The Russian Revolution

Revolution and its significance

‘the forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of another’

In Marxist terms, ‘replacement of one ruling class by another’

(Oxford English Dictionary)

The Russian Revolution was driven by a system of ideas (socialist ideology), and facilitated by World War One. The revolution helped to shape the course of twentieth century world history

Russia before the revolution

Russia covers one sixth of the world’s land surface, stretching from Germany in the west to Japan in the east. Economically and politically it was behind Europe, even literally: It used the Julian calendar for 400 years longer than western Europe necessitating the elimination of 13 days of February 1918 to catch up, when the Gregorian calendar was adopted after the revolution.

The Russian empire was the largest land-empire in the world. It contained a population of roughly 125 million, which included more than 100 different nationalities, of which the dominant group were the Slavs. A great majority of the population, about 80%, were peasants.

Pre-revolutionary politics

The Russian emperor was called the Tsar, a word deriving from Caesar, leader of Roman empire. The Romanov dynasty had ruled since 1612 and Nicholas II had been Tsar from 1894 to 1917. The Nineteenth century had been one of resisting the great changes of Western Europe, yet being fascinated by them. There was a growing sense that Russia needed to modernise to protect itself.

Economic change in late 19th Century

Alexander II, who ruled from 1855-1881, fostered modern economic development: railways, exports of wheat and early industry from the 1860s. This economic openness stimulated intellectual openness to Western European ideas. There became a tension between ‘westernizers’ and ‘slavophiles’ and the growth of political discussion met with repression.

The 1870s saw the rise of underground groups, often led by Marxists, and the murder of Alexander II in 1881.

Effects of early industrialisation

Alexander III (1881-1894) saw western influence as damaging to autocracy, but he needed military strength, because he was determined to make Russia industrially independent from Europe. His industrial development programme included the Trans Siberian Railway. This programme continued under Nicholas II (1894-1917), but insulation from the west cannot stop rising tide of dissenting political ideas.

Rising political dissent

Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (1898) believed in a two stage revolution:

1. The bourgeois, democratic revolution replaces autocracy
2. Then workers seize power and institute socialism

Vladimir Lenin(1870-1924) felt Russia’s conditions were special, and that revolution there should skip the democratic phase and go straight to full socialism.

Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

Radical opposition to autocracy in Russia took two main forms from Worker’s Party Congress in 1903:

• Bolshevik (majority) - Russia needed to skip one of Marx’s stages. This view led by Lenin.
• Menshevik (minority) - Russia should follow Marx’s recipe, allow the bourgeoisie to develop capitalism, and wait for the working classes to ‘mature’.

A milder form of dissent was liberal-constitutional. They wanted a parliament to limit tsar’s power. In 1905 Nicholas II allowed creation of a DUMA, a parliament, but it is short-lived.

Russia and World War I

War put the Russian society and economy under immense pressure. Economic and military difficulties were exacerbated by the decline of the royal image.

The February Revolution

This was the fall of autocracy. War conditions eroded Russian’s fabric through hardship. Yet war needs brought workers together and gave them more power. Liberals managed to re-institute the Duma, but the Tsar often overrode it. In January 1917, there was widespread unrest in Petrograd (new name for St Petersburg) and in February 1917, the tsar abdicated and a provisional government took over. The Mensheviks established a SOVIET (council) of Workers and Soldiers. The two organisations shared power.

The October Revolution, 1917

Lenin returned from exile in Switzerland in October 1917 and rallied the Bolsheviks. Their slogan was: ‘Peace, land, bread’. They tried to appeal to both workers and peasants, both hammer and sickle. On the night of 24 October, Bolshevik forces, led by Leon Trotsky, stormed the Winter Palace, the seat of the provisional government, and seized power.

The significance of this is that they created an alternative model of development, which ultimately lead to the bipolar world of the Cold War and the arms race. This had the immediate legacy however of domestic isolation and economic stagnation.