could the russian revolution have been prevented?
... ordered concessions for peasants earlier, a revolutionary movement in the countryside would be rather improbable. Similar reforms concerning the situation of industrial workers could surely have been taken and would have had a tranquillizing effect on their attitudes. To what extend could the reform-minded attitude of the Czar toward social problems calm the discontent and influence the radical parties, which in turn would reduce the likelihood of a revolution. However, having in mind that a set of reforms introduced after 1905 has effectively stabilized the situation for over 10 years, we may suppose that a similar action taken earlier might have well deferred, if not altogether removed, the probability of a revolution. The illness of Prince Alexia could not have been avoided; it was an inherited gene of hemophilia from his great Grandmother, Queen Victoria of England. Nicholas II should have spent more time running his country and getting his priorities straightened out. You can’t blame him for wanting to be there with his son, but being a Czar is a great responsibility, one of which he received too soon. His father died leaving him the responsibility of a country when he was not yet prepared to take on the role. Another problem in the long list of many were the Russian forces in the war with Japan. Despite the fact that Japan was the attacker, and it was the imperial forces' rather that Czar's fault that the war was concluded unsuccessfully. It was entirely possible for Czar to avoid the war by refraining from unnecessarily expansionist and aggressive policy in Korea. This area was not of major importance to Russia, and Japan was perfectly willing to compromise until Russia's, that is, effectively the Czar's, foolish pride made it impossible. Had Nicholas II listened to Witte, who advised a reasonable and peaceful policy, the war would not have broken out, and the upheaval at home would not have begun. Listening to the wrong people became a habit of Nicholas II, always listening to Alexandra his wife, instead of the people that k...