The Russian Revolution of 1917 - Essay Example

Russian Revolution al affiliation The Russian revolution of 1917 The Russian revolution took place in the year 1917.It led to the destruction of the Tsarist autocracy rule and paved way for the creation of the Soviet Union. The revolution went through two revolutions namely the February Revolution, which took place in March 1917 and the October Revolution that took place in November 1917.The February Revolution was triggered by the massive street demonstrations that had neither political bases nor strategic plan by any group. The military mutiny in that period led to the demonstrations being uncontrollable and the only way to end the unrest was by the resignation of the Tsar’s. The decision to end the demonstrations by resignation of the Tsar’s was made by the Duma, which was the Russian legislature from 1905 to 1917. The reason why the Duma requested for Tsar’s resignation is because they wanted his son to take over power and rule. The October Revolution of November 1917 took place in St Petersburg. Workers’ Soviets and the Bolshevik Party planned a coup to overthrow the Provisional Government in St Petersburg. The main aim of the October revolution was to seize power from the Provisional Government and replace the monarchy rule and make Russia a communist state. After the Bolshevik and the Vladimir Lenin took over power in the October Revolution, they allowed for elections to be conducted, but they later on changed their minds after they got less than twenty five percent votes in the elections. The collapse of the Russian monarchy government and the Provisional Government made the government to be perceived as weak and incompetent. During the February Revolution the military was summoned, but contrary to the expectations by the Tsar, the military refused to follow the orders and instead ended up fighting the police.1 Causes of the Russian revolution World War 1 World War 1 was a major factor that led to the Russian revolution in 1917.Due to the war, there was a high increase in the number of soldiers that were needed to go and join the war. Young men and horses that were used in the farms were taken leading to the decrease in the number of outputs in the forums. Due to this, the standard of living was damaged and the peasants were not happy about the decision Tsar had made to join the war. Productive farms in Russia found most of their labourers taken out to join the war. Moreover, inflation occurred and most of the peasants could not afford to buy expensive goods. Workers in the cities could not get good jobs that could give them a better pay. When these workers tried to agitate for better pay, they were regarded to be disloyal to Russia. Strikes were experienced during the World War 1 and this led to instability in the country. The transport sector in Russia also faced a major challenge during the World War 1. It was faced with a problem of management because the government concentrated much on the management of the war. The strain in the transport sector made the supply of soldiers and food for those participating in the war a problem. Soldiers on leave explained how poorly the war was supplied and they felt that the Tsar had failed them.2 The peasants and the soldiers felt that the war was bringing an economic strain in the country hence lowering their standards of living. This led to people protesting for a change in government, hence the Russian revolution. Tsarist Autocracy Russia was ruled by an emperor known as Tsar. Tsar ruled by himself and did not involve other organs in the making of decisions on how the country should be administrated. Moreover, the Tsar government ignored the Duma, which was an important Russian institution since it helped in the formulation of laws that were used to govern the country. During the Tsar’s regime, freedom of expression was limited. People were not allowed to oppose the decisions made by the Tsar and those who opposed him were either executed or sent to exile in Siberia. A secret police unit was also formed to disperse and deal with people who would try to demonstrate against the government. There was suppression of speech and other public communications. People could not get information from the newspapers and books. This is because the government viewed it as politically incorrect. The result of the autocratic regime was the increasing desperate reform by the people. People felt that the government was oppressing them and they felt the need for change. They felt that they needed change either through violence or through a peaceful dialogue with the ruling government. With the increase in the number of people who agitated for change, there rose revolutionary movements in Russia that attempted to overthrow the autocratic regime. This new revolutionary regime promised to distribute land among the peasants. However, one of the revolutionary regimes-the Populism-was faced with a challenge on how they would mobilize the peasants to make a revolutionary change. This challenge brought about the rise of terrorism revolutionary regime such as The People’s Will.3The terrorism regime assassinated Alexander 2 in the year 1881 leading to the revolutionary movements to be banned temporarily. Revolutionary movement The refusal of the monarchy government in Russia to share political power, and the social economic problems of the peasants led to the rise of revolutionary movements. These revolutionary movements had a great impact on the