Throughout the Baccalaureate, there are several history projects that students must present and one of the first ones they must do corresponds to the history of Russia, so we want to help you so that you can do a good work on the Russian Revolution for 1st year of Baccalaureate.
Russian Revolution: 1st year Baccalaureate work
Your work on the Russian revolution can be an outline based on the summary that we are going to offer you through various points, beginning with talk about how in August 1914, tsarist Russia had the status of a great power. Nevertheless, the war quickly revealed the country’s weaknesses and, in 1917, the revolutionaries seized the opportunity to seize power. How did this double revolution take place, in February and then in October? We leave you all the points to carry out that scheme that we tell you, which can be if you prefer in a summary of the points that we are going to list below.
Russia “colossus with feet of clay”
Before World War I, Russia had 170 million inhabitants. Have an army of about 8 million soldiers (13 million mobilized in total), making it a sizeable military force. Thanks to the influx of foreign capital, the country rapidly industrialized and became the fifth economic power in the world.
However, it remains a fragile country. The rural population is the majority and suffers great inequalities. Taxes are too high, rural overcrowding is increasing. The tensions are also political: despite the approval of a Constitution after the 1905 revolution, Tsar Nicholas II rules as an autocrat.
The impact of the war
Russia entered the war on July 30, 1914 to support Slavic Serbia. Very quickly, its economy is disorganized: industry lacks hands, like agriculture (which, moreover, is deprived of its horses). The factories can no longer function, the peasants no longer deliver their crops. Famine soon struck the cities, the soldiers themselves were hungry and poorly equipped, which opened a path that left no other option than a revolt that was also latent among the population.
Added to this are the military defeats and the high death toll: more than 2.5 million. Beginning in 1916, strikes and demonstrations broke out across the country.
From one revolution to another. The February revolution or the fall of tsarism
As of February 23, 1917 (in the Russian calendar, but March 8 in the Western calendar), strikes grew. The army goes to the insurgent camp. The Tsar no longer has authority. A provisional government was created, made up of bourgeois and nobles, to continue the war. He confronted the revolutionary soviet (the “council” of representatives), which demanded the return of peace. The Tsar abdicates on March 16. Thus begins to take shape the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
The October Revolution or the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks
To the returning from exile in April 1917, Lenin he asks, in his April Theses, “all power for the Soviets, immediate peace and land for the peasants.” The The Bolsheviks, the most revolutionary Russian socialists (led by Lenin), are enjoying growing popularity.
On the night of October 24-25, 1917 (November 6-7 in the Western calendar), armed Bolsheviks seized strategic points in the capital, Petrograd. The provisional government fled. The Bolsheviks have achieved their goal of seizing power.
Bolshevik power in the face of difficulties and the application of Lenin’s program
The October 26th (i.e. November 8) a Bolshevik government is formed, the Council of People’s Commissars, headed by Lenin. Trotsky heads Foreign Affairs and Stalin is responsible for Nationalities (non-Russian peoples living in Russia).
This government is adopting several important reforms:
- the “peace decree”which proposes the end of hostilities to all countries at war with Russia;
- the “decree of the land”, that hands over the land of the latifundistas to the peasant soviets;
- the “Decree on nationalities«, which recognizes the equality of all the peoples of Russia;
the armistice of Brest-Litovsk is concluded; Peace with Germany will be signed in March 1918.
But the difficulties persist or reappear, although instability and poverty continue to mark the country. In fact, the civil war between whites (supporters of the Tsar) and reds (Bolsheviks) continues to ravage the country. The situation is critical, especially since famine is once again affecting the villages (peasants hide part of their crops to escape taxes). Factories no longer work and looters threaten the population.
“war” communism
In exceptional circumstances, exceptional measures: the dictatorship of the Communist Party is established. The other parties are prohibited. The Bolsheviks created a political police, the Cheka, which is dedicated to imprisoning the enemies of the regime but also massacred the Tsar’s family. The land becomes the property of the community and the rebellious peasants are executed. The Red Army, created by Trotsky in January 1918, finally pushed back the White armies. The population is exhausted, the economy is in very bad shape, the country seems to be sinking into a crisis that, however, the Communist Party does not assume or admit.
Nevertheless, After having nationalized the banks, land and industry, Lenin had to implement a new economic policy, the NEP (1921-1929). It opens the borders to foreign capital and reintroduces the idea of profit.
If the revolution is saved, it is only at the cost of many concessions. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was born in 1922, is an isolated country of many territories, and ultimately isolated from the rest of the world. It is a federal state that brings together several republics, but, in practice, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) exercises undivided power from Moscow. Within the Party, the General Secretary imposed his own policy and, from 1922, Stalin He held this position leading the USSR to a new order that did not stop having conflicts, especially with other powers such as the United States: The Cold War.