The Bolshevik Revolution

Two revolutions
• Two revolutions occurred in Russia in
1917. The first broke out on March 8 and the
second on November 7.  The Russians, going
by the old-style Russian calendar, date them
towards the end of February and the end of
October and therefore call them the February
and October revolutions.
 The First World War
• Russian losses in the First World War were
very heavy and much of the country was
overrun by the enemy, including large food
growing areas.   The long strain of war and
defeat caused the breakdown of transport
and supplies including arms and ammunition.  
Food was short both at home and at the
front.   The government was discredited and
its authority weakened.
 Economic problems
•  The disasters and hardships of the war brought
the old social and economic problems of Russia
to the fore once again.   Russia was still a
predominantly rural country.  The peasants'
most bitter problem, the shortage of land, was
made worse by the growth of population in the
pre-war years and by the dislocation of war.  
• Large numbers of landless and unemployed
rural workers flocked to the urban areas both
before and during the war, to swell the
discontent in town and factory, or were swept
into the army as unwilling soldiers.
• In the towns since the end of the nineteenth
century, the factory worker had been suffering
the usual hardships of the early stages of an
`Industrial Revolution'.   Low wages, depressed
by the influx of unemployed peasants, were
coupled with long hours and harsh working
conditions, and strikes had been the prelude to
revolution in St. Petersburg as far back as
1905.  
• There was an unusually high proportion of
large factories in Russia employing over one
thousand workers, so that the concentration
of discontent on a large scale led more easily
to the organization of the worker, in trade
unions, in Soviets or workers' councils and in
revolt.  
• To discontented land-hungry peasants and ill-
fed factory workers, the war added the
mutinous remnants of what had been a great
army, soldiers who were too weary to fight,
soldiers who had neither arms or ammunition
to fight with.
 The February Revolution
• On March 8, 1917, the women textile workers
in Petrograd (previously called St. Petersburg)
came out on strike demanding food.   Other
workers joined the strike and with students
added demands for the overthrow of the
government.   Some regiments of the local
garrison supported the discontented
workers.  
• The Czar tried in vain to find loyal troops to
put down the rising and he was forced to
abdicate on March 15, by the Russian Duma.

• A new Provisional Government was formed.  

• Kerensky, who was Minister of Justice, then
Minister of War finally became Prime Minister
and head of the new government, which at
first enjoyed considerable support.

• After the Provincial government came to

power Vladimir Lenin and other Bolshevik party
leaders arrived in Petrograd from exile in
Switzerland
• He issued his famed April Thesis- an examination into
the Bolshevik attitude in regards to the World War,
the new Provisional Government, and the future of
Russia and the Bolsheviks.
• Specifically Lenin called for complete non-
cooperation with the bourgeois Provisional
Government, opposition to the World War on the
grounds that it was fought in bourgeoisie interests,
and the complete abolition of the police, army, and
state bureaucracy in which he felt held the interests
of the ruling bourgeoisie in too high regard.
• Lenin’s April Theses would prove to lay the
ground work for what would turn into the
October Revolution.
• Contrary to its intentions, the new Provincial Government failed
to provide for the Russian people.

• By August, real wages had fallen 57.4% and prices had raised an
average of 248% compared to 1913 levels. Bread rations had
become even more sparing; people in Moscow were allowed no
more than two pounds of bread for an entire week.

• Russia was nearing the breaking point. The Mensheviks

continued to discredit the Bolsheviks, and Lenin remained in
hiding while his country began to implode once again. Wage
values continued to decrease, food production continued to
falter, and social unrest began to sweep across the nation yet
again.
• Russia wouldn’t hear from Lenin until September
12th when he illegally published Lessons of
Revolution which analyzed the events since the
February Revolution.

• He would then go on to finish his most important

work: The State and Revolution, which describes the
role the state plays in society in addition to the
necessity of a proletariat revolution. Lenin argued
that the only cure for the ills of society is a socialist
revolution.
• That revolution would come on the night of October
24th, when Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky would lead
the infamous Red Guards to control all the bridges
crossing the Neva River.

