The Russian Revolution of 1917.

During the First World War a crucial event changed significantly the course of History: the Revolution that
shook the Russian Empire in 1917. This radical change meant the end of the absolutism personified in the
Tsar (Glossary 1) and the appearance of the first socialist totalitarian state of the world. The Marxist theories
on the revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship of the proletariat were implemented for the very first time.
Curiously, Russia had barely industrialized, most of the population lived in the countryside and the Tsarism
was one of the last remnants of the ancient regime.
The most prominent events in the 20th century were conditioned by this revolutionary change: the end of the
First World War, the Interwar Period, the development of the Second World War and all the tensions that
affected the world in the second half of the century known as Cold War.
A: THE TSARIST RUSSIA.
It seemed that nothing would ever change in Russia before the events of 1917. Tsarism was an absolute
monarchy supported by Aristocracy and the Orthodox Church, and ruled by means of an extensive
bureaucracy.
The agriculture had barely transformed since the 1700's and the country kept a feudal structure in early 20th
century. The peasants, whose living conditions were so precarious, represented 80% of the population. The
system submitted the Mujiks (servants) to the will of the landowner, who could sell or buy them, along with
the estates they worked in. Serfdom was abolished in 1861 by Tsar Alexander II, though its legal abolition
didn't mean its immediate disappearance. It also involved a high economic cost to the peasants since they
had to pay for the lands to their former owners.

The formidable Russian Empire integrated many peoples and cultures but it was one of the most backward
countries in Europe. Nevertheless, Russia achieved some industrial development based on foreign
investment and located in certain regions since late 19th century till 1914. In these regions some cities
flourished along with an increasingly important proletariat and its precarious living conditions.
It's not strange that the frequent popular uprisings were fiercely quelled since the mid 1800's. Towards the
end of the 19th century not only the ideas of Liberalism arrived in Russia but those more radical of Socialism
and Anarchism. All of them had to organize in clandestine parties:
• The Constitutional Democratic Party had a liberal bourgeois ideology. It aimed to modernize the country
and reach a regime of constitutional monarchy.
• The Social Democratic Party had Marxist origins. In 1903 it split into two great groups: the radical
Bolsheviks led by Lenin and the moderate Mensheviks led Martov. (Glossary 3 & 4)
• Anarchism was the most successful group among the working class in Russia. The anarchist
direct actions were usually based on terrorism. In 1881 they murdered Tsar Alexander II.
B: THE REVOLUTION OF 1905.
In the early 20th century the weaknesses of the Tsarist system became evident. The social unrest
accentuated when the bad harvests, the shortages and the starvation joined the situation created by the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
The war of 1904 grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over
Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria,
and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. The Far East was an important scenario for the
struggle among the powers since the late 19th century. The aggressive Russia finally clashed with the rising
power of Japan. The Japanese had defeated China in 1896 and started the annexation of Korea.
The Japanese victory in 1905 astonished the whole world and ruined the Russian prestige at home and
abroad. The unrest provoked by the defeat led to the revolution of 1905 in St. Petersburg and turned the
Russian interests from the Far East to the Balkans. There they clashed with the Austrian Empire on the eve of
the First World War.

