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The Russian Revolutions of 1917 Essay

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The Russian Revolutions of 1917 There were two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first one, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second one, in October, created the world’s first Communist state.

The Russian revolutions of 1917 involved a series of uprisings by workers and peasants throughout the country and by soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin, in the Russian army. Many of the uprisings were organized and led by democratically elected councils called soviets. The soviets originated as strike committees and were basically a form of local self-government.

The second revolution led to the rise of the modern Communist movement and to the …show more content…

Known as the October Revolution or the Bolshevik Revolution, it was led by a group of revolutionary socialists called Bolsheviks. It brushed aside the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks hoped that their revolution would result in more fundamental changes to carry out socialist revolutions.

The Provisional Government was made up of liberal leaders, and as well as some moderate socialists. The Prime minister, Lvov, was a wealthy landowner, who favored an immediate constitutional monarchy and ultimately a republic. Lvov was the outstanding personality in the Provisional Government. The most famous of the moderate socialists was Aleksndr Kerensky, the minister of justice. The collapse of the tsarist regime thus left in its wake two centers of political authority: (1) the traditional politicians of the Provisional Government, who had little control over the people, and (2) the democratically elected soviets, which exercised more political power owing to support from the great majority of workers and soldiers. This system of dual power proved to be unstable. The instability grew as the moderate politicians proved increasingly unable to meet the rising expectations of the laboring masses. The Provisional Government declared an end to tsarist repression and established full civil liberties. It also promised early democratic elections, which would decide the

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