Rise of Socialist Party
In 1864 International Working Men’s Association or the First International was formed. During the short period of its existence, the International exercised a tremendous influence on workers’ movements in Europe.
- To unite the socialist parties in various countries into an international organisation, a Congress was held in Paris on 14th July 1889, the centenary of the French Revolution of 1789. The result of this Congress was what has come to be known as the Second International. The formation of the Second International marked a new stage in the history of socialism.
- In Russia when the workers’ organizations were set up they were dominated by Marx’s ideas on socialism. In 1883, George Plekhanov, a follower of Marx, formed the Russian Social Democratic Party.
However, the party was soon split over questions of organization and policies. One group which was in a minority called the Mensheviks [Russian it means minority]. The majority party was called as the Bolsheviks. The leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Lenin. He is regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the socialist movement after Marx and Engels. He devoted himself to the task of organizing the Bolshevik Party as an instrument for bringing about revolution. His name has become inseparable from the revolution of 1917.
There was the also the Socialist Revolutionary Party which voiced the demands of the peasantry.
World War I
In 1914, Nicholas II made the fateful decision to drag Russia into World War I. Russia, though, was unprepared to handle the military and economic costs.
- Russia already lost a war with Japan in 1904–05. Most of Russia’s fleet was sunk by the Japanese in that war. During first World War, Russia’s deficiencies were evident— poor equipment of its soldiers and the lack of advanced technology (aero planes, telephones) proved the causes for Russia’s failures.
- In the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, over 120,000 Russian troops were killed, wounded, or captured, while Germany suffered only 20,000 casualties. In 1915, Nicholas had taken direct command of the army. The superior German army - better led, better trained, better supplied - was effective against the ill-equipped Russian forces. By the end of October 1916, Russia had lost between 1.6 and 1.8 million soldiers, with an additional two million prisoners of war and one million missing.
Mutinies began to occur in the Russian army. Soldiers went hungry and lacked shoes, munitions, and even weapons. Nicholas was blamed for all these crises. As this discontent grew, the State Duma issued a warning to Nicholas to grant constitutional form of government. Nicholas ignored them. As a result, Russia’s Tsarist regime collapsed a few months later during the February Revolution of 1917.
The March Revolution
The February Revolution was the result of the political, economic, and social causes mentioned above. On the eve of the February Revolution there was food shortage in the city. People protested against world war.
In March 1917, women textile workers in Petrograd led a citywide strike. Soon afterward, riots flared up over shortages of bread and fuel. Nearly 200,000 workers swarmed the streets. At first the soldiers obeyed orders to shoot the rioters but eventually the bulk of the soldiers garrisoned in Petrograd joined the protesters. The soldiers fired at their commanding officers and joined the rebellion.
The Czar Steps Down
The local protest exploded into a general uprising—the March Revolution.
On 12th March, 1917 the capital city of Petersburg (previously Petrograd and Leningrad) fell into the hands of the revolutionaries. Soon the revolutionaries took Moscow and forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate his throne. A year later revolutionaries executed Nicholas and his family. The czarist rule of the Romanovs, which spanned over three centuries, had finally collapsed.
The March Revolution succeeded in bringing down the czar. Yet it failed to set up a strong government to replace his regime. Leaders of the Duma established a provisional government, or temporary government. Alexander Kerensky eventually headed it.
His decision to continue fighting the war cost him the support of both soldiers and civilians. As the war dragged on, conditions inside Russia worsened. The Germans believed that Lenin and his Bolshevik supporters would stir unrest in Russia and hurt the Russian war effort. Traveling in a sealed railway boxcar, Lenin reached Petrograd in April 1917.
The fall of the Tzar is known as the February Revolution because, according to the old Russian calendar, it occurred on 27 February 1917.
Kerensky’s Provisional Government
People’s demands: peace, land to the tiller, control of industry by workers, and equal status for the non-Russian nationalities.
The Provisional Government did not implement any of these demands and lost the support of the people. Meanwhile Lenin returned to Russia in April. He promised people what they wanted. Under his leadership the Bolshevik Party put forward clear policies to end the war, transfer land to the peasants and advance the slogan “All power to the Soviets”. Lenin and his trusted associate Leon Trotsky led the October Revolution.
The Bolshevik Revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks recognized their opportunity to seize power. They soon gained control of the Petrograd soviet, as well as the soviets in other major Russian cities.
The Provisional Government Topples
In November 1917, without warning, Bolshevik Red Guards made up of armed factory workers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd the seat of the Kerensky Government. They took over government offices and arrested the leaders of the provisional government. The Bolshevik Revolution was over in a matter of hours. Kerensky and his colleagues disappeared almost as quickly as the czarist regime they had replaced.
An All- Russian Congress of Soviets met on the same day and assumed full political power. This event which took place on 7 November is known as the October Revolution (25 October on Russian calendar).
Bolsheviks in Power
Lenin ordered that all farmland be distributed among the peasants. Lenin and the Bolsheviks gave control of factories to the workers. They signed a truce with Germany to stop all fighting on the eastern war front and began peace talks. In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Russia surrendered a large chunk of its territory to Germany and its allies. The humiliating terms of this treaty triggered widespread anger among many Russians. They objected to the Bolsheviks and their policies.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
By the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine, Georgia and Finland; gave up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
It ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey. The total losses constituted some 1 million square miles of Russia’s former territory; a third of its population or around 55 million people; a majority of its coal, oil and iron stores; and much of its industry.
Civil War Rages in Russia
Opponents formed the White Army. While Leon Trotsky, commanded the Bolshevik Red Army.
From 1918 to 1920, civil war raged in Russia between White and Red army. Several Western nations, including the United States, sent military aid and forces to help the White Army. In the end the Red Army triumphed and finally crushed all opposition to Bolshevik rule.
Lenin Restores Order
War and revolution destroyed the Russian economy. Trade was at a standstill. Industrial production dropped and many skilled workers fled to other countries.
Lenin, who helped mastermind the Bolshevik Revolution, shifted his role. He turned to reviving the economy and restructuring the government.
- Lenin launched the New Economic Policy (NEP) by temporarily putting aside his plan for a state-controlled economy. Instead, he resorted to a small-scale version of capitalism.
- The reforms under the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to the government. Lenin also tried to encourage foreign investment.
- The many different nationalities within Russia had always posed an obstacle to national unity. Communist leaders also saw nationalism as a threat to unity and party loyalty. To keep nationalism in check, Lenin organized Russia into several self-governing republics under the central government. In 1922, the country was named the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), in honour of the councils that helped launch the Bolshevik Revolution. Each republic was controlled from the new capital—Moscow.
The Bolsheviks also renamed their party the Communist Party. The name came from the writings of Karl Marx. In 1924, the Communists created a constitution based on socialist and democratic principles. In reality, the Communist Party held all the power. Thanks partly to the new policies and to the peace that followed the civil war, the USSR slowly recovered. By 1928, the country’s farms and factories were producing as much as they had before World War I.