RUSSIAN REVOLUTION & IDEA OF SOCIALISM
BY THE BEGINNING OF 19TH CENTURY, ALMOST ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD APECIALLY EUROPE HAD BEEN CHANGED WITH ECONOMIC & SOCIAL REVOLUTION,
BUT RUSSIA WAS STILL LIVING IN THE OLD REGIME, UNDER CZAR KINGS
MISERABLE CONDITION OF PEASANTS
SMALL LAND HOLDINGS
UPPER CLASS OF THE SOCIETY HAD MANY CONCESSIONS
INDUSTRIALIZATION CAME VERY LATE IN RUSSIA, BUT MOST OF THE FACTORIES WERE OWNED BY FOREIGNERS
KARL MARX SAID" WORKERS HAD NOTHING TO LOSE, BUT CHAINS"
CZAR NICHOLAS II STILL BELIEVER OF OLD IDEAS, DIVINE RIGHTS OF KING
CORRUPT CLERGY AND NOBILITY
INFLEXIBLE AND INEFFICIENT BUREAUCRACY
EMPIRE WAS VERY VAST, BUT HOLLOWNESS COULD BE SEEN
MANY PEASANT REBELLIONS TOOK PLACE, BUT CRUSHED SOON
MANY INTELLECTUALS EMERGED BY LAST QUARTER OF 19TH CEN
MANY WORKERS ORG WERE FORMED, MOST IMPORTANT WAS RUSSIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (GEORGE PLEKHANOV) - FOLLOWER OF MARX
BUT LATER ON THIS PARTY GOT SPLIT ON THE QUESTION OF WHICH FORM OF GOVT IS THE BEST FOR A VAST BUT POOR COUNTRY LIKE RUSSIA,
SMALLER SECTION MANSHEVIKS WERE LED BY ____________WANTED TO FOLLOW BRITISH, FRENCH , GERMAN LIKE TRASITIONS
LARGER SECTION BOLSHEVIKS LED BY LENIN, BELIEVED IN SOCIALIST & COMMUNIST REVOLUTION.
ANOTHER PARTY NAMED SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY VOICED THE DEMANDS OF PEASENTRY
1905 REVOLUTION BROKE OUT AFTER A WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN
WORKERS PROTESTING WERE SHOT BY GOVT ARMY, EVENT KNOWN AS BLOODY SUNDAY,
PEOPLE IN RESPONSE, FORMED COMMITTEES, DEMANDING FREEDOM , CZAR AGREED TO ESTABLISH DUMA, 1905 he reluctantly promised more freedom BUT LATER ON CZAR REFUSED , IT AROUSED PEOPLE,
1905 REVOLUTION PROVED TO BE A REHEARSAL OF UPCOMING 1917 REVOLUTION
CZAR WAS SURROUNDED BY HIS WIFE, WHO HAD A FAVOURITE NOBEL NAMED RASPUTIN WHO VIRTUALLY RUN THE GOVT .
CZAR DECLARED RUSSIA TO BE THE PART OF WW1
IT PROVED FATAL FOR RUSSIA, WHICH WAS ECONOMICALLY UNSTABLE AND WITHIN A FEW YEARS, 60K LIVED WERE LOST, THERE WAS WIDESPREAD DISCONTENT
THIS BREAK THE BONE OF RUSSIA, AN IDEAL CONDITION FOR REVOLT,
LENIN ASKED PEOPLE IF THEY WERE READY TO DIE, AND SACRIFICE
DEMONSTRATIONS TOOK PLACE BY WORKING CLASS
12 MARCH 1917, PETERSBURG FELL INTO THE HANDS OF REVOLUTIONARIES
CZAR GAVEUP THE THRONE, 1ST PROVISIONAL GOVT WAS ESTABLISHED ON 15 MARCH
"LIKE THE CHEWED STUMP OF A FAGM WE SPAT THEIR DYNASTY OUT"
THIS IS KNOWN AS FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
IMPORTANT DEMANDS WERE
PEACE
LAND TO THE TILLER
INDUSTRY BY WORKERS
EQUAL STATUS OF NATIONALITY
BUT PROVISIONAL GOVT UNDER KERENSKY DIDNT PERFORM WELL, PEOPLE CALLED
HO WAS IN SWITZERLAND
FALL OF KERENSKY GOVT AND EMERGENCE OF LENIN IS NOWN AS OCTOBER REVOLUTION, IT WAS BLOODLESS
ALL RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF SOVIETS MET
RUSSIA WITHDREW FROM WAR 1
CHURCH AND CZAR PROPERTY WAS CONFISCATED
TRANSFERRED TO PEASENTS MOST OF THE PROPERTY LIKE RAILWAYS, BANKS, TRANSPORT WERE NATIONALIZED
DECLARATION OF RIGHT OF PEOPLE ISSUED, AND LENIN LED COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISARS
SOON CIVIL WAR TOOK PLACE, WHICH WAS FUELED BY OUTSIDERS LIKE BRITAIN, FRANCE, JAPAN, USA, WHO DONT WANT RUSSIA TO EMERGE VICTORIOUS
THEY WERE THREATEN BY THE IDEA OF SOCIALISM
SOVIET HAD A LITTLE FORCE CALLED RED ARMY, WHO SOMEHOW SUCCEEDED IN WINNING AGAINST THE OUTSIDERS
CONSEQUENCES
OVERTHREW OF AUTOCRACY & CHURCH
NEW STATE USSR
PRIVATE PROPERTY WAS ABOLISHED
ECONOMIC PLANNING WAS ADOPTED BY USING ADVANCED MODES OF PRODUCTION
WORK BECAME THE ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR EVERY PERSON, NO PASSIVE INCOME
RIGHT TO WORK BECAME A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
EDUCATION WAS GIVEN HIGHEST PRIORITY
CONSTITUTION FRAMED IN 1924, 1936
WITHIN A FEW YEARS, RUSSIA BECAME A SUPERPOWER.
