Question

Which of the following best illustrates why reform was much more difficult in Russia than in the United States and Great Britain?

A) Russian Czars refused to support reforms.
B) The Russian political system was much more connected to the people.
C) Russia was autocratic while the U.S. and Great Britain were democratic.
D) The political systems in the U.S. and Great Britain were not as connected to the people as that in Russia.

Answer 1

Reform was much more difficult in Russia than in the United States and Great Britain because C. Russia was autocratic while the US and Great Britain were democratic (representational democracy).

Answer 2

C) Russia was autocratic while the U.S. and Great Britain were democratic.

For the vast majority of the history of Russia, until the beginning of the 20 st century, before the Bolshevik revolution the country was ruled with iron fist by Romanov dinasties . It can be said that the ideas of European Enlightenment, French Revolution, and later European political and progressist thought had little influence on the rigid quasi-medieval practices of the Czars. In comparison, France and Britain were having always to adapt to (social changes product from Industrial revolution for example), while in Russia things could remain the same for centuries. There was no parliamentary, no mechanisms or any instruments for regulating the great and predominant rule of the Romanov's until finally, a revolution had to begin. Reform was unsuccessfully tried by a brief period of time before Russian Rev in 1917 took place.