The Russian Revolution. On November 7, Russians celebrate the anniversary of the violent upheaval that overthrew the czarist government in 1. What forces toppled the centuries- old monarchy, and how did they set the stage for the Communist empire of the USSR? And why on earth is the October Revolution observed in November? The revolution was the culmination of a long period of repression and unrest. From the time of Peter I (Peter the Great), the czardom increasingly became an autocratic bureaucracy that imposed its will on the people by force, with wanton disregard for human life and liberty. As Western technology was adopted by the czars, Western humanitarian ideals were acquired by a group of educated Russians. The university became a seat of revolutionary. Marxism were espoused and propagated. The reforms of Alexander II brought the emancipation of the serfs (1. Emancipation, Edict of) and opened the way for industrial development. However, emancipation imposed harsh economic conditions on the peasants and did not satisfy their need for farmland. Industrialization concentrated people in urban centers, where the exploited working class was a receptive audience for radical ideas. Read the essential details about the Russian Revolution, October, 1917 (old style Russian calendar) or November, 1917 (new style Russian calendar). Metallica’s debut album, 'Kill 'Em All,' came out on July 25, 1983, and helped start the thrash revolution. On November 7, Russians celebrate the anniversary of the violent upheaval that overthrew the czarist government in 1917. What forces toppled the centuries-old. JOSEPH STALIN'S SPEECH ON RED SQUARE ON ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION November 7, 1941 A reactionary and often ignorant clergy kept religion static and persecuted religious dissenters. Pogroms were instituted against the Jews, which turned many radical Jews to Zionism. Non- Russian nationalities in the empire were repressed. By 1. 90. 3, Russia was divided into several political groups. The autocracy was upheld by the landed nobility and the higher clergy; the capitalists desired a constitutional monarchy; the liberal bourgeoisie made up the bulk of the group that later became the Constitutional Democratic party; peasants and intelligentsia were incorporated into the Socialist Revolutionary party; and the workers, influenced by Marxism, were represented in the Bolshevik and Menshevik wings of the Social Democratic Labor party (see Bolshevism and Menshevism). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition Copyright 1. Columbia University Press. Licensed from Inso Corporation. All rights reserved. Did you know? For more than a billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a . German Revolution; Part of the Revolutions of 1917–23: Soldiers stand behind a barricade during the Spartacist uprising. Download audiobooks to your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or other listening device. Audible has 150,000+ audiobook titles including best-sellers and new releases. Access for women arrived in 1918, when the New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass Residential College) was founded. Russian Revolution, October,1. On 2. 6th February Nicholas II ordered the Duma to close down. Get the food you love, free! Join the movement and you’ll get FREE birthday meals and more! You’ll flip over the benefits of membership — like a FREE full stack. Read this story of how one man's sense of shared humanity helped to rescue a family of abandoned children. Primary documents on the Russian Revolution. General Overview: In 1917 Russia went through two revolutions: February 24 - 29 and October 24 - 25. Members refused and they continued to meet and discuss what they should do. Michael Rodzianko, President of the Duma, sent a telegram to the Tsar suggesting that he appoint a new government led by someone who had the confidence of the people. When the Tsar did not reply, the Duma nominated a Provisional Government headed by Prince George Lvov. Members of the Cabinet included Pavel Milyukov, leader of the Cadet Party, was Foreign Minister, Alexander Guchkov, Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky, Minister of Justice, Mikhail Tereshchenko, a beet- sugar magnate from the Ukraine, became Finance Minister, Alexander Konovalov, a munitions maker, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Peter Struve, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new prime minister, Prince Georgi Lvov, allowed all political prisoners to return to their homes. Joseph Stalin arrived at Nicholas Station in St. Petersburg with Lev Kamenev on 2. March, 1. 91. 7. His biographer, Robert Service, has commented: . Having gone away a young revolutionary, he was coming back a middle- aged political veteran. The German Foreign Ministry, who hoped that Lenin's presence in Russia would help bring the war on the Eastern Front to an end, provided a special train for Lenin and 2. Bolsheviks, including Grigori Sokolnikov, to travel to Petrograd. On 3rd April, 1. 91. Lenin announced what became known as the April Theses. Lenin attacked Bolsheviks for supporting the Provisional Government. Instead, he argued, revolutionaries should be telling the people of Russia that they should take over the control of the country. In his speech, Lenin urged the peasants to take the land from the rich landlords and the industrial workers to seize the factories. Leon Trotsky gave Lenin his full support: . In Pravda he disputed Lenin's assumption that the bourgeois democratic revolution has ended. Daniels, the author of Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1. Lenin now set about changing the minds of the Bolsheviks. And he had a few key helpers - Zinoviev, Alexandra Kollontai, Stalin (who was quick to sense the new direction of power in the party), and, most effective of all, Yakov Sverdlov. It now included Lenin, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Alexandra Kollontai, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Yakov Sverdlov, Moisei Uritsky, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Andrey Bubnov, Grigori Sokolnikov, Alexei Rykov, Nickolai Bukharin, Viktor Nogin, Ivan Smilga and V. Lenin arranged for two of his supporters, Stalin and Sokolnikov, to become co- editors of Pravada. Joseph Stalin and Lenin in 1. On 8th July, 1. 91. Alexander Kerensky became the new leader of the Provisional Government. Kerensky was still the most popular man in the government because of his political past. In the Duma he had been leader of the moderate socialists and had been seen as the champion of the working- class. However, Kerensky, like George Lvov, was unwilling to end the war. In fact, soon after taking office, he announced a new summer offensive. Soldiers on the Eastern Front were dismayed at the news and regiments began to refuse to move to the front line. There was a rapid increase in the number of men deserting and by the autumn of 1. Some of these soldiers returned to their homes and used their weapons to seize land from the nobility. Manor houses were burnt down and in some cases wealthy landowners were murdered. Kerensky and the Provisional Government issued warnings but were powerless to stop the redistribution of land in the countryside. On 1. 