Reasons for Russia's October Revolution

On November 7, 1917, Lenin ordered a coup d’etat that was brilliantly successful and the November Revolution ended the Provisional Government. Kerensky was toppled from power and forced to flee Russia, an impotent and defeated figure who had failed to capitalise on the great opportunity passed to

tried to create a western style society. Nevertheless, this government led by Alexander Kerensky lasted for only seven months, by which at the end Lenin and the communist Bolsheviks seized power over Russia. When the peasants claimed land from the government the government refused which made the Bolsheviks extremely mad making them riot against the government. The Provisional Government lost to the

In 1917, a revolution started more specifically the Russian Revolution. Many people were impacted by this revolution. It started in 1905 when Russia was suffering military defeats in the Russo-Japanese War. Following, Russians flooded the streets protesting. About 300 people were killed and many were wounded. The two leaders during this time were Czar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin. Czar Nicholas II was the leader who caused the Russian Revolution because of his bad leadership.

The Russian Revolution was a series of two revolutions that consisted of the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The February Revolution of March 8th, 1917 was a revolution targeted and successfully removed Czar Nicholas II from power. The February Revolution first began to take place when strikes and public protests between 1916 and early 1917 started occurring. These strikes were created to protest against and to blame Czar Nicholas II for Russia’s poor performance in WWI and severe food shortages that the country facing. Soon, violence between protesters and authorities began to escalate, and on February 24th, 1917 in the city of Petrograd, hundreds of thousands of male and female workers flooded the streets. They all had the same purpose which was to protest against the “Great War” and the monarchy. The protests began to escalate and the vastly outnumbered police were unable to control the crowds. When news of the unrest reached the czar, he ordered the military to put an end to the riots by the next day, and on February 26th, 1917, several troops of a local guard regiment fired upon the crowds, but however many soldiers felt pity and empathy for the protesters than the czar, and on the next day, more than 80,000 soldiers join the protest even directly fighting the police.

The Russian Revolution actually has two important parts to it the February Revolution (March 1917) and the October Revolution (November 1917). The February Revolution, which took place in modern day St. Petersburg, was lethal to the royal government of Russia. It began with the bread, it was not like they did not have the supplies for the population, “the problem was the breakdown of the transport system” (Figes 68). The February Revolution was also largely caused by the ineffectiveness of the Russian military in World War One and the failure of the Russian empire throughout the last couple decades. The people of Russia were ashamed of the military throwing away their lives and having to eat sparingly to survive the winter. Peasants were so poor they could barely afford a piece of bread for a week. Mass demonstrations were held in the squares and violence took to the streets. People ambushed the royal guards in front of the palace and they were shot down by the insignificant force left to guard the capital. The revolution was largely leaderless as Russian people just wanted food

According to History.com Staff, “The provisional government had created a group of leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin would alternatively call for a Soviet state that would be controlled directly by councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers.” (“Russian Revolution”). Both decided that the Soviets was going to be a useful instrument in the next revolution. They didn't want the Soviets to have all the power until they could control them. In the book, Rise and fall of Communism 2009, Archie Brown shows us that, “On 12 October, according to the old calendar, Trotsky took command of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet and on 25 October...the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd” (Brown 51). Insurrection was to start, but there were complications with the date set. In the book, The History of the Russian Revolution 1960, Leon Trotsky says, “At a session of the Petrograd Soviet on the 18th, Trotsky, in answer to a question raised by the enemy, declared that the Soviet had not set a date for an insurrection, in the coming days, but that if it became necessary to set one, the workers and soldiers would come out as one man” (Trotsky 162). There were forty thousand workers in the army of Petrograd.

The Russian Revolution is a series of political events that occurred during the years 1905 to 1924. The February Revolution, in which overthrew the imperial government and the October Revolution, placed the Bolsheviks in power (britannica.com). The Russian Revolution happened because of discontentment of with the tsar, poverty in Russia, and lack of control over the government. During the In January of 1905, protesters were protesting in front of the winter palace because of extreme poverty and starvation due to peasants’ wages decreasing. The Russian workers and peasants wanted a better working and living conditions. More than 1000 protesters were killed and injured after the tsar, Nicholas the II, ordered his army to gun down the protesters. This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, led to the 1905 revolution. During the 1905 revolution, Russian Social Democratic Social Party split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Later in October of 1905, Nicholas the II issued the October Manifesto, which ended the Russian Revolution of 1905. In July of 1914, World War I begun which caused the Russians a lot of damage because four million Russian soldiers killed, wounded or captured. The Russian Soldiers refused the fight and people back in Russian were starving because of the lack of income from the war. World War I also caused the tsar to lose control of Russia as the war has caused chaos in Russia. Soon, continuous protests and revolts led to the March Revolution of

