1917 was an extremely volatile year for Russia, during which two complete revolutions of government took place within the space of eight months, and a formerly staunch and inflexible hereditary empire of over two hundred years was completely dismantled. The Russian Empire of the Romanovs was one of the largest in the history of the world, and experienced the implementation of one of the most sophisticated systems of government and civil service, one of the fastest and most far-reaching expansions of national infrastructure, and one of the most feared military forces of the time. Yet by the time of the outbreak of the Russian revolution in February of 1917, the idea of uprising had seemed rather obvious to those both inside and outside of Russia’s
Feuds within the leadership and the lack of useful communication also led to the inability of the Russian army to succeed when it mattered the most. Where many historians credit the failures of the Russian army to is the Russian economy. Stone main point of this book was to discredit that common misconception. His relentless researched had led him to believe that Russia’s failure are accredited to unqualified leadership and unorthodox military organization.
The Romanov Family: Standing for Imperial Russia In the Russian empire there were two dynasties to rule, the Rurikids and the Romanov. Between the Rurikids dynasty (862-1547) there were four certain parts of Russia that were ruled by princes: Novgorod, Kiev, Vladimir, and Moscow. The Tsars of Russia 1547-1721 (ruler of all Russia) was the first to rule.
The Romanovs were the rulers of the Russian Empire from 1613 until the end of Nicholas II’s reign, in July, 1918. Russia was unstable and the 304 years of the Romanov Dynasty ended in the grips of a civil war, The conflict between the revolutionary Bolshevik government and the Anti-Bolshevik forces became their undoing. In August 1917 the new Russian Government feared
1. Communism: Communism is defined as the political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production and the natural resources of a society. This form of government is important because it is backed by the idea of pure equality and is known for being the highest, most advanced form of socialism. Communism fueled the leaders of the Russian Revolution, such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky. When Lenin was called into power after Nicholas II’s abdication, he immediately introduced Communism as Russia’s new form of government.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin seized power and destroyed the tradition of czarist rule. Civil War broke out in Russia between the Red and White Armies. The Red Army fought for the Lenin’s Bolshevik government. The White Army represented a large group of monarchists, capitalists and supporters of democratic socialism.
Patriotic History: 20th century by Igor Dolutsky, discusses twentieth-century Russia through the lens of world capitalistic development of the nineteenth-century and its influences on the Russian Empire at the time. Igor Dolutsky frames his dialogue on twentieth-century Russia by first discussing nineteenth-century western Europe. Particularly, he focuses on the different characteristics during each “echelon” of capitalism. Dolutsky focuses primarily on the bourgeois’s development, growing control, and eventual revolution. The second echelon as he sees it was not entirely capitalistic.
In the 17th century, Russia was considered as a backwards and barbaric country in the eyes of the major powers of Europe. In 1696, Peter Alekseyevich Romanov took reign over the Russian culture. During his time as ruler, he improved most aspects to the way of life for the Russian culture. Peter Alekseyevich Romanov, also well known as Peter The Great, ruled the Russian culture from 1696 to 1726. During his reign, Peter wanted to do many things to change the way of life of Russian culture.
The interesting thing about the Romanov dynasty is from a western perspective it lasted for such a long period of time and yet seemed to fall so fast. This concept suggests that the revolution had been coming since before the appearance of the deranged monk in St Petersburg. The moment many historians trace the revolution back to is the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1881. The legacy of serfdom continued to oppress the peasantry the largest social group in Russia.
Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.
During the 20th century, Russia was experiencing turmoil in war and the country was deeply affected with Tsar Nicholas’s wrong decisions and lack of experience in politics. After the 1917 revolution in Russia, Lenin became the ruler of Russia and the USSR and proved to be the best Russian ruler of the 20th century. Before then, Tsarism dominated and Nicholas II was in power until he foresaw many revolutions against his methods of ruling. He remained as the supreme ruler and did not take actions for reforms. However, after the 1917 revolution, which Lenin masterminded, the Tsar was overthrown and the Bolsheviks established a stable government which took control in Russia.
In 1917, Tsar Nicholas ll is the current ruler of Russia. Russia’s economic growth is increased by the Czar’s reforms of the production of factories. During this era, Russia desperately needed to keep up with the rest of Europe’s industry. This reform worked perfectly, but the working conditions of these factories didn’t charm factory workers. After the events of the Russo-Japanese War, “Bloody Sunday”, and WW1, Russia was in utter chaos under the Czar’s ghastly leadership.
When the officers and newly literate members of the Russian military chased Napoleon through Western Europe they were inevitably exposed to enlightened ideals and the ever increasing voice of the people in political circles. Russia at this time consisted a small number nobility and an overwhelming majority of serfs and peasant farmers. Power was entirely centralized towards on the Tzar and the early signs of the citizens demanding for representation in government and abolition of serfdoms began following the 1812-1813 campaigns. 14 Secondly as an unintended side effect of Napoleon’s invasion the Russian military and to a lesser extent its citizen experienced for the first time a sense of militaristic superiority and dependency on the tactics used.
In analysis of Vera Figner’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist, Figner expressed a few political goals that led her to assume violence as the only answer to the economic, political, and social injustices forced upon the peasants, by the government authority and Russian traditions. All of Figner’s energy was spent in effort to achieve these goals at any cost. These goals were to use influential propaganda, to educate the peasants1, and to kill the Tsar. All of which, were used to motivate a peasant uprising, to remove2 the suppressive Tsarist regime and to give birth to democratically3 free institutions4. To justify her violent means, she used her personal belief that there were no other peaceful ways, that they had not tried, to provide liberty and justice for the peasants.5
The Russian Revolution, which was started by Lenin and his followers, was a rebellion that occurred in 1917 which forced higher powers to act to the needs of the lower class. For instance, many citizens were worried for their protection in consequence to the lack of survival necessities due to an early drought. Furthermore, their current czar during the time was incapable for his position as a czar and made horrendous decisions as czar. For example, when the czar, Nicholas, entered in World War I, he sent untrained troops into countless battles of failure which costed in mass amounts of lost life (paragraph 23).
“Is what you want? A miserable little bourgeois republic? In the name of the great Soviet republic of labour we declare war to the death on such a government!” (Bukharin, 1917) . The Russians were fed up of being poorly treated by their own country, so they decided to take a stance.