Russian Revolution of 1917.Most of the revolutionary movements that were formed in Russia faced political threats from the government. The leaders of these groups were sometimes sent to exile in Siberia and others were executed by the government. One of the earliest revolutionary movements in Russia was the Populism Movement that was formed in the middle nineteenth century. This revolutionary movement called for the removal of the autocratic regime that oppressed people and hindered economic development in Russia. The main challenge faced by the populists’ was the lack of a way in which they could mobilize the peasants who were key players in the overthrow of the oppressive regime. Due to this challenge, the populist revolutionary movement turned into a terrorist group which assassinated Alexander 2 in 1881. This led to the temporal banning of revolutionary movements. The leaders of the revolutionary groups did not give up after revolutionary groups were banned temporarily. They thought of other revolutionary theories and practices that would lead to revolution in Russia. Later on, there emerged two revolutionary groups in the twentieth century that were key players in the Russian revolution. These movements were the Social Democrats and the Social Revolutionaries. These movements agitated for social, economic and political reforms in Russia. Moreover, they called for the abolition of the monarchy and wanted it to be replaced with a democratic republic that would allow and give freedom to the peasants and also distribute land among them.4 The Bloody Sunday massacre Workers in Russia felt that they were living under unfair working and living conditions. They felt that the government should provide good working conditions, better wages and better living conditions. With this in mind, they decided to protest against the government because it did not provide for their needs. Led by Gapon, the workers organized a crowd of 300,000 workers to protest for reforms. They began a peaceful protest and ended to the Tsar’s palace where they were shot by the guards. This led to the death and injury of thousands of workers. This day was named the ‘Bloody Sunday 1905’. After the massacre, there followed many protests and riots in the country. People across whole Russia got involved in the active protests. The workers and the peasants agitated for a reform in the economic and social reforms in the country, whereas the middle class demonstrated against the oppression by the Tsarist monarchy. 5 The unrest spread all over the country followed by mutinies that served a major blow to Tsars government. The middle class workers comprising of the lawyers, doctors and the engineers formed unions which helped in the demand for a constituent assembly. During the strikes, a council that comprised of workers delegates was formed and named the soviets. The soviets helped in the ending of the strike that had a great influence to the economy of Russia. The soviets was later transformed into a political organization that raised political demands for the workers. The political organization gained influence and led to the formation of revolutionaries that called for a reform in the structure of the government. The soviets challenged the powers of Tsar’s government and the strike forced him to issue a manifesto in which freedom of press, association and formation of a parliament were guaranteed. Economic factors This factor contributed largely to the revolution as it resulted in poverty, misery and exploitation of the masses by the noble class. Before the revolution, Russia was a highly agriculturally backward country. Most of the agricultural land belonged to the royal family leaving a very small percentage to the peasants. Moreover, the peasants used poor tools and methods of cultivation which made them poorer. They had to pay huge amounts of rents and tributes to their landlords despite the little livelihood they earned from cultivation. This made the peasants feel exploited by the nobles who had large portions of agriculture hence felt the need to revolt against the Tsars government in order to end the economic and social system. A growing politicized and urban workforce When industrial revolution became pronounced in Russia, factories came up rapidly. This led to the movement of people from the rural areas to the cities in order to take up new and better paying jobs.6 Peasants flooded the urban centers leading to problems such as poor housing, bad wages and lack of rights in their jobs. This group of peasants that moved to the towns to look for jobs swiftly began to grow politically hence going against government restrictions that they felt were oppressive to them. This gave room to the formation of socialist revolutionaries. These socialist revolutionaries moved between cities in order to mobilize people to champion for revolt in the Tsars regime which was oppressive. The world war one and the Tsar’s autocratic rule are viewed as the major causes of Russian Revolution of 1917 Bibliography Ana and Megan. The bloody Sunday massacre: the beginning of change (2011) Causes of Russian revolution. accessed 2 March 2014 Rex, A. Wade. The Russian revolution, 1917. (George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia 2009) Robert Wilde.Causes of the Russian revolution. accessed 2 March 2014 The Russian Revolution (1917–1918) History Sparknotes. accessed 2 March 2014 Allan wood. The Russian revolution1861-1917 (New York. Routledge, 2003) Read More