Finally, the pressure told and the people revolted. When the Petrograd garrison did not carry out the orders of the government (and instead joined the

In 1917 Russia was the most populous country and also the largest in the entire world yet, Russia's government was facing many problems that needed to be resolved such as a shortage of food and fuel.At this time, Russia was also only starting the process of industrialization when it had entered into World War One, both of these and demand some kind of change from it. The Tsarist government started to collapse and the entire country was ready for some kind of change. The Russian government could not fix any of these problems and this made the people want change.Two causes of the Bolshevik revolution were, food and fuel shortages coupled with World War One going very poorly for Russia

In 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, there were two revolutions that took place to ensure good change in Russia. The first of the revolutions was the March revolution, the purpose of it was to overtake the imperial government and the second named the November revolution; which placed the Bolsheviks in power. The Russian Revolution took place during a difficult time in Russia. These distresses began before World War I and lasted up until the 1930's. Russia's population was built up of mostly poor, starving, unfortunate peasants at this point; caused by the prevalent and growing civil unrest, as well as dramatic food shortages which led to a huge rebellion against the present government. “World War I provided the catalyst for revolution in Russia .” Although at first it raised national pride

The Russian Revolution of 1917 did not just suddenly happen overnight, just as there was no main reason why it happened. The Revolution was more like a virus or bad bacteria. At first you barely notice it, even though you know it is there, but soon it starts to multiply and take over your body and before you know it you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. There are about 4 or 5 significant reasons why there was the revolution of 1917, with the Russian Tsar Nicolas II to be the blame for almost all of them.

Revolution followed shortly after in 1905, a failed attempt at ousting the Romanov royal family, that ultimately succeeded in pressuring Czar Nicholas II into ceding greater political freedoms unto the Russian people. Nonetheless, Russian blood had been spilt on Bloody Sunday, and not all Russians were so keen on forgetting how their tsar let loose his soldiers on innocent workers led by an Orthodox priest, and so revolutionary and socialist sentiment prevailed long after the Revolution of 1905. By then the redeeming features of tsarist Russia had long expired. Russia’s involvement in the Great War proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as the dissatisfied subjects of Czar Nicholas II, refused his authority in favor socialist political parties, such as the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin, who promised a Russian society ridden of inequality and injustice. The introduction of the Communist Party during the November Revolution of 1917 paved the way for radical economic and political change, as Russia emerged from near ruin as the world’s first communist state. However, progress once

Soon, they were joined by military officials and soldiers who refused to shoot the crowds. The czar tried replacing officials in the government, believing that not only would the government approve more of these officials, but that they would be more effective in handling these issues. This ended up failing as the new officials were objectively worse than the old ones. In the end these attempts led to extreme unrest in Russia, making it very easy for people such as Lenin and the Bolsheviks to come and start the ultimate revolution and take down the current monarchical government. The war brought with it many economic and militaristic issues that ultimately led to the Bolshevik Revolution.

In 1917, the USSR began a revolution. Following World War I Russia realized it was far behind the major powers of the world. Russia was stuck in imperialism while the major powers of the world changed through industrialization. Russia had sustained the greatest losses of World War I to include lives, economy, and land. These essential elements led to a revolution of the laboring force as they sought socialism and industrialization. It began with small riots and led to massive closures of factories while people were starving. The Russian government, in one of the easiest coups in history, stepped aside leading to a socialist reform. Before the year ended, the extreme Bolshevik party seized control of the government. During the next four years, the leader of the Bolshevik party, Vladimir Lenin, set a twenty-five year goal for Russia to industrialize and reach communism. By 1922, Joseph Stalin took control of the government and began a

For three centuries before the revolution, life in Russia was not peaceful. It was cold, hard, and bitter instead. “The end of serfdom was a major event in Russia; yet it just wasn 't enough.”, in 1861. Serfdom, under feudalism, is the the status of peasants in which they are bound to a lord, or master, works on their land, and can be sold like property. Despite serfs being given ‘freedom’, Russia was mostly ruled by the czar and nobles. The average person was, and stayed, poor. Therefore, World War I was not the main cause of the Russian revolution. This outdated feudal class structure, inability to modernize, lack of peace, and czars’ inept leaderships lead to the Russian Revolution.