The idea I wondered about while reading the last part of the reading was the Russian Tsar. Why did the Tsar want the power to lead the nation as a sole supreme power so badly. The Tsar was willing to risk public outcry and rebellions just to stay in complete power. In order to keep most subjects in Russia happy he need only to listen to the Duma everyone now and them, but instead he ignored all ideas that they purposed. When the people did start rebelling, the Tsar set in troops and police to stop the riots by threat of force or force.
I think the time may have had an effect on the Tsar. Every time he tried to develop international diplomacy it was seen as a sign of weakness. This could led the Tsar to not want to show any more weakness by listening to the people.
I think a lot of that "absolute power" business had to do with tradition. The Romanovs were a royal family and had always ruled with absolute power. Maybe the Tsar just thought it was his right and he was the only one capable of making decisions. He probably wouldn't have thought that people had the power to overthrow him, and, you know, murder him.
ReplyDeleteWell wanting complete power is something that sadly a lot of people want, and work for. He obviously wasn't a reasonable person and I think his decisions reflect his personality. And showing weakness could've very well been an aspect of it, though the hundreds of strikes and rebellions showed that quite clearly too.
ReplyDeleteI kind of used to have an obsession with the Romanov family because of the Fox Century movie Anastasia, so I've read a little about the Tsar outside of school...from what I've gathered, he was a really nice man who loved his family very much; however, he was kind of an idiot. I don't think that he was one of those leaders who wanted absolute power; he just didn't have any idea what he was doing, and he left his really unintelligent wife in charge while he went away to war, so that didn't help his case. He was just kind of like a Russian male version of Mary Antoinette with the whole "let them eat cake" if they don't have bread thing.
ReplyDeleteAj,
ReplyDeleteI think weakness is a good point to bring up here. It is entirely possible that the Tsar was power hungry and just did not want to give the up any of it. It is easy to see that he could have been worried about appearing weak and so lashed out in an attempt to show strength.
But i think you also want complete power of a country. and who wouldn't want to control russia?
ReplyDeletebut seriousally, i think the Tsar had all this power, he had inherited it, and he wanted to keep it for both personal glory and the glory of his house....
Really interesting! I think his actions can be explained for a variety of reasons. First, he was losing control of his country and had to overreact to threats. Second, monarchy's don't often produce the best and the brightest of leaders when they are dependent upon genetics. Even today, we see less talented political figures talk about absolutes and extremes to mask what I see as a lack of true understanding. It was much easier to crush resistance than it was to try to fix it. In summary, I don't see the tsar as much power hungry as he was desperate.
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