• That same night, Lenin reemerged from hiding and

arrived at the town of Smolny, where he took
command of the Red Guards and the Workers
Soviets, leading them to seize and control the
General Post Office, the Nikolaevsky, Varshaysky, and
Baltiisky train stations, the power stations, the State
Bank, the central telephone exchange, and main
Government buildings.
• On the 25th, the Tsar’s Winter Palace was
captured, bringing victory to the revolution in
Petrograd.
• On November 5th, Lenin officially claimed
victory, stating “Remember that now you
yourselves are at the helm of state. No one
will help you if yourselves do not unite and
take into your hands all affairs of the state.
Your Soviets are from now on the organs of
state authority, legislative bodies with full
powers.”
• An official Soviet Government was soon established
in Vladivostok, and before the end of November, the
new government was in control of twenty eight
provincial capitals, in addition to every major
industrial center in the nation.

• In a final attempt to solidify their power, the Soviets

created the Checka in order to combat counter-
revolution and sabotage. Its first order of business,
was to check the economic activity of Russia’s
wealthiest citizens.
• In regards to the Bolshevik rise to power, political scientist Merle Fainsod
wrote “In the brief period of eight months, a tiny band of underground
revolutionaries, numbering less than 25,000 on the eve of the February
Revolution, had catapulted themselves into a governing authority of
nearly 150,000,000 people.”(Adams 100). Before the February Revolution,
the Bolshevik party was nothing more than a disorganized group of
hoodlums. Their leaders were either exiled overseas or imprisoned, and as
a result they lacked any and all forms of direction. However, in less than a
year, they managed to manipulate and control the entire Russian working
population, becoming the leading political party in all of Russia.

• Lenin’s successor, Josef Stalin, would go even further and establish the
Soviet Union as one of the dominant superpowers in the industrial world.
• The Revolution of 1917 proved to set the tone for the
rest of the 20th century. The Soviet Union was the first
nation to be based on Marxist communist teachings.

• As a result, the new superpower would come into

ideological conflict with the United States on
numerous occasions throughout the century, even
coming to the brink of nuclear war on numerous
occasions.

• The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, and with it

came an installation of a democratic government for
the people of Russia.
 Lenin
• Lenin could be called the
face of the revolution.

• It was under his leadership

that the Bolshevik party
started the Revolution and
formed their Government.
 Causes
• Autocracy of the Csar:
The Csars only followed imperialist policy and never encouraged
liberal ideas.
Popular demand for the freedom of expression and for a share
in state administration was put down.
• Agriculture
Agriculture was the backbone of the Russian economy but it was
in a bad shape causing discontent amongst the peasants.
The role of the Csarina:
The Csarina was under the influence of the “mad monk”
Rasputin who influenced policy decisions.
• Industrial Backwardness:
I. During the Csars rule, there was acute industrial
backwardness due to which the workers suffered from
inadequate wages, low standards of hygiene etc.
• Discontent among the Soldiers:
I. The soldiers were unhappy due to unsatisfactory working
conditions and inefficient and corrupt military soldiers.
• Military Setbacks:
I. The fact that Russia was defeated by a nation as small as
Japan in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 was considered as a
national insult.
II. They were also defeated in the eastern front in the World
War I.
 Effects
• After coming into power, the Bolshevik Party
declared that the peasants would rule.
• Lenin gave the slogan “Bread for the breadless,
land for the landless and peace for all.”
• Industrialization was quickened by nationalising all
means of production.
• Lenin launched New Economic Policy (NEP) which
was a partial return to market and monetary
economy.
 Significance
• It was the first communist revolution.
• It was also responsible for the improvement of
the conditions of the workers all over the world.
• The concept of planned economic development is
the gift of the Russian revolution.
• The concept of “welfare state” began.
• “Emancipation of man from all kinds of bondages”
is the most important message of the revolution.
 Rise of Stalin
• Lenin died in 1924.
• Stalin who was Lenin’s early follower became
the supreme leader of the Communist Party.
• He tried to perpetuate socialism at least in
Russia.
• Collective farming was a novel feature of his
plans
• He used coercive methods and millions of
peasants were forced to join collective
farming.
• Under his leadership, Russia emerged as a
powerful country at the cost of the liberty of
its people.
•  All history is about struggles between
different classes