The Revolution in Russia
In the last years of World War I a Revolution in Russia overthrew the Tsar and eventually led to the establishment of the world's first avowedly Communist state. The Soviet Union that rose out of the ashes of the Russian Empire would play a critical role in the events of the remainder of the century.
A useful way of understanding the course of the Russian Revolution in 1917 is to compare it to a wildfire. In this metaphor, the instability of late Imperial Russia and the deep dissatisfaction of large segments of its population provided plentiful fuel for the fire that was sparked by the disastrous course of the First World War. Although the vast majority of the population was initially cheered when the Imperial government went up in flames, moderates soon began to worry that they too would be consumed if the blaze was allowed to spread. Their caution backfired, however, as they gradually lost the respect and trust of the population. As their authority broke down, the inferno spread out of control, benefiting radicals willing to go along with the growing anarchy and support the demands of the people. The militant Bolshevik Party was the group best able to ride the firestorm into power, which they seized in the famous October Revolution. They went along with the revolution until it burned itself out, and were then able to consolidate their position as the absolute rulers of the country.
Dead Wood
Despite being one of the world's largest, most powerful and most feared nations, late Imperial Russia rested on unstable foundations. The peasantry, the industrial workers and progressives were all deeply dissatisfied. Moreover, they had little hope of improving their situation through peaceful means. ...
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12 Figes, People's Tragedy, 360.
13 Ibid., 430.
14 This phrase is often attributed to either Lenin or his associate Leon Trotsky.
15 1917 god v derevne Vospominaniia krestian (Moscow, 1967), 3
16 Except for a temporary decline during the harvest period. See Lazar Volin, A Century of Russian Agriculture: From Alexander II to Khrushev (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), 125.
17 1917 god v derevne, 3
18 Ibid., 4.
19 Figes, People's Tragedy, 433-434.
20 N. N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution, ed. Joel Carmichael (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 470.
21 See David Schaich, The Bolsheviks, the Masses, and October for further discussion.
22 History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960), 260-261.
23 See David Schaich, The Bolsheviks, the Masses, and October for further discussion.
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
No war is fought without the struggle for resources, and with Russia still rapidly lagging behind in the international industrialisation race by the turn of the 20th century, the stage was set for social unrest and uprising against its already uncoordinated and temporally displaced government. With inconceivable demands for soldiers, cavalry and warfare paraphernalia, Russia stood little chance in the face of the great powers of World War One. Shortages of basic human necessities led to countless subsistence riots and the eventual power struggle between the ruling body and its people. From the beginnings of WWI to 1916, prices of essential goods rose 131 percent in Moscow and more than 150 percent in Petrograd. Additionally, historian Walter G. Moss stated that in September 1915 that “there were 100,000 strikers in Russia; in October 1916, there were 250,000 in Petrograd alone.” Moss continues to exemplify the increasing evidence of social unrest and connects the riots to a lack of resources when he goes on to point out that “subsistence riots protesting high prices and shortages… also increased.” ...
While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the Castro regime’s subsequent alliance with the Soviet Union, Cuba emerged to play a substantial global role in Cold War politics. Most famously, Cuba featured as the staging ground for the super power confrontation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Moreover, throughout the Cold War, Cuba provided near constant support for revolutionary movements across the Latin American region. Finally, Cuba provided crucial and direct military support for Marxist regimes in Africa through the mid 1970s until the early 1990s.
Most popular uprisings in recent history have been characterized by a brief period of incredible potential and hope, only to collapse in failure and despair. Even the supposedly 'successful' Russian Revolution of 1917 followed this pattern. Revolutionaries threw off centuries of imperial rule and oppression in order to create a new world of freedom, peace and equality... only to end up with Stalin, purges, gulags, dekulakization - and ultimately decades of Bolshevik1 rule and oppression. Although it can sometimes be disheartening to review this long history of failure and oppression, valuable insights can be gained by investigating these past revolutions. The achievements and promise of the revolutionaries can be studied and their strengths marked. The weaknesses that led to their eventual defeat and decay must also be understood, so that the same mistakes are not made again. This article will address these themes in the context of the Russian Revolution at the Kronstadt navel base.2
I recollect as a child how I cherished the way my mom took care of me and made all my executive decisions. I recall getting excited about my weekly allowances and about her picking out my clothes for school. However, when I became a teenager I wanted my independence. I know longer wanted her to buy my clothing and I wanted to financially support myself by getting a job. I was so tired of her telling me what to do and how to do it that I revolted. At first it was difficult trying to establish independence in my mother's house, but after a while it seemed as if I had won the battle. Unbeknownst to me that battle would be short-lived and ultimately my mom won the war. Basically, I had constructed my own crazy revolution against my mother. You see a revolution is “a fundamental change in political organization; especially: the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed .Activity or movement designed to affect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation (Webster Dictionary).”One revolution that is said to have inspired communism was the Russian Revolutions of 1917.
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.
Wood, A. (1986). The Russian Revolution. Seminar Studies in History. (2) Longman, p 1-98. ISBSN 0582355591, 9780582355590
In February of 1917 a group of female factory workers and led a revolt in which the Tsar was dethroned, only to be replaced by a provisionary government composed of the Russian elite. When this government did not live up to its promises of an end to Russian involvement in World War I, the Bolsheviks (“majority”), a revolutionary movement led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisionary government in what bacame known as the October revolution.
A. Soviet History. Marxists.org. 2010. Web. The Web. The Web.
The Bronte’s, and Alexander, Christine. Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal. U.S.A, The Oxford Press. 2010. Print.
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.
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.
Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords, while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite.
Technology and innovation have transformed the way people function personally and professionally. In the past, writing and mailing a letter was standard but now most people send electronic messages and text messages to phones. Healthcare has been changing tremendously as well, not only are paper charts and records becoming obsolete, but now many facilities are sharing test results, visit information details, and prescribed drug lists. This move into the digital age has helped improve healthcare by cutting costs in the long-term, increasing efficiency with decreased wait times, and reducing medical errors. This evolving technology expansion, commonly referred to as nursing informatics has created many opportunities for nursing professionals with information technology experience to move into this growing field.