CHY-4U1/Unit 4: The World at War Intro: Lenin and the Russian Revolution (1900-1918) (Part I) The success of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (Lenin) and his Bolshevik followers in taking control of Russia in November of 1917 was an event of monumental importance for Europe and the World. Why? A communist party had seized control of one of the major powers of Europe and communism henceforth spread and became one of the leading political and social systems of the 20 th century. Antithesis: The form it took in Russia after the Bolsheviks consolidated their power was totalitarian and collective, a denial of the liberal, democratic and individualist philosophes of the 19 th century. Though all communists found inspiration from Marx, the Russian communism changed from time to time and from one place to another. It did become both the political faith and the practice of over a billion people throughout the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Antagonism from the East (Russia) There were many Russians who felt negatively about the Western world: 1) Slavophiles people who took pride in the uniqueness of their own culture and did not wish to adopt the values of the West. They emphasized the spiritual and collective unity of the Slav peoples under an ideal, autocratic czar and the Orthodox church. They held up the mir, the collective agricultural village community and a kind of extension of the Russian family, as a model for the ideal life. 2) Russian Intellectuals rejected the materialism of the West and the autocracy of the czars. These men wound up as anarchists who challenged the very existence of the state. Ex. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1976): was a rival of Marx; He believed in the goodness of people; he thought that political systems had corrupted people s basically humane nature. He saw the state as an inevitable negation and annihilation of all liberty, of all individual and collective interests. He believed that the free organization of workers from below upward, is the ultimate aim of social development, and that every State is a yoke, which means that it begets despotism one hand and slavery on the other. He claimed Marx neglected the peasant in his theories, by urging the proletariat (workers) to seize power from the bourgeoisie, was
Page 2 Substituting one authority for another. He preached the destruction of all authority by both peasants and the proletariat. 3) Bloody Sunday (Jan.9,1905) Many Russians loved their czar, often referring to him as father. On Sundayj Jan.9, 1905, a crowd in St. Petersburg gathered to hand a petition to the Czar asking his help reforming Russia: All the people are handed over to the discretion of the officials of the Government, who are thieves of the property of the State The Government officials have brought the country to complete destruction.the people are deprived of the possibility of expressing their desires and they now demand that they be allowed to take part in the introduction of taxes and in the expenditure of them. The workingmen are deprived of the possibility of organizing themselves in unions for The defence of their interests. Sire, is this in accordance with divine law, by grace of which Thou reignest?... We are Seeking here the last salvation. Do not refuse assistance to Thy people. Give their destiny into their own oppression of officials. Destroy the wall between Thyself and Thy people, and let them rule the country together with Thyself. The workers believed that the czar would help once their concerns were raised. Before the people could reach the Winter Palace, the King took off with orders for soldiers to remain to fire upon the crowd if necessary. The soldiers did fire on the crowd who were simply bringing him a petition. 4) World War One (1914-1918) The war went very badly for the Czar. Though Britain and France were Russia s allies, Russia was isolated geographically on Germany s eastern front. The czarist regime failed in organizing the war effort. Mobilization of troops was slow, food shortages were present, and the soldiers were badly supplied. By the end of 1915, it is estimated that over 2 million Russian troops had been killed. Nicholas II refused parliament s (Duma) request for a greater share of control. He even went to the front in 1915 to lead his troops leaving his wife Czarina Alexandra to run the state.
