Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution

The era of social change

• This was a period of profound social and economic changes. The ill-effects of the industrial
revolution such as long working hours, low wages, unemployment, lack of housing, sanitation
forced people to think about it.
• The French Revolution opened the doors to the possibilities of change in society. To give
concrete form to these possibilities, three different ideologies developed:-
1) Liberal
2) Conservative
3) Revolutionary.

1) Liberals
• Liberals are an ideology in which all religions get equal respect and place. They were in
favour of protecting the rights of every individual.
Main ideas of liberals:-
• Opponent of uncontrolled power.
• Respect and honour for all religions.
• In favour of protecting the rights of every individual.
• In favour of elected government based on representation.
• In favour of the right to vote for property holders instead of universal adult franchise.

2) Conservatives
• This is an ideology which works on the basis of traditional beliefs.
Main ideas of conservatives:-
• Opposition to liberals and reformists.
• Respect for the past.
• The process of change should be slow.

3) Revolutionaries
• An ideology that seeks social and political change in a revolutionary manner.
Main ideas of revolutionaries:-
• They were in favour of majority based government.
• They opposed the privileges enjoyed by big landowners and rich industrialists.
• They opposed concentration of wealth but not private property.
• They supported the women's suffrage movement.
Socialist ideology
• Socialist ideology is an ideology that is opposed to private property and is based on justice
and balance for everyone in society.

Main ideas of socialists:-

• They opposed private property.
• Creation of collective communities (Robert Owen)
• Promotion of collective enterprises by the government (Louis Block)
• The entire society controls and owns all property (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels)

Industrial society and social change

• This was a time when new cities were being built, new industrial areas were developing,
railways had expanded a lot. Women, men and children, everyone was put into factories.
Working hours were very long. Wages were very low. Unemployment was a common problem
of that time.
• Cities were being built and expanded rapidly, so housing and sanitation work was also
becoming difficult. Both liberals and radicals were trying to find solutions to these problems.
Many radicals and liberals had a lot of property and many people worked for them.

Coming of socialism in Europe

• Socialists were against private property, that is, they did not consider private ownership of
property to be right. They said that many people have property which provides employment to
others, but the problem is that a property holder is only concerned about his own benefit, he
does not think about those who make his property productive.
• Therefore, he argues that social interests can be better served if property is controlled by
society rather than by a single individual.
• Karl Marx believed that in order to free themselves from capitalist exploitation, workers must
create a radically different kind of society. He called the society of the future a communist
society.

Support for Socialism

• By the 1870s, socialist ideas had spread throughout Europe. Socialists had also formed an
international organization called the Second International.
• Workers in England and Germany started forming organizations to improve their living and
working conditions. They started raising their voice for reduction in working hours and voting
rights.
• By 1905, socialists and trade unionists in Britain had formed a separate party called the Labor
Party. A similar party was formed in France as the Socialist Party.
Russian Revolution
• The events from the fall of the monarchy in February 1917 to the capture of power in Russia
by the socialists in October 1917 are called the Russian Revolution.

Russian Society
• In 1914, Russia and its empire were ruled by Czar Nicholas.
• Apart from the area around Moscow, parts of today's Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Ukraine and Belarus were part of the Russian Empire.

Economy of Russian society

• In the beginning of the twentieth century, about 85 percent of the population of Russia was
dependent on agriculture.
• Factories were the private property of industrialists where the working conditions were very
bad.
• The farmers here used to hand over all the land to their commune (Mir) from time to time
and then the commune used to distribute land to the farmers according to the needs of the
family.
• There was an autocratic monarchy in Russia.
• In 1904, the prices of essential commodities started increasing rapidly.
• Labour organizations also started forming which started demanding improvement in the
condition of workers.

Socialism in Russia
• Before 1914, all political parties were illegal in Russia.
• The socialists who believed in Marx's ideas formed the Russian Social Democratic Workers
Party in 1898.
• It was a Russian social democratic labour party.
• This party had a newspaper which organised labourers and organised strikes etc.
• At the end of the 19th century, socialists were quite active in the rural areas of Russia. In
1900, they formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
• This party fought for the rights of farmers and demanded that the land occupied by the
feudal lords be handed over to foreign farmers.

