The Revolution of 1917

Section 18.93

The Path to Revolution

1861 1881 1894 1905 1914 1917 1918 1921

Fundamental Institutions Altered

SerfdomZemstvos

Reactionary period (Alexander III)-Stolypin Policies-Industrialization-Mir Attacked

Political Parties Form-Kadets-Populists-Social Democratic Party

-Mensheviks-Bolsheviks

Russo Japanese WarBloody SundayOctober Manifesto

-Duma

WWI Begins

Nicholas II coronated

Tsar

November 6Bolsheviks seize

power

Treaty of Brest-Litosvk

Whites v. Reds

March-Petrograd Food Riots

Provisional Gov. v Petrograd Soviet

Bolsheviks win

Russia and the Great War• Russians enthusiastic for

war

• Sand “God save the Tsar”

• Conservatives– Opportunity for expansion

in Balkans

• Liberals & Socialists– Alliance with GB and

France would spawn democratic reforms

The Poor Leadership of the Little Father• Russia’s industry was unable to supply soldiers by

1915– Soldiers sent to front without rifles

• Disasters (Tanneberg+Masurian Lakes) • 2 million casualties by 1915• Middle class (in Duma) supported the war effort

and organized war activities– Formed Commercial and Industrial Committee

(in Petrograd) to increase production• Total War mobilization less effective than Germany• Why?

– Poor leadership of Tsar Nicholas II– Devoted family man– Held autocratic power (Could veto & dissolve

Duma)– Retained belief in Divine Right

• September 1915 Duma’s Progressive Bloc called for new government responsible to the Duma

• Tsar adjourned Duma and left for the Front

“Our Dear Friend Grigori”• Tsarina Alexandra (German)

– Took control of government– had contempt for Russians & Parliament– encouraged husband to be tough

• Rasputin, – Alexandra’s most trusted adviser– self-appointed holy man, was believed to possess

supernatural powers and got friends appointed to prominent positions of power

– Religious sect mixed sexual depravity with religious mysticism

– Apparent hynotic power over sickly (hemophilia) Alexis– Rumored to be Tsarina’s lover

• Duma criticized the operations of the war• Tsar, under Rasputin and reactionaries, adjourned the

Duma (9/1915)• Duma reconvened and voices outrage• Tsar arms police with machine guns • Rasputin

– “If I die or you desert me, in six months you will lose your son and the throne.”

• 3 aristocrats murdered Rasputin 12/1916

The March Revolution• Food shortages caused riots in March 8,

1917 in Petrograd– “Down with the tsar!”

• Troops refused to fire on the rioters• Two competing authorities arise in

Petrograd– Duma Committee Organizes

• Moderate, constitutionalist– Petrograd Soviet organizes

• Revolutionary (from below)• Socialists groups tried to win over the

Petrograd• Duma set up Provisional Gov under Prince

Lvov• Admitted Alexander Kerensky (moderate

socialist) to new gov• Called for the abdication of Nicholas II• Army took the side of the revolution

– Could not vouch for the loyalty of their men

• 3/17/1917 Russia become a republic

Alexander Kerensky (center, white), charter member of the Provisional Government and its head in September-October 1917, arriving in Moscow on or about 12 August 1917.

Provisional Government (March-November 1917)

• Moderate Liberals– Established equality before

law, freedom of religion, speech, assembly

– Right to form unions, strike– Elections by universal male

suffrage • to draft new constitution

• Not interested in social revolution

• socialist prime minister (Alexander Kerensky) refused to confiscated lands from kulaks

• continued the war against Germany with terrible results

Alexander Kerensky is speaking at a meeting of the Provisional Government in the Library of Nicholas II

Petrograd Soviet• Shared power with the Provisional gov• Held mass meetings (2-3 thousand

workers, soldiers, socialist intellectuals)