5) Czarina Alexandra and Grigori Rasputin Page 3 She was woman who loved her family, hated her people, and had contempt for parliamentary form of government. She wanted Nicholas to be another Peter the Great. Both loved their son Alexei, who had an ailment known as hemophilia, a disease which caused him to bleed profusely even with the smallest cut. She put great trust in the monk- Grigori Rasputin, a spellbinding madman, who was the only person able to control the boy s bleeding. As a result, Rasputin had the total confidence of Alexandra and the two, in Nicholas s absence, appointed a series of unqualified men to responsible positions in the state. Even Nicholas wrote a letter to his wife based on Rasputin s recommendations in 1916. Our friend s opinions of people are sometimes very strange, as you know yourself therefore one must be careful, especially with appointments to high office. All these changes make my head go round. In my opinion, they are too frequent. In any case, they are not good for the internal situation of the country, as each new man brings with him alterations in the administration. However, within a month of writing this, Nicholas accepted Rasputin s suggestion. These actions made conservatives (The Cadets of the Duma in 1916) ask whether Nicholas and his court were fit to govern. The aristocracy resented Rasputin s hold over Czarina and his influence government. In December 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by a group of nobles. This act however, did not make positive changes in Russia. Troops were getting tired and began to defect. Generals were upset because they did not have enough supplies and parliament had no power to make changes. 6) The March Revolution of 1917 Early in March 1917, riots broke out in Petrograd. Why? Mobs roamed the streets demanding bread and peace. Hungry rioters looted bakeries. Many of the troops ordered to control the rioters actually joined the protestors. The Duma formed a provisional government on March 12, and called for the election of an assembly to draw up a constitution for Russia. Three days later the Czar abdicated. The provisional government led by Prince George Lvov and then Alexander Kerensky had a difficult time. Many Russians wanted peace, while others wanted to continue the fight with the Germans. Peasants wanted their own land at once, and city workers expected higher wages and more food.
Page 4 The provisional government continued the war and avoided redistributing land from larger estates. They did introduce some liberal reforms like freedom of speech & religion and equality of people before the law. 7) The Soviets During the confusion of the March Revolution, the Soviets councils of workers, soldiers and intellectuals reappeared (1905 Revolution). These Soviets had no legal standing, but they appeared throughout the country, and were powerful institutions. The Soviets claimed the right to run factories and issue their own orders to soldiers in the army. Their orders undermined the authority of the Provisional Government, especially at the front. Workers looked to them as protectors of their interests, while soldiers relied on these organizations to shield them from the incompetence and arbitrariness of the army commanders. The Soviets were the strongest in the cities (ie. The Petrograd Soviet). But in the country side, peasants were conducting their own revolution. They seized land from nobles and by the summer of 1917, the Provisional government seemed unable to enforce order in Russia. 7) Lenin (1870-1924) and the Bolsheviks Lenin was born into a middle-class family and became a revolutionary after his brother was executed in 1887 for plotting against the czar. As a student, Lenin studied Marx and developed a firm belief in revolutionary socialism. He believed that through revolution, private property would be abolished and a classless society formed. Lenin believed that a socialist revolution could take place in Russia although this state did not a large number of industrial working class. He thought the masses of Russian peasants would support the revolution. The revolution, however, had to be carried out by a small, well-organized and highly disciplined group of leaders. Lenin s party was to be a group of revolutionists hostile to all other political groups. Lenin was not creating a political party in the traditional western sense; he was creating an ideology of action which demanded the total devotion of each member in the movement. The goal of this group was to seize political power, take over the machinery of the state, and eliminate all other political forces. Lenin invented an idea of a single totalitarian party, ruling the state on behalf of everyone (outlined in his What is to be Done (1902). In 1891, Lenin graduated in law from the University of St. Petersburg; in 1895 he joined the Marxist group in that city. After leaving and returning to Russia, he was arrested by the authorities and exiled to Siberia (1897-1900) where he lived comfortably, studied and wrote. Upon his release, he left Russia and joined the Russian Social Democratic party in the early 1900s. He and some followers split the party in two parts in 1903. His was the more radical group called the Bolsheviks (majority) and the Mensheviks (minority).
