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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 [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.