February Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

February Revolution - Essay Example 1917 saw two distinct Revolutions in Russia: the overthrow of the tsarist regime (February Revolution) and the coup by which the Bolsheviks took power (October Revolution). The causes of these two revolutions encompass Russia's political, social, and economic situation. Politically, the people of Russia resented the autocracy of Tsar Nicholas II. The losses that the Russians suffered during World War I further weakened Russia's view of Nicholas II (Lynch, 2000). Socially, tsarist Russia stood well behind the rest of Europe in its industry and farming, resulting in few opportunities for fair advancement on the part of peasants and industrial workers. Economically, widespread inflation in Russia contributed to the revolution. Nicholas himself helped propel instability into revolution in 1905 by the disastrous foreign policy he pursued in East Asia. Determined that Russia should not be left out in the scramble for colonial possessions, Nicholas embarked on an expansionist policy in Manchuria and Korea that led to war with Japan in 1904 (see Russo-Japanese War). Russia's defeat by Japan ruined the monarchy's prestige and led to the development of an opposition movement that for a time included almost all sectors of Russian society. In January 1905, in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday, unarmed crowds demanding radical constitutional and social reforms were shot down by the army near the emperor's palace in Saint Petersburg (see Russian Revolution of 1905). In the wake of this event, riots and demonstrations broke out throughout the country. Workers went on strike, soldiers mutinied, peasants attacked landlords, and students and members of the middle class demanded constitutional government and so cial reform. To appease opposition moderates and regain support for the regime, Nicholas was forced to promise a constitution in October 1905. Although he retained control over the executive branch and extensive legislative powers, wide-ranging civil rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, were promised, and an elected legislative assembly, the Duma, was created. But when the first two Dumas demanded parliamentary control over the government and the expropriation of noble land, Nicholas supported a drastic and unconstitutional limitation of the electoral law in June 1907. This allowed him to achieve a Duma with very few members of left-wing parties, which were the groups demanding the most radical reforms. Nicholas found it much easier to collaborate with the landowner-dominated Third and Fourth Dumas. Important military, educational, social insurance and, above all, agrarian reforms were enacted. Up to this time, peasant households had been allotted strips of land, but the land was collectively owned by village communes (Lynch, 2000). Under land reforms advanced by Prime Minister Stolypin, the peasants were allowed to claim ownership of their land and leave the communes. As in the previous decade, economic growth was spectacular. Class conflict in the towns remained acute, however, and the immediate result of Stolypin's agrarian reforms was, if anything, to increase the radicalism of most of the peasantry and their determination to seize all noble land if given the chance. The

Conditioning and habit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Conditioning and habit - Research Paper Example The responses that come up if practiced elaborately lead to habits which become subconscious responses elicited by an individual. There are many instances in our life where in we acquire so many new things. These experiences form a very important part of us and also determine to a very large extent how we analyze and assimilate the new information with the existing knowledge base that we have. Examples of such instances are a child learning a new language with a help of his grandmother, or perhaps a girl who has just started to ride on a two wheeled bicycle. Another example could be that students reacting with a particular response in presence of authority. All these instances tell us that we â€Å"learn† certain things and hence we acquire the knowledge that is coming our way to benefit us in the present or in the coming future. Michael and Modell (2003) define learning in their book Active Learning in Secondary and College Science Classrooms: A Working Model for Helping the Learner to Learn as a change in behavior that results from the learner’s interaction with the environment. There are some important things that have to be understood when we talk about learning. These form the basis for a concrete understanding about the concept at hand. All kinds of learning happen on the basis of the foundation made by already acquired skills and concepts. Whatever we come across, we take in the information as a raw data and then we incorporate the data into the concepts of the innate knowledge base that we have and learn new things. We can also illustrate another fact from the aforementioned premise that if the prior knowledge base is faulty, the acquisition and assimilation of the new concepts and schemata will be compromised. This leads to learning of information that is not accurate and taking into consideration all the aspects interplaying between the stimulus and the response (Fox, 2005). Of all the things we learn, we divide the whole information int o two definitive parts. These parts can be understood in terms of â€Å"what† we learn and â€Å"how† we learn. The process of acquiring both these concepts is also different. An example to illustrate this can be a preparation of Thai cuisine recipe. In this example, we note that there is a set particular group of ingredients to be used for the recipe to taste as it really should and it also entails a set particular way to make the dish. We need to learn the ingredients as well the way to go about mixing them together, differently in order to truly do justice to the cuisine at hand. The â€Å"what† of the learning phenomena is termed as declarative learning and the â€Å"how† are termed as procedural learning. Acquiring declarative knowledge entails a sound building of mental representations or models. These models form the crux for knowing the exact constitution of the things that make up a task and hence guides us with the way to perform the task in an effective manner. The manner with which the task is to accomplished has to be learned in standard way. This standard way is exactly the way which is reliable and valid. Therefore, to acquire such a standard process, practice is very important. This practice should be coupled with timely and appropriate feedback. By feedback, we actually mean that an appropriate response should be accompanied with every action that we perform (Jarvis, 2005). If the response is painful or aversive we tend to forget the