Biology

How did Rusia's geography make it difficult to govern???

• GEOGRAPHY: Size, started in Poland in the west to siberia in the east.

• POPULATION: 130 million people, half of the population were non russians, they wanted independance eg poles, ukraines, georgians etc.

• COMMUNICATIONS: lack of railways, there were less in russia than in Germany. There was only one running from western to eastern russia.

How well suited to governing russia was Tsar nicholas 2??

• AUTOCRAT, there was no parliament, what nicholas said was law, he believed God had put him on the throne. Alexandra told him not to give away power. Tsar 'The Little Father' ie little god.

• FAMILY MAN, remote from subjects, he didn't give people rights and thought they were children. He was weak, indicisive and easy led.

• RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, superstitous peasantry, peasents did what they were told to do by the church. They called Tsar 'little father'. Karl Marx called the church the opium of the people.

What was life like in the countryside???

• PEASANTRY, 80% of the population. Majority of the population were illiterate peasents

• LAND, 1.5% of the population owned the land. The Tsar, Church, and autocracy owned most of the land.

• FAMINE, inefficient techniques. The farming methods used were ***** farming these were inefficientand traditional. They didnt use machinery or chemical fertilisers.50% of the population were unhappy, many revolts.