Why was there Revolution in Russia in March 1917?.
There were many reasons for a revolution in Russia in March 1917. Some were political, others were social and economic, but they all had something in common - they all helped to dethrone Tsar Nicholas II.
Russia in the early 20th century covered a huge area that was a large proportion of the Asian continent and one very powerful man, the Tsar Nicholas II, ruled it all. Most of the country was living in poverty in overcrowded areas, working with the same system as in medieval times, and being paid very little. There were only two industrial cities, Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Moscow, with the rest of it countryside slums. Nicholas had a tough time ruling over this huge country, nearly 8000km across with tens of millions of people, which stretched from Poland nearly to Alaska. We can be sympathetic towards him because of the size of his empire but some of his problems were his own fault. He was a strict autocrat - giving the people no power or control over their lives. Many people thought that this was unfair and tried to start a revolution to change things, but Nicholas wouldn't listen to them and circumstances and his poor leadership caused many problems leading to his eventual downfall.
In 1905 a group of protesters arrived outside the Tsar's palace and demanded more wages and cheaper bread. The army over-reacted and started firing shots into the crowd. This was known as Bloody Sunday and it proved to be the start of people turning against him. After this the people wanted their own government so they could have power over the things like the price of bread and their wages, so Nicholas gave them a political institution called the Duma. But he only gave the Duma a very small amount of Political power that helped to delay a revolution, but only for a time. Some people felt betrayed by him because of their lack of power, which earned him enemies.
