Essay/Term paper: Russian and french revolutions

Essay, term paper, research paper:  History

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.