Russian Revolution

We explain what the Russian revolution was and what are its causes and consequences. In addition, the main representatives and the different phases of this historical fact.

What is the Russian revolution?

The Russian revolution was a revolutionary process that crossed Russia between 1917 and 1923, from which The Tsarist authoritarian regime was overthrown and a communist single party government was installed. With this revolution, communism had its first triumph in history and managed to consolidate itself as an alternative mode of production to capitalism during most of the twentieth century.

Initially, the revolution was made up of different sectors of the Russian society that opposed the Tsarist regime: The liberal intellectual elite, the professional middle classes, the workers and the peasantry sectors, which constituted the majority of the population. However, the Menshevique and Bolshevik factions of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (POSDR), whose power was based on the labor sector, ended up leading the revolution.

Between February and October 1917, the revolution crossed a brief democratic period, with the power organized from the provisional government, the Parliament and, in practice, the Petrograde Soviet. In October, The Bolshevik faction led by Lenin took the power of the provisional government And immediately took measures that aimed to install a “dictatorship of the proletariat” to build a communist society.

Different sectors joined in opposition to the Bolsheviks: anti -communists, monarchists, nationalists and liberals. This counterrevolutionary association took the name of White movement and formed an army that fought against the imposition of communism. The Russian Civil War lasted until, in 1923, the “Red Army” Bolshevik finally defeated the counterrevolutionaries and founded, finally, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

See also: History of the Soviet Union

Context of the Russian Revolution

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia was a very large empire that covered territories in Asia and Europe. Its size and military power made it a world power that competed with Germany, Great Britain and France. However, due to the characteristics of its policy, economy and society, it was considered a backward country:

• Was governed by an autocratic systemheaded by a tsar that centralized the power of the nobility. There was no parliament or organisms that represent the different sectors of society. There were no political parties and cities lacked the necessary autonomy to boost their growth.
• The preponderant mode of production was feudal. The majority of the population was peasant and worked the land with the same methods and tools as in the previous century. The capitalist impulse was recent and had achieved an incipient industrialization in some cities.
• Society continued to be this and was legally divided into “states”: urban, peasant, nobility and clergy. The peasants had ceased to be subject to the feudal manors in the 1860s and, in practice, many peasant families continued to live in the same conditions. The state system did not contemplate the new social sectors such as workers, professionals or commercial bourgeoisie.

Background of the Russian Revolution

Claims of Russian society

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the population manifested their discomfort to the Russian government. The peasants demanded an agrarian reform that benefited rural producers. The workers, meanwhile, demanded salary improvements and in working conditions. In turn, the discontent population was influenced by three groups that opposed the Tsarist government:

• Intelligentsia. They were professionals and intellectuals that made up an educated elite, and that questioned the conservative and traditional aspects of the Tsarist regime. They believed that to progress, in Russia, political and economic measures similar to those of European western countries should be taken.
• Populists As part of the rural middle class, they promoted an idealized vision of the peasantry and questioned the effects of the introduction of capitalism. They were socialists who sought the construction of an egalitarian society, but believed that it should be based on rural village communities and not on industrial development.
• Marxists They formed a sector of the professional working class, in favor of modernization and socialist revolution. They believed that industrial development would allow the end of Russian socioeconomic delay and that it was a necessary step to achieve an egalitarian society. For them, the urban working class would be the main actor of the revolution.

See also: Marxism

Revolution of 1905

In 1905, Russia suffered defeat against Japan in the Russian-Japanese war and the economic consequences of the conflict deepened the general discontent of the population. In January, manifestations of workers and peasants who claimed immediate reforms and, During the so -called “Bloody Domingo”, the Tsarist Police violently repressed workers.

As a consequence, a general movement was created against the Tsar government that incorporated different sectors of society: peasants, workers, intellectuals, liberals, minority ethnic groups and sectors of the Armed Forces.

No group managed to channel the claims of the different sectors of the population and rise as leader of the revolution. However, both Marxists and Intelligentsia Liberal believed that the establishment of a Parliament could guarantee the political and civil freedoms necessary for the progress of the Russian economy.

To end the protests, The Tsarist government sanctioned a Constitution and created the Duma: A parliament with representatives that had the power to establish some economic and social measures. However, two years later, the most liberal articles of the Constitution were repealed and, in practice, the power of Parliament was very limited.

See also: Russian-Japanese War (1905)

Bolsheviks and Mensheviques

Since the end of the 19th century, Marxist thinkers and militants were organized through clandestine organizations, nucleated through the Social Democratic Workers Party of Russia (POSDR). Within the party there were two different factions, which differentiated themselves by their ideas about how to conduct the socialist revolution.

