The Russian Revolution consisted of two revolutions fought in Russia in 1917. The first revolution was fought in February 1917 at the same time as WWI which caused Russia many setbacks within their army. Soldiers families were suffering back home and many of the soldiers went back home to help them which led the Russian army into a state of mutiny. The second revolution was fought in October that same year due to continued unrest in the cities of Russia and its government. The Russian Revolution had a great impact on the government and people of Russia, and also the relationship between Russia and the Allies during WWI. Emperor Nikolai II believed that the only way for the Russian empire to survive the revolution would be for a quick victory …show more content…
Serfs living in Russia were upset about the political decisions going on in Russia and women began to lead riots in Petrograd due to things such as a decrease in bread during the war. Nikolai II, Lenin, and Trotsky all wrote about how the people of Russia needed to be more involved and have more power when it came to the government. They believed that this would benefit Russia in order for there to be a victorious ending to the Russian Revolution. Although all three men did believe that the people should be more involved in government, the power that the people should have differed between the three. Grand Duke Mikhail stated that he would only accept the Supreme Power if that was also what the people of Russia found desirable, but then he requests that the citizens follow the Provisional Government. He agreed that citizens needed more power in the government but also tried to monitor their way of going about being a part of the government. During the Russian Civil War two groups known as the reds and whites went to war against each other. The reds also known as the Bolsheviks were a communist group led by Vladimir Lenin and the whites consisted of all other minorities led by Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Peasants in the minority groups were limited on what they could and could not do with their land but once the war was over they were allowed to earn a profit from their
No war is fought without the struggle for resources, and with Russia still rapidly lagging behind in the international industrialisation race by the turn of the 20th century, the stage was set for social unrest and uprising against its already uncoordinated and temporally displaced government. With inconceivable demands for soldiers, cavalry and warfare paraphernalia, Russia stood little chance in the face of the great powers of World War One. Shortages of basic human necessities led to countless subsistence riots and the eventual power struggle between the ruling body and its people. From the beginnings of WWI to 1916, prices of essential goods rose 131 percent in Moscow and more than 150 percent in Petrograd. Additionally, historian Walter G. Moss stated that in September 1915 that “there were 100,000 strikers in Russia; in October 1916, there were 250,000 in Petrograd alone.” Moss continues to exemplify the increasing evidence of social unrest and connects the riots to a lack of resources when he goes on to point out that “subsistence riots protesting high prices and shortages… also increased.” ...
In February of 1917 a group of female factory workers and led a revolt in which the Tsar was dethroned, only to be replaced by a provisionary government composed of the Russian elite. When this government did not live up to its promises of an end to Russian involvement in World War I, the Bolsheviks (“majority”), a revolutionary movement led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisionary government in what bacame known as the October revolution.
A revolution takes place when a group does not agree with the current government and the policies they have in place. In some cases, revolutions turn violent during the attempt to overthrow the government. This is exactly what took place during the French Revolution, 1789 and the Bolshevik Revolution, 1917. Overall both revolutions found the beginning in the poor. The poor struggled under the rule of the monarchy; there was a strain on resources and high taxes. There were famine and food shortages due to bad weather, and WW1 respectively. In France, the nobility, first and second estates, did not have to pay these high taxes which further angered the poor. Both French and Russian nobility and monarchy were to blame for the suffering experienced. In the French and Bolshevik Revolutions there were philosophical ideas that guided the people to put a stop to their suffering, these ideas fueled extremist groups that brought upon violence and overall the goal of these Revolutions were not permanent. French and Bolshevik Revolutions had revolutionary ideas that went hand in hand with revolutionary violence and ultimately left the countries in chaos for some time after.
By March 1917, disasters on the battlefield, combined with food and fuel shortages on the front, brought the monarchy to collapse. In St. Petersburg workers were going on strike. Marchers, mostly women were shouting, "Bread! Bread! Bread!" Troops refused to fire on demonstrators, leaving the government helpless. Duma politicians setup a temporary government/ Middle class liberals prepared a constitution for a new Russian republic. At the same time they continued the war with Germany. That decision proved fatal. Most Russians were fed up with the war and returned home, leaving the front. Peasants wanted land and people wanted food. Cities set up soviets, council of workers and soldiers, which worked dramatically within the government. Before long a radical social group took charge called the Bolsheviks emerged. Their leader was V.I. Lenin.
