The conditions at the Russia factories were unbearably miserable and the workers were often unhappy with their squalid work environment. Since many had come to the cities to work in these factories, they had become increasingly literate and aware of their plight. As a result, worker strikes and general discontent were commonplace. The workers, in a unitary effort, turned into a formidable force against both factory management and the government.
Thus, the workers were following the traditions of the peasants, who throughout the Russian political landscape of the s and s often rebelled in violent ways. With both the urban industrial centers and the countryside embroiled in turmoil, Tsar Nicholas and his government looked to starting small wars in order to quell domestic discontent with the resultant patriotic fervor.
The Russians believed that the Japanese were beneath them, socially and culturally, and thus the Russians would have an easy win. As the result of the weak leadership of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia lost the war and suffered humiliation. Russian people everywhere felt this devastating humiliation and loss of life. On Sunday, 9 January , a peaceful protest was organized by Father Gapon to bring social welfare and economic concerns to the attention of the tsar.
The day was called Bloody Sunday; the Revolution had begun. In it, he agreed to a new constitution and pledged a nationally elected parliament, which was called the Duma.
Although this revolution brought no real change to the social, economic, and political landscape of Russia, the Revolution of set the stage for the revolutions of The commoners were still frustrated, and now the average commoner saw the results of what could happen when they take to the streets en masse. The revolution also exposed a weak and inept Tsar who was out of the touch with the masses, and lacked any vision for bringing change to Russia.
The immediate causes of the revolution were failed state-level leadership and policy, inflation poverty, hunger, Russo-Japanese War, the rise of reformer and revolutionary groups, and Bloody Sunday. The revolution paved the way for political parties and ideas to incubate.
During this incubation, revolutionaries like Lenin and Stalin, with dangerous ideas, were now free to express them and see them come to fruition.
There were many precursors for the revolutions, which started in February and ended in October. Failed tsarist economic policies that caused food shortages, general dis-enchantment with the tsarist autocracy, a burgeoning and increasingly radical and revolutionary proletariat and intellectual class, proliferation of revolutionary journals and newspapers that advocated violent regime overthrow, hyper-inflation, and murderous peasant uprisings in the countryside are among the major precursors of the first phase.
Tensions present since had rendered the Russian political landscape fragile and violent. Strong opposition soon developed. The peasants wanted cash payments for their products and resented having to surrender their surplus grain to the government as a part of its civil war policies. The peasants were freed from wholesale levies of grain and allowed to sell their surplus produce in the open market. Commerce was stimulated by permitting private retail trading. The state continued to be responsible for banking, transportation, heavy industry, and public utilities.
Although the left opposition among the Communists criticized the rich peasants, or kulaks, who benefited from the NEP, the program proved highly beneficial and the economy revived. Lenin and Stalin : Toward the end of his life, Lenin became increasingly anxious about Stalin and began criticizing him and urging his removal as general secretary. Stalin reacted furiously and the Orgburo was retained, but Bukharin, Trotsky, and Zinoviev were added to the body.
By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmaneuvering his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union and, by the end of the s, established totalitarian rule. The Central Committee decided not to publish the testament. In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the Revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization.
Famines ensued, causing millions of deaths; surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labor. Social upheaval continued in the mids. Over two years, that averages to over one thousand executions a day. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. The Interwar Period. Search for:. The Russian Revolution.
The Russian Revolution of The Russian Revolution of was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire, which included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies.
Learning Objectives Outline the events of the Revolution, along with its successes and failures. When the procession reached the palace, Cossacks opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. The Russian masses were so aroused over the massacre that a general strike was declared demanding a democratic republic, which marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution of Soviets councils of workers appeared in most cities to direct revolutionary activity.
In October , Tsar Nicholas reluctantly issued the famous October Manifesto, which conceded the creation of a national Duma legislature , as well as the right to vote, and affirmed that no law was to go into force without confirmation by the Duma. The moderate groups were satisfied, but the socialists rejected the concessions as insufficient and tried to organize new strikes.
Key Terms Russian Constitution of : A major revision of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire, which transformed the formerly absolutist state into one in which the emperor agreed for the first time to share his autocratic power with a parliament.
It was enacted on May 6, , on the eve of the opening of the first State Duma. It convened four times between April and the collapse of the Empire in February Russification : A form of cultural assimilation during which non-Russian communities, voluntarily or not, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian one. In a historical sense, the term refers to both official and unofficial policies of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union with respect to their national constituents and to national minorities in Russia, aimed at Russian domination.
Rising Discontent in Russia Under Tsar Nicholas II reigned — , the Russian Empire slowly industrialized amidst increased discontent and dissent among the lower classes.
Learning Objectives Name a few reasons the Russian populace was discontented with its leadership. The Russian Revolution of was a major factor of the February Revolutions of , unleashing a steady current of worker unrest and increased political agitation. They ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. However, its activities were quickly repressed by the government.
The model would later become central to the communists during the Revolution of His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Due to the Khodynka Tragedy, anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, the violent suppression of the Revolution, the execution of political opponents, and his perceived responsibility for the Russo-Japanese War, he was given the nickname Nicholas the Bloody by his political adversaries.
