Russian Empire Flaws

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A nation state can be defined as a self-governing political body occupied by individuals who speak the same language and share a collective history, as well as culture; however, an empire is a widespread assembly of states or countries under a distinct supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress. In a nation state, social issues and conflicts are in the forefront, however empires, covering these problems with nationalism, shy away from their explanation and solution. Russia was one of the greatest and most successful Empires in history. The people were ruled, effectively, by a monarchy for over three hundred years until the Russian Empire's demise in 1917 when the Bolshevik Party overthrew it. As the quote, coined by Geoffrey …show more content…
The Russian Empire, as great as it may have seemed, was not perfect and did have weaknesses within the system. At the base of one of the major flaws was the nature of the autocratic political system. The nature of the Tsarist structure meant that in order for him to rule the country, he had to heavily depend on the nobility and smaller forms of government he had set up in outlying regions. At the time, Russia had about thirteen different local governments for the different regions and over one hundred thousand administrators. With the government being vastly spread apart, rather than localized, it meant that the political system was fragmented, leaving the Russian state in very little control of the country. The aristocrats, who helped govern these regions, only saw the government as a way to increase their wealth by either taking bribes or taking actions to ensure money in their own pockets. The complete lack of freedom within the political system led those who opposed the government to violence. Having Alexander II so set in his ways and not changing the system to ensure the survival of his people, led to his assassination and change of the political system in Russia in the later years. The economic system was also flawed because the agricultural system that the peasants used was outdated, dated back to the medieval times, and the farmers had very little knowledge of how to farm their lands effectively. The misguided information led to very poor crop yields and with the combination of Russia’s growing population, this led to severe famines. On the more social aspect, the overwhelming budget on the military during Alexander III’s rule assisted in the weakening of the economy over time. With the military budget almost never fall below fifty percent, the social welfare of the people was ignored and this was seen during the famine era because the government spent more money
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