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The trauma of total war during
World War I laid bare the weaknesses of czarist rule in the tottering
Russian Empire. As casualties from the Great War mounted and people
throughout Russia suffered hunger and deprivation, in 1917 workers and
other ordinary Russians finally rebelled against the czar, forcing him
to abdicate the throne. Shortly thereafter, an even more radical group
of Marxist revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks, seized power and established
their own authoritarian socialist regime throughout the Russian Empire,
reorganizing it as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR. Few
events have had as much influence on world history in the 20th
century as the Russian Revolution.
The
Roots of Revolution
In
1914 Russia was the most backward of the major European countries. Most
of the peasantry still remained in poverty. The Industrial Revolution
had arrived late in Russia, and only in the last few decades had the
country begun to enter the age of the machine. In 1905 a short-lived
revolution, precipitated by the humiliation of defeat at the hands of
the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese war, had swept through Russia's
major cities. Confronted with the depth of discontent among the entire
Russian population, Czar Nicholas II had been forced to accept some
constitutional reforms. Workers were allowed to form unions and
councils, called soviets, to express their grievances. Still opposed to
liberal democratic ideals, however, Nicholas soon backtracked on many of
the reforms and reverted to an essentially autocratic rule, harshly
repressing potential revolutionaries and reformers with his hated and
feared secret police.
With
the outbreak of World War I, Nicholas became even more concerned with
fighting battles than with responding to the complaints and problems of
his people. The government's mismanagement of the war, however, only
highlighted the corrupt nature of czarist rule and caused even greater
discontent. Russian soldiers often went into battle with no weapons and
few supplies. By 1917 Russia had suffered over 8 million casualties –
soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. Meanwhile, the demands of the war
effort also caused tremendous shortages of foodstuffs and other
essentials among the civilian population. In the face of mounting
casualties and growing hunger, the Russian people began to lose all
faith in their government.
The
conduct of the imperial family itself made matters even worse. When Nicholas
decided to take personal command of his troops, he left the government
in the hands of his wife, Czarina Alexandra. Already suspect in many
Russians’ eyes because of her German birth, Alexandra’s behavior
further alienated people from the monarchy. She chose the eccentric monk Grigory Rasputin as her advisor because of his ability to stop the
bleeding of her son Alexis, who suffered from hemophilia. Rasputin’s
reputation, however, particularly where women were concerned, was
unsavory to say the least. Rasputin's favored position at Court was also
difficult for most people to understand since the truth about the
czarevitch's medical condition was not generally known.
Soon rumors of
misconduct and scandals surrounded the Russian court. In addition, many
high-ranking Russians viewed his vocal opposition to the war as treason.
Eventually, in
1916 a small group of Russian noblemen murdered Rasputin in an effort to
restore the credibility and authority of the czarist government.
The
“February” Revolution.
Rasputin’s assassination, however, did little to stop the slide into
virtual anarchy. In January 1917 the situation was so chaotic that the
French ambassador wrote to his own government: “I am obliged to report
that at the present moment the Russian Empire is run by lunatics.”
Russia's problems continued to worsen during the first months of 1917 as
defeats on the battlefield and ever-increasing food shortages provoked
mutinies among the soldiers and strikes on the home front.
On
March 8th all the tensions finally came to a head. Unable to
buy bread to feed their hungry families, angry women factory workers in
Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) walked off the job and staged
protest strikes. As they called on other workers and the soviets to join
them, by the end of the day thousands of people were demonstrating in
the streets of Petrograd. One woman described the scene:
“The
streets were full of people. The trams weren't running. Overturned cars
lay across the tracks. I did not know then, I did not understand what
was happening. I yelled along with everyone, 'Down with the czar!' . . ,
I yelled again and again. . . . I felt that all of my familiar life was
falling apart and I rejoiced in its destruction.”
The
protests continued for several days until finally, on March 11th,
imperial troops were sent to put them down. Instead of firing on the
protesters, however, the troops instead joined them. Thus began the
February Revolution (so-called because according to the Orthodox
Christian calendar used in Russia the month was actually February) – the opening
phase of the Russian Revolution. As the rioting spread, the czar left
the front and hurried back to the capital by train. With no support from
either the military or the people, however, on March 15th
Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne. The Romanov dynasty that had
ruled Russia for over 300 years was at an end.
In an
effort to restore some semblance of order, Russian leaders appointed a
group of moderate reformers to set up a provisional government, which
was ultimately headed by Alexander Kerensky. From the beginning, the new
government faced overwhelming problems, many of its own making. Despite
calls for peace, for example, Kerensky decided that Russia must remain
in the war. Without peace, however, there was no way to stop the
continuing food shortages, and prices continued to rise. Still unable to
afford food and other basic necessities for their survival, the workers
soon lost faith in the provisional government as they had lost faith in
the czar. As events moved beyond Kerensky's control over the summer and
early fall, he and the provisional government found themselves
increasingly attacked as defenders of the old order. No one attacked
them more successfully than Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, better known as
Lenin.
Lenin
and the “October” Revolution. Lenin
was born in 1870 in the town of Simbirsk. In 1887, his older brother
Alexander was executed for taking part in a plot to assassinate the
czar. From that point on, Lenin devoted his life to promoting revolution
against the monarchy. At university he absorbed the communist doctrines
of Karl Marx and as a young man he was exiled to Siberia for spreading
Marxist materials among workers.
In 1900 Lenin left Russia to live abroad, where he might
more safely continue to work for the international worker’s revolution
that he believed to be inevitable. In exile, he added his own analysis
to Marx’s work, publishing numerous tracts and pamphlets. One of his
most influential contributions to Marxist thought was his treatise on
imperialism, which he defined as “the highest stage of capitalism.”
