25.Causes of Russian Revolution/ October Revolution/ Bolshevik Revolution 1917

Introduction
The Russian Revolution is dated to November 1917 (October 1917 in the Russian calendar), when Bolshevik Party forces took over the government offices in Petrograd. Tsar were in power since 1547. However, the problems that led toward revolution had been developing for generations. The revolution’s consequences, too, were far-reaching—the Communist Party, which formed to lead post-revolutionary Russia, remained in power until 1991. The revolution was followed by a new shift in world politics wherein two systems--capitalism and communism-- came in direct clash with each other. At the end, capitalism emerged triumphant after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Causes in brief

1. Widespread suffering under autocracy—a form of government in which one person, in this case the czar, has absolute power. The ministers and other high officials were directly appointed by him and reported the progress to him. He was greatly assisted by his wife Alexandra. He has not given civil rights to citizens. There was complete ban on political discourse. Only channel was protests and civil wars.

2. Weak leadership of Czar Nicholas II—clung to autocracy despite changing times: During WW I, Tsar Nicholas II took personal command of the army. He proved to be a poorly equipped leader and was blamed for Russia’s defeats. While he focused on the war, the Tsar left his wife, Alexandra, in charge of the government. Alexandra depended on a self-proclaimed healer and mystic named Rasputin to assist her. Rasputin was considered a “holy man” and “magician” but not a political leader. He opposed reform measures and appointed friends into positions of power in the government. Rumors also circulated that because Alexandra was of German ethnicity, she was trying to help Germany to win the war. By February 1917, the government was in chaos. On 8 March 1917, there were riots in Petrograd about the war and food shortages. Within a week, the Army abandoned the Tsar, the government lost control of the country, and the Duma asked Nicholas to abdicate. The Duma formed a temporary government.

Rasputin

3. Poor working conditions, low wages, and hazards of industrialization 
 The war effort took 15 million men from the farms and factories creating a worker shortage. There were food shortages and food prices rose, all of which created anger and unrest in Petrograd. The food shortages got worse due to the bad winter of 1916-1917, and soon there was famine in the cities. Russia was not prepared economically or militarily to fight the war.  Famine claimed 400,000 lives.

4. New revolutionary movements that believed a worker-run government should replace czarist rule.
 In 1861 Russia abolished Serfdom (feudal labor), which ushered in an era of Worker movements. The monarchy’s refusal to share political power with Russia and social and economic conditions of People forced them to form organized revolutionary movements. The Major populism movement grew the middle of 19th century, which asked for the overthrow of autocracy. Later, the ‘people’s will’ was organized. In 1881, they assassinated Alexander 2. It was crushed by Alexander 3. From here emerged the main revolutionary parties: the social revolutionaries and the social democrats. These two parties later organized peasants, workers and other lower classes to demand social, political and economic reforms and above all replacement of monarchy. Slogans like “land and liberty were raised”. Lenin ultimately formed Bolshevik party (centralization in party) and Martrov formed Menshevik party (diffused power in party). Both were impressed from Karl Marx but differed over many points.

5. Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1905) 
Russians were humiliated at the hands of swift Japanese which led to rising unrest and considered a national embarrassment in which Russia suffered over 80,000 casualties. The war showed weaknesses in the Tsar’s leadership and resulted in public outcry.

6. Bloody Sunday (9 January, 1905) and Russian revolution
 The massacre of unarmed protesters outside the palace caused panic and chaos across Russia. Russian had allowed limited work unions under police supervision in order to mollify the disgruntled workers. One such organization was ‘Assembly of Russian Factory Workers’. This party organized a procession Priest Gapon to Winter Palace. To prevent them, Police opened fire on the unarmed citizens, children killing scores of them. Unrest began in the country. It continued till Nicholas signed ‘October Manifesto’, which allowed limited civil rights and election of legislature, Duma. So the traditional Autocracy came to an end.

7. Devastation of World War I—high casualties (1700, 000), economic ruin, widespread hunger. Russia was poorly equipped for the war, militarily, economically and politically which lead to its major defeats by the Germans at the battles of Tannen- burg and Masurian lakes. Russian had lost a large swathes of land: all of Poland, major parts of Ukraine, Belorussia and Baltic states.
8. The March Revolution in 1917/ Feb revolution on Julian calendar, in which soldiers who were brought in for crowd control ultimately joined labor activists in calling “Down with the autocracy!”. The protests for bread began on 8 March (Feb 23 on Julian calendar). Police brutally quelled the protests. Duma formed a provisional government on March 12 after Nicholas abdicated. The leader of provisional government Alexander Kerensky established liberal program with equality before law and other social reforms. But he continued war efforts thus even it was highly unpopular.

Final showdown: the October revolution 1917

On November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar, which is why the event is often referred to as the October Revolution), leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup d’état against the Duma’s provisional government. The provisional government had been assembled by a group of leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin instead called for a Soviet government that would be ruled directly by councils of soldiers, peasants and workers. The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in Petrograd, and soon formed a new government with Lenin as its head. Lenin became the dictator of the world’s first communist state.


Effects/ aftermath 
⦁The government was taken over by the Bolshevik Party, led by V. I. Lenin; later, it came to be known as the Communist Party.
⦁Farmland was distributed among farmers, and  the control of factories given to workers and farmers.
⦁ Banks were nationalized and a national council was formed to run the economy.
⦁Russia  had pulled out of World War I, signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, conceded large parts of land to Germany.
⦁Czarist rule ended. Nicholas II, his wife and five children were executed.
⦁Civil war, between Bolshevik (“red”) and anti-Bolshevik (“white”) forces, swept across Russia from 1918 to 1920. Around 15 million were butchered in the conflict and a worst famine had hit the country.
⦁The Russian economy was in shambles. Industrial production dropped to the lowest level, trade all but ceased , and skilled workers fled the country.
⦁Lenin asserted his control by cruel methods such as the Gulag, a vast and brutal network of prison camps for both criminals and political prisoners.