No one could imagine that the revolution would become successful, not even the revolutionaries at the time of Nikolai's arrest. Nikolai always had faith in the Russian people. His spiritual faith and his personal confidence in his people would preclude him from seeing the evil which was to envelop Russia. It is wrong to blame Nikolai. If one must place blame, then place it on those workers who were deceived into believing an impossible dream.
Actually, I would place the blame more squarely on the heads of Nicholas II's predecessors, particularly his namesake Nicholas I, who wasted valuable time pursuing a retrograde political program when he could have been forcing through much-needed reforms such as the emancipation of the serfs. By the time NII came to the throne, perhaps he could not have done much to halt the disaster overtaking Russia. The country had simply run out of time. In this sense, as I have said before, NII's fatalism might not have been so misplaced. But he could have tried.
[/quote]Russia was not as industrially backward as many perceive it was. Count Witte modernized the country by considerable bounds. The trans-siberian railway project is one such example... there was more rail tract laid than in the US. Heavy industry such as oil production, steel and coal was at its peak. These industries helped create larger urbaniztion centers, which strenghtened the worker's position in society. [/quote]
All this is true, but overlooks the fact that Russia had an incredibly radicalized intelligentsia which refused to compromise on issues of reform (they wanted to get rid of the entire system, not reform it from within) and a huge peasant population (still 80 percent or so of the total population) which was also inherently radical in so far as it was just waiting for an excuse to revolt because it wanted the land and believed the land rightfully belonged to it. World War I provided that excuse.
[/quote] A person who was conversant in a number of European languages, who knew Russian history and was fully conversant on military issues can never be deemed as unintelligent. Such comments are unfair and mask the truth.[/quote]
We obviously have different definitions of intelligence. I think one cannot be truly intelligent if one is lacking in imagination. In my opinion, narrow-mindedness and an inability to change are hallmarks of the inferior mind. Nor do I see any correlation between intelligence and a talent for languages. I've met people who have an innate flair for languages who are terrible students in every other subject (although there does seem to be some correlation between a talent for languages and a talent for music).