To fill the vacuum of authority, the Duma legislature declared a provisional government headed by Prince Lvov, collectively known as the Russian Republic. The Soviets initially permitted the provisional government to rule, but insisted on a prerogative to influence decisions and control various militias.
During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests, and strikes, such as the July Days. The period of competition for authority ended in late October when Bolsheviks routed the ministers of the Provisional Government in the events known as the October Revolution and placed power in the hands of the soviets, which had given their support to the Bolsheviks.
February Revolution : The first of two Russian revolutions in It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. On March 12, mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later, the result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire. July Days : Events in that took place in Petrograd, Russia, between July 3 and 7 when soldiers and industrial workers engaged in spontaneous armed demonstrations against the Russian Provisional Government.
The Bolsheviks initially attempted to prevent the demonstrations and then decided to support them. The October Revolution On October 25, , Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin led his leftist revolutionaries in a successful revolt against the ineffective provisional government, an event known as the October Revolution.
Learning Objectives Explain the events of the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent.
Soviet membership was initially freely elected, but many members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, anarchists, and other leftists created opposition to the Bolsheviks through the soviets themselves. When it became clear that the Bolsheviks had little support outside of the industrialized areas of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, they simply barred non-Bolsheviks from membership in the soviets. The new government soon passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land, the latter of which redistributed land and wealth to peasants throughout Russia.
He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from to , of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from to , and of the Soviet Union from to Under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism.
Marxism—Leninism : A political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of Classical Marxism and Leninism that seeks to establish socialist states and develop them further. They espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of Marxism and Leninism, but generally support the idea of a vanguard party, one-party state, proletarian state-dominance over the economy, internationalism, opposition to bourgeois democracy, and opposition to capitalism.
It remains the official ideology of the ruling parties of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, a number of Indian states, and certain governed Russian oblasts such as Irkutsk. October Revolution : A seizure of state power by the Bolshevik Party instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year.
It decreed an abolition of private property and the redistribution of the landed estates among the peasantry. Key Takeaways Key Points The Russian Civil War, which broke out in shortly after the revolution, brought death and suffering to millions of people regardless of their political orientation. Though the Allied nations, using external interference, provided substantial military aid to the loosely knit anti-Bolshevik forces, they were ultimately defeated.
By , the Reds defeated their internal enemies and brought most of the newly independent states under their control, with the exception of Finland, the Baltic States, the Moldavian Democratic Republic which joined Romania , and Poland with whom they had fought the Polish—Soviet War. The army was established immediately after the October Revolution.
White Army : A loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces that fought the Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds, in the Russian Civil War — and, to a lesser extent, continued operating as militarized associations both outside and within Russian borders until roughly World War II.
Cheka : The first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created on December 20, , after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin, and was subsequently led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish aristocrat turned communist. These troops policed labor camps; ran the Gulag system; conducted requisitions of food; subjected political opponents to secret arrest, detention, torture, and summary execution; and put down rebellions and riots by workers or peasants, and mutinies in the desertion-plagued Red Army.
Formation of the Soviet Union The government of the Soviet Union, formed in with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian republics, was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party Bolsheviks , who increasingly developed a totalitarian regime, especially during the reign of Joseph Stalin.
Learning Objectives Assess the reasons for creating the Soviet Union. However, it only officially consolidated as the new government of Russia after the defeat of the White Army during the Russian Civil War in Petersburg and Moscow nearly doubled, resulting in overcrowding and destitute living conditions for a new class of Russian industrial workers. Large protests by Russian workers against the monarchy led to the Bloody Sunday massacre of The massacre sparked the Russian revolution of , during which angry workers responded with a series of crippling strikes throughout the country.
After the bloodshed of , Czar Nicholas II promised the formation of a series of representative assemblies, or Dumas, to work toward reform. Their involvement in the war would soon prove disastrous for the Russian Empire. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war.
Food and fuel shortages plagued Russia as inflation mounted. The economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort. Czar Nicholas left the Russian capital of Petrograd St. Petersburg in to take command of the Russian Army front. During this time, her controversial advisor, Grigory Rasputin , increased his influence over Russian politics and the royal Romanov family. By then, most Russians had lost faith in the failed leadership of the czar.
Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma , the toothless Russian parliament established after the revolution, when it opposed his will.
Demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets of Petrograd. Supported by huge crowds of striking industrial workers, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets.
On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, the regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets and the troops began to waver.
The Duma formed a provisional government on March A few days later, Czar Nicholas abdicated the throne, ending centuries of Russian Romanov rule. The leaders of the provisional government, including young Russian lawyer Alexander Kerensky, established a liberal program of rights such as freedom of speech, equality before the law, and the right of unions to organize and strike.
Social Democrat beliefs were based on Marxism. They did not consider that the peasants would rise in revolution. They focused on agitation amongst the workers in the cities. The group split in after an ideological disagreement. The Mensheviks, led by Martov, wanted revolution by the workers to occur naturally. The Bolsheviks led by Lenin, believed revolution should come as soon as possible.
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