It was said that the educated people, the contact with other countries should contribute to the government policy. As said in document 1 , "By 1900 there were political parties raging from far right defenders of autocracy and russian power over all other ethnicities, to far left revolutionaries calling for the overthrow of the government." The government there was autocratic, which was when the tsar had all the power/control of the government. Another cause for the Russian Revolution was the outbreak of WW1. "Even before the war urban workers all over the Russian empire had been increasingly radical, but the war brought the government's incompentence and the people's grievances into sharper relief. The first months of the war were a disaster for Russia." It is much easier to overthrow a government than to try andcreate a new government. As said in document 2,"Chaos, conflict, uncertaunty; more violence are much more common and often led to centralized, authoritarian governments." There was celebration all over the streets after the indication that the tsar was overthrown after 300 years of a tsarist government ruling. "The problem was that, after the party, governing problems arose immediately.
I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent, along with economic hardships, caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution, as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards.
The Russian revolution of February 1917 was a momentous event in the course of Russian history. The causes of the revolution were very critical and even today historians debate on what was the primary cause of the revolution. The revolution began in Petrograd as “a workers’ revolt” in response to bread shortages. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, replacing Russia’s monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The revolution opened the door for Russia to fully enter the industrial age. Before 1917, Russia was a mostly agrarian nation. The Russian working class had been for many years fed up with the ways they had to live and work and it was only a matter of time before they had to take a stand. Peasants worked many hours for low wages and no land, which caused many families to lose their lives. Some would argue that World War I led to the intense downfall of Russia, while others believe that the main cause was the peasant unrest because of harsh living conditions. Although World War I cost Russia many resources and much land, the primary cause of the Russian Revolution was the peasant unrest due to living conditions because even before the war began in Russia there were outbreaks from peasants due to the lack of food and land that were only going to get worse with time.
The intention of the revolution was to receive more civil liberties, and to be granted better working conditions. The revolutionaries would have to start a revolution with the intention of destroying the autocracy for it to succeed in destroying the autocracy. The military remained loyal to the Tsar out of fear, and while the Russo-Japanese war was a terrible defeat for Russia, it would take a defeat with much higher casualties and more devastating consequences, like in World War One, to cause the dissatisfaction needed for a revolution. The changes and reforms made by the Tsar gave the people what they wanted, and gave him time before another revolution
The Reasons for the Second Revolution in Russia in 1917 There was a second revolution in Russiain 1917 for a variety of different reasons. It was particularly the mistakes made by the provisional government and the problems caused by the dual government and the previous revolution in February which had allowed the Bolsheviks to make a leap to power in this revolution. If the February revolution had not taken place, the Czar would most likely still be in power, there would be no provisional government and therefore it would have been almost impossible for the Bolsheviks to plan an uprising. The February revolution left Russiain a state of confusion over who was in power, and most people were still dissatisfied as most of their grievances were still outstanding.
The first appearance of the Russian Revolution was in February 1917, due to the destructive involvement in World War I. The military and imperial side of Russia, could not compare to the industrialized Germany at the time. The costly war also made Russia’s economy decline in a major way. Word count: 207 http://www.history.com/topics/russian-revolution http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/eastern_front_01.shtml The Bolsheviks: Bolshevik in Russian means “One of the majority.”
He was unable keep his throne strong while also appeasing the peasants. The speed at which he granted the peasants freedom and then took it away was a large benefactor to the escalating tension in Russia. Enraged deputies demanded that Nicholas “end capital punishment, abolish government violence, and start distributing nobility-owned estates to land-hungry peasants” (Fleming 84). This was in great shock to Nicholas who recoiled at the idea of granting peasants any more demands. . Against the suggestions of his ministers, Nicholas refused even to hold a meeting with the Duma’s new assembly called the Progressive Bloc, even though others saw it as a chance for the monarchy to “establish a true alliance between tsar and people” (“Tsar Nicholas II……..”). In theory, it is evident that Nicholas did grant some of the peasant’s demands, however his upheaval of the promises he made transformed a group of poor citizens into a revolutionary
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
In the years leading up to the revolution, Russia had been involved in a series of wars. The Crimean war, The Russo-Turkish war, The Russo-Japanese war and the First World War. Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite. Rents and taxes were often unaffordable, while the gulf between workers and the ruling elite grew ever wider.
This revolution was fought between two groups who were the bolsheviks (pro communist) and the mensheviks
As communication was poor to the rural areas of Russia, the peasants had little or no knowledge of political parties and so did not support the Bolsheviks in their takeover. When the Bolsheviks changed to the Communist party in 1918, many peasants believed these to be a new party challenging Bolshevism and so made banners saying ’Down with the Communists, Long live the Bolsheviks!’ The national minorities currently part of the Russian empire, predominately Finland and Poland, were demanding independence and Russia’s allies, Britain, France, USA, Japan, etc. were growing ever suspicious of Bolshevism and so were set to intervene if the Bolsheviks were to pull out of World War 1.