What differences existed in pre-revolutionary conditions of the French and Russian Revolutions?

The key difference between the pre-revolutionary conditions in France and Russia can be found, I would argue, in World War One. Before the French Revolution, it is true, the French monarchy had engaged the kingdom in repeated wars against England (most notably, from an American perspective, the American Revolutionary War.) These conflicts contributed to a crushing debt that destabilized the regime, helping create the conditions for war. But the Russian Revolution occurred in the midst of World War One. The war had been an utter disaster for the Russians, who were repeatedly decimated by German and Austrian armies, and matters only became worse when Tsar Nicholas II himself assumed command of the imperial armies. By 1917, economic conditions in the country, especially the city of Petrograd, had become untenable, and the people took to the streets in protest. When the Tsar's forces joined the protests, the Tsar stepped down. By contributing to an economic crisis, by causing the people to lose faith in the competence of their tsar, and by exacerbating longstanding economic woes in the country, World War I thus contributed to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in a way that had no parallel in France more than a century earlier. 

What are the similarities and differences between the French and Russian Revolutions?

The French Revolution was clearly inspired by the American Revolution and both of these were the product of Enlightenment philosophy. The Russian Revolution, as noted, was the product of Communist philosophy.  As noted, France embroiled all of Europe in its near ceaseless Napoleonic Wars as a remedy to domestic civil upheaval; in contrast, Russia collapsed trying to fight World War I and had nothing but domestic conflict, which only resolved when the communists got the upper hand.

What are the similarities and differences between the French and Russian Revolutions?

What are the similarities and differences between the French and Russian Revolutions?

Both began with a more moderate phase- the National Assembly in France, the Kerensky government in Russia and spiraled into a more radical phase- the National Convention/Reign of Terror in France, the Bolshevik Revolution/civil war in Russia. In Russia, one of the major purposes of the Bolshevik Revolution was to get Russia out of World War I. In France, the opposite was true, and the revolutionaries actually declared war on Austria and Prussia, and later other powers. While the Committee of Public Safety did propose some pretty radical reforms in France, I would argue that they didn't have quite the radical restructuring that the Bolsheviks did in Russia.

What are the similarities and differences between the French and Russian Revolutions?

We can't write essays for you on here...  Some things to think about:

Both were reactions against very unequal and fairly repressive systems, though Russia's was worse than France's.  Both included a great deal of violence after the revolution had prevailed.  Both, you could say, ended up leading to dictatorships.

What are the social, political, and economic causes of the French and Russian Revolutions? How do they compare and contrast?

Both revolutions began as a result of social and economic problems and were in response to political institutions that neither understood the problems of the populace nor attempted to solve them.

The French Revolution came at a time when the country faced exorbitant debt from the wars waged by Louis Xiv and further by French participation in the American Revolution. Taxes were paid only by the third estate, the commoners and the bourgeoisie. When the Estates General, which Louis XVI called into session to levy taxes, refused to do so without reforms, Louis attempted to dissolve the assembly; but was himself later forced to abdicate. It was a common belief among the French people that Louis did not understand their plight, and frankly did not care. It was Louis' wife, Marie Antoinette who was rumored to have said "let them eat cake" when the peasants rioted because they had no bread.

Russian peasants also suffered terribly for a variety of reasons, primarily the unequal distribution of land. The wealthy nobles, the Boyars, controlled almost all land in the country and treated the peasants as little more than slaves. Class distinction was even more severe in Russia than in France; in fact during World War I, every Russian officer came from a noble family, and every foot soldier from the peasantry. When the Russian peasants appealed to Czar Nicholas II for relief, soldiers fired on the peasants. Nicholas was forced to call for the election of a Duma, or Russian Parliament, just as Louis XIV had been forced to call the Estates General into session, but Nicholas situation was not for the purpose of taxes. Like Louis, Nicholas dissolved the Duma when it did not bend to his will. Like Louis, Nicholas was forced to abdicate. Also like Louis, Nicholas was executed by his own people as a result of the revolution.

Compare the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.

The main similarities between the French and Russian revolutions are social, political, and economic, and they all stem from the vastly stratified class structure present in both societies.

There was an overwhelming want in the proletariat class, as they were living in desperate need constantly. This led to great discontent with the ruling classes. Therefore, both lower class groups took to revolution. These are the social and economic similarities.

The conflicts, which started as protests and demonstrations, quickly turned violent, leading to the execution of many in the ruling classes. This violence was shared between the two, as beheading and poisoning were common.

Finally, when the revolutions ended, monarchical and elitist structures of politics were overthrown in favor of something more democratic, allowing the people, regardless of wealth or class, to have a say in who led the nation. These are the political similarities between the two revolutions.

Compare the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.

Both the Russian and French revolutions involved so many complex events that attempting to draw parallels will inevitably lead to oversimplification. But broad similarities do emerge.

Socially, both revolutions involved a massive and discontented peasantry that often had very different expectations for the revolution from urban radicals. In France, the Great Fear, or the violent peasant uprising that followed the storming of the Bastille in Paris helped to frighten nobles into accepting reforms. But the peasants also served as a conservative force as Parisian radicals enacted price restrictions on grain and especially measures aimed at weakening the Catholic Church such as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. In Russia, angry peasants also provided support for both the initial Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks, but they also reacted negatively to collectivization efforts, and, like French peasants, persisted in venerating the monarch. 

Economically, both revolutions were driven by extreme shortages. The French Revolution, while triggered by a fiscal crisis, occurred in the context of a series of poor grain harvests that caused skyrocketing bread prices and widespread misery. The Russian Revolution, on the other hand, was sparked by privations resulting from Russia's involvement in World War I, and particularly by coal and oil shortages, among other things, in Petrograd, the Russian imperial capital.