On January 22nd 1905 a peaceful demonstration concentrated in St. Petersburg before the Winter Palace to
ask the Tsar for economical and political reforms. The Imperial Guard shot the demonstrators and nearly 1000
of them died in an event that would be known as the Bloody Sunday. Soon afterwards the protests starting in
St. Petersburg grew up and spread in the cities where they were organized by the soviets (Glossary 2) of
workers. In the countryside the peasants soon started to occupy land.
The mobilizations lasted until October when PM Witte advised the Tsar to cede and grant more liberties and
a Duma (elective Parliament). A Constitution was also passed in 1906 and an agrarian reform was intended
by PM Stolypin. These concessions in addition to the disagreement among the parties prevented the
revolution from going further.
C: THE REVOLUTION OF 1917.
Despite the reforms of 1905, Tsar Nicholas kept on ruling as an autocrat above the Duma. When the country
entered WWI in 1914, it crushed headlong with reality: Russia was not ready, not only militarily and
economically but politically. Starvation in the cities and general unrest appeared again as soon as the country
resources were destined to the war effort.
The Moderate February Revolution of 1917.
In February 1917, the workers uprose in Petrograd and went on a Strike that soon extended to the whole
country. This time the troops didn't shoot the demonstrators and the Tsar had to abdicate. The Duma
established a democratic provisional government led initially by the Liberals and afterwards by Kerensky, a
Social-revolutionary, however the Soviets reappeared in the streets and demanded more radical measures.
The Provisional Government didn't take into account the proposals of the Soviets and decided to continue the
war regardless its unpopularity. The military failures and the unaccomplishment of the promised reforms left
Kerensky without supports, while the Bolsheviks led by Lenin controlled the Soviets and were preparing the
socialist revolution. Besides General Kornilov attempted a military coup that worsened even more the
situation.
The Radical October Revolution of 1917.
In October 24th 1917 (November 6th in the western Gregorian Calendar), the Bolshevik militia led by Lenin
and Trotsky took control of the strategic points in Petrograd as well as the Winter Palace, the seat of the
Provisional Government. The Revolution spread all over the country and the Bolsheviks established a
government presided by Lenin where Trotsky was also present: the Council of the People's commissars.
The new Council started to take revolutionary measures:
• Confiscation of the Land with no compensation and its delivery to the peasants.
• Control of the Factories by their workers.
• Recognition of the nationalities within the Russian Empire and support to their free selfdetermination.
• Peace with the Central Powers and exit from the IWW in the Treaty of Brest-LItovsk.
Treaty of Brest-LItovsk:
This treaty, signed by the Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers, was the first one of a series of
agreements that put and end to the Great War. Despite the efforts of Trotsky to extend the negotiations, the
German offensive in early 1918, overthrew the disorganized defenses of the Soviet Russia. The hard German
conditions had to be accepted by Lenin in order to cope with the White Army in the Russian Civil War. The
German defeat of November cancelled the treaty and created a situation of vacuum in all the western
territories of the former tsarist empire. The Bolsheviks finally recovered part of the land they had been forced
to cede in Brest-Litovsk. Ukraine was one of the regained territories. Nevertheless, the Soviet Russia had to
accept many territorial losses a (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and was considered a pariah state
in the international order.
D: THE NEW SOVIET STATE. The regime slowly configured around the Communist Party, the name adopted
by the Bolsheviks. The first obstacle was the Civil War they had to wage against the White Army. This
coalition was integrated by the Tsarists and the supporters of the political parties that had lost power after
the Revolution. The western allies, USA, France and Britain, military supported the Whites with the hope that
their eventual victory would put Russia back in the war. The Red Army of Trotsky finally defeated the Whites
led by Admiral Kolchak in 1921. In 1922, the new State was renamed as Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union. It was organized as a federal State with a single Parliament, the
Supreme Soviet, and a Single-party the Communist Party of The Soviet Union (CPSU). The Party
controlled every single aspect of life in the country and no political dissidence was tolerated. The instruments
of repression in the Soviet Union made it the First Totalitarian State in the World.
The instruments of repression in the Soviet Union.
The Cheka (later NKVD) or secret police was created in late 1917 by Lenin and led by Felix Dzerzhinsky as
an instrument of repression against contra revolutionary activities.

In 1921 the Troops in the different branches of the Cheka numbered 200,000. These tropos policed labor
camps of the GULAG system (Glossary 5); conducted requisitions of food during the collectivization;
subjected political opponents (on both the right and the left) to torture and summary execution; and put down
rebellions and mutinies in the desertion-plagued Red Army.
After the death of Lenin, Stalin became his successor. This period called the Stalinism (1922- 53) meant the
darkest age of repression in Soviet history, specially in the time of the Purges (Glossary 6) when any
opposition to regime, inner or outer, real or imaginary, was anihilitated. In the other hand, the modernization of
the Soviet Union took off thanks to the interest of Stalin in the heavy industry during the 5-year Plans
(Glossary 7) and its importance for the maintenance of the Regime.
GLOSSARY:

1. Tsar: The word Tsar or Czar, designates the Russian emperors and some other Slav monarchs (those in
Serbia and Bulgaria). It comes form the Latin title Caesar though it mutated to the form Kaiser in the
Byzantine Empire, a term also taken by the modern German emperors.
2. Soviet: (Council, Assembly) The Soviets were assemblies of workers, peasants and soldiers.
3- The Bolsheviks (the Majority) led by Lenin, were a radical faction of the Marxist Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Mensheviks at the Congress in 1903. They ultimately
became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks supported the violent revolution and the
Dictatorship of the proletariat.
4. The Mensheviks (the Minority) led by Martov, wanted their organization to become a mass democratic
legal party like the German SDP. They accused the Bolsheviks of preparing a proletarian revolution without
the required conditions.
5. The GULAG was the government agency that administered the main Soviet penal labour camp systems.
The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, with large numbers
convicted by simplified procedures and instruments of extrajudicial punishment. The Gulag is recognized as a
major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union.
6. The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union
orchestrated by Stalin in 1936–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government
officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of unaffiliated persons,
characterized by widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of “saboteurs”, imprisonment, and
executions.
7. The 5-years Plans were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in
the Soviet Union centered in the heavy industry. Fulfilling the plan became the watchword of Soviet
bureaucracy.

QUESTIONS:

1. What were the most important characteristics of the mid 1800's Russia?
2. Who were the Mensheviques?
3. What were the causes of the 1905 Revolution?
4. What did the Tsar to silence the revolt?
5. Who was the President of the Provisional Government after the abdication of The Tsar
Nicholas II?
6. What's the name of the first government formed by the Bolsheviks in October 1917?