Essay, Research Paper: French And Russian Revolutions

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.