Politically, both revolutions traveled a similar trajectory in that they began with more moderate phases (though the initial phase of the Russian Revolution did lead to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas). Both entered bloody phases as radical forces (the Bolsheviks in Russia and the Jacobins, backed by urban radicals in France) emerged to gain control. Both revolutions also ended in (or some historians might argue, continued into new phases with) autocratic rule under Napoleon and Lenin/Stalin respectively.

Compare the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.

The French and the Russian Revolutions both began under conditions of extreme social stress in their respective nations. France experienced a major grain shortage that coincided with a fiscal crisis that was compounded by their extreme public debt. Tsarist Russia was exhausted by war and facing a major fuel shortage when the first waves of the French Revolution broke in Petrograd. Both revolutions experienced an initial, more moderate phase in their beginnings before becoming more radical. The National Assembly initially created a constitutional monarchy in France, and the provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky in Russia undertook many reforms, but failed to remove the Russians from World War I. Finally, both revolutions concluded with the rise to power of a leader with essentially dictatorial powers. It should be noted that these comparisons are very broad, as both of these historical events were complex and multifaceted. But overarching similarities in the material conditions that helped spark the revolutions, as well as the general trajectory of each revolution, can be made.

What were the differences between the French and Russian revolutions?

This is a tricky question, because there are so many ways in which the French Revolution and Russian Revolution were different from each other; it's difficult to discern how to organize a clear and coherent response. As a possible starting point, though, I would note that, while there were tensions within France before the Revolution unfolded, it had nothing approaching the depth of subversive activities that you would see in Russia, where Marxists and anarchists had been politically active going back into the 1800s. For example, Robespierre did not have a career as a professional revolutionary the way Lenin did.

You might also consider that the two Revolutions emerged from very different contexts. The Russian Revolution coincided with the First World War, and has to be understood accordingly. The First World War was a traumatic moment for Russia, who faced higher casualties than any other participant, and was thrown into severe economic strain. Furthermore, the second stage of the Revolution (the rise of the Bolsheviks) was closely tied with the Provisional Government's inability to end the war. This was one of the key rallying points Lenin used to take power. On the other hand, the French Revolution came about in a time of peace and was caused by a severe economic and fiscal collapse. However, even so, we should not entirely forget the role war played in the French Revolution. Wars such as the Seven Years War and the American Revolution contributed heavily to the severity of France's economic distress, and while the events of 1789 unfolded in a time where France was not in any military conflict yet, the same cannot be said as the Revolution evolved. The Wars of the Coalition are a central and critical part of the Revolutionary story.

Finally, I would mention a bit about outcomes. After the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, the Congress of Vienna restored the Bourbons to power (with later Revolutionary tremors continuing throughout the Nineteenth Century). The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, created a lasting political regime, which would hold superpower status across the Cold War era.

What were the differences between the French and Russian revolutions?

An obvious difference would be the difference in time. The Russian Revolution occurred more than a century after the Revolution in France, which was part of an "Age of Revolutions" that included the American and the Haitian Revolutions. Another would be that the first wave of the French Revolution attempted to establish a constitutional monarchy. Tsar Nicholas abdicated during the first wave of the Russian Revolution, unless we consider, as some do, the 1905 revolution as the first wave. While there were extremely radical elements in the French Revolution, the fact that the Russian Revolution culminated with the rise to power of the communist Bolsheviks made it unique in history. Another major difference is that the Russian Revolution (or at least its Bolshevik phase) led to a long and bloody civil war in Russia. No such civil war occurred in France, though the revolutionaries spilled massive quantities of blood in repressing opposition, most notably in the Vendée revolt, which flared up repeatedly, but did not, as in Russia, engulf the entire nation. 

Compare and contrast the French and Russian Revolutions.

#6 draws a number of interesting comparisons, the most interesting of which to me is the way in which power was usurped by a charismatic individual. Certainly economic conditions and social inequalities all had a role to play (read A Tale of Two Cities for a literary take on the poverty of your average Frenchmen), but also a social structure where the upper-class were dependent upon an oppressed lower class for their position is another vital similarity which led to both Revolution's "success" if such a term could be used when the lower classes mobilised themselves.

Compare and contrast the French and Russian Revolutions.

Both Revolutions happened because the costs of the rich living high on the hog, if you will, were paid by the poor.  Royalty, the aristocrats, and the Church were all dependent for far too long and far too much on the working poor, and their revolt was predictable.  The flight of the Church and the aristocracy was predictable, as was the depth of the anger and thirst for revenge. 

Compare and contrast the French and Russian Revolutions.

I would suggest a thesis statement about how economic conditions played a role in both revolutions would be compelling.  Another thesis statement, depending on your evidence, could be about how each was inappropriately addressed by the ruling monarch.  Finally, a good thesis statement might be that each revolution was initiated by a group that was not able to maintain control and, eventually, was usurped by a charismatic individual (Napoleon and Lenin).

Compare and contrast the French and Russian Revolutions.

The French and Russian revolutions were really very similar in their natures.  Both began as a revolution led by the bourgeoisie against a despotic monarchy and degenerated into a bloody regime headed by representatives of the peasantry.  Both revolutions murdered their respective monarchs well after they had ceased to be a threat to the Revolution.  Both had egalitarian and communist elements to  the peasant revolution and both killed thousands of innocent people.  The French revolution resulted in a vacuum that allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to become a dictator and the Russian Revolution allowed Lenin to become dictator.