Russian Revolutions of 1917

I

Introduction

Russian Revolutions of 1917, two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first revolution, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second revolution, in October, created the world’s first Communist state.

The Russian revolutions of 1917 involved a series of uprisings by workers and peasants throughout the country and by soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin, in the Russian army. Many of the uprisings were organized and led by democratically elected councils called soviets. The soviets originated as strike committees and were basically a form of local self-government. The second revolution led to the rise of the modern Communist movement and to the transformation of the Russian Empire into what became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The goal of those who carried out the second revolution was the creation of social equality and economic democracy in Russia. However, the Communist regime that they established eventually turned into a bureaucratic dictatorship, which lasted until 1991.

The overthrow of the Russian monarch, Emperor Nicholas II, and the ruling Romanov dynasty took place after an uprising that lasted from February 23 to 27, 1917, according to the Julian calendar then used in Russia, or March 8 to 12 according to the Gregorian calendar. (On January 31, 1918, the Russian government adopted the Gregorian calendar; events occurring before that date will be given in this article according to the Julian calendar.) The events of late February 1917 are known as the February Revolution. After the overthrow of the emperor, a shaky coalition of conservative, liberal, and moderate socialist politicians declared itself the Provisional Government, on February 27, 1917. That government initially received the support of the soviets—the councils that insurgent workers and peasants set up and elected. However, the Provisional Government proved unable to resolve the problems that had led to the February Revolution. Chief among these was the problem of ending Russia’s involvement in World War I (1914-1918).

The second revolution was initiated by an armed insurrection on October 24 and 25, 1917. Known as the October Revolution or the Bolshevik Revolution, it was led by a group of revolutionary socialists called Bolsheviks. It swept aside the Provisional Government with the goal of giving “all power to the soviets.” The Bolsheviks hoped that their revolution would result in more fundamental changes in Russian society and also inspire the working people of other countries to carry out socialist revolutions.

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II

Background

At the start of the 20th century Russia was an empire with an undemocratic political and social system that had evolved over several centuries. This system was headed by an absolute monarch, popularly known as the tsar but officially titled emperor, who ruled with an iron hand. Maintaining the tsar’s power were a vast bureaucracy, an army that swore loyalty to the tsar, and a repressive political police force that had a presence in virtually every city and town. The Russian political system, often referred to as the tsarist regime or simply tsarism, involved the repression of civil liberties, intellectual freedom, and human rights in general. Its policies included the persecution of various religious minorities outside the Russian Orthodox Church, which was supported by the state. The tsarist regime sought to expand its domination over neighboring non-Russian peoples and to secure its position as a major world power. It brutally subordinated many ethnic and national groups, so much so that the Russian Empire was sometimes referred to as a “prison-house of nations.”

The royal family was at the top of a small but immensely powerful layer of wealthy nobles, who owned most of the land. The nobility maintained itself in luxury at the expense of the great majority of the people, who were impoverished peasants. The peasants made up about 80 percent of the population in 1917.

There were other social classes in Russia in addition to the landed nobles and poor peasants. These other classes included capitalists, workers, and professionals, and they became an increasingly important part of Russian society in the 19th century. To keep up economically and militarily with the other major world powers, the tsarist regime encouraged the development of industry in the later 19th century. One new class that resulted from the development of industry was the capitalists, or big-business men. These were the people who put up the capital, or money resources, needed to develop industry. They played a key role in the building and operation of many large factories. The capitalists (sometimes known as the bourgeoisie, or middle class) were essential to Russian economic development. Yet they were little more than junior partners in the tsarist system.

The development of industry created another major, and much larger, social class: the wage-earning working class (sometimes known as the proletariat). Many of these people worked in the new factories. Some workers viewed the private ownership of the factories and the profit making of the capitalists as inherently unfair and exploitive. The working class made up slightly more than 10 percent of the population in 1917. However, these workers lived in a few large cities, many knew how to read and write, and they were receptive to a growing variety of new social and cultural influences. Moreover, their labor was essential in producing the goods and services of Russia’s new factories and service industries. For all these reasons, the working class was a major force for social change. In growing numbers, the workers of Russia were inclined to organize trade unions to struggle for better working conditions and living standards. However, both the tsarist regime and the capitalists often repressed their efforts for reforms. This repression, combined with poor working and living conditions, led many workers to become highly political and to support revolutionary organizations.

