The Russian Revolution

[KALKI]

The Russian Revolution

There's no doubt that the immense human tragedy of the Russian Revolution would never have reached such monumental proportions unless it had been born of the war.

The terror of the revolution was born in the militaristic methods of the war. The ruling mentality of the Bolsheviks was based in the military techniques of the war. The planned economy was modeled in the German wartime economy. The very fashions of the rulers were based on the military fashions (leather jackets). Their language was militarized. And, the revolution, having adopted all these habits from the war, carried them through in the revolution. Military forms of organization were imposed on society. The Red Guard became the model of the state's own organization. The economy was militarized with laborers, peasants. Moreover, the immense human costs of the revolution were all themselves born of the war.

The soldiers who came back from the war, many of them brutalized, terrorized by the war experience, carried out, continued, perpetuated military methods of behavior in the villages, and indeed became the main supporters of the new regime in the countryside.

The offensive of the summer of 1917, was Kerensky's offensive. He initiated it. He made sure it went ahead despite the warnings of his generals. Alexsaiv, who he sacked as commander and chief in April, had said that the army could not launch an offensive that summer because it was too demoralized; supplies were not there, it was too undisciplined, and the Soviets wouldn't back it. So, Kerensky appointed Brusilov as commander in chief who had, perhaps, a slightly naive optimism in the fighting. But, even Brusilov, by May, was beginning to warn Kerensky that the offensive could not succeed. But, Kerensky deluded himself that the offensive would. He went on a tour of the Front where, of course, the most loyal and patriotic soldiers were lined up to greet him. He saw only the officers, the committee men, the commanders. He did not see the rank and file soldiers. At one meeting near Tarnipol, one of these rank and file soldiers, a Bolshevik, broke through, insisted on meeting Kerensky. And, he said to him: "Minister of war, you say we should go and fight the Germans so that we, the peasant soldiers, can go home to our villages and divide up the land. But, what's the use of my fighting Germans if I'm dead and there's no land to have?" Kerensky was taken aback. He obviously believed that this was an exception and told the commanding officer to send him home, to make an example of him. The commanding officer was astounded. The soldier indeed fainted in disbelief. The officer tried to tell him: "But this is the view of all the soldiers. If I send him home, I should send the whole lot home!" But Kerensky would hear none of it, and believed that the soldiers should fight at the Front.

The soldiers thought differently, and the war effort collapsed.

Brief version:

1. Russians were unprepared for the war, lost territory and enormous numbers of troops. People were hungry. Many didn't even know which countries they were fighting or why.

2. Bolsheviks (illegal socialist faction) opposed the war, saw it as workers of one nation fighting workers of other nations for the benefit of the landed classes. Urged resistance, promoted international unity of workers against gentry.

3. War losses ultimately led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. New government was not well organized or prepared to win the war either.

4. Temporary government argued within its own ranks, finally called on Bolshevik-controlled groups to defend one side in Petrograd from the other.

5. Bolsheviks (headed by Lenin) succeeded; now had a militia and control of the Soviets, the Red Guard, and Petrograd. Looked like a threat to the provisional government, which they were.

6. Provisional gov't head (Kerensky) formed alliance with landed classes, sent Cossacks to suppress Bolshevik sympathizers in the countryside.

7. In October, 1917, at urging of Leon Trotsky, Lenin ordered Bolshevik-controlled Red Guard to storm the Winter Palace. Kerensky fled to France and the Bolsheviks under Lenin were in charge.

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More detailed version:


Where did the Bolsheviks come from?

The revolutionary politics of Russia at that time were held by two groups, the Social Democrats and the Soviet Revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks came from a split within the Social Democrats, whose primary concern was the political education and mobilization of the workers, not the peasants.

The Second Congress of the Social Democratic Labour Party met in London in 1903. Lenin and Julius Martov, two of the SDLP's leaders, began a pubic debate about the structure of the party. Martov wanted a large party of active people, likening it to the socialist parties of most European countries. Lenin contended that the actual party needed to be small, intimate, and easily monitored against infiltration because the Tsar's government did not permit socialist political parties. A small party would be safer. They debated for some time, and in the end, Martov won a fairly close vote. Lenin would not support the result and formed a new faction known as the Bolsheviks. Those who stayed with Martov became known as the Mensheviks. Stalin went with the Bolsheviks and Trotsky went with the Mensheviks.

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During WWI, both factions were eager to see the war end, but the Bolsheviks argued that the workers of Russia should not go to war against their brother workers of other nations. Bolsheviks, in fact, argued that there really were no nations, that the lines should be drawn only between the classes of the world. ___________________

How did the war go for the Russians?

Against a domestic background of widespread strikes and violent government assaults on strikers, Russia entered WWI in August, 1914. with the world's largest army. Poorly trained and equipped, they quickly went from early success to catastrophic defeat. The disastrous fortunes of the Russian army undermined the authority of the government. There were conscription (draft) riots in the cities. There were food shortages. Russia lost territory. People who did not oppose the war because of political sentiments opposed it because they saw it as a disaster for the Russian people. By the end of 1916, the Russians had lost more than a million men and continued to lose major battles.

Nicholas II removed his second cousin as supreme commander of the army and took control himself in late 1915. Things went no better for the Tsar, however. He was held responsible for the ongoing defeats and lost what popular support he had. In March, 1917, he abdicated as Tsar, and a new provisional government was formed.
When the new minister of war (Kerensky) announced a major offensive, the response was negative among both the civilian and military populations. The Bolsheviks encouraged large demonstrations at home, and soldier refused to fight. It is estimated that there were some 2 million desertions from the Russian army by late 1917.

Many of those who deserted took their weapons and their training home and seized land from the nobles. The new government was powerless to stop the turmoil. Dissension within the new government resulted in the newly-installed and then newly-fired supreme commander's (Kornilov) sending troops to try to take control of Petrograd and the government.

Kerensky asked for help from the Red Guard and the Petrograd Soviet, both of which were controlled by the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks agreed to help but made it clear they were fighting against Kornilov's troops and not in support of the government. In just a few days, they raised an armed militia of 25,000 and fortified the city. Kornilov's soldiers refused to try to take Petrograd by force. Kornilov was arrested, his general commited suicide, and Kerensky had a new problem on his hands.

The Bolsheviks now had control of the Soviets and the Red Guard, control of Petrograd, and a small but well-organized and armed militia. The Mensheviks had allied themselves with Kerensky, Kerensky had tried to broker a deal with the landowners, and had sent the Cossacks out to subdue the revolutionaries in the countryside. None of this was well-received by the workers. At the urging of Trotsky, the Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace, Kerensky ran to France, and the Bolsheviks were now in control.

But wasn't Trotsky on the side of the Mensheviks?

He had been, but he was one of many who were greatly angered by the Mensheviks' support of Kerensky. He was by now a pacifist as far as the war was concerned, a believer in "permanent" revolution, and totally opposed to Kerensky's alliances with the propertied classes. So he joined with the Bolsheviks when he returned to Russia from his long and turbulent exile abroad. He was instrumental in organizing the defense of Petrograd.


On 26th October, 1917, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Vladimir Lenin was elected chairman. Other major appointments included Leon Trotsky (Foreign Affairs) and Joseph Stalin (Nationalities).