• Army Order No. 1– Stripped officers of thrie authority– Placed power in hands of elected

committees of common soldiers– Meant to prevent counter

revolutionary dictator from arising– Led to total collapse of army

discipline– Officers murdered– “voting with their feet” Lenin

• Many soldiers abandoned the army and seized land

Lenin (1870-1924)• Religiously Marxist• Exiled to Siberia for socialist agitation• While in exile he studied Marxism• Lived in western Europe (17 years) and

revised Marxism• Marxist Leninism

– Stressed that capitalism could be destroyed only by violent revolution

• Denounced social democratic/Lassalian parties

– Communist revolution was possible in agrarian country

• Peasant were poor and revolutionary– Rejected Marxist determinism

• Small dedicated professional revolutionary could ‘cause’ the revolution

– Not seduced by short-term gains

The Bolsheviks• Lenin arrived in April and sided with

the Soviets• Condemned any cooperation with the

“bourgeois government• All Power to the Soviets• All land to the peasants• Stop the war now• “Peace, Land, and Bread”

– Peace with the Central Powers– Redistribution of Land and Bread– Transfer of factories & mines to

committees of workers– Recognition of the Soviets as the

supreme power (not Prov Gov)

Trotsky

• Lenin’s promise of “all power to the Soviets” was meant to crush Kerensky and the Constituent Assembly

• Kerensky (PM), General Kornilov (War hero), fought each other & weakened Provisional Gov.

• Kerensky tried to convoke a ‘preparliament’ but it was too late

• October 1917 the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet

• Leon Trotsky– Convinced Petrograd Soviet that

German/Counterrevolutionary plot was in works

– Got himself elected to head revolutionary committee with power over Petrograd's military

The November Revolution• November 6-7, 1917 Bolsheviks took over

telephone exchanges, RR, electrical power stations in Petrograd

• Congress of Soviets pronounced Provisional Gov over and named Council of People’s Commissars (Lenin at the head) the new government

• Lenin called for the peace and redistribution of property

• Constituent Assembly (21 mil had voted for) was surrounded and dissolved

• Majority rule was replaced with Class rule– Dictatorship of the proletariat was established

• Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communist party

• Why– Democracy became anarchy– Lenin and Trotsky were superior leaders– Bolsheviks appealed to many with “Peace,

Land, and Bread”, “All the power to the Soviets.”

• Most amazing aspect of Bolshevik coup was that it lasted

• How?• Lenin took credit for granting Peasants’

Land– A Russian 1989 (Great Fear) was

already under way– Peasant were seizing land and could not

be stopped in 1917• Made peace with Germany

– Brest-Litovsk ended war with the West– Gave Germany Baltic provinces, Poland,

Ukraine• Promised freely elected Constituent

Assembly– Socialist Revolutionaries (Peasants

Party) won major victory– Lenin disbanded them by force after

only 1 day (1/18/1918)

Bolsheviks

• Civil War began – “Long live the Soviets, down

with the Bolsheviks.”– Whites

• Tsarist reactionaries, liberals, bourgeois, zemstvos, Constitutional Demo, Mensheviks, and Social Revolutionaries v Lenin

• United by their hatred of Bolsheviks

– Reds• Bolsheviks

Whites v. Reds

Propaganda poster from the era (1919), depicting a caricature Leon Trotsky (as a large demon like figure with bright red skin.

Whites v. Reds• 18 self proclaimed

competing governments competing with Lenin

• White Army closed in on Reds in Autumn of 1919

• Yet by 1921 the Bolsheviks had prevailed

• How?• Whites

– Strategically disorganized

– Politically undefined but conservative

• Clearly defined political beliefs• Strategically united• Superior Army

– Trotsky– Organized Red Army– Drastic discipline (deserters shot on sight)– Utilized former Tsar officers

• War Communism– Total War concept to a civil war– Nationalized banks, industry– Authorized labor unions to take food from the

farmers– Rationed vital resources

• Revolutionary Terror– Cheka (Extraordinary All-Russian Commission of

Struggle Against Counterrevolution, Speculation, and Sabotage) secret police

– Executed “class enemies”– Killed circus clown who poked fun at Bolsheviks– Silenced political opposition

Why the Bolsheviks Won

The first questions you should put to the accused… To what class does he belong, what is his origin, his education, profession? These should determine the fate of the accused