Theu.s. P. Taylor 's Ten Days That Shook The World

With the October revolution in 1917, Lenin managed to execute a successful coup d’état against the provisional government of Russia and with the death of the constituent assembly early 1918; Lenin and his Bolsheviks had finally control over Russia. However this was just the beginning of various problems he would be facing. This raised the debate on whether Lenin could deal with these problems or not. Many of the quarrels originated from the Tsar’s regime and the provisional government such as Russia’s participation in WW1 as well as economic underdevelopment. Immediate problems such as the raging civil war existed as

From the initial seizure of power in 1917 until 1924, the Bolsheviks were confronted with a series of crises that threatened their ability to control and govern in Russia. The response and resolutions to these crises included Initial Reforms, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Civil War, Red terror, War Communism and the NEP. Under the leadership of Lenin, the execution of these responses were made possible and the Bolsheviks were able to maintain and expand their power. The Civil War however was the direct consequence of the Bolshevik’s actions as they tried to maintain their grasp on power. The victory in the Civil War was extremely pivotal for the Bolshevik consolidation of power as it brought control and power but more importantly it eliminated

The last Tsar Nicholas II ascended the throne in 1894 and was faced with a country that was trying to free itself from its autocratic regime. The serfs had recently been emancipated, the industry and economy was just starting to develop and opposition to the Tsar was building up. Russia was still behind Europe in terms of the political regime, the social conditions and the economy. Nicholas II who was a weak and very influenced by his mother and his wife had to deal with Russia’s troubles during his reign. In order to ascertain how successfully Russia dealt with its problems by 1914, this essay will examine the October Manifesto and the split of the opposition, how the Tsar became more reactionary after the 1905 revolution, Stolypin’s

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 after the Red Army’s victory in the Civil War, the policy of War Communism was maintained. As a short-term measure the policy produced the results Lenin wanted but severity increased Bolshevik unpopularity resulting in a number of minor outbreaks of resistance during the 1920s. But the Kronstadt Rising of 1921 proved to be highly disturbing to Lenin as he described it as the ‘lightening flash that illuminated the true reality of things’.

The October 1917 Revolution is undoubtedly a momentous and extremely important event in Russia’s history, one that ousted the centuries-old Tsardom that ruled over the empire, in favour of the radical communist movement in the form of the Bolsheviks, headed by one Vladimir Iliych Lenin. However, did this sudden move from autocracy to a supposedly more progressive democracy actually bring about the modernisation of Russia industrially, agriculturally and culturally, or was it simply a rebranding of a totalitarian state that would continue to oppress the

The revolution was an event that was constructed on a small scale of people that were made up of the Bolshevik party, for overturning the Provisional government into the Soviet Union. The revolution was a voluntarist revolution, as it explored the idea of individual agencies and the concept that the cause of an event is based on the actions of those participating themselves. For instance, in the October revolution, the uprising of the political change was due to the action of Lenin and the Bolshevik party. Without the participation of the party and the leadership of Lenin, the revolution would not have been executed in such magnitude. The October revolution is a voluntarist revolution for the following reasons, first, the leadership from Lenin, proved to be more progressive, compared to the traditional leaders at that time. Lenin instructed the affairs of the revolution in public, after writing the April These a speech that criticized the Provisional government and promoted that the Russian government falls under the Soviet Union. Lenin’s charismatic traits are essentially the reason behind the large amount of support that the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union received, a famous line from the April These: “All Power to the Soviets”, was used in propaganda during the time of the revolution, it was a phrase that changed the course of

Figes stating that “The masses were...largely passive in their demands and actions; the Bolsheviks successfully manipulated and exploited this...” . These views could largely be due to the ‘History from Above’ standpoint of Liberal historians that did much of the post-Union analysis at the tail end of the Cold War. This forms many of our traditional views of the nature of The Revolution.

I have been working my way through John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World and attempting to compare his notes to soldier’s documents and the works of officers and political leaders who lived during the revolution. His work is difficult to reference because the pages and paragraphs are unnumbered in my publication. About halfway through the text he quotes women with adoring statements about the red army, Bolsheviks and all those that want to restore their beloved Tsar. The women refer to Tsar supporters as there dashing young defenders and to the peasants as pigs and utilizes a quotation of “Dark People”. The pages then slip into a pro Lenin rant. The entire publication reads like propaganda but is it any different than the works by other

In 1917, in the midst of the Great War, Russia faced one of the biggest political shifts that the Tsarist-ruled country had ever known-the Bolshevik Revolution. There are two significant time frames associated with the Bolshevik Revolution. In the February revolution Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne and a Provisional Government took control. In the October revolution the Bolsheviks took power by overthrowing the Provisional Government. How did the October revolution become a reality? What factors facilitated the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917? Two important factors were the July event at Taurida Palace, and the Kornilov Affair. Richard Pipes describes in detail how Lenin influenced the Bolshevik party throughout the

“He tried to conserve his power by restricting education so that revolutionary ideas would not spread” (Merri et al.). These are events for the story behind Under Western Eyes. The book demonstrates not just the revolution, but regular Russian who rely on the revolutionaries to achieve a complete change in the government and form a new outlook on life (Russian Revolution of 1917). “There are starving young men in Russia who believe in you (Peter Ivanovitch, a revolutionist) so much that it seems the only thing that keeps them alive is their misery” (Conrad 217). “Truly there are millions of people who would envy the life of dogs in this country.

This publication will eradicate all philosophic doubts about the practical course of revolution- it will make our theories a reality. More crucially, it is proof that Russia can be alive once again. We would not have been challenged so brazenly if it were not so.’” Dmitri reports him to The Gentleman and Perchik is captured and tortured for openly opposing the Russian government. When

Ten years in exile had not swayed Lenin?s determination to create and direct a powerful revolution. Lenin returned to Russia from exclusion in February 1917, believing that the time was ripe to seize power. The Russian economy was in ruin after the army was nearly defeated and the people exhausted as a result of the First World War. The country was in an unstable state, suitable for a revolution (Levinthal 119). Around October 20, Lenin, in disguise and at considerable personal risk, slipped into Petrograd and attended a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee held on the evening of October 23. Not until after a heated 10-hour debate did he finally win a majority in favour of preparing an armed takeover. Now steps to enlist the support of soldiers and sailors and to train the Red Guards, the Bolshevik-led workers' militia, for an armed takeover proceeded openly under the guise of self-defense of the Petrograd Soviet. Even at great personal risk, Lenin was adamant in spurring a successful revolution.

the February Revolution used World War One as the final breaking point for the people- the heavy losses combined with economic shortages, especially of food. Similarly, the notion that the Bolsheviks had towards the war and access to food won them a lot of support which made the October revolution possible. The slogan “peace, land, bread” encouraged even the least educated Russians with its simplicity- especially during a war as difficult and draining as that one. Although the war being fought was the same, the October Revolution missed out on the worst peak of it, as well as some of the anger being already diminished by the Provisional Government (that were very much supporting an aggressive

The long term causes lead back to the time between the end of the 1905