SOME CALLED IT A NEW CIVILIZATION WHILE OTHERS CALLED IT AN EVIL SYSTEM
HOWEVER THIS SYSTEM COLLAPSED IN 70 YEARS
BUT IT PROMOTED IDEAS OF SOCIALISM ON INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
THEY TRIED TO UNITE ALL THE SOVIET / SOCIALIST PARTIES ALL AROUND THE WORLD INTO ONE FOLD
USSA WAS THE ONLY NATION IN THE WORLD, WHO OPENLY SUPPORTED THE CAUSE OF INDEPENDENCE OF ALL NATIONS FROM FOREIGN RULE.
IT DIDN'T WORKED FOR LONG TIME, BUT IT TOLD US THAT GOVT INTERVENTION IN UNNECESSARY EVEN IN THE COUNTRIES LIKE USA, WHO STRONGLY SUPPORTED THE CAPITALISM BUT FACED A SETBACK DURING GREAT DEPRESSION OF 1929
JN NEHRU SAID " IT MADE ME THINK OF POLITICS UCH MORE IN TERMS OF SOCIAL CHANGE"
Introduction:
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the system of autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal Provisional Government (Duma), resulting in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. This eventually led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, which lasted until its dissolution in 1991.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most significant events of the twentieth century that ended centuries of monarchy in Russia and brought forth the first constitutionally communist state in the world.
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Reasons behind the October Revolution:
- Russia was one of the most impoverished countries in Europe.
- Huge population landless agricultural labourers
- Rise in the number of poor and exploited industrial workers.
- Communists wanted to create an Industrialized Soviet Union and usher in economic and social development.
Russian revolution and revolutionaries:
- There were many peasant rebellions in Russia before the nineteenth century but they were suppressed. Many Russian thinkers had been influenced by developments in Western Europe and wanted to see similar changes in Russia. Their efforts had helped to bring about the abolition of serfdom. This, however, turned out to be a hollow victory.
- The hopes of gradual changes in the direction of constitutional democratic government were soon shattered and every attempt at gradual improvement seemed to end in failure.
- In the conditions that existed in Russia, even a moderate democrat or reformer had to be a revolutionary. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there was a movement known as ‘going to the people’ when intellectuals started preaching their ideas to the peasants.
- When the workers’ organizations were set up after industrialization began, they were dominated by ideas of socialism.
- In 1883, the Russian Social Democratic Party was formed by George Plekhanov, a follower of Marx. This party along with many other socialist groups was united into the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. However, the party was soon split over questions of organization and policy.
- One group which was in a minority (hence known as the Mensheviks) favoured a party of the type that existed in countries like France and Germany and participated in elections to the parliaments of their countries.
- The majority, known as the Bolsheviks, were convinced that in a country where no democratic rights existed and where there was no parliament, a party organized on parliamentary lines would not be effective. They favoured a party of those who would abide by the discipline of the party and work for revolution.
- The leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, popularly known as Lenin. He is regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the socialist movement after Marx and Engels. He devoted himself to the task of organizing the Bolshevik Party as an instrument for bringing about revolution. His name has become inseparable from the Revolution of 1917. The Russian socialists, including Plekhanov and Lenin, had played an important part in the Second International
- Besides the Menshevik and the Bolshevik parties, which were the political parties of industrial workers, there was the Socialist Revolutionary Party which voiced the demands of the peasantry. Then there were parties of the non-Russian nationalities of the Russian empire which were working to free their lands from colonial oppression.
Course of action:
- The revolutionary movement in Russia had been growing when the 1905 Revolution broke out.
- In 1904, a war had broken out between Russia and Japan. The Russian armies had suffered reverses in the war. This had further strengthened the revolutionary movement in Russia.
- On 9 January 1905, a mass of peaceful workers with their wives and children was fired at in St. Petersburg while on its way to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Czar More than a thousand of them were killed and thousands of others were wounded. This day is known as Bloody Sunday.
- The news of the killings provoked unprecedented disturbances throughout Russia. Even sections of the army and the navy revolted. The sailors of the battleship Potemkin joined the revolutionaries.
- A new form of organization developed in this revolution which proved decisive in the upheaval of 1917. This was the ‘Soviet’, or the council of workers’ representatives. Beginning as committees to conduct strikes, they became the instruments of political power Soviets of peasants were also formed.
- In October, the Czar yielded and announced his manifesto granting freedom of speech, press and association, and conferred the power to make laws upon an elected body called the ‘Duma’.
- The Czar’s manifesto contained principles which would have made Russia a constitutional monarchy like England.
- However, the Czar soon relapsed into his old ways. No longer could one hope for gradual reform.
- The 1905 Revolution proved to be a dress rehearsal of the revolution that came in 1917.
Conclusion
The success of the October Revolution transformed the Russian state into a soviet republic. A coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups attempted to unseat the new government in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1922.
The Russian Revolution and the World War I were intertwined. Both impacted each other. Elucidate.
Pressure of popular revolt in its own territory affected the performance of Russia in WW-1. Russia faced crushing defeats against Germany. Consequently, Germany’s confidence got big boost. Germany started unrestricted warfare against British ships. Submersion of American ships by German Navy (unknowingly) ensured US’s entry into the war.
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