The History of~The Soviet Union (Part 1: The End of Tsardom)

One of the most complex nations in modern human history; the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (or **USSR**) has gone from a modest communist regime to one of the most vile opponents of the west (namely the United States) until it fell on Christmas in 1991.

This is part 1 of the history of the Soviet Union. In this part, we will talk about how Russia was under the famous (or infamous) Romanov family of Tsars, and how they laid the ground work for unrest and how they ended.

## The End of Tsardom

The Romanov family of Tsars ruled Russia for 300 years at the time of the mid 19th century, during this time the industrial revolution was gripping the western world, countries like the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany all embraced industrialization. Russia on the other hand did not, it's feudal codes of the Tsar keep Russia living in the past. But, one Tsar plans to change all of that; Alexander the 2nd.

### Alexander the 2nd

Tsar Alexander the 2nd during his reign had saw numerous reformations in Russia like freeing the "serfs" (almost like Slaves, but in Russia) integrated the Russian Military, and took away some privledges of the nobility. He would also reform the judicial system and abolish corporal punishment.

Despite his reforms however, Alexander the 2nd wasn't a "Man of the People", he retained all of Russia feudal codes and didn't modernize the country, plus he also revived Russia's age old rivalry against the "Ottoman Empire" (Modern-Day Turkey) in 1877.

Russia's new war against the Ottomans lasted for almost a year, but with Russia's allies and the Ottoman Empire losing a lot of its prestige by the 19th century. Russia had won, and with it new nations were formed in the Balkan region including Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Romania. Russia's victory in the war is also earned Alexander the 2nd the nickname "Alexander the Liberator", despite this Alexander's reputation was not restored. as he would also pave the way for "Russian Cleansing" after plans which led to an atrocity called the "Circassian Genocide" which saw the massacre of over 1 Million Circassian Muslims.

In 1881, Tsar Alexander was assassinated by Russian separatists who wanted to see an end of Russia's Tsardom as Alexander was planning on reforms which would put down any kind of revolution or uprising. He was succeeded by his son; Alexander the 3rd.

### Alexander the 3rd

As he ascended to the throne after his father's death, Alexander the 3rd went to work immediately to reverse a lot of the reforms his father had made, and even retaining his father's effort of "Russian Cleansing" so he can consolodate his own base of power. He even established a secret police system called the "Ohkrana" which cracked down on anybody who would speak out against him, let alone challenge his rule. He also oversaw the rule in other countries such as Poland and Finland. Unlike his father however, Alexander the 3rd had the leisure of not ruling the country in time of war as peace settled onto most of Europe by the time of his reign from 1881 to 1894 when he died of a kidney disease, next in the line of Romanovs was none other than his son; Nicholas the 2nd.

### Nicholas the 2nd

When Nicholas became Tsar in 1894, the problems that are already plaguing Russia such as an economic crisis, widespread famine, and oppression was about to come to a head, and in the first few years of being Tsar, Nicholas was, a lack for a better word, incompetant and had a hard time trying to make decisions. Fearing for his life as well as his legitimacy, Nicholas decided to expand his realm of influence by allowing his engineers to build a railroad into the Korean Peninsula, the problem is that it was under military occupation by Japan since it won against China in the earlier "Sino-Japanese War", the Japanese would light a long smoldering fuse between Russia and Japan in 1904 as they attacked the Russian port town of "Port Arthur".

Lasting for around a year and a half, the "Russo-Japanese War" proved to be a disaster for Russia as it would've seen a theater of disasters, not only did the Russian army suffered over 100,000 Casualties in the war, it was also left humiliated on the global scale as a small, newly created Empire of Japan was able to defeat a superpower. It also magnified the domestic problems in Russia.

On January 9 (or January 22 on the Julian Calendar) in 1905, a group of people led by an Orthodox Priest "Father Georgy Gapon" marched onto the Winter Palace in "Petrograd" (Modern-Day St. Petersburg) to protest the actions and decisions of Nicholas (who fled Petrograd). They were stopped by a small force of the Tsar's personal guards, and though despite Father Gapon's attempts to settle matters of trying to make things in Russia better such as better working conditions for the factory workers and better manage the food situation peaceably, the guards open fired on the peaceful crowd. In the end, around 92 of the protesters were dead in an event that would be known in Russia as "Bloody Sunday" (since it was a Sunday), 5 months later the crew of the Russian Battleship "Potemkin" rose up and mutinied against their commander, this would begin the Russian Revolution of 1905.

On August 5 still in 1905, Nicholas established a Consititutional Monarchy (with him still ruling) as well as a political entity which he can share power called the "Duma".

Now, the Duma wasn't like, say, the Government we have in the United States, or the British Parliment as it had no real power, it was mostly symbolic since the Tsar still had the true authority. In reality, Nicholas just formed the Duma to try to calm down the angry masses as riots and protests were to spread around Russia like wildfire, so mush so that it became an everyday occurance, and Russia's Tsar situation will only get worse from this point on as what will begin in Europe will be World War 1.

As WW1 began in 1914, Russia wanted to learn from their painful mistakes from the earlier Russo-Japanese War and to even restore their lost reputation, plus to also satisfy their treaty they have made with Serbia ad other European nations such as France. Though, things were going good for Russia early on as they won some battles against the Central Power of Austria-Hungary, but they would begin to lose battles against Germany as the Russian military had strategies that didn't work for the long haul of the war. As Russia begin to lose more battles against Germany, more riots and protests arose in the country, and were now calling for the removal of the Tsar entirely since he himself was aming some bad decisions as well like taking personal command of the Russian military, leaving the rule of Russia at the whim of Rasputin (which you can read about by clicking here which briefly tells about his life and his more famous death.) which didn't help the already unstable political situation of Russia, and famine was also becoming more widespread.

These would be the huge nails in the coffin for Russia's Tsardom, and by early 1917 when Nicholas was coming back to Petrograd from a tour of duty on the Eastern Front, his train was stopped by Protesters who were calling for Nicholas' abdication, and Nicholas had no choice but to agree to give up the throne in an event which would be called the "February Revolution".

With no suitable heir to take the throne, this officially brought to an end 300 years of Romanov Tsardom rule in Russia. But the situation was far from over, in fact it's only going to get worse from there.

That'll do it for this part of the History of The Soviet Union. In our next part, we will talk about more of the problems laguing Russia which would lead to yet another revolution and eventually a bloody Civil War that will determine the destiny of Russia's future for the majority of the 20th century. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.