Summary Post #4

Mia's blog post in response to the question that I posted, stated that the reason that Alexander II, III, or Nicholas II didn't reform in the face of a revolution was because of tradition: Why should the tsar think that this situation would be any different from other situations where the previous tsars were able to use their autocratic power to dispel the revolutions? Well, it was different- these tsar's were foolish to crush the people's hopes- just like on Bloody Sunday. These peasants went to the tsar with a list of grievances, pleading 'help us, we believe in you!' and his response was 'guards, seize them!' BAM BAM BAM- DEAD! Nicholas II should have listened or at least kept the October Manifesto in action, instead of just undermining the Duma after the strikes, unrest, and overall crisis has passed. 

This week in class we've covered Europe in the late 19th century/early 20th century and the main idea that we learned was that the tensions and pressures of this period were leading to something big... This period was all about "mass politics," mass production, mass consumption of decadent items of luxury, socialism (many different branches of it), a new sense of darker nationalism was instilled in Europeans, there was social upheaval (old allegiances were being broken), an increasing integration of the world (economically, technologically, etc...), and overall there was a great deal of SPEED SPEED SPEED. Russia was also going through all of these changes; however, if I'm remembering correctly, Russia is so big and expansive it is hard to modernize and westernize as quickly or with as much SPEED SPEED SPEED as the rest of Europe. So Russia is still a little behind the times. Alexander II definitely instilled a lot of reform with the zemstvo, the bar exam, economic state bank, etc... however; what impact did the fact that Russia was farther behind with industrialization and modernization have on the stability of Russia? What will happen to Russia in the next century or so? Will it fall apart even more?