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World history 9 the russian revolution
First russian revolution
The development of the Bolsheviks
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As the ideas of Karl Marx swept through Europe in the late 1800s, they found their way into Russia. Russia at the time was ruled by an anti-democratic Tsar who refused to share power, believing his power to control Russia came directly from God. “This made Russia a magnet for political radicalism and revolutionary ideas” (Alpha History, 2018). In 1898 a newly group formed called the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (SDs) whom embraced the Marxist theory. Few years later the group split into two parties called the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Soon after the split the leader of the Bolsheviks was named as Vladimir Lenin a young lawyer who wanted a small but disciplined group of “professional revolutionaries” (Alpha History, 2018). The …show more content…
Social reforms like health care and educational programs were introduced. As the weeks passed and Russia changed it started to go downhill, the Bolsheviks regime resorted to undemocratic methods to maintain control. After failing the constituent assembly, Lenin ordered the formation of the Red Army and CHEKA a force of secret police. Civil War erupted in Russia in mid-1918, the regime imposed a brutal economic policy. The civil war went on for three year between the Red Army and the counter revolutionary ‘Whites’, non-Bolshevik socialists. The Russia Civil War left severe damage on Bolshevik economic policies and a series of severe droughts brought catastrophic famine that killed between five to ten million Russia Peasants. In 1921 the Bolsheviks secured victory in the civil war and the white were forced into exile. Now Practically secure, the Soviet Union began to recover and rebuild after seven years of war. After Lenin’s death in 1924 due to a major stroke his power was taken by Joseph Stalin, party’s secretary at that time. Stalin was never an obvious leader of the party, his duties for the Bolsheviks evolved around fund raising for the
The most important war in relation to political change of 1855 to 1964 would be the Civil War (1917 – 1922) because it directly led to the Bolsheviks taking power in Russia implanting new ideologies (communism) into the state as well as forming of the USSR and dismantling state religion. For example take this quote from the declaration of the rights of the people of Russia which was drafted by the first Bolshevik government in 1917 "resolve to establish as a basis for its activity in the question of nationalities the following principles will be applied: Equality and sovereignty of peoples of Russia, Right of peoples of Russia of a free self-determination, including secession and formation of a separate state and Abolition of all national and religious privileges and restrictions" This shows that there were political changes in Russian society that would never happen if not the Bolsheviks got in power. The dismantling of state religion shows that the new Bolshevik government were taking strides in replacing the old political structure of society which consisted of state religion and heavily autocratic state Duma with new Soviet administration's at every level of society including the military and at industrial level which ensured a secular Marxist state.
Lenin's successor, Josef Stalin, took the elimination of proletarian suppression to extremes. Stalin and Leon Trotsky-who was with Lenin in forming the Russian Revolution and led the Red Army in the Civil War of 1918-vied for leadership of the Communist party after Lenin's stroke. Although Trotsky seemed to be the inevitable successor, Stalin's status as general secretary of the Communist party gave him "control over the administrative levers of the party" and "allowed him to eliminate all rivals."3 Stalin relieved Trotsky of his authority in the Communist party and exiled him t...
For the next 36 years she would be in the hands of two men that would attempt to apply a new, vastly different creed in ruling and transforming this country. Vladimir Ilich Lenin, as the leader of the Bolshevik party, ruled Russia from October 1917 till his death in January 1924. He was succeeded by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who also ruled until his death in March 1953. Both men claimed to ascribe to the broad ideology of Socialism and Marxism. Both were to develop their own versions -- later to be called Leninism and Stalinism.
It was in the interests of all the major powers of the world to remove
In What is to be Done by Lenin, he talks about social reform in Russian society. “Social-Democracy must change from a party of the social revolution into a democratic party of social reforms” (Lenin, p. 9). Instead of just merely changing how the government is currently run there must be change to the concept in order to spark a revolution. Lenin adopted this idea from the writing What is Property by Proudhon. According to Lenin, “the Social-Democratic movement is in its very essence an international movement” (p. 26). Lenin understands that in order for there to be a revolution in Russia the entire world may get involved. There are drastic changes that are taking pl...
