Essay/Term paper: French and russian revolutions

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities

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.