The Bolsheviks

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Bolshevik, members of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, which, was led by Lenin, who seized control of the government in Russia and soon became the dominant power. At the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Labor Party in London of 1903, there was a dispute between Lenin and the other leader of the SDLP. Lenin argued for a small party of professional revolutionaries with a large circle of non-party sympathizers and supporters. In the beginning of the 20th century the Russian industrial employees worked on average an 11 hour day. Although the Tsar had been overthrown months earlier, it was not until September 1917 that the Bolshevik party’s rise to power began in earnest. (Campbell, Heather, n.d.) Germans secretly transported the exiled Vladimir Lenin in an enclosed train from Switzerland to Russia in the hope he would increase the chaos. The Bolsheviks lasted long but they wouldn’t last forever.
During the Bloody Sunday, conditions in the factories were extremely harsh and little concern was shown for the workers' health and safety. Attempts by workers to form trade unions were resisted by the factory owners and in 1903, a priest, Father Gapon, made the Assembly of Russian Workers. Within a year it had over 9,000 members. 1904 was a bad year for the people of Russia. Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went out on strike. Tsar Nicholas II became concerned about these events and wrote in his diary: "Since yesterday all the factories and workshops in St. Petersburg have been on strike. Troops have been brought in from the surroundings to strengthen the garrison. The workers have conducted themselves calmly hitherto. Their number is estimated at 120,000. At the head of the workers' union some priest - socialist 8G...

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...the history of the world as we know it. When Czar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life that was maintained. The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution. War would take Russia so long to get back to the way life was before war. (Kreis, Steven, 2000)

Work Cited

“Bloody Sunday”, Spartacus Educational, Simkin, John, September 1997 http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSsunday.htm “Bolshevik”, Encyclopedia Britannica, Campbell, Heather, 1-20-14 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/72272/Bolshevik "The Execution of Tsar Nicholas II, 1918," (N.A.), Eyewitness to History, (2005) http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nicholas.htm “The Bolshevik Takeover: September 1917”, Campos, David, Feb. 23, 2011
http://web.mit.edu/russia1917/papers/0901-BolshevikTakeover.pdf

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