Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917, series of events in imperial Russia that culminated in 1917 with the establishment of the Soviet state that became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The two successful revolutions of 1917 are referred to collectively as the Russian Revolution.

The first revolution overthrew the autocratic imperial monarchy. It began with a revolt on February 23 to 27, 1917, according to the Julian, or Old Style, calendar then in use in Russia. (On January 31, 1918, the Soviet government adopted the Gregorian, or New Style, calendar, which moved dates by thirteen days; therefore, in the New Style calendar the dates for the first revolution would be March 8 to 12. Events discussed in this article that occurred before January 31, 1918, are given according to the Julian calendar.)

The second revolution, which opened with the armed insurrection of October 24 and 25, organized by the Bolshevik Party against the Provisional Government, effected a change in all economic, political, and social relationships in Russian society; it is often designated the Bolshevik, or October, Revolution.

Background

The underlying causes of the Russian Revolution are rooted deep in Russia's history. For centuries, autocratic and repressive czarist regimes ruled the country and most of the population lived under severe economic and social conditions. During the 19th century and early 20th century various movements aimed at overthrowing the oppressive government were staged at different times by students, workers, peasants, and members of the nobility. Two of these unsuccessful movements were the 1825 revolt against Nicholas I and the revolution of 1905, both of which were attempts to establish a constitutional monarchy (see Russia: History). Russia's badly organized and unsuccessful involvement in World War I (1914-1918) added to popular discontent with the government's corruption and inefficiency. In 1917 these events resulted in the fall of the czarist government and the establishment of the Bolshevik Party, a radical offshoot of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, as the ruling power (see Bolshevism).

The February Revolution   

The immediate cause of the February Revolution of 1917 was the collapse of the czarist regime under the gigantic strain of World War I. The underlying cause was the backward economic condition of the country, which made it unable to sustain the war effort against powerful, industrialized Germany. Russian manpower was virtually inexhaustible. Russian industry, however, lacked the capacity to arm, equip, and supply the some 15 million men who were sent into the war. Factories were few and insufficiently productive, and the railroad network was inadequate. Repeated mobilizations, moreover, disrupted industrial and agricultural production. The food supply decreased, and the transportation system became disorganized. In the trenches, the soldiers went hungry and frequently lacked shoes or munitions, sometimes even weapons. Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any army in any previous war. Behind the front, goods became scarce, prices skyrocketed, and by 1917 famine threatened the larger cities. Discontent became rife, and the morale of the army suffered, finally to be undermined by a succession of military defeats. These reverses were attributed by many to the alleged treachery of Empress Alexandra and her circle, in which the peasant monk Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was the dominant influence. When the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, protested against the inefficient conduct of the war and the arbitrary policies of the imperial government, the czar—Emperor Nicholas II—and his ministers simply brushed it aside.

Mounting Crisis

At first all parties except a small group within the Social Democratic Party supported the war. The government received much aid in the war effort from voluntary committees, including representatives of business and labor. The growing breakdown of supply, made worse by the almost complete isolation of Russia from its prewar markets, was felt especially in the major cities, which were flooded with refugees from the front. Despite an outward calm, many Duma leaders felt that Russia would soon be confronted with a new revolutionary crisis. By 1915 the liberal parties had formed a progressive bloc that gained a majority in the Duma.

As the tide of discontent mounted, the Duma warned Nicholas II in November 1916 that disaster would overtake the country unless the "dark" (treasonable) elements were removed from the court and a constitutional form of government was instituted. The emperor ignored the warning. Late in December a group of aristocrats, led by Prince Feliks Yusupov, assassinated Rasputin in the hope that the emperor would then change his course. The emperor responded by showing favor to Rasputin's followers at court. Talk of a palace revolution in order to avert a greater impending upheaval became widespread, especially among the upper ranks.

Strikes and Demonstrations

The Revolution of 1917 grew out of a mounting wave of food and wage strikes in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) during February. On February 23 meetings and demonstrations in which the principal slogan was a demand for bread were held, supported by the 90,000 men and women on strike in the national capital. Encounters with the police were numerous, but the workers refused to disperse and continued to occupy the streets. Tension steadily increased but no casualties resulted.

Agitation grew the following day, February 24, until it involved about half the workers of Petrograd. The slogans now were bolder: "Down with the war!" "Down with autocracy!" On February 25 the strike became general throughout the capital. During these two days violent encounters took place with the police, with casualties on both sides. The dreaded cossack troops, however, which had been called out to support the police, showed little enthusiasm for breaking up the demonstrations (see Cossacks). The workers captured several police stations, seized the small arms inside, and then burned the stations to the ground; the police went into hiding. The first elections to the Petrograd Soviet (council) of Workers' Deputies were held in several factories, on the model of the Soviet of 1905, which had been formed during a revolution at the end of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

Confrontation with Troops

On February 26 the troops of the Petrograd garrison were called out to suppress the uprising. When the workers and soldiers came face to face in the streets, the workers tried to fraternize with the soldiers. In some of these encounters the troops were hostile and fired on order, killing a number of workers. The workers fled, but did not abandon the streets. As soon as the firing ceased they returned to confront the soldiers. In subsequent encounters the troops wavered when ordered to fire, allowing the workers to pass through their lines. Nicholas dissolved the Duma; the deputies accepted the decree but reassembled privately and elected a provisional committee of the State Duma to act in its place. On February 27 the revolution triumphed. Regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison went over to the people. Within 24 hours the entire garrison, approximately 150,000 men, joined the revolution, and the united workers and soldiers took control of the capital. The uprising claimed about 1500 victims.