A smaller but still important social class comprised intermediate layers of small-business people and professionals such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and writers. Some of these people strove to achieve the “respectability” associated with the upper classes, but others sympathized or identified with the lower classes of workers and peasants. A significant number of men and women from these intermediate layers—as well as small numbers from the upper classes—became critical-minded intellectuals who were drawn in a revolutionary direction.

A

Political Ferment

Peasant uprisings had occurred periodically in Russia for centuries. In addition, repressed ethnic and national groups had revolted from time to time, and there was some religious dissent. However, in the 19th century a new kind of revolutionary movement developed. That movement was influenced by the Western European ideas of the Enlightenment concerning democracy, equality, and basic human rights.

In the mid-19th century many intellectuals and university students from the upper and intermediate classes became increasingly discontented with Russia’s repressive regime and rigid society, engaging in illegal political activity, such as forming discussion groups and distributing pamphlets. Some embraced an idealistic political philosophy known as populism. These people advocated social changes that would benefit the masses of Russia’s people, especially the peasants. Still others were influenced by anarchist ideas, opposing all forms of government. However, many revolutionaries were increasingly influenced by a variety of socialist ideas.

Some socialist revolutionary groups focused their attention on the peasant majority. They hoped that terrorist actions—such as assassinating the tsar or an especially tyrannical public official—would help spark a revolutionary uprising. Such an uprising would make possible the creation of a new economy largely based on traditional peasant communes. Those who held these ideas eventually formed the Socialist Revolutionary (SR) party in 1901.

Of greater historical significance were those socialist revolutionaries who identified with the ideas of German political philosopher Karl Marx. These socialists were known as Marxists. They believed that the working class—with its struggles to organize trade unions and to bring about political reforms of benefit to the majority of people—would become the primary force for revolutionary change. The Russian Marxists formed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in 1898. By 1903, however, the RSDLP had split into two factions. The faction called the Bolsheviks (from the Russian word for “majority”), led by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, favored a more centralized and disciplined party. The faction called the Mensheviks (from the Russian word for “minority”) was more loosely organized and included a less politically cohesive mixture of radicals and moderates.

Some individuals who favored revolutionary change in Russia but who were not socialists formed a liberal party in 1905. They were known as the Constitutional Democrats (nicknamed the Cadets). This party represented primarily the educated and propertied classes.

Initially, all of these political groups—SRs, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Cadets—believed that what Russia needed immediately was a revolution to replace tsarism with a democratic republic. They all believed that this first step would foster the development of a more thoroughgoing capitalist economy, a development that would “modernize” Russia. The liberals believed that democratic and capitalist development in itself was a desirable goal, while the Marxists believed that it would pave the way for socialism.

B

Revolution of 1905

In 1905 it appeared that a democratic revolution might happen in Russia. In January 1905 in Saint Petersburg, then the capital of Russia, the tsar’s troops fired on a peaceful labor demonstration of workers and their families. This massacre sparked a massive uprising of workers. Radical ferment, strikes, and insurgencies spread throughout the countryside, the towns, and the cities. All the revolutionary parties suddenly gained mass followings. The tsarist regime felt sufficiently threatened to offer a variety of concessions, which included an expansion of civil liberties and the creation of an elected legislative body (with very limited powers) called the Duma. It was in this period that workers established the first soviets (democratic councils) in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and other cities. See Russian Revolution of 1905.

Within the RSDLP, many Mensheviks and Bolsheviks alike thought that revolution was at hand. Lenin envisioned what he called an uninterrupted revolution. This process would involve the democratic revolution being pushed forward by a new workers’ and peasants’ government—what Lenin called a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. Such a government would be a radical regime that would abolish the tsarist system and clear the way for thoroughgoing democracy and modernization. Leon Trotsky, the president of the Saint Petersburg soviet (and at this time a left-wing Menshevik) put forward a theory of “permanent revolution.” According to this theory, the democratic revolution could only be won if the workers took political power, with support of the peasants; the working-class government would then begin Russia’s transition to socialism; and this transition would spark both attacks against Russia by capitalist countries and also revolutionary upsurges that could overturn capitalism throughout the world. In 1919 this theory would become an influential outlook among Russia’s revolutionaries.

By the end of 1905, however, the tsarist regime reasserted its authority through military and paramilitary violence. It quelled peasant unrest, victimized non-Russian ethnic minorities, and repressed workers’ organizations—especially the soviets that had been organized in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The regime arrested or drove into exile thousands of revolutionary activists. But the experience and ideas of 1905 contributed to later revolutionary developments in Russia.

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