and with the spread of industrialization and new ideas, the people started to call for a constitutional monarchy.
This new request from the people was brought about by the hardship suffered by the peasants after many years of serfdom. This is why in 1861, Tsar Alexander II was forced to emancipate the serfs (Ellsworth, 2007). One would think that the freedom of the serfs would bring great improvement to their lives, but what actually happened was the opposite. The emancipation just worsened the situation of the former serfs. They had to pay redemption payments and they had less of what they previously had (Ellsworth, 2007).
With the ongoing industrialization in the West, ideas of freedom and revolution started to seep into the borders of Russia. As industrialization started to happen to Russia too, the people became more aware of the inefficiencies of their current state of governance ND began to ask for reforms and changes in their way of life. In the year 1905, a group of protesters marched to the Winter Palace to ask the Tsar for reforms. They were met with armed forces who shot at the protesters. What started to be a peaceful demonstration turned into a bloody disaster.
This event, known as the Bloody Sunday, led to the Revolution of 1905. By then, the people were very unhappy. They wanted changes and they wanted these to happen as soon as possible. The Tsars Lack of Competence Nicholas II, who came into power in 1894, was tasked to rule Russia in a time of turmoil. During his reign, Russia became involved in a war with Japan which destroyed Russian’s economy and military fleets. This war became an important reason as to why the Revolution of 1 905 happened. Aside from the war, numerous strikes continued to happen across Russia.
However, Nicholas II did not grand the people’s propositions of better wages, shorter working hours, and a constitution (A-A. & K. D. , 1999). The war, coupled with the already dire situation in the country, multiplied the misery and discontent of the people. The Revolution of 1 905 led to the October Manifesto, where Nicholas II rated the Dumas. The Dumb is a legislative body elected by the people. However, this did not appease the majority. The Dumb seemed to not have any power at all since the tsar still had authority to undermine whatever the Dumb decides to do.
The Dumb still had no effect on the rule of the tsar. The tsar still had the ultimate power. This led to the growing distrust the people had towards the tsar and his government (Ellsworth, 2007). Short-Term Causes World War I Russian’s involvement in World War I brought a lot of negative impacts to the country. Economically, inflation occurred due to increasing war costs. Priority was given to the production of military goods which led to shortages of many consumer goods. Food supply was decreasing and the wages of the workers were too low to combat the effects of inflation.
The people did not have enough food and this led to social unrest (Peppier, 1998). This was yet another event which showed the incompetence of Nicholas II. The tsar, without any knowledge of military tactics, decided to go to the front and handle the military operations from there. When Russia lost many battles, Nicholas II was the one who was blamed. Not only was the blame even to him, his absence from the palace also brought about many problems on his administration. Gorier Rasping During the war when Nicholas II was away, his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, became in charge of administration.
The tsarina was already unpopular with the people because of her German origin. There were rumors that said she was telling the German Kaiser of Russian’s plans in the war. Aside from her unpopularity, there was also the figure of Gorier Rasping. Rasping was a mystic from Serbia who was called to Russia because apparently, he was the only one who could cure the hemophilia that was lagging the Disservice Alexei. Since he was the only man who could save her son, the Tsarina put all her trust on this mysterious and strange man, up to the point that he began to influence her decisions (Ellsworth, 2007).
The Russians did not like Restraint’s growing influence and so they had him killed. However, nothing changed and the administration of the government still did not improve with the death of the mystic. Revolution of 191 7 By 191 7, the effects of the war had done so much damage to the Russian economy and its people. Increasing demands on resources for the war creased the production of consumer goods. There was inflation, and the people could not afford to buy food and other supplies (Ellsworth, 2007). Most of the country’s resources were used on war efforts and the rest of the Russian’s were almost forgotten.
This led to a growing dissatisfaction among the people. They started to form revolutionary groups. They held strikes all over the capitals in Russia. The strikes spread from Petrography to other areas of the country. It became worse when the soldiers started to join the strikes instead of stopping these. This revolution forced the Tsar to abdicate. When Nicholas II abdicated, a new Provisional Government was formed (Ellsworth, 2007). This marked the end of the Romano rule in Russia. ANALYSIS The fall of the Romano dynasty is often credited to its last ruler, Nicholas II.
However, Nicholas II cannot be solely blamed for years of unfortunate events and generations of mismanagement which eventually led to the fall of one of the longest dynasties in the world. During the discussion above, it is seen that there were long term causes as well as short term causes that may have led to the eventual fall of autocracy in Russia. To give all the blame to Nicholas II loud be wrong, seeing that there have been some events that happened before his time that may have contributed to the dissatisfaction of the people with the monarchy.
Serfdom can be seen to have played a big role in the dissatisfaction of the Russians and in the decline of the Romano dynasty. There have been many serfs in Russia and when their freedom was granted, what they got was even more problems and suffering. This would make them blame the government for the ills they have suffered in their lives. Peasant uprisings were one of the factors that led to the Russian Revolution of 1 917 which eventually led to the fall of the Romano dynasty. Probably the most crucial event that led to the fall of the monarchy was the outbreak of World War l.
While he was at the war front, Nicholas left Russia to be governed by his wife Alexandra, who was heavily influenced by the mystic, Gorier Rasping. Under his influence, the Empress became paranoid. She adopted repressive and oppressive policies and appointed and dismissed government officials without proper deliberation. Poor leadership at this time caused discontent which led to strikes and revolutions. The problems piled up until he tsar could no longer find a suitable solution that would please all the Russians.
The Russians had no food, they had enough of autocracy and desperately wanted to stop the war. Once they realized that their pleas were not being answered, they brought the issue into their own hands and started the revolution. This then led to the abdication of the tsar and to the end of the Romano dynasty. CONCLUSIONS It would not be right to declare that the fall of the Romano dynasty was the fault of Tsar Nicholas II alone. What brought about the fall of the dynasty started even before the time of Nicholas II.
The situation of the peasants after the Emancipation of 1 861 continued to worsen over the years. This long term cause, when combined with the devastation experienced by the country during World War l, brought about a revolution that the tsar could do nothing to stop. While previous revolutions were halted and the protesters were silenced, this time, in 1 917, no reform or promise from the tsar could change the minds of the people. They had suffered too many years under Romano rule and they believed that their suffering will not end until a new ruler is brought upon them.