The Russian Revolution began in 1917, during the time that Russia was fighting in World War I. At this time Russia was ravaged by famine and poverty. The Russian people were very unhappy with with the leadership of the Tsars. At this time Russia was also trying to recover economically from wars that they had been involved in. The Russo-Japanese war was very costly to the Russians and there was a large amount of casualties. Even though they exited WWI early they still had the largest amount of casualties among all of the countries that participated. The Russian people, like the French, were also unhappy with how the rich nobles had so much wealth, but the commoners were barely scraping by.
Tsar Nicholas II was the final Tsar of Russia. He took over as Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III died. He was only 26 years old when he became Tsar. Many of the people wanted to make Russia more democratic but, Nicholas refused . Nicholas did not want to westernize Russia.
The wife of Tsar Nicholas II was Tsarina Alexandra. The Tsarina had a very strong influence over her husband. She was one of his main advisors in the decision to keep Russia from becoming a democracy. The Russian people did not like or trust Alexandra. She put a lot of her trust into a man named Rasputin. She asked him to heal her son from hemophilia. She was influenced greatly by him, and many of her political ideas came from him. This made the people very unhappy.
This is a photograph of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin had communist ideas and wanted Russia to be controlled by the lower class instead of by the rich, and nobles. Many people listened to Lenin because he spoke of change and of power. Russians at the time just wanted to exit the famine and economic depression. Lenin is known as the founder of the U.S.S.R., which stands for the United Soviet Socialist Republics.