French and Russian revolutions

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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. 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.