Democracy in Russia (1900) essays

Democracy in Russia (1900) essays There were no prospects for democracy in Russian in 1914. Tsar Nicholas II believed he had the god-given right to rule over his country absolutely. His power to govern was reinforced by the strongest institutions in Russia, The Orthodox Church, The Army, and the peasant class. Even the Tsars opposition unwittingly aided him in quashing all hope for democracy. While there were some small democratic institutions, they only helped reinforce the Tsars belief that the people could never govern themselves. Embodied in Stolypins reforms, these polices helped sustain the Stars rule until its eventual collapse. That couplep with the Tsars policies of oppression, brutality, censorship, and class separation all helped him further in his goal to hold on to supreme power. The concessions he made to the people only served to further reinforce his right to rule. Nicholas II used repression, propaganda, the Orthodox Church, religion, migration, anti-Semitism, and war to help sustain what he believe d to be his divine rule. Nicholas was educated by private tutors and the reactionary Pobyedonostzev. Alexander III gave his son little training in affairs of state, and Nicholas proved to be a charming but ineffective and easily influenced ruler. Soon after his accession Nicholas stated that he intended to maintain the autocratic system. Nicholas was convinced that he had an absolute, God-given right to rule...as he saw fit...he refused to grant democratic right even to the Russian nobility. (Kronnenwetter, 43) The Tsars belief in his religious right to power was pushed on to the people both by himself and the Orthodox Church, which had been a creature of the Tsar since Peter the Great. (Moynahan, 30) The Russian Orthodox Church dates from the conversion of the Slavs by missionaries from Byzantium, led by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, in the ninth century A.D. In the tenth century Ch...