We explain the process of the Russian Revolution that lasted between 1917 and 1923. In addition, we explain its main events and their consequences.
Lenin and the revolutionaries managed to defeat the Tsarist forces and the foreigners.
What was the Russian Revolution?
The Russian Revolution was the set of historical events that led to the overthrow of the authoritarian Tsarist regime of the Russian Empire and the creation of the Soviet Union (USSR). The revolutionary process lasted from 1917 to 1923 and went through different stages. Its result was the implementation and development of a communist political and economic model for the first time in history.
Originally, it was an organized rebellion from different sectors of Russian society that were against the Tsarist regime. However, as events unfolded, the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDLP) began to gain control of the revolution and thus managed to impose its convictions over those of the other revolutionary factions.
The February Revolution
In March 1917 (February in the old Julian calendar used in Russia at that time), a series of spontaneous protests by the population of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) took place, leading to a revolutionary uprising.
Poverty and lack of food in the harsh Russian winter triggered a series of spontaneous strikes in factories Petrograd. On March 12, the troops sent to suppress the protests sided with the strikers. In three days, from March 12 to 15, three events marked the end of Tsarism:
- The Duma or Parliament appointed a Provisional Government responsible for calling elections for a Constituent Assembly.
- The Soviet of Workers and Soldiers was established in Petrograd controlled by the workers’ parties (Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries).
- Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in favour of his brother Michael, who refused the throne. The Romanov dynasty came to an end and the Republic was proclaimed.
For the next six months, Russia experienced a situation of “dual power”: The liberal bourgeois provisional government and the workers’ and soldiers’ soviets competed for power. These two institutions competed to dominate a chaotic situation marked by war, economic crisis and the collapse of political institutions.
On the one hand, The provisional government was controlled by moderate liberalswith the Cadet Party as its main support. This government established political freedoms, but decided to wait for a Constituent Assembly to address the most important issues.
On the other hand, workers’ soviets were formed throughout Russia, representing the working class and the most revolutionary sectors of the population.
The Soviets were led, for the most part, by Mensheviks and Bolsheviks of the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party). Although they had great popular support, the Mensheviks refused to take over the Provisional Government, because they believed that Russia was not ready to undertake a radical social revolution.
This dual power system operated in a contradictory and ineffective manner. While the Provisional Government proclaimed its intention to keep Russia in the war against the Central Powers, the Soviets issued their first law, Order No. 1, which stated that soldiers were only to obey their officers when their orders coincided with the directives of the Soviets.
The war continued and the disasters and privations suffered by the Russian people gradually undermined the strength of the more moderate positions. Towards mid-July, soldiers began to desert en masse. The Russian front collapsedAt the same time, peasants occupied the land of the landowners, workers began to take control of some factories and, amid general confusion, Non-Russian nationalities (Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians and Ukrainians) fought to free themselves from Russian rule.
The provisional government was left in the hands of Alexander Kerensky, a revolutionary socialist who maintained his commitment to the Entente in the war.
Only the Bolsheviks seemed to have an answer to the general crisis. Their slogan was “Peace, land and bread.” A disciplined and organized minority managed to seize the initiative while the more moderate options and the defenders of Tsarism failed in their quest for power.
The October Revolution
In October 1917, army officers supported the Bolshevik coup.
After much hesitation among the leading Bolshevik leaders, one of them named Vladimir Illich Ullianov (known as Lenin) took the initiative. His party controlled the Petrograd Soviet at the time, and Trotsky, the other great Bolshevik leader, who headed the so-called Military Revolutionary Committee, gave the order to seize power from the Red Guarda militia of revolutionary soldiers controlled by Lenin’s party.
In the coup d’état of November 7, The Provisional Government was dismissed and its members fled or were arrested.. Lenin took the lead of the Council of People’s Commissars, a new institution created to replace the Provisional Government.