9th July, Kerensky gave orders for the arrest of leading Bolsheviks who were campaigning against the war. This included Lenin, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Anatoli Lunacharsky, and Alexandra Kollontai. The Bolshevik headquarters at the Kshesinsky Palace, was also occupied by government troops. Lenin managed to escape and commented: . The objective situation is this: either a victory of the military dictatorship with all it implies, or a victory of the decisive struggle of the workers. The two men soon clashed about military policy. Kornilov wanted Kerensky to restore the death- penalty for soldiers and to militarize the factories. Kerensky refused and sacked Kornilov. Kornilov responded by sending troops under the leadership of General Krymov to take control of Petrograd. Kerensky was now in danger and was forced to ask the Soviets and the Red Guards to protect Petrograd. The Bolsheviks, who controlled these organizations, agreed to this request, but in a speech made by their leader, Lenin, he made clear they would be fighting against Kornilov rather than for Kerensky. Within a few days Bolsheviks had enlisted 2. Petrograd. While they dug trenches and fortified the city, delegations of soldiers were sent out to talk to the advancing troops. Meetings were held and Kornilov's troops decided not to attack Petrograd. General Krymov committed suicide and Kornilov was arrested and taken into custody. Lenin now returned to Petrograd but remained in hiding. On 2. 5th September, Kerensky attempted to recover his left- wing support by forming a new coalition that included more Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. However, with the Bolsheviks controlling the Soviets and now able to call on 2. Kerensky's authority had been undermined. In September 1. 91. Lenin sent a message to the Bolshevik Central Committee via Ivar Smilga. Nickolai Bukharin later recalled: . Our tactics at the time were comparatively clear: the development of mass agitation and propaganda, the course toward armed insurrection, which could be expected from one day to the next. The letter read as follows: 'You will be traitors and good- for- nothings if you don't send the whole (Democratic Conference Bolshevik) group to the factories and mills, surround the Democratic Conference and arrest all those disgusting people!' The letter was written very forcefully and threatened us with every punishment. No one had yet put the question so sharply. No one knew what to do. Everyone was at a loss for a while. Then we deliberated and came to a decision. Perhaps this was the only time in the history of our party when the Central Committee unanimously decided to burn a letter of Comrade Lenin's. This instance was not publicized at the time. Eventually it was decided to postpone any decision on the matter. Leon Trotsky was the main figure to argue for an insurrection whereas Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev, Alexei Rykov and Victor Nogin led the resistance to the idea. They argued that an early action was likely to result in the Bolsheviks being destroyed as a political force. Daniels, the author of Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1. Zinoviev felt strongly about the need to wait: . There was no doubt that Lenin was the driving force behind the Bolshevik Party.. He was the brains and the planner, but not the orator or the rabble- rouser. That function fell to Trotsky. I watched the latter, several times that evening, rouse the Congress delegates, who were becoming listless, probably through long hours of excitement and waiting. He was always the man who could say the right thing at the right moment. I could see that there was beginning now that fruitful partnership between him and Lenin that did so much to carry the Revolution through the critical periods that were coming. We must overcome this tendency or opinion. Otherwise the Bolsheviks would cover themselves with shame forever; they would be reduced to nothing as a party. For to miss such a moment and to await the Congress of Soviets is either idiocy or complete betrayal.. To wait for the Congress of Soviets, etc., under such conditions means betraying internationalism, betraying the cause of the international socialist revolution. We have thousands of armed workers and soldiers in Petrograd who can seize at once the Winter Palace, the General Staff building, the telephone exchange and all the largest printing establishments.. The troops will not advance against the government of peace.. Kerensky will be compelled to surrender. Let's not fool ourselves, comrades. Comrade Lenin has not given us any explanation why we need to do this right now, before the Congress of Soviets. I don't understand it. By the time of the Congress of Soviets the sharpness of the situation will be all the clearer. The Congress of Soviets will provide us with an apparatus; if all the delegates who have come together from all over Russia express themselves for the seizure of power, then it is a different matter. But right now it will only be an armed uprising, which the government will try to suppress. The former girls' convent school also housed the Petrograd Soviet. Under pressure from the nobility and industrialists, Alexander Kerensky was persuaded to take decisive action. On 2. 2nd October he ordered the arrest of the Military Revolutionary Committee. The next day he closed down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Smolny Institute. At a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee on 2. October 1. 91. 7, attended by Lenin, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Alexandra Kollontai, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Yakov Sverdlov, Moisei Uritsky, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Andrey Bubnov and Grigori Sokolnikov, Lenin insisted that the Bolsheviks should take action before the elections for the Constituent Assembly. The indifference of the masses may be explained by the fact that they are tired of words and resolutions. The majority is with us now. Politically things are quite ripe for the change of power. The agrarian disorders point to the same thing. It is clear that heroic measures will be necessary to stop this movement, if it can be stopped at all. The political situation therefore makes our plan timely. We must now begin thinking of the technical side of the undertaking. That is the main thing now. But most of us, like the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries, are still inclined to regard the systematic preparation for an armed uprising as a sin.
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