Even though that most many citizens wanted a revolution, nobody actually expected the revolution to take place, especially the way the revolution ended up starting. “On February 23, 1917, the Petrograd’s women workers left their factories and into the streets they went protesting.” The women of Russia were ready to be heard for it was International Women’s Day and the women had had enough.1 Throughout the time of the Revolution there was never just one individual revolution. There was a series of revolutions that were set in Russia in 1917. Some were crushed in the making and had no result but, others ended up being made a very big deal. These sequences of revolutions ended up dismantling the Tsarist autocracy which also resulted in the creation of the “Russian SFSR”. As a result of these revolutions “the emperor was forced to resign from his post and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution.”2 One of the revolutions was called the February Revolution for “the Russians used a calendar called the Julian until 1918.”3 The revolution actually began on March 8, 1917 which was when demonstrators took to the streets after they were clamoring for bread. The demonstrators hit the streets of Petrograd which was the Russian capital but is now called St. Petersburg. Huge crowds of industrial workers supported the protesters as they collided with the police. “On March 10, the strike spread among all of Petrograd’s workers, and irate mobs destroyed police stations.”3 “On March 11, the Petrograd army’s troops were called out to try and stop the uprising protesters.”3 Some of the situations, soldiers started to pen fire, killing many demonstrators, but however it did not stop the strikers from leaving ... ... middle of paper ... ...t, harsh discipline, and inadequate wages.”5 “The social causes by the Russian revolution mainly became of centuries of domination over the lower classes by the Tsarist regime, and Nicholas’s failures in World War one.”5 As the rural agricultural peasants had been limitless from serfdom in the year 1861, the peasants still refused paying redemption payments to the state and demanded to be the private owner of the land that they worked. The only problem was further compounded by the never lasting failure of Sergei Witte’s land reforms during the early twentieth century. Peasant disturbances increased which sometimes ended up becoming revolts, with only the goal of securing the ownership of the land they worked. At that time Russia consisted mainly of poor farming peasants, which made up one and a half percent of the population owning twenty-five percent of the land.
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.” ...
Most popular uprisings in recent history have been characterized by a brief period of incredible potential and hope, only to collapse in failure and despair. Even the supposedly 'successful' Russian Revolution of 1917 followed this pattern. Revolutionaries threw off centuries of imperial rule and oppression in order to create a new world of freedom, peace and equality... only to end up with Stalin, purges, gulags, dekulakization - and ultimately decades of Bolshevik1 rule and oppression. Although it can sometimes be disheartening to review this long history of failure and oppression, valuable insights can be gained by investigating these past revolutions. The achievements and promise of the revolutionaries can be studied and their strengths marked. The weaknesses that led to their eventual defeat and decay must also be understood, so that the same mistakes are not made again. This article will address these themes in the context of the Russian Revolution at the Kronstadt navel base.2
A revolution from 1917 to 1918. It came after the February Revolution. After Lenin, a Marxist and ruler of the Bolshevik group, gained power and moved power to the soviets and supported inflexible resistance to the Great War. The Bolsheviks also gained jurisdiction and soon power over the Petrograd soviet. The government continued to assert the extension of the war, starve the people, and not assume land improvement. The lower class then began to believe that only the soviets could help. Lenin then convinced the Bolsheviks to conquer the jurisdiction for the All-Russian National Congress of Soviets. In October, laborers, soldiers, and seamen stomped through the Winter Palace and gave power to Lenin and the Bolsheviks from the government.
The Revolution was brought by military defeats and starvation during World War I, which started problems in the battlefields. The war did not progress well for Russia because supplies to the Russian capital deteriorated significantly. The demands of waging war exhausted the Russian economy and exposed the restrictions of the Russian manufacture. All the combatants in World War I suffered scarcities and prov...
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.
There was a shift from discontent regarding the monarchy, to anger and violence. The success of the 1917 revolution was in part attributable to how united the people were now. The flawed Duma united all of the opposition to the Czar, and then gave them a place to debate and discuss the ways in which they would change the system. As the Czar did not allow to Duma to accomplish anything or pass significant legislation that would change the social life, the members of the Duma were left unhappy and angry. The next day another telegram was sent by the same general on the state of the strikes and uprisings. “I report that during the afternoon of February 25th, crowds of workers who had assembled at Znamenskaia Square and near the Kazan’ Cathedral were repeatedly dispersed by the police and the military. About 5pm demonstrators near the Gostinyi Dvor began to sing revolutionary songs and hoisted red flags with the inscriptions “Down with War!” In response to the warning that arms would be used against them, there came from the crowd several revolver shots, one of which wounded a soldier of the Ninth Reserve Cavalry Regiment in the head. A troop of dragoons dismounted and opened fire on the crowd, killing three and wounding ten men. The crowd dispersed immediately. Around 6pm a grenade was thrown at a detail of mounted gendarmes, wounding one gendarme and his horse. The
The Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, was one of the most brutal and destructive power struggles in modern history. Recently, historians have started to reconsider the intent of the Bolsheviks leaders who led the revolution. Sheila Fitzpatrick, a respected modern Russian historian, formulates an argument that soon after the revolution started Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party led the revolution astray to benefit themselves. Much of the decisions the party undertook were once believed to be vehicles of the proletariat revolution, but Fitzpatrick contends that the Bolshevik Party was power hungry and used the popular uprising as an opportunity to claim power. In her book The Russian Revolution, Sheila Fitzpatrick displays how
The Russian Revolution (1917) was a series of economic and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party.