The Petrograd Soviet

The imperial government was quickly dispersed. Effective political power subsequently was exercised by two new bodies, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and a Provisional Government formed by the provisional committee of the Duma. The Soviet, a representative body of elected deputies, immediately appointed a commission to cope with the problem of ensuring a food supply for the capital, placed detachments of revolutionary soldiers in the government offices, and ordered the release of thousands of political prisoners. On February 28 the Soviet ordered the arrest of Nicholas's ministers and began publishing an official organ, Izvestia (Russian for "news"). On March 1 it issued its famous Order No. 1. By the terms of this order, the soldiers of the army and the sailors of the fleet were to submit to the authority of the Soviet and its committees in all political matters; they were to obey only those orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet; they were to elect committees that would exercise exclusive control over all weapons; on duty, they were to observe strict military discipline, but harsh and contemptuous treatment by the officers was forbidden; disputes between soldiers' committees and officers were to be referred to the Soviet for disposition; off-duty soldiers and sailors were to enjoy full civil and political rights; and saluting of officers was abolished. Subsequent efforts by the Soviet to limit and nullify its own Order No. 1 were unavailing, and it continued in force.

The Petrograd Soviet easily could have assumed complete power in the capital, but it failed to do so. The great majority of its members, believing that revolutionary Russia must wage a war of defense against German imperialism, did not want to risk disorganizing the war effort. Taken by surprise, as were all the political parties, by the outbreak of the revolution, the working-class parties were unable to give the workers and soldiers in the Soviet strong political leadership. Even the Bolsheviks, who, in a sense, had been preparing for the revolution since at least the early 1900s, had been unaware of its imminence and had no program to take advantage of the situation. It was not until April 16, with the return from Switzerland of their exiled leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, that the Bolsheviks put forward a demand for immediate seizure of land by the peasantry, establishment of workers' control in industry, an end to the war, and transfer of "all power to the Soviets." In the Petrograd Soviet, however, the Bolsheviks were then a small minority. The majority was composed of Mensheviks (see Bolshevism) and Socialist Revolutionaries. The Mensheviks envisioned a period of capitalist development and complete political democracy as the essential prerequisite for a socialist order; in the main, they supported continuation of the war. Most of the leading Socialist Revolutionaries, a peasant party with vague socialist aspirations, also advocated continuation of the war. Under the leadership of the moderate majority, the Petrograd Soviet recognized the newly established Provisional Government as the legal authority in Russia.

The Provisional Government

On February 27 the provisional committee of the Duma announced that it would handle restoration of order, and on February 28 it placed its commissars (representatives) in charge of the ministries. The provisional committee formed the Provisional Government and demanded the abdication of the czar. Nicholas abdicated March 2 in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich. Aleksandrovich, however, stipulated that he would accept the crown only at the request of a future constituent assembly. The Provisional Government, except for the addition of the socialist leader Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kerensky, was made up of the same liberal leaders who had organized the progressive bloc in the Duma in 1915. The prime minister, Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov, was a wealthy landowner and a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), which favored an immediate constitutional monarchy and ultimately a republic. Lvov was largely a figurehead; the outstanding personality in the Provisional Government until early May was Pavel Milyukov, minister of foreign affairs and strongest leader of the Kadets since its founding in 1905. He played the principal role in formulating policy. Kerensky, the minister of justice, who had been leader of the Trudovik ("laborite") faction in the Duma, was the only representative of moderate socialist opinion in the Provisional Government.

Spread of the revolution   

After the success in Petrograd the Revolution spread throughout the country. Following the same basic course as it had in the capital, it resulted also in the creation of two parallel systems of government, in which soviets functioned side by side with authorities who were in communication with the Provisional Government.

Recognized by the Petrograd Soviet and by the command of the army and navy, the Provisional Government enjoyed widespread popularity at first. It disbanded the czarist police, repealed all limitations on freedom of opinion, press, and association, and put an end to all laws discriminating against national or religious groups. The Provisional Government also recognized the right of Poland to be a free and independent state, but it had no firm basis of authority. The Duma, from which it derived, could give no support, for that body was not genuinely representative of the masses. Unable to command, the government could not appeal to a war-weary, impatient people. Its plight was succinctly summed up by the minister of war, Aleksandr Guchkov: "The government, alas, has no real power; the troops, the railroads, the post, and telegraph are in the hands of the Soviet. The simple fact is that the Provisional Government exists only so long as the Soviet permits it."

