Short term causes of the Russian Living and working

conditions
War broke out in 1914. Revolution
The King of Russia More and more Russians were li Military fai lures
In the aftermath of the
(The Tsar) joi ned the ving in cities and Leadership
1905 revolution, the
army and left the working in factories. This
government was forced to Army support
country. allowed them to talk about
share power with a Other
He left his wife in their treatment. People set up
parliament, called a Duma.
charge, but people workers' unions, which
By 1917, Tsar
didn't really trust or li demanded better conditions, and
Nicholas II was ignoring
ke her. called strikes.
the Duma, and ruling as he
wanted. In 1917, workers' protests
Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his rule on 15 th
The government had been relying erupted again, when
March, 1917, on the advice of his advisors.
on Cossack units (soldiers) to rely workers of Putilov,
This led to duel -rule, with power shared
on crowd Petrograd' s largest
between the national Provisional Government,
control, especially at protests. factory, announced a
and the Soviets, which were local grassroots
They began to support the strike to demonstrate
councils.
people, not the government. against the government
World War One was a The Bolsheviks, One of the groups within the In 1905, workers across St Petersburg went on
disaster for Russia. Soviets, led by Vladimir Lenin, decided to sei strike after four workers were fired from a
There were high
ze power for themselves. This led to civil war. factor for being members of a workers'
casualties from the start, The Bolsheviks were eventually successful. union. The government responded to the
and famine across the
peaceful protest with violence - around 1,000
country as a result of
protesters were shot and ki lled.
directing food to the
The government ordered the army to open
front. Russia needed a successful war in order to
fire on protestors on 11 th March 1917. The
next day, a group of soldiers refused, fired boost support for the government. It provoked
shots at their commander, and joi ned the war with Japan, 1904-5, but this was a disaster
protestors. for Russia.