Question

Which of the following factors made autocracy unpopular in Russia?
A. The German origin of Tsarina Alexandra
B. Poor advisors like Rasputin
C. Both A and B
D. None of these

Answer 1

Hint: Russia was an autocracy until the twentieth century. However, things changed drastically and made autocracy unpopular in Russia. Liberals in Russia, social democrats and socialist revolutionaries started a campaign to end the state of affairs, latter worked with presence and workers during the revolution and demanded a constitution.

Complete answer: The revolution began in Russia because of the bad conditions of Russian workers and prices of goods rose so quickly that wages declined by 20%. Membership of workers associations also Rose dramatically. All these events led thousands of workers in Saint Petersburg to go on strike and demand reduction in the working hours, increase in wages and improvement in the working conditions. Then in 1905 the incident known as Bloody Sunday took place it included strikes all over the country, universities were shut down and student bodies staged workouts and complained about the lack of civil liberties at the same time lawyers, engineers, doctors and other middle-class workers established unions and demanded a constituent assembly.
During the same period of 1905, Tsar allowed the creation of Duma or elected consultative parliament. There were strikes and creations of trade unions by factory committees and members and most of them were declared illegal and severe restrictions were also put on political activities. People started rallying around Tsar. As the war continued he refused to consult the main parties and instead took advice from a monk called Rasputin which declared as the last major reason to make autocracy unpopular in Russia.
Therefore, the correct answer is option-C.

Note: Tsar dismissed the first Duma because he did not want any questioning of his authority that could result in a reduction in his power and liberals and revolutionaries were kept out from it. With the series of demonstrations and rallies finally, the Duma was suspended and the monarchy was brought down in Russia in 1917.