The Mensheviksled by Yuri Mártov and Pável Axelrod, they believed that to build an egalitarian society, Russia had to go through first An industrial development stage with a democratic government. In this sense, they believed that the liberal bourgeoisie was a fundamental ally of the working class for the achievement of its objectives. His position was considered “moderate” because they proposed a gradual transition from the current economy to socialism.

The Bolsheviksled by Lenin, they argued that the proletariat should ally with the Russian peasantry for overthrow bourgeois capitalism and install the dictatorship of the proletariat. Its position was considered radical because they proposed measures that would deeply transform the Russian economy and society in a short time: the distribution of land, the elimination of private property and the installation of a unique party government until the creation of a classes without classes.

Main events of the Russian revolution

Among the main events of the Russian revolution, the following stand out:

• The February revolution. In 1917 the revolutionary movement collapsed the Tsarist autocracy. A provisional government (liberal and bourgeois) was created that, in practice, shared power with the Soviets of workers and soldiers. This dual power system worked in a contradictory and ineffective way.
• The October revolution. On November 7, with the support of the Soviets Lenin, he led a coup d’etat that caused the dismissal of the provisional government, whose members fled or were arrested. Lenin created a new government, the Council of Commissioners of the People, and established the first measures for the implementation of a communist regime.
• The Civil War (1919-1923). The new communist government had to defend itself from a military attack on several fronts: the White Army (made up of opponents of Bolshevism), the forces of the enteron (whose objective was to overthrow Russian communism) and the forces of the Polish State (which fought the Russian-Polish war from 1918 to 1921). Leon Trotsky put himself in charge of the Red Army that, at the end of World War I was dedicated to defeating the White Army. In 1921, the communists triumphed in the Civil War, and created a new State: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), led by the Communist Party.
• War communism. To deal with the crisis, the government implemented a new short -term economic plan called “war communism” with the aim of ensuring minimal agricultural and industrial production. Measures such as the nationalization of industries, food requirement and other regulations were applied. This caused great inflation, which resulted in rationing and bartering.

See more at: Stages of the Russian Revolution

Prominent characters in the Russian revolution

In its beginnings, the Russian revolution was a popular revolution of which millions of people participated through demonstrations, strikes and looting throughout the country. The different political figures competed to conduct the revolution, lead the mobilizations and, finally, be part of the new government.

Among the outstanding characters of the Russian revolution are Lenin, León Trotsky, Alexander Kerensky, Iósif Stalin, Nicolas II and Gueorgui Lvov.

• Vladimir Illich Uliánov, known as Lenin. He was the main Bolshevik leader of the Revolution and the first leader to implement measures to create the communist regime.
• León Trotsky. He was a key socialist politician and militant in the organization of the revolution. The Red Army led during the Civil War and negotiated the departure of Russia from the First World War
• Aleksánder Kerenski. He was the revolutionary socialist leader of the Menshevique faction, one of the main figures of the February Revolution and Prime Minister of the Provisional Government to the October Revolution.
• IoSIF Stalin. He was a Bolshevik political militant who was part of the October Revolution and managed to impose himself as a leader after Lenin’s death.
• Nicolás II. It was the last Tsar of Russia, heir to the Romanov dynasty. The February revolution forced him to abdicate and was killed with his family by members of the Bolshevik party in 1918.
• Gueorgui Lvov. He was a Democratic liberal militant, a member of the DUMA and Prime Minister of the Provisional Government installed with the February Revolution.

The creation of the USSR

From the hand of Trotsky and Stalin, Lenin organized the new government: Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was composed of the people’s commissioners, public administrators and the Chief of the Council (who acted as Prime Minister, director of the International Policy and Head of the Communist Party of Russia).

The 1917 revolution had created the first socialist economic system based on central planning. After the period of war communism, The revolutionary government established a new economic policy (NEP), which was extraordinarily effective for the accelerated industrialization of an agrarian economy, such as that of the Tsarist Russia. However, the social cost had been brutal. Millions of people died during the civil war, for political repression or hunger.

During the thirties, Joseph Stalin (Lenin Successor) consolidated the creation of the first communist state in history and built one of the great totalitarian dictatorships of the twentieth century.

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References

• Carr, EH (1981). October 1917. In The Russian revolution. From Lenin to Stalin (1917-1929). Editorial Alliance.
• Fitzpatrick, S. (2005). Introduction, the stage and 1917: the February and October revolutions. In The Russian revolution. 21st century editors.
• Milosevich, M. (2017). The political groups of the 20th century. In Brief history of the Russian revolution. Gutemberg Galaxy.