Bloody Sunday
• During this time, the workers' procession led by pastor Gaupon was attacked by the soldiers
of the Czar's palace. In this incident, more than 100 workers were killed and about 300 were
injured. This incident is remembered in history as "Bloody Sunday".
Revolution of 1905
• The revolution of 1905 started with the incident of Bloody Sunday.
• There were riots all over the country.
• Universities were closed.
• Lawyers, doctors, engineers and other middle class workers established the Union of Unions
demanding the formation of a Constituent Assembly.
• The Czar agreed to the formation of an elected consultative parliament (Duma).
• He tolerated the first Duma within just 75 days and the second Duma within 3 months. • He
filled the third Duma with conservative politicians so that his powers were not curbed.

First World War and Russian Empire

• In 1914, the First World War started which lasted till 1918. In this, a fight started between two
camps, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Turkey) and the Allied Nations (France, Britain
and Russia), which affected almost the whole world.
• All these countries had huge global empires, so along with Europe, this war had spread
outside Europe as well. This war is called the First World War.
• This war got a lot of support from the Russians in the beginning, but as the war dragged on,
they stopped taking advice from the main parties present in the Duma, the public support for
it started decreasing, people changed the name of St. Petersburg to Petrograd because St.
Petersburg was a German name.
• Between 1914 and 1916, Russian forces suffered heavy defeats in Germany and Austria. By
1917, 70 lakh people had been killed. The retreating Russian forces destroyed crops and
buildings on their way so that the enemy army could not stay there. Due to the destruction of
crops and buildings, more than 30 lakh people became refugees in Russia.

February Revolution

Reasons of February Revolution

• Prolongation of the First World War.

• Influence of Rasputin.

• Falling morale of soldiers.

• Problem of refugees.
• Food shortage, closure of industries.

• Death of countless Russian soldiers.

Events of February Revolution

• Lockout of factory on 22nd February.
• Strike by workers of 50 other factories.
• Encirclement of government buildings by striking workers.
• Imposition of curfew by the king.
• Dismissal of Duma on 25th February.
• Demonstrators occupied government buildings on 27th February.
• Formation of Soviet, an organization of soldiers and workers.
• Czar abdicating the throne on 2nd March on the advice of the military commander.

Effects of the February Revolution

• End of Tsarist rule in Russia.
• Election of the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal adult suffrage.
• Participation of Soviet and Duma leaders in the interim government.

April Thesis
• The great Bolshevik leader Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917. He made three demands
which were called April Thesis:-
1) End of the war
2) Hand over all the land to the farmers.
3) Nationalization of banks.

October Revolution
• The combined events of the fall of the monarchy in February 1917 and October 1917 are called
the October Revolution.
• The rebellion of 24 October 1917 started and by evening the entire city of Petrograd came
under the control of the Bolsheviks. In this way the October Revolution was completed.

What changed after the October Revolution

• The Bolsheviks were completely against the system of private property.
• Most of the industries and banks had been nationalized in November 1917 itself.
• Ownership and management had come under the control of the government.
• Land was declared social property.
• Peasants were given free hand to take over the lands of the feudal lords.
• In the cities, the Bolsheviks divided the large houses of the landlords into smaller parts,
leaving a sufficient portion for the landlords so that the homeless or needy people could also
be given a place to live.
• They banned the use of old titles by the aristocracy.
• The name of the Bolshevik Party was changed to the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik).
• In November 1917, the Bolsheviks held elections for the Constituent Assembly but they could
not get a majority in these elections.
• In January 1918, the Assembly rejected the proposals of the Bolsheviks and Lenin dismissed
the Assembly.
• He was of the opinion that the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was a much more democratic
institution than the Assembly elected under uncertain circumstances.
• In March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed a treaty with Germany at Brest Litovsk, despite the
disagreement of other political allies.
• In the coming years, the Bolshevik Party remained the only party to take part in the elections
for the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
• The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was now given the status of the country's parliament.
• Russia became a country with a one-party political system.
• The party had control over the trade unions.
• The secret police (first named Cheka and later OGPU and NKVD) punished those who
criticized the Bolsheviks.