The Congress of Soviets decided to support the coup and accept the new government. Many Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries protested and resigned rather than approve an illegal coup.
The new government immediately approved two decrees seeking the support of the working classes:
- Decree of peace. An immediate peace without annexations or reparations was proposed to all the contenders. In December, the Bolshevik government signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which established an armistice with Germany.
- Land Decree. It established the expropriation of landowners and the distribution of land among peasants.
Lenin was trying to consolidate his power. However, he was unable to prevent elections to a Constituent Assembly. In the result, the Bolsheviks lost to the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, and won only a quarter of the seats.
In response, the government of the People’s Commissars dissolved the Assembly on January 5, 1919. Lenin legitimized his government as a representative of the power of the Sovietscontrolled by the Bolsheviks.
From then on, the government of the People’s Commissars established different measures that allowed it to establish a single-party government that, over time, was consolidated as a dictatorship.
The civil war (1919-1923)
In 1918, the Bolshevik government signed the exit from the First World War.
Immediately after coming to power, the communist government had to face a widespread military attack. Three main forces confronted the government in Moscow, the country’s new capital:
- The White Army, a motley coalition of all opponents of Bolshevism, in which various Tsarist generals predominated.
- The forces of the Entente (British, French, American, Japanese), sent in the hope of overthrowing the communists and getting Russia to return to the fight against the Central Powers. Although they sent small expeditionary armies, foreign intervention was based on aid to the “white generals”.
- The forces of the newly created Polish statewho faced the new Soviet state in the Russo-Polish War (1918-1921).
The Bolshevik government had to take extraordinary measures. Leon Trotsky took command of the Red Army, which he managed to organize with iron discipline. The Cheka, a Bolshevik political police, was also founded.
As civil war broke out in Russia, World War I was entering its final phase. To deal with the internal conflict, Lenin had to bow to the Central PowersIn March 1918, he signed the Peace of Brest-Litovsk which ended the war in exchange for the loss of important territories.
After the Great War, the foreign expeditionary forces sent to Russia returned to their countries. From then on, The Red Army focused all its energies on defeating a White Army. Finally, in 1921, the communists were able to claim victory in the civil war. The following year The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was born, a new state led by the Communist Party.
War Communism
Between 1918 and 1921, the government had to ration food to combat famine.
During the Civil War, the Bolsheviks applied a new economic model that arose from the needs of war and their own ideological convictions: “war communism.” In the midst of the economic crisis, The aim of war communism was to ensure that there was a minimum of agricultural and industrial production that would reach urban businesses and consumers. It was a question of the survival of the new regime rather than a long-term economic strategy.
In the agriculture, A food requisition was established for the peasants to supply the Red Army and the cities. The industrial sector was largely nationalized and subjected to strict regulations by state agencies.
As inflation soared (the price level would reach 16,800 times what it was in 1914), money lost value and The economy was characterized by rationing and barter.
In the midst of this chaotic situation, the new regime introduced a series of important social reforms:
- Alexandra Kollontai, People’s Commissar for Public Assistance, promoted the construction of “palaces for the protection of motherhood and children.” She also promoted the creation of the Zhenotdel, the first government body for the status of women in history, which sent delegates to all regions of Russia explaining the new social order.
- Between 1918 and 1920, Lenin’s government approved civil marriage, legalized divorce and approved the interruption of pregnancy.
The Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy was created, which initiated one of the largest literacy campaigns in history (around 1914, in Russia, only half of children between 8 and 12 years old attended school).
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References
- Carr, E.H. (1981). October 1917. In The Russian Revolution. From Lenin to Stalin (1917-1929). Alliance Publishing.
- Fitzpatrick, S. (2005). Introduction, The Stage and 1917: The February and October Revolutions. In The Russian Revolution. 21st Century Publishers.
- Milosevich, M. (2017). Political groups of the beginning of the 20th century. In Brief history of the Russian revolution. Galaxia Gutenberg.