Lenin appointed Trotsky as the commissioner of war of the “Red Army” or the Bolsheviks, in October of 1918. The Civil War of Reds vs. Whites ended with a substantial amount of bloodshed on October 25th, 1922 when the final opposition was defeated in Siberia. The Red Army and the Bolsheviks finally defeated all enemies that had been any threat to their surmounting power. They officially became the first socialist state to be recognized worldwide as the official government...
In 1905 , Russia had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to correct the problems. So because of his actions, the situation grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary government was set up to decide on what kind of government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two. The leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin was a firm believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and setup a communist state.
Because Marxism was established as their ideology and it created a sense of nationalism with the workers and the peasants because both wanted major reforms and were tired of being the leaders ponds. The Bolshevik Revolution essentially was able to unify these two groups and start a revolution. However, he fall of the tsar, the timing of all the revolutions that were going on at the time and the failure of the government to establish their rule and create new policies for the suffering class made the Bolshevik Revolution happen quickly, essentially it was all due to lucky timing and getting the right people to advocate. The Bolshevik Revolution displayed how a regime is able to come to power due to poor attention to a group of people and how war can be a main factor in disapproving of a
Why the Bolsheviks Won the Civil War The Russian Civil War raged from 1918 until the start of 1921. During this time the Bolsheviks faced massive opposition to their rule in the form of the White Armies, led by the former officers of the Tsarist state, and also from intervention by the forces of foreign countries. The Bolsheviks were surrounded, and often outnumbered by their opponents, and had no experienced military commanders.
Another one of the changes that took place during this time period was the social change that came along with the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was inspired by Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, which brought to the attention of its readers “the dark mood of the political and social landscape of Europe [and outlined the bases for a] socialist revolution” (The Rise of Socialism (Overview)). According to Nadis, this call was answered with the Russian Revolution of 1917 when “the imperial rule of the czars of the Romanov dynasty [was overturned by the working class] and [thus creating] the world’s first communist state.” (Russian Revolution (Overview)). This showed that the working class had a voice and that their perspective
Vladimir Illich Lenin was the first individual to put Marxist ideologies to work. In April 1917 Lenin returned to Russia from his exile in Switzerland to give his 'April Theses.' It was here that Lenin outlined how his revolution was to take place, the Bolshevik Revolution began on November 6 1917. Within a week the Bolsheviks were in control of most of European Russia, and immediately Lenin ordered that the Russians abandon the war against Germany. After abandoning her allies in World War One the Russians were hurled into a civil war. It is here that we first see the ideologies of Totalitarianism and Democracy clash. The democracies of Britain, France, and the United States all sent troops to Russia in the support of the 'Whites,' or enemies of the Bolsheviks. Lenin took the poor country of Russia and turned it into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or U.S.S.R. Through his policies of War Communism and its replacement the NEP Lenin was able to stand the newly formed U.S.S.R. on its own two feet. One of Lenin's ideas was 'International Socialism,' it was under this idea that he set up the Comintern with the purpose of spreading communism throughout the world. His successor, Josef Stalin took a different approach in his ideas of 'Socialism in one country."
Even though he was shot two times; once in the jaw and once in the neck, and survived, these injuries weakened him and eventually lead up and contributed to his early death.
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
Serfs living in Russia were upset about the political decisions going on in Russia and women began to lead riots in Petrograd due to things such as a decrease in bread during the war. Nikolai II, Lenin, and Trotsky all wrote about how the people of Russia needed to be more involved and have more power when it came to the government. They believed that this would benefit Russia in order for there to be a victorious ending to the Russian Revolution. Although all three men did believe that the people should be more involved in government, the power that the people should have differed between the three. Grand Duke Mikhail stated that he would only accept the Supreme Power if that was also what the people of Russia found desirable, but then he requests that the citizens follow the Provisional Government. He agreed that citizens needed more power in the government but also tried to monitor their way of going about being a part of the government. During the Russian Civil War two groups known as the reds and whites went to war against each other. The reds also known as the Bolsheviks were a communist group led by Vladimir Lenin and the whites consisted of all other minorities led by Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Peasants in the minority groups were limited on what they could and could not do with their land but once the war was over they were allowed to earn a profit from their
The Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, during the final phase of World War I. It removed Russia from the war and brought the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia’s traditional monarchy with the world’s first Communist state, The revolution was the second phase of the Russian Revolution, which had two revolutions, one in February and one in October (also called the Bolshevik Revolution), which was by a number people taking over the government called “the Bolsheviks”.