Civil War
• Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of the monarchy condemned the Bolshevik
revolt.
• Their leaders gathered in southern Russia and started organizing troops to fight the
Bolsheviks (‘Reds’).
• In 1918 and 1919, most parts of the Russian Empire were controlled by the Social
Revolutionaries (‘Greens’) and the Tsar supporters (‘Whites’).
• They were also getting support from French, American, British and Japanese troops.
• All these powers did not want to see socialism flourish in Russia.
• During the civil war between these troops and the Bolsheviks, problems like looting, robbery
and famine spread on a large scale.
• The ‘Whites’ who were supporters of private property adopted a very tough attitude against
the peasants who occupied the land.
• By January 1920, the Bolsheviks had established control over most parts of the former
Russian Empire.
• They achieved this success with the help of non-Russian nationalists and Muslim Jadidi.
Building a socialist society
• During the civil war, the Bolsheviks continued the nationalization of industries and banks.
• They allowed the peasants to cultivate the land that had been socialized.
• A system of centralized planning was introduced for governance.
• Officials used to calculate how the economy could work.
• On this basis, they started making five-year plans. During the first two ‘plans’ (1927-1932 and
1933-1938), the government froze all prices to promote industrial development.
• Industrial production began to increase (there was a 100 percent increase in the production
of oil, coal and steel between 1929 and 1933).
• Kindergartens were opened in factories for the children of women workers.

Effects of rapid change

• Working conditions began to deteriorate under the pressure of rapid construction work.
• Construction of a steel plant in the city of Magnitogorsk was completed within three years.
• During this period, the workers had to live a very hard life, which resulted in 550 work
stoppages in the first year itself.
• Affordable health care was made available.

Stalinism and Collectivization

• Around 1927-1928, there was a huge grain crisis in the cities of Russia.
• The government had fixed the price of grain. No one could sell grain at a higher price than
that.
• But the farmers were not ready to sell grain to the government at that price.
• Stalin, who was taking over the command of the party after Lenin, took strict steps to deal
with the situation.
• He felt that rich farmers and traders were not selling grain in the hope of price increase.
• To control the situation, it was necessary to curb speculation and confiscate the grain stored
with the traders.
• In 1928, party members visited grain producing areas.
• They forcibly purchased grain from the farmers and raided the hideouts of 'kulaks'.
• Wealthy farmers in Russia were called kulaks.
• When the grain shortage continued even after this, it was decided to collectivize the farms.
• In 1929 the party issued an order to all farmers to work in collective farms (kolkhoz).
• Most of the land and equipment were handed over to the ownership of collective farms.
• All farmers worked on collective farms and the profits of the kolkhoz were divided among all
the farmers.
• Angered by this decision, the farmers protested against the government and started killing
their animals.
• Between 1929 and 1931, the number of cattle decreased by one-third.
• Those who opposed collectivization were severely punished. Many people were exiled or
deported.
• Despite collectivization, production did not increase dramatically.
• In fact, after the bad harvest of 1930-1933, the biggest famine in Soviet history occurred in
which more than 4 million people died.

Global impact of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union

• The possibility of establishing a state of the working class had awakened a new hope among
people around the world.
• Communist parties were formed in many countries – for example, the Communist Party of
Great Britain was established in England.
• By the time the Second World War began, socialism had gained a global identity and status
due to the Soviet Union.
• By the fifties, people within the country had also begun to understand that the Soviet Union's
style of governance was not in accordance with the ideals of the Russian Revolution.
• A backward country had become a superpower.
• Its industries and agriculture had developed and the poor were getting food.
• But many essential freedoms were not being given to the citizens there and development
projects were implemented on the basis of repressive policies.
• By the end of the twentieth century the Soviet Union's international standing as a socialist
country had diminished considerably