| French And Russian Revolutions Essay, Research Paper
Both the French and Russian revolutions occurred because
of two main reasons. Both of these revolutions were the
direct results of bad leadership and a bad economy. These
two reasons along with other factors caused both of these
revolutions. Although they were both similar, they also had
differences. A difference between the two is that the
Russians had an unsuccessful "pre-revolution" in 1905.
Another difference between these two revolutions is the fact
that the French turned towards a democracy while the
Russian government became communist. In 1905 , Russia
had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead
of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a
very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to
correct the problems. So because of his actions, the situation
grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World
War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary
and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the
Czar’s rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships
caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar
called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in
1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was
kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary
government was set up to decide on what kind of
government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties
were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two. The
leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin
was a firm believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx.
So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained
the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and
setup a communist state. The French revolution was also
caused by a bad ruler and a bad economy. During the early
1780’s a big percent of annual budget went towards king
Louis XVI’s lavish estate at Versailles. France also had no
central bank, no paper currency, no ways of getting more
money, and an out-dated tax system which only taxed the
poor who had no money to begin with. Signs of revolution
first appeared when the peasants stormed the fortress
known as the Bastille looking for gun powder. The Bastille
incident set off revolts all over France and Louis was soon
deposed afterwards.A democratic goverment was setup in
place of the old monarcy. A doctrine called the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and citizen served as a basis for the
revolutionary french leaders. The French set up a
government in which an elected legislative group met
annually. It also consisted of an elected judiciary and an
executive headed by the king (The king had no real power
and only served as a figure head). Both the French and
Russian revolutions had similar causes but ended up with
different results. Both of these countries had different internal
factors which cause the results. The Russians had Lenin and
the French had the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen. I would also like to point out 1 more similarity
between these two revolutions and that is the fact that both
Czar Nicholas II and King Louis XVI were executed soon
after the revolutionaries took power [1].It’s just strange to
see how two similar countries with so many similar reasons
for revolting would end up with so very different
governments.
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