Postponement of Decisions

With respect to crucial social problems, the Provisional Government claimed that, being provisional, it could not make fundamental changes such as confiscating land and distributing it to the peasants. All basic changes had to be postponed for decision by a constituent assembly, but the election of such an assembly was put off on the grounds that a large part of the country was under enemy occupation. Actually, the liberals of the Provisional Government realized that power in the constituent assembly would pass from their hands to the various socialist parties, and that their only hope of retaining it was to wait for an Allied victory in the war.

War or Peace

The Provisional Government split with the Petrograd Soviet on the question of war aims. On March 6 the Provisional Government pledged itself to continue the war until victory was won and to "unswervingly carry out the agreements made with our allies." Milyukov previously had informed the Provisional Government that these agreements included secret treaties providing for the acquisition of Constantinople (now called Istanbul) by Russia and the annexation of other territory. The Petrograd Soviet disclaimed all demands for annexations and reparations and called upon the peoples of the warring countries to force their governments to negotiate peace. The Soviet condemned Milyukov's pledge, and although the two bodies found a vague compromise, the conflict was not resolved during the existence of the Provisional Government. Not even the Soviet was fully aware then of the widespread unwillingness of the Russian people to continue the war.

The eight months following the formation of the Provisional Government were marked by antagonism between the government and the Petrograd Soviet that eventually grew to open conflict. Essential in this development was the political transformation of the soviets, from institutions supporting parliamentary democracy into instruments for revolutionary socialism. Two principal causes of this transformation may be distinguished. The first was the government's policy of postponing for future determination by a constituent assembly the solution of such pressing problems as economic disorganization, the continued food crisis, industrial reforms, redistribution of land to peasants, and the growth of counterrevolutionary forces. The government, instead, devoted most of its energy to a continuation of the war. The second cause, a logical consequence of the first, was the growing conviction of the workers and peasants that their problems could be solved only by the soviets, a conviction that was decisively molded by Bolshevik propaganda following the April arrival in Petrograd of Lenin.

Before Lenin's return from exile in April, Bolshevik policy had been formulated by such leaders as Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin, who favored conditional support of the Provisional Government and were in the process of making a political bloc with the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. At the All-Russian Conference of Bolshevik Party Workers, convened in Petrograd on March 29, the only speaker who advocated seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and establishment of a proletarian dictatorship was ruled out of order. The conference did consider the question of unification with the Mensheviks, a process already taking place in the provinces in consequence of the moderate political program of the Bolshevik leaders.

Growth of Bolshevik Influence

Returning to Russia on April 3, Lenin arrived in Petrograd during the All-Russian Conference of Bolshevik Party Workers. In his first address to the delegates, he advocated uncompromising opposition to the war and the Provisional Government and irreconcilable hostility toward all supporters of both; he proposed that the party struggle for the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship. At the same time he declared that the Bolsheviks, who were a small minority, confronted a task, not of the immediate seizure of power, but of patient propaganda to convince a majority of the workers of the soundness of Bolshevik policy. Opposed at first by virtually the entire Bolshevik leadership, Lenin quickly succeeded in converting the party to his course. Bolshevik policy was thereafter directed toward the assumption of full power by the soviets, immediate termination of the war, planned and organized seizure of the land by the peasants, and control by the workers of industrial production. Bolshevik propaganda themes were exemplified in the slogans "Peace, Land, Bread" and "All Power to the Soviets." The exiled revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who arrived in Petrograd in May from America, agreed with Lenin's policy and joined the Bolshevik Party.

Developments favored the Bolshevik cause. On April 18 Milyukov sent a note to the Allied governments, promising to continue the war to a victorious conclusion; in ambiguous language, the note also pledged his support of the Provisional Government to a policy of annexing foreign territory and imposing indemnities on defeated nations. This pronouncement, in sharp contrast with the earlier declaration "to the people of the whole world" issued by the Petrograd Soviet on March 14 calling for peace without annexations and indemnities, provoked armed demonstrations of protest by workers and soldiers in the capital. Contrary to the proposal of General Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov to quell the demonstrations by force, the Petrograd Soviet, which assumed sole command of the garrison of the capital, ordered all troops to remain in their barracks. As a result of the political crisis, Milyukov and Guchkov resigned, and the government was reorganized on May 5 to include representatives of the socialist parties, which received 6 of the 15 portfolios; Kerensky became minister of war.

First Congress of Soviets

The crisis stimulated considerable growth in the Bolshevik Party, but it still held only a minority of the delegates to the first all-Russian Congress of Soviets, which convened in Petrograd on June 3. This congress was dominated by the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The coalition government, meanwhile, had taken office amid a deepening economic and social crisis. Failure to provide the cities with grain aggravated the danger of famine, and inflation and suffering rapidly increased. In industry, the growing power of the workers induced economic defeatism and lockouts on the part of employers. The more conