Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution was one of the most important events of the 20th century. Its ideas and leaders influenced generations of people in their search for a more equal and just society. The revolutionary process began in 1905 and continued until October 1917.

With a population of approximately 150 million, imperial Russia had a poorly industrialized economy and depended on agriculture. Industrialization was slow in coming; millions of peasants lived in a state of misery.

From Russo-Japanese War to Bloody Sunday 

In the early 20th century, the Russian government began a territorial dispute with Japan over areas belonging to China. The Russians believed it was possible to defeat the Japanese quickly, however, this was not the case. 

Japan, after the Meiji Revolution, was racing to become the big imperialist country of the East. With this, they managed to impose a significant defeat on the Russians in the conflict called the Russo-Japanese War, which happened between 1904 and 1905.

In January 1905, after the Japanese defeat, thousands of people went to the Tsar's Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to petition him for better salaries and living conditions. These people were unarmed, and when they arrived at the palace, the guards ordered them to disperse, as they refused to obey, the guards started shooting, causing a massacre of the population, including children and women. The episode became known as Bloody Sunday, subsequent that, the opposition to Tsar Nicholas II gained strength.

Defeat in the war, the Bloody Sunday crackdown, and the economic crisis opened up space for the spread of communist ideas in Russia.

Attempting to reduce social tensions, Nicholas II created an assembly of representatives of the people, called the Duma. But the Tsar's pressure on the representatives of the Duma was huge, making the meeting dismissed without carrying out the necessary reforms.

Despite the failure of the Duma, opposition groups began to organize soviets, councils of workers, and laborers that would play a key role in overthrowing the tsarist regime.

The new government, commanded by the bourgeoisie and led by Prince Lvov, did not come out of the First War. And nothing concrete was done to control inflation and food shortages. 

Parallel to Lviv's rule, the Soviets were again active in the factories, cities, and the countryside, organizing the population. In July 1917, the Russian offensive against the Austrians failed, and a new liberal bourgeois government took office, led by Alexander Kerenski.

Russia and the First World War

Russia entered World War I as soon as the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia. For this, the tsarist government mobilized approximately 15 million combatants. The subsequent defeats to the Germans, who began to occupy the most fertile fields in Russia, and the departure of thousands of peasants to the battlefields, damaged agricultural production, causing widespread hunger among the Russian population. Strikes and demonstrations against the Tsar and the war proliferated in the country, until, in February 1917, Nicholas II was forced to resign. 

This was the beginning of the revolutionary movement.

After the resignation, the nobility and the bourgeoisie took over the government. These groups advocated only superficial political reform to prevent the workers from coming to power.

The new government, commanded by the bourgeoisie and led by Prince Lvov, did not come out of the First War. And nothing concrete was done to control inflation and food shortages. 

Parallel to Lviv's rule, the Soviets were again active in the factories, cities, and the countryside, organizing the population. In July 1917, the Russian offensive against the Austrians failed, and a new liberal bourgeois government took office, led by Alexander Kerenski.

Mensheviks and Bolsheviks

From the beginning of the 20th century, three different political forces emerged that opposed the tsarist government: The Constitutional Democratic Party, the Bolsheviks, and the Mensheviks. 

The Constitutional Democratic Party, dominated by the bourgeoisie and the nobility, advocated piecemeal reforms to avoid the formation of a popular government.

The Mensheviks, although advocating an end to the war, did not accept a Russian defeat, which created a big internal division.

The Bolsheviks were led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. They defended the confiscation of large rural properties, the control of industries by the workers, and the signing of a peace treaty with Germany.

With the crisis installed and the country without resources, the Bolsheviks took power on October 25, 1917. Kerensky fled, and the government was passed into the hands of the Council of People's Commissars, commanded by Lenin.

By signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Bolsheviks determined Russia's immediate removal from the war. They also began to organize a new army and adopted the first economic measures to create a socialist economy.

The Russian revolutionary movement generated, in many countries of the world, an expectation of change to a society different from the capitalist one, this idea also caused European governments to fear that the socialist revolutions would take place in their countries.  

This led the United States, France, Japan, and England to finance armies in Russia as opposed to the Bolsheviks- the White Army was composed of former soldiers of the czar, noblemen, noblewomen, noblemen, and noblewomen. 

The White Army wanted the traditional social structure of Russia to remain in place, starting a civil war.

In 1921, at the end of the civil war, Lenin initiated a planned recovery of the Russian economy, called the New Economic Policy (NEP), which lasted until 1927. The plan let the creation of private companies. And guaranteeing commercial freedoms, representing the retreat of communist proposals in the country. 

Consequences of the Russian Revolution

Socialist ideas gained strength from the Russian Revolution and spread to all continents. Communist parties were organized in many countries, seeking the transformation of capitalist society. In the capitalist countries, the threat of the communist revolution gave great strength to the worker's movements, making possible an improvement in living conditions, since the bourgeois elite feared a popular uprising of big proportions.