European History Final

Ideals and Importance of Bolshevik Revolution

• most important historical attempt to construct a socialist alternative to capitalism

• universalization and deepening of emancipation principles from French Revolution

  • Bolsheviks see rev. as beginning of universal process of liberation from capitalism

“Bloody Sunday”- 1905

• In January, 150k people marches peacefully to the Winter Palace demanding political freedoms and alleviation of poverty of lower classes

• Army opened fire on the demonstrators: 100 killed and many wounded

• Triggered protest movement that spread from city to country side, including sections of armed forces

Emergence of the Soviets

• After “Bloody Sunday”, as protest movements emerge

• Def: councils directly elected by workers, soldiers, and later peasants → embody direct democracy (new version of teh Greek public assembly)

  • Could be established in factory, neighborhood, city, military unit, but most common in industrialized areas

  • Can be recalled by those who elect them

• Most important was St. Petersburg Soviet

• No genuine division of power, state power still in Tsar’s hands, but soviets revolutionary centers of counter-power

Attempts to Suppress Soviets and Revolution

• Tsar Nicholas II used the Black Hundreds, monarchist, nationalist, and violently anti-rev organizations (like Facists) to suppress revolution

• 1906: Pyotr Stolypin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers under Nicholas II, attempted to save the regime by combining political repression with economic modernization

  • Agrarian reform: allows peasants to leave the mir (rural comm where land managed collectively) to develop individual farms

  • Goal: create a class of small landowners who would be more productive → want to defend private property → remain loyal to Tsar

  • Produced some results but failed to transform social structure of Rusian countryside

  • 1911: Stolypin was assassinated in Kyiv

Turning Point toward Bolshevik Revolution

• WWI: enormous miltary loses, economic disorganization, shortages of supplies, and inflation intensified the discontent of workers, peasants, and soldiers

  • War acted as accelerator, turning contradictions hat had existed for decades into an explosive crises

• Workers’ Protest in Petrograd: February 23rd, 1917

  • Soldiers were ordered to stop the protests; many refused and joined the demonstrators

    • Different than in 1905, when soldiers did fire on the public

  • In few days, Tsar lost control and Nicholas II abdicated

“Dual Power” after Petrograd Protest 1917

1. Provisional Government

   1. The legitimate government. Called provisional bc were called just to form a new constitution

   2. Supported by liberals and members of the Duma (Russian parliament)

   3. Decided to continue in WWI

2. Soviets

   1. Government of the people. Not official institutions of the Russian state (but not illegal either)

   2. Most important was the Petrograd Soviets

   3. Alternative form of political representation, representing workers and soldiers and enjoying strong popular support

Different Political Groups within the Soviets

1. Mensheviks

   1. Believe Russia is not yet ready for socialism

   2. Support the provisional government

   3. Their interpretation of Marxist theory: Russia first needed to be capitalistic democracy, which will create a large industrial working class capable of a social revolution to destroy capitalism

      1. if capitalism develips itself, it also develops the anti-capitalist class

      2. workers become more conscious of their poor condition as capitalism grows

      3. must wait for capitalism to spread in order for workers to become strong enough to overpower and kill capitalism

2. Bolsheviks (+Lenin)

   1. Believe Russia, as the weakest link in the capitalist chain, could be the starting point of socialist revolution

   2. Argue working class, supported by peasants and led by rev. party, could seize power without waiting for capitalism to fully develop

   3. Fight against the provisional government

   4. Symbol: Hammer and Sickle represents workers and peasants

Lenin Arrived in Petrograd

• April 3, 1917: Lenin returns to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland, travellng through Germany with the permisison of the German government

  • German helped bc they wanted to increase political instability in Russia and that Lenin’s political ideas would push the country to withdraw from WWI

Lenin + Bolshevik’s Political Campaign

• Goal: convince the Russian people it was time tooverthrow the liberal Provisional Government

• Propaganda with simple slogans are highly effective

  • Promise: Peace, Lands, and Bread

  • Political message: All Power to the Soviets!

• Bolsheviks gradually gained popular support. September 1917 won a majority in the important soviets of Petrograd and Moscow

• Want to withdraw from war, work, and make a direct democracy

July and August 1917 Conflicts

• July 1917: Protest in Petrograd by soldiers, factory workers, and sailors from Kronstadt naval base. Many armed

  • Gov stopped the protest and arrested hundreds of Bolsheviks

  • Lenin was forced to flee to Finland

  • Alexander Kerensky becomes new head of Provisional Gov

• August 1917: General Lavr Kornilov sent troops toward Petrograd (military coup d’etat) to restore order and establish stronger government

  • Kerensky feared a military takeover and asked soviets and other left-wing groups for help (sign that Prov. Gov. was terribly weak, Kerensky couldn’t even count on his own soldiers)

  • Railway workers blocked Kornilov’s tropps