1917_Revolution

1917 was a year of revolution due to many factors;the Tsar was a weak autocratic ruler who was unsuccessful in leading Russia. After the Tsar’s abdication, the provisional government took authorityand was ultimately overthrownby Lenin and the Bolsheviks. History was continuing to repeat itseld as prior to the 1917 revolution, there had been a revolution in 1905.Once the Japanese had overpowered Russia, the republic of Russia began to doubt the Tsar and he, as a result of this became detested. This, in turn, ensued in riots, workers strikes, and atrocious conditions amongst the nation. One occurrence in particular, known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ played a significant role to the 1905 revolution; this is when the workers marched to the winter palace demanding better living and working conditions. It was regarded as a massacre, rather than a peaceful march; it resulted in the army firing into the crowd killing 500 people. As a response, the Tsar established the October manifesto, promising his people a freedom of speech, the right to form political parties, the establishment of a Duma, in which no new laws could pass without their consent. However the Tsar failed to keep his promises, which led to an increase of riots and strikes. August 1914, World War 1 broke out, not only was Russia fighting poorly in World War I, there were high casualty rates, inadequate medical care, shortages of food, guns, and bullets. Soldiers were poorly trained and equipped for a war, only two- thirds had rifles and ammunition was rationed.Thousand of soldiers barely survived the war, and became ill due to the poor state of their clothing and the constant cold weather. In the battle of ‘Tannenberg’ the German army killed 140, 000 Russian soldiers and captured over 100, 000. Strikes and public protests happened in the country with increasing frequency during 1916 and early 1917. Violent encounters between protesters and authorities also increased.The living condition in Russia was harsh; there was inadequate transport, which in turn limited food supplies to the city. With the prices increasing by an average of 300% and with coal, wood and grain in short supply, people were starving and cold that were burning their own house hold furniture to make a fire and keep warm. Russia began in a fragile state, but the war caused it to completely deteriorate.The war was costing Russia nearly five times its budget allowance, it spent most of its money was funded on the war. Russia suffered due to the poor decision making by the Tsar, instead of improvement her made two mistakes, which led to his downfall. First he got rid of the commander-in-chief of the army and took over himself; however who was going to take care of the empire while he was gone' As a result he left the Tsarina in charge of the government. She had become increasingly under the influence of the one man who seemingly had the power to help her son, Alexandra believed that Rasputin was a man of God and referred to him as “Our Friend”. Others, horrified at his influence over the tsarina, called him the “Mad Monk”. Rumours that the tsarina and Rasputin were German spies. Russian people blamed the crisis they were in on the tsarina and Rasputin. On February 23, 1917, a huge gathering of working-class women gathered in the center of Petrograd to mark International Women’s Day. The gathering took form of a protest calling for “bread and peace.” The gathering began peacefully, but by the next morning it turned ferocious as the women were joined by hundreds of thousands of male workers who went on strike and flooded the streets, openly calling for an end to the war as well as displaying acts of hatred toward the monarchy. Feeding on their outrage with each passing day, the demonstrations became larger and rowdier; the outnumbered police were unable to control the crowds. With news of the unrest, Tsar Nicholas II, who was away visiting his troops on the front, sent a telegram to Petrograd’s military commander, ordering him to bring an end to the riots by the next day. They tried with all their effort to follow the tsar’s order, resulting in several troops firing upon the crowds. The troops fell into chaos, as many soldiers felt more empathy for the crowds than for the tsar. The next day, more than 80,000 troops mutinied and joined with the crowds, in many cases they directly fought the police. The Tsar finally noticed the situation was getting out of hand so he made his way home to then realize that his generals no longer supported him. Nicholas II finally gave in on March 2. This played a significant event to the February revolution. The abdication of the tsar, left the people of Russia without a ruler. It was at this time that two new political bodies were formed; the provisional government and the Petrograd soviet. At first the provisional government and the Petrograd soviet worked together and were supported by the revolutionary parties. All the wealthy noble land owning families were most of the members in the newly elected government. In July 1917 Kerensky became prime minister of the provisional government. The provisional government made many mistakes, which led them to fail to win the support of the Russian population. The dominant problem was that Russia continued involvement in the First World War, all the people wanted peace and a relief from commotion. Another issue, which did not help the provisional government in winning the support of the people,was,it refused to give land to the poor peasants in the countryside areas.The Provisional Government did not understand the desires of the underprivileged, as they were all men from the middle working class society. To survive the peasants needed land and Kerensky refused this. Kerensky also lacked focus of economic problems Russia was facing at the time. Rather than focusing on the internal problems like food and fuel shortages, an unstable society, they focused on the war that wasn’t even in Russia. The provisional government had to overcome two challenges to its authority one of them was known as the July days. Russian continued to perform badly in the war, food was still very limited and the food that was available was too expensive for the people to afford. Soldiers and sailors took to the streets of Petrograd in July 1917 and workers in the factories soon joined them.Riots occurred on July 16th and 17th against the Provisional Government. The government brought in troops loyal to it and they ended the riots. Lenin had returned to Russia as the provisional government released a policy allowing all exiled Bolshevik leaders to return. At his arrival the government for starting these riots, when really he had little to do with it blamed him. Lenin was able to speak openly his first attack on the provisional government was n speech in which common slogans came about from it, slogans that represented the Bolsheviks; “peace,land, bread and all power to the soviets”. This was a promise that he wanted to end the war, give land to the countryside and also resolve the food shortages. These slogans gained the peoples support for Lenin. From the moment of his return through late October 1917, Lenin worked for a single goal: to place Russia under Bolshevik control as quickly as possible. On April 7, the Bolshevik newspaper Pravdapublished the ideas contained in Lenin’s speeches, which collectively came to be known as the April Theses. The Kornilov affair was lead by an army officer called Lavr Kornilov. He wanted the government to deal much more harshly with the communists. He believed that the Provisional Government was too soft. Many other army officers supported him; Kornilov demanded that all socialists and communists should be arrested. - Kerensky refused to be seem as weak and if anyone was going to order someone to be arrested it would Kerensky and no one else. Kornilov gathered troops together and marched on Petrograd. They were faced with soldiers and 20,000 Red Guards. This was a new force created by the workers of Petrograd to defend the city. Kornilov did not stand a chance against them and his attempt to take over failed. While it may appear that Kerensky came out of this well, the real winners were the communists. The Red Guards were recognized with saving the city and the workers who made the Red Guards were sympathetic to the communists. Ironically, the man who gained most from this was not even in Russia as Lenin was still in Finland. Kerensky had lost a large number of reinforce and his power was rapidly disappearing. Lenin had to rely on the Petrograd Soviet. This was a group of workers and soldiers who had formed in 1917. Due to the defeat of Kornilov the Bolshevik support grew rapidly. With Russian politics still in a state of constant divergencesLenin realized that now was the time to make the most of on his party's popularity. He planned that he would overthrow the Provisional Government and replace them with the Bolsheviks. On October 10th he held a meeting with twelve party leaders, and tried to convince them that a revolution was necessary. October 24th troops loyal to the Bolsheviks took up important positions in the city, such as the main telephone and telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, post offices, and major bridges. Guards commissioned by the Provisional Government, who had got wind of the plot, fled or surrendered without a fight. By the 25th October every key building in St. Petersburg was under Bolshevik control, except the Winter Palace where Kerensky and the other Ministers were hiding up with a small guard, Kerensky fled the Palace by car, never to return to Russia. On the 26th the Palace was taken with barely a shot fired, and Lenin's October Revolution had been achieved with no bloodshed.