During the years immediately before World War I, Lenin was among those
socialists who called on the workers of all countries to recognize their
common interests and to reject any idea of fighting one another in a
“capitalist war.”
When revolution did finally break out in Russia in 1917,
Lenin, who was living in Switzerland, saw it as the great opportunity
for which he had been waiting. Desperately, he began to look for some
way to return home to join the struggle. Ironically, he soon found help
from the German Kaiser. Hopeful that Lenin would aid their own war
effort by fomenting revolution in Russia, German agents arranged for a
special train to carry him across Europe. Like the Russian czar,
however, Wilhelm II was wary of revolution in his own dominions;
consequently, the train was sealed as it sped through Germany so that
Lenin could not spread revolutionary socialist ideas along the way.
Arriving in Petrograd in April 1917, Lenin immediately
assumed leadership of a group of revolutionaries known as the
Bolsheviks. Unlike the Mensheviks, who hoped to achieve socialist
reforms through a democratically elected parliament, the Bolsheviks were
Marxian socialists committed to the idea that only armed struggle and
violent revolution would overthrow the capitalist class. They also
believed that only an elite group of properly indoctrinated,
ideologically committed revolutionary leaders – the Communist Party -
could effectively guide and instruct workers in their own best
interests, and eventually establish the “dictatorship of the
proletariat.” In order to take power, however, Lenin also realized
that he must gain the support of the masses of ordinary Russians, both
industrial workers and peasants, by offering them what they wanted above
all else – an end to the war, food to eat, and some sense of security
for their future. As soon as he arrived, therefore, he began to
challenge the provisional government, accusing them of being little more
than tools of the capitalists and liberals, and promising the people
that the Bolsheviks would bring them "Peace, Land and Bread."
In November 1917 (October by the Russian calendar) the
Bolsheviks violently took power in what became known as the October
Revolution. Under the skillful leadership of Leon Trotsky, Lenin's
right-hand man, Bolshevik military units, including the workers' Red
Guards, stormed government offices in Petrograd and Moscow. The
provisional government was arrested at its headquarters in the Winter
Palace. Lenin addressed the Russian people:
“with
all my might I urge comrades to realize that everything now hangs by a
thread; that we are confronted by problems which are not to be solved by
Conferences or congresses, . . .but exclusively by peoples; by the
masses, by the struggle of the armed people.”
The
Bolshevik coup succeeded. Russia was now under the dictatorial control
of Lenin. The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communist Party. In
1918, true to Lenin’s promises to both the Kaiser and the Russian
workers, the Communists concluded a separate peace with Germany in the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Germany agreed to end hostilities – but only
in exchange for a considerable portion of Russian territory. The war
abroad was finally over, but the war at home was about to begin.
The Civil War
The
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk angered many Russians who considered it a
betrayal of the sacrifices made by the Motherland in the war. In
addition, despite the czar’s forced abdication, many Russians,
particularly devout adherents of the Russian Orthodox faith, remained
loyal to the dynasty and the concept of monarchy. Not least, liberals
and other constitutionalists feared the radical socialist aims of the
Communists. Soon, former army officers and others, like the Cossacks,
began to organize military units to fight the Bolsheviks. Collectively
known as ‘the Whites,’ these disparate, and often competing,
anti-revolutionary forces hoped to drive the Bolsheviks from power.
Between 1918 and 1920, a brutal and bloody civil war tore Russia apart
as White forces fought the Bolshevik Red Army under Leon Trotsky.
Hoping
to keep Russia as an ally and to keep vital war materials from falling
into German hands, the Allied Powers sent military supplies and troops
to help the White forces in their struggle. Even with this outside help,
however, the Whites were too disorganized and uncoordinated to fight the
Red Army effectively. Reflecting their own different agendas, some White
forces actually fought each other. Eventually, after three years of
bloody fighting, the Bolsheviks defeated the last of the White armies
and consolidated their control throughout Russia. Meanwhile, however,
the civil war had resulted in enormous losses for the country. Over
800,000 soldiers had been killed in the fighting, and 2 million
civilians had died from warfare and disease. The war had also provided
an excuse for the Bolsheviks to form their own secret police force, the
Cheka, to suppress all dissent.
Russia Under Lenin
As
soon as the Communists seized power in 1917, they reorganized Russia's
government. They moved the capital from Petrograd to Moscow. Retaining
his leadership of the Communist Party, Lenin also became the head of the
cabinet, the Council of People's Commissars. The Communists gave
official powers to the Congress of Soviets, a legislative body
controlled by the party. To ensure the end of the Romanov monarchy, in
1918 the Communists ordered the execution of the former czar and all of
his family. In 1922 the Communist leaders renamed Russia and the
territories under its control the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR).
Between
1918 and 1921 the nation followed an economic program later known as War
Communism. The state virtually abolished private property and
nationalized all industries. By the early 1920s, however, such measures
had left the economy in a shambles. In the face of growing popular
discontent, in 1921 Lenin announced a New Economic Policy (NEP), which
allowed individuals to buy and sell some products and encouraged
investment of foreign capital. In agriculture the government encouraged
peasants to form collective farms – vast areas of land on which many
people shared the work. Most peasants, however, preferred to keep the
small plots of land that their families had farmed for centuries.
Although Lenin believed the NEP would lead the
Soviet Union to economic recovery, not all of the new Communist leaders
agreed. When Lenin suffered a debilitating stroke in 1922, and later
died in 1924, the future economic prosperity and the leadership of the
new nation remained in question.
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