The Russian Bolshevik Revolution And The Soviet Revolution

Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century was riddled with social and economic hardships throughout the countryside and inner cities. The Russian peasant was faced with widespread poverty and poor living conditions throughout their entire life. The economic situation and the living conditions drove the peasants and working class to rebel and begin the Russian revolution that would change the face of the country and impact the world forever.

In 1905, the social and economic tensions building up within Russia boiled over into Revolution. It was described by Lenin as the “Great Dress Rehearsal” for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and may give us clues as to why the 1917 revolution started. The suggestion that Tsar Nicholas II and his actions were to blame for this revolution is debatable and there are many factors such as the repressive Tsarist system, the growth of opposition from the time of Alexander II and the defeat in the war with Japan to consider. These events can be separated into short and long term effects on the revolution. Bloody Sunday and defeat to Japan would be short term effects whereas the

Even though the Russian Revolution transpired quite suddenly, the foundations of it may have started centuries earlier. Since the 1700s, the ideas of European regime had begun to influence the minds of Russian citizens. Lower classes began to believe in democratic rights and equality, newspapers and books spread concepts about universal rights and many believed in a future with a just ruler and a more cultured society.

The privileged nobles, who possessed land and serfs, supported his autocratic rule. The main theme of the Russian history in the 19th century is that the non-nobles who detested the Czarist government asked for an improvement in their disconsolate and deprived life. When the Czarist government ignored this matter they revolted for the first time in 1905 and than for the second time in 1917 by which the Czarist government was finally overthrown. Hungry strikers on March 8, 1917 mobbed the streets of Petrograd, their demand was bread. In order to appease the misery of his people Czar Nicholas II resigned his throne to his brother, Michael. His brother knew that everyone hated Czardom so he rejected the throne on March 15. The Provisional Government than took over and Czardom after ruling Russia for three centuries came to an end.

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.

According to the History.com Staff, “The October Revolution began on November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar).” (Russian Revolution”). The October Revolution has also been called the Bolshevik Revolution since the Bolshevik Party played a crucial role in the revolution. The leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Lenin was a big supporter of Karl Marx. Another Marxist who leads this revolution was Leon Trotsky. In an article by the History.com Staff, “Lenin had created an, almost, bloodless coup d’état against the provisional government.” (“Russian Revolution”). The Bolshevik revolution started when, Alexander Kerensky, rather than follow an order. On October 24th, Kerensky ordered troops that were loyal, to act against the Bolshevik. Encyclopædia Britannica tells us that, “Kerensky was a socialist revolutionary who served as head of the Russian Provisional Government.” (“Aleksandr Kerensky”).

Despite the evidence that shows that the leadership during WWI was the main cause of the Revolution, some historians argue that the peasants freedom from serfdom was the primary cause of the Russian Revolution.Moreover, they claim that even though serfs were freed from serfdom but they were not given a sufficient amount of rights or opportunity to improve the circumstances that they were faced with during serfdom thus leading in their revolt against the government.Although not all opportunities were given to the ex-serfs immediately they were given a substantial amount of leeway and opportunity”. “the introduction of representative institutions and the conferral of civil rights on the entire population in 1905),.... Vertical social mobility

Frigid. Famine. Bankruptcy. These are just a few terms that describe the Russian social problems during the revolutions that took place from March 8th, 1917 to November 7th, 1917. The revolution involved the people of Russia and the imperial family. The cause of this massive revolution was caused by famine, death, impending advancement, and corruption, especially within the government.

Moreover, the Russian Revolution was the outcome of the communist party wanting to have complete control over the citizens in Russia. They displayed this idea with their thoughts about removing the practice of religion. They saw religion as an “opium,” for they believed it caused the people to be inactive –mainly the working class (Brose, 167). For they saw religion as a malicious idea, which caused them to see churches as a danger to the bourgeoisie because they believed that the proletarians were planning evil events against them (Brose, 167). Eisenstein demonstrated the communist oppression of religion with the jester on the cross in the priest’s hand as being a weapon (Bordwell, 66). When the priest in Battleship Potemkin was stroking

