[15] By 10 March [O.S. ", Warth, Robert D. "On the Historiography of the Russian Revolution. The Revolutionary Military Committee established by the Bolshevik party was organizing the insurrection and Leon Trotsky was the chairman. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets (VTsIK) undermined the authority of the Provisional Government but also of the moderate socialist leaders of the Soviets. John Reed, 1st January 1919. Lenin had been living in exile in neutral Switzerland and, due to democratization of politics after the February Revolution, which legalized formerly banned political parties, he perceived the opportunity for his Marxist revolution. Scholarly literature on peasants is now extensive. The Petrograd Soviet met in the Tauride Palace, the same building where the new government was taking shape. This did not happen in 1917. They came to change Russia … See Article History. [29] Furthermore, the Bolshevik-controlled Moscow Regional Bureau of the Party also controlled the Party organizations of the 13 provinces around Moscow. A council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in this chaos. Soon after, civil war erupted among the "Reds" (Bolsheviks), the "Whites" (counter-revolutionaries), the independence movements, and other socialist factions opposed to the Bolsheviks. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia Name: Institution: The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia otherwise referred to as the Red October, or October Uprising was a politically motivated revolution, which took place in 1917. Meanwhile Germany was able to produce great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts.[4]. He was now held personally responsible for Russia's continuing defeats and losses. Russia's first major battle of the war was a disaster; in the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, over 30,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded and 90,000 captured, while Germany suffered just 12,000 casualties. Nicholas also sought to foster a greater sense of national unity with a war against a common and old enemy. Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924 (New York: Viking Press 1997), 767. In 1917, a revolution took place in Russia that overthrew the traditional Tsarist regime and brought a single party state, the Bolshevik Party, into power. Workers responded to the massacre with a crippling general strike, forcing Nicholas to put forth the October Manifesto, which established a democratically elected parliament (the State Duma). 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While many notable historical events occurred in Moscow and Petrograd, there were also major changes in cities throughout the state, and among national minorities throughout the empire and in the rural areas, where peasants took over and redistributed land. The Russian Revolution inspired other communist movements around the world in regions such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. July 29, 2020. The effective power of the Provisional Government was challenged by the authority of an institution that claimed to represent the will of workers and soldiers and could, in fact, mobilize and control these groups during the early months of the revolution – the Petrograd Soviet Council of Workers' Deputies. Victorious, they reconstituted themselves as the Communist Party. [23], The leaders of the Petrograd Soviet believed that they represented particular classes of the population, not the whole nation. The immediate effect of the February Revolution was a widespread atmosphere of elation and excitement in Petrograd. The Civil War began in early 1918 with domestic anti-Bolshevik forces confronting the nascent Red Army. But measured by the size of th forces engaged, the revolution of 1917 was chiefly an agrarian revolt. Despite constant oppression, the desire of the people for democratic participation in government decisions was strong. The plans of the Soviet leaders met with bitter and stubborn opposition on the part of the peasants. The officer class also saw remarkable changes, especially within the lower echelons, which were quickly filled with soldiers rising up through the ranks. Communist symbolism is perhaps the most notable of this time period, such as the debut of the iconic hammer and sickle as a representation of the October Revolution in 1917, eventually becoming the official symbol of the USSR in 1924. [32], Liberal and monarchist forces, loosely organized into the White Army, immediately went to war against the Bolsheviks' Red Army, in a series of battles that would become known as the Russian Civil War. Within the span of 25 years Russia has telescoped many of the revolutions which in other countries were spread over several centuries. The events of the revolution were a direct result of the growing conflict in World War I, but the significance of an empire collapsing and a people rising up extends beyond the war effort. Conscription across Russia resulted in unwilling citizens being sent off to war. Lenin was of the opinion that taking power should occur in both St. Petersburg and Moscow simultaneously, parenthetically stating that it made no difference which city rose up first, but expressing his opinion that Moscow may well rise up first. Growing numbers of socialists and lower-class Russians viewed the government less as a force in support of their needs and interests. Today the state owns all the country’s resources—factories, mines, and agricultural and mineral products of all kinds. They sent troops to support the "Whites" with supplies of weapons, ammunition and logistic equipment being sent from the main Western countries but this was not at all coordinated. [30] By October, he returned to Petrograd (present-day St. Petersburg), aware that the increasingly radical city presented him no legal danger and a second opportunity for revolution. These included that the Soviets take power (as seen in the slogan "all power to the Soviets") and denouncing the liberals and social revolutionaries in the Provisional Government, forbidding co-operation with it. On 27 February, socialist Duma deputies, mainly Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, took the lead in organizing a citywide council. Radzinsky noted that Lenin's bodyguard personally delivered the telegram ordering the execution and that he was ordered to destroy the evidence. [3], Russia's poor performance in 1914-1915 prompted growing complaints directed at Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family. During the Civil War, Nestor Makhno led a Ukrainian anarchist movement, the Black Army allied to the Bolsheviks thrice, one of the powers ending the alliance each time. Marx had envisioned European revolutions to be intertwined with Asian revolutions in the mid-19th century with his 1853 New York Tribune article, "Revolution in China and Europe," in which he references the