Russian Revolution

We explain what the Russian Revolution was, its history, causes, consequences and characteristics. Also, its main protagonists.

What was the Russian Revolution?

The Russian Revolution was a set of historical events that occurred in Russia in 1917. It consisted of the overthrow of the tsarist monarchical regime and the construction of a State socialist type.

Communist Russia was called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, since 1922, became the center of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union, born from the Russian Revolution, was one of the two superpowers that led the Cold War until its fall in 1991.

The Russian Revolution had two moments with its particular characteristics:

• The February Revolution. It occurred in March 1917 (February according to the Julian calendar used in Russia at that time). It ended the reign of Tsar Nicholas II and led to the formation of a provisional government made up of liberals, socialists and other political sectors.
• The October Revolution. It happened in November 1917 (October according to the Julian calendar). It was a coup d'état with which the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisional government and established a Soviet-type socialist government, whose main institution was the Sovnarkom o Council of People's Commissars.

The Russian Revolution It was a decisive event in the history of the 20th century since he established the first socialist State in history. It aroused great sympathies in many progressive and revolutionary sectors of the world, as well as fears and antagonisms in conservative governments, bourgeois sectors and in socialist groups that rejected the authoritarianism of the Bolshevik government.

Background of the Russian Revolution

Before the Russian Revolution, the Tsarist Empire was an essentially rural state (80% of the population lived in the countryside). There was a high percentage of landless peasants, impoverished and receptive to revolutionary ideas. At the beginning of the 20th century, defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) increased social discontent and demand for change.

Tsar Nicholas II headed an autocracy and did not heed the demands. When a group of workers demonstrated in 1905 next to the Winter Palace (the government house) to demand social and political improvements, there was a repression by the Imperial Guard that caused hundreds of deaths and injuries (an event known as Bloody Sunday ).

The consequence was the Revolution of 1905, a wave of protests and insurrections in various areas of the Russian Empire that forced the tsar to accept the establishment of a legislative assembly (the State Duma) and other political reforms. However, the tsar retained his power and imposed many limitations on the Duma, so discontent continued until the events of 1917 broke out.

Causes of the Russian Revolution

The causes of the Russian Revolution were several and can be summarized as follows:

• The situation of oppression and poverty to which the peasantry of Russia and other regions of the Tsarist Empire had been subjected for a long time, which contrasted with the wealth of the noble and landowner sectors.
• The successive defeats of the Russian army in the World War I which caused many casualties, and the failure to sustain a production rate due to lack of labor during the conflict, which unleashed an economic crisis that resulted in food shortages, hunger and deep discontent among workers and soldiers.
• Corruption and inefficiency that some political and social sectors accused the tsarist government of being incapable of satisfying the needs of the working and peasant populations, while at the same time applying repressive measures and limiting political participation.
• The political activity of union groups reformists, revolutionaries, peasants and workers, both of socialist and liberal or nationalist tendencies, who had become strong since the end of the 19th century and sought to transform the political and social structure of Russia.
• The arrival of winter 1917 which became especially harsh for the population of the Russian Empire due to food shortages caused by Russian participation in the First World War.

Stages of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution included two stages that took place in March and November 1917, although they are named after the months calculated according to the Julian calendar, which was used in the Russian Empire. For this reason, they are called the February Revolution and the October Revolution.

The February Revolution

• It began with a spontaneous strike by workers in Petrograd factories (present-day Saint Petersburg), who were quickly joined by other sectors, such as the women who went out to the streets to ask for bread. When the police became insufficient to contain the demonstrations, the army assumed the repressive role and murdered many protesters, but several of its units ended up joining the insurgents.
• Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, 1917, advised by the General Staff in the face of the uprising of the regiments of the Petrograd garrison, and his brother, Duke Michael Aleksándrovich, rejected the crown the next day, which marked the end of the tsarist monarchy.
• A provisional government was erected l, composed of coalitions of liberal and moderate socialist politicians, throughout five successive cabinets. These cabinets failed in their attempt to contain the economic and social crisis while continuing the war efforts (as they refused to abandon the First World War). The objective was to govern until the democratic election of representatives for an All-Russian Constituent Assembly at the end of 1917.
• The provisional government weakened given the continuity of Russian participation in the First World War and the delay in the application of the reforms that various social sectors demanded. The most radical wing of the revolutionaries, the Bolshevik party led by Vladimir Lenin, gained supporters at a rapid pace towards the autumn of 1917 and managed to control many soviets (workers' councils), especially the Petrograd Soviet, which laid the foundations of the Revolution. of October.