By February 1917, discontent within the Tsarist society had risen to such a level that a revolution occurred. Originally, the revolution began as several protests about poverty, crime and the conditions in which Russians were forced to work and live in. These protests soon vilified Tsar Nicholas and turned into brutal and violent riots, although it can be argued that the Tsar acted villainous towards his people and thus deserved his status as an enemy of the people. There were many contributing factors that led to the Spring revolution, chiefly the growing vexation of the public that began many years before the war and the catalysis of the war in fuelling the fire of discontent. This essay will discuss the effects of these factors on the breakdown of the Tsarist society by February 1917 and form a supported conclusion on which factor had the largest impact and was, ultimately, the main reason for the breakdown of society and the subsequent revolutions.
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.
Throughout history, revolutions have developed in response to a variety of conditions. These revolutions have often resulted in significant political, economic, and social change. As the 1900’s rolled in, European nations were at peace, that is until the darker forces were pushing Europe toward war. Those darker forces included nationalism and alliance systems that would help fuel the Great War or World War I. The effects of World War I were massive including the Treaty of Versailles and the enormous amount of human casualties as well as economic losses. During World War I, another revolution broke out in Russia, removing Russia from the war and transformed the Russian empire into the first Communist state. There were many causes of the Russian Revolution including the weakness of the Czar and World War I. Finally, there were many effects of the Russian Revolution, two of which included the establishment of a communist government as well as a new economic policy.
Russian Revolution of October 1917 was the child of the antagonism of classes in contradictory imperialism. It started in poorly ruled environment of Tsarism, prepared by previous revolutions of 1905-6 (Hobsbawm, 1995, p.30). “So ready was Russia for social revolution that masses treated the fall of Tsar as a proclamation of universal freedom, equality and direct democracy. The uncontrolled masses transformed into Bolshevik power” (Hobsbawm, 1995, p.36). Many political parties had arose, however, not many of them knew how to rule the huge country. As country mainly was agrarian with more than eighty per-cent of peasants, who were hungry, landless and tired of the endless wars, Bolsheviks who represente...
One of the reasons why February revolution have occurred is World War One. World War One played an interesting role for both revolutions, at the same time it is a comparison and contrast in both cases. The World War One began in 1914, unfortunately Russian was not doing well. Thousands of people were killed, but it was not the only reason. Another reason was economic crisis, which helped to cause a collapse in society. Nevertheless, revolutions were different. The first distinction is that the February Revolution was to a greater extent an unconstrained mob of the general population instead of an revolution while the October Revolution was a genuine oust of the administration drove by Vladimir Lenin. First, people have to understand that nobody called for a February Revolution. The main participants of riot were peasants. As I mentioned before, World War One caused a lot of problem for a government. Common people were completely tired from thing which were happening during the war time. One of the proofs that people have experienced hard times and very unhappy with their lives is Miliukov's Speech to the Duma. Miliukov gave his speech to the Duma on November 14, 1916, which is three months before February Revolution have occurred. In his speech he is
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a rebellion of the Russian people against the rule of the Russian Empire. Russia was a country full of many unsatisfied people; the nation experienced a series of changes in the late 19th and 20th century that would ultimately bring about revolution. The Russian people were starving, industrialization was emerging and the middle class was asking to be a part of the ruling of the country. As a result of the revolution, Russia saw its withdrawal from World War I, major industrial growth and ultimately the spread Communism throughout the world. The inevitable causes of the Russian Revolution were the weaknesses of the Russian Empire, World War I and the collapse of the Tsar’s regime. The nation now began its path towards emerging as a world power following the revolution.
In December of 1904, workers at a railway factory in St. Petersburg initiated a strike about working hours and unsafe working conditions. These strikes began to take hold and by January of the next year, the number of strikers rose to over 80,000. On Sunday, January 22nd strikers gathered outside the Tsar’s Winter Palace, led by priest Georgi Gapon. With the intention of delivering a petition to the Tsar, the protesters were fired upon by troops guarding the palace. Tsar Nicholas was at his second home in Tsarskoye Selo at the time. It is estimated that between 200 and 1000 people were killed on what is now called Bloody Sunday.