Chinese as people in "revolutionary convulsion," brought about by British economic control. The situation climaxed with the October Revolution in 1917, a Bolshevik-led armed insurrection by workers and soldiers in Petrograd that successfully overthrew the Provisional Government, transferring all its authority to the Soviets. The historiography of the Revolution generally divides into three camps: the Soviet-Marxist view, the Western-Totalitarian view, and the Revisionist view. In addition, Tsarina Alexandra, left to rule in while the Tsar commanded at the front, was German born, leading to suspicion of collusion, only to be exacerbated by rumors relating to her relationship with the controversial mystic Grigori Rasputin. Individuals and society in general were expected to show self-restraint, devotion to community, deference to the social hierarchy and a sense of duty to the country. Although the Soviet leadership initially refused to participate in the "bourgeois" Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, a young, popular lawyer and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRP), agreed to join the new cabinet, and became an increasingly central figure in the government, eventually taking leadership of the Provisional Government. Few events in historical research have been as conditioned by political influences as the October Revolution. The fortunes of war may have improved, but the fact of war remained which continually took Russian lives. [citation needed], The rapid industrialization of Russia also resulted in urban overcrowding and poor conditions for urban industrial workers (as mentioned above). (J. Reed, Ten Days th At the same time, urban industrial life had its benefits, though these could be just as dangerous (in terms of social and political stability) as the hardships. That the order came from the top has long been believed, although there is a lack of hard evidence. This non-elected provisional government faced the revolutionary situation and the growing mood against the war by avoiding elections to the state Duma. Castro's 26th of July Movement and Cuban Revolution followed in the footsteps of the Sergeant's Revolt in Cuba in 1933, similarly to how the 1905 Revolution in Russia preceded the October Revolution. The really large group of underprivileged people in Russia, however, were not the industrial workers, but the peasants. However, a Bolshevik force under Mikhail Frunze destroyed the Makhnovist movement, when the Makhnovists refused to merge into the Red Army. Eventually, German officials arranged for Lenin to pass through their territory, hoping that his activities would weaken Russia or even – if the Bolsheviks came to power – lead to Russia's withdrawal from the war. The revolution erupted in the context of Russia's major military losses during the war, which resulted in much of the Russian Army being ready to mutiny. They also believed Russia was not ready for socialism. The Petrograd soviet wanted complete rule over Russia. (On arrival back in Russia, these soldiers were either imprisoned or sent straight back into the front.). The model for the Soviets were workers' councils that had been established in scores of Russian cities during the 1905 Revolution. "[53] Similarly to the October Revolution, the Cuban Revolution removed a more traditional, hierarchical regime with the aim of establishing greater overall equality, specifically in the removal of former authoritarian president Fulgencio Batista. The Bolsheviks turned workers' militias under their control into the Red Guards (later the Red Army), over which they exerted substantial control.[1]. The Bolsheviks' role in stopping the attempted coup further strengthened their position. The provisional government came to power after the February Revolution resulted in the Russian monarchy being overthrown in March 1917. [6], An elementary theory of property, believed by many peasants, was that land should belong to those who work on it. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia’s traditional monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The justification they oft used pointed to Marx's dialectical notion that … This struggle was waged side by side with the other great struggle of the Bolshevik Revolution—the effort to transform backward Russia into a modern industrial state that could be independent of the outside world. Killing of the Romanovs Video Nicholas Romanov was still the legitament ruler in Russia while the the Bolshevik revolution was happening. A report by the St. Petersburg branch of the security police, the Okhrana, in October 1916, warned bluntly of "the possibility in the near future of riots by the lower classes of the empire enraged by the burdens of daily existence."[13]. Living in cities, workers encountered material goods they had never seen in villages. They also established Soviet power in the newly independent republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. 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French and German Social Democrats had voted in favour of their respective governments' war efforts. The October Revolutionwas a much more deliberate event, orchestrated by a small groupof people. ", This page was last edited on 26 December 2020, at 15:51. Bolshevik members of the Duma are arrested; they are later tried and exiled to. They soon relocated the national capital to Moscow. [2] While the 1905 Revolution was ultimately crushed, and the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested, this laid the groundwork for the later Petrograd Soviet and other revolutionary movements during the lead up to 1917. For the revolution of 1905, see, Chronology of events leading to the revolution. "The Revolution at One Hundred: Issues and Trends in the English Language Historiography of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Inevitably Vladimir Lenin, supported by Zinoviev and Radek, strongly contested them. The slogan of the Bolshevik leaders in 1917 was “Peace, Land, and Bread.”, Bread was desired by everyone, since the war had disrupted transportation and created shortages of food in the cities Peace, too, was desired by many, especially by the soldiers a the front, who lacked munitions. When the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions exploited the virtually universal disdain towards the war effort as justification to advance the revolution further. "The historiography of the Russian revolution 100 years on. [nb 2], The social causes of the Russian Revolution can be derived from centuries of oppression of the lower classes by the Tsarist regime and Nicholas's failures in World War I. Cuba's revolution contributed to escalating tensions between the United States and USSR during Cold War, such as the CIA's failed Bay of Pigs Invasion by Cuban exiles in April 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. 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