The October Revolution

• The plan devised by the Bolsheviks was to take power during the celebration of the Second Congress of Soviets. This would allow them to make official the transfer of command from the provisional government to a Council of People's Commissars and classify any attempt against them as a counter-revolutionary act.
• The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (CMR) was created controlled by the Bolsheviks, which allowed them to coordinate the use of force at different strategic points in the city.
• The armed insurrection against the provisional government began on November 7. The Winter Palace (seat of government) was stormed by the Revolutionary Military Council and the Second Congress of Soviets ratified the creation of the Council of People's Commissars, chaired by Lenin.
• With the government under the command of the Bolsheviks, elections were held for the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, in which the revolutionary socialists (380 deputies) were the winners by a wide margin, followed by the Bolsheviks (168 deputies) and then the rest of the parties.
• Lenin was unwilling to hand over power to the Constituent Assembly and the Bolsheviks began a campaign in which they affirmed that the soviets were “a superior democracy.” In January 1918, the Bolshevik government dissolved the Constituent Assembly, just two days after its sessions began and before it could draft a democratic Constitution. He also expelled non-Bolshevik members from the soviets.

Characteristics of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution shocked the world, because overthrew a long-standing monarchy (the tsarist autocracy) in a very short time and radically transformed the Russian State with violent methods and in a period of just one year.

Some historians compared the Russian Revolution with the French Revolution that occurred in 1789, given the profound impact that both had on the political and social structures of their respective countries.

The rise of the Bolsheviks to power in Russia led to the establishment of the first socialist state in history and the birth in 1922 of the Soviet Union, which became one of the two main powers of the Cold War.

Consequences of the Russian Revolution

The main consequences of the Russian Revolution were:

• The fall of the tsarist monarchy who ruled Russia since the 16th century and headed the Russian Empire since the 18th century.
• The creation of the first socialist State in history and the beginning of the Communist Party's domination of Russia, which lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany by which the Bolshevik government withdrew from the First World War and ceded several territories that belonged to the Russian Empire to the Central Powers. Some of these territories were recovered after the German defeat.
• The beginning of the Russian civil war which pitted the Red Army of the Bolsheviks against the White Army made up of various anti-Bolshevik sectors (both Russian and foreign powers). It concluded with the Bolshevik victory in 1921, although the conflict lasted until 1923.
• The repression of revolutionary movements who had participated in the Russian Revolution but had rebelled against the authoritarian domination imposed by the Bolshevik government, like the sailors of Kronstadt (1921).
• The transformation of feudal structures inherited from Tsarist Russia with measures such as the expropriation of lands of the nobility and the establishment of collective and state farms. This included grain requisitions (during the years of the Russian Civil War) and large-scale agricultural confiscation under the leadership of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, leading to famines affecting millions of people. The nationalization and modernization of industries also occurred.
• The rise of a police state which was responsible for persecuting external and internal dissent, restricting freedom of expression and guaranteeing state control of the economy. At this time, the Cheka was born, a secret police force that later gave rise to the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union).
• The implementation of important cultural changes such as widespread literacy through the principle of secularism, free and compulsory formal education, changes in family structure through the legalization of divorce and abortion, and some measures aimed at gender equality in political and labor areas.

Important figures of the Russian Revolution

The most significant figures of the period of the Russian Revolution were:

• Nicholas II of Russia (1868-1918). Named Nikolai Aleksándrovich Romanov, he was the tsar of Russia when the Russian Revolution occurred. He had acceded to the throne after the death of his father in 1894 and ruled until his abdication in March 1917. Captured along with his family by the Bolsheviks, they were all executed in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg in July 1918.
• Mikhail Rodzianko (1859-1924). He was one of the key politicians of the February Revolution of 1917. He attempted to convince Nicholas II to implement reforms and sought unsuccessfully to negotiate a peaceful transition. He chaired the provisional committee of the State Duma and, when the tsar abdicated, supported the Provisional Government. In 1920 he emigrated to Yugoslavia, where he died four years later.
• Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970). He was a moderate socialist and one of the protagonists of the February Revolution of 1917. He was the main leader of the Russian Provisional Government and, when the October Revolution triumphed, he went into exile.
• Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – Lenin (1870-1924). He was one of the main thinkers and speakers of the revolutionary left. He led the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and was one of the architects of the October Revolution of 1917, after which he was appointed president of the Council of People's Commissars. In 1922 he became the first leader of the newly created Soviet Union and his contribution to Marxist thought was so important that it received the name Leninism. After his death, his legacy was disputed by two of his followers: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. He is considered one of the most important revolutionaries of the 20th century.
• Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Politician and revolutionary of Jewish origin, he was one of the key pieces of the October Revolution. During the Russian Civil War he held the position of People's Commissar for Military Affairs in the Bolshevik government. He was the one who negotiated Russia's withdrawal from the First World War and later led the left-wing opposition in the Soviet Union, which is why he had to go into exile in Mexico, where he was murdered by a Soviet agent in Stalin's service.

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References

• Beevor, A. (2022). Russia. Revolution and civil war 1917-1921. Criticism.
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Russian Revolution. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Carr, E. H. (1981). The Russian Revolution. From Lenin to Stalin (1917-1929). Alliance.
• Fitzpatrick, S. (2005). The Russian Revolution. 21st century.
• Saborido, J. (2009). History of the Soviet Union. I emecé.