Page 5 Menshiviks believed in a party with a broad democratic base. They felt Lenin s ideals were to elitist. When the war broke out, Vladimir Lenin was an exile living in Zurich. defining his policies and working for revolution in Russia. German agents contacted him and arranged for a special sealed train to carry him from Switzerland through Germany to Russia. Germany wanted Lenin to contribute to the chaos in Russia to weaken Russia overall war effort. When he reached Petrograd in April of 1918, he set to gain the control of the soviets in order to achieve his own program for the revolution. Lenin built up support for his cause. He wrote editorials in Bolshevik newspapers criticizing the Provisional Government and calling for an end to the war. He raised two other demands in the slogans: All land to the peasants and All power to the soviets. 8) The November Revolution During the summer of 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks won control of the key soviets of Petrograd and Moscow. In Oct. the Petrograd Soviet chose Leon Trotsky as its chairman. Trotsky and Lenin then planned the Bolshevik takeover of power. On the night of Nov.06, 1917, the Bolsheviks moved against the headquarters of the Provisional Government in Petrograd. The Provisional Government under Kerensky lost most of its popular support because if failed to restore the morale of the Russian troops, many of whom were deserting and returning home. As a result, the Bolsheviks met only a light resistance. They seized government buildings, the railway station, telephone exchanges and electric plants. This move was timed for the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. At this meeting, delegates from soviets all over Russia approved the Bolshevik seizure of power and chose Lenin to lead the new government. Over 300 of the 650 delegates chosen to attend this Congress were Bolshevik supporters. He immediately promised to take Russia out of the war and negotiated a peace treaty with the Germans (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Mar.15,1918 Russia lost 26% of its land and population; 75% of its coal mines was given up and in the Ukraine, its richest grain area) and redistributed land to the peasants. He addressed the Petrograd Soviet on Nov.7, 1917:
Page 6 9) Lenin s Russia and Civil War (1918-1920) Few realized in November of 1917 that Lenin intended to set up a one party state. However, his intentions would be made clear very soon. Lenin curtailed the freedom of the press, and created the secret police called the CHEKA (Dec.1918) to suppress anyone against him. He felt it necessary to do evil if the end leads to a true communist state. He felt this was necessary early on to have a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin allowed for elections to occur in Nov.1917 for the Constituent Assembly. The Social Revolutionaries won 370 out of 700 seats and the Bolsheviks won 168.The Social Revolutionary Party had a longer history of opposition to the czarist autocracy and a long-standing concern for Russian peasants. The delegates met for the first time on Jan.18, 1918 and the Bolsheviks left immediately seeing themselves as a minority. Lenin did not like the idea of a more popular party so he sent troops on the second day of the Assembly and dissolved the assembly under Bolshevik orders. This would be the last freely elected assembly. A civil war broke oout in 1918 between the Bolsheviks, who came to be known as the Reds (the colour red because it had for a long time been associated with revolutionary socialists) and a group of their opponents known as the Whites. The Whites included army officers, nobles as well as peasants and people from the middle class. The Allied powers sent war supplies to help the Whites. They did not want war supplies sent to Russia earlier to fall into German hands, and some in western governments feared a communist victory in Russia. The Whites hated Lenin and the Bolsheviks and they wanted an assembly elected by universal suffrage rather than a return to an old czarist regime. Trotsky organized an efficient Red Army that held back enemies on as many as 16 fronts. He placed the economy of areas controlled by the Bolsheviks in the hands of the Central Committee of the party and put all people and goods at the service of the state ( war communism ). 10) Lenin s New Economic Policy (NEP 1921) Because Lenin felt the economic costs of nationalizing the ecomony was to high he introduced a mixed economy (NEP) combing some private enterprise with some state ownership. By 1923, production and exports were rising suggesting that the NEP was working. In Mar. 1918, the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party to differentiate itself from all other forms of socialism (utopian, democratic, revisionist, ) They
Page 7 believed their main task was to change the life style of the Russian people and of a large part of the world. Lenin encourage the generation gap between the older Russians of the czar years and the new generation under the communist regime. Lenin persecuted the Orthodox Church and deprived its clergy of their civil rights. Party ideology and doctrine became dogma and free individual expression was impossible. Lenin opened new schools that offered basic courses like reading, writing and arithmetic along with courses that explained the benefits of socialism. In 1924, Russia officially became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This title reminds those of how important the soviets were in establishing communist rule. The union was a concession of various national groups composing Russia. Hence the state recognized the language and cultural differences and hoped to maintain Russian unity by giving each group some autonomy while retaining central control of all important affairs. Major decisions were made by the Communist Party, no the state authorities. The Communist Party had a Central Committee (executive) with a Secretariat to serve it. The Central Committee had two sub-divisions: a) Orgburo organized the civil service for the party and b) Politburo which made party policy Conclusion: The Bolsheviks carried out a successful coup d etat in the midst of larger revolution and gained the control of Russia. It was not a bloody uprising. The Provisional Government was collapsing with its leader Kerensky in exile. Russia had become the single party state with a small nucleus of party officials making government policy. No dissent would be tolerated.