Following the Second World War, complications arose centering on the shifting of international power. The Soviet Union wanted to acquire additional territory, while the United States attempted to limit the gains desired by the soviets. This battle of ideology has resulted in an increase in National security, Diplomatic tension and Proxy wars between the two powerful nations.For over three hundred years, Russia had been controlled by an autocratic government known as the tsarist regime. This empire was ruled by a series of tsars who had absolute dictatorship over the country. (BBC, 2014). From around the time of Peter the Great 's reign, the empire began to impose its will on the people with absolute disregard for their lives and liberty. This incorporation of force caused repression and unrest amongst the people and the Russian Revolution was essentially an outburst from this. (Columbia Encyclopedia, n.d). The Russian Revolution consisted of two separate strikes in 1917, the first of which overthrew the imperial government and the second strike which placed the Bolshevik party in power. The Russian Revolution evidently brought a drastic transformation to the government, society and economy of Russia. The communist party who took power over Russia did evidently improve the economy and reshape the military forces which proved vital for Russia in WW2. (Quizlet, 2015). Overall, the Russian Revolution was beneficial to the country 's development. Today, in modern history we

In the early 1900’s Russia entered a terminal crisis. Tens of thousands of soldiers were deserted, cities were affected by major food shortages, and the economy was breaking down, and the streets were filled with angry people. People desperately needed reform and this lead to the Russian. Revolution. The people desperately needed reform and the man that stepped up was Vladimir Lenin. With the help of all the Russian struggle and a manifesto Lenin wrote, the Russian people overthrew the previous ruling provisional government and the Soviet Union took control. Lenin wrote a cunning manifesto that was very effective for getting people to fight the revolution for because Russia needed reform, he promised multiple reforms very appealing to the people, and he made the common people seem like a priority.

In his Communist Manifesto Karl Marx claimed that “the history of all hithertho existing society is the history of class struggles… the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.” In Russia, the proletariat class did in fact win; the year 1917 marked the beginning of a new era that for centuries has been ruled by the Romanov dynasty, a period during which the country produced some of the greatest poets, writers, painters and philosophers of all times. This great empire was radically transformed from tsarist autocracy to communism in the span of only a couple of months. The socialist workers, the Bolsheviks, that were able to seize the opportunity and overtake power, placed Russia on a path that forever altered the course of history and destroyed the lives of many citizens. Certainly, the Bolsheviks were not the only ones to blame for the changes that took place. Tsar Nicholas II’s leadership proved to be completely inefficient – he essentially allowed the working class to fully embrace their long-held desires to alter the political regime in Russia. Historians J.D. Smele and Bob McKean agree that the outbreak of the First World War simply expedited the rise of pre-existing trends, which have emerged as a result of shortfalls of Nicholas’s rule. Consequently, for at least a decade leading up to 1917 the workers were tempted to rise up against Nicholas and the ruling elite and in their view, establish a social order that should have in

storical milestones are almost always celebrated or during more solemn occasions, remembered respectfully. So why is it that the Russian is only acknowledged in a dark light. Whether you support the ideals the Russian Revolution put forward it is very significant in history and the popularisation of Communism. Since the Russian Revolution Communism has spread to various other countries and the concept of communism has caused many incidents such as the “Red Scares” and the birth of McCarthyism. And even through the demonization of the communist movement we have had what is known as The Cold War. While the French Revolution is regarded as an amazing feat for spreading a revolution idea and influencing other revolution such as the America revolution,

When there are large underpinnings of change, as was the case in Russia during the revolution, people become frightened. They worried about how their lives would change. Will they have food? Will they be able to practice their customs and religious beliefs? This fear was ripe for a leader, such as Lenin to come in and play on the sorrows of the old regime and drive the people to revolt.

I think that the Russian revolution was brought about by the strains of world war one. With all of that fighting, the russian economy was weakened and, due to recent losses, Lenin was able to step in and start a revolution that fired on for a really long time. After WWI was over, The revolution was mostly fueled by the people of russia being inspired by all of the talk and glamor of the revolution and how everyone would be rich and all of that good stuff. The war made the people so mad at their government for all of their mistakes in the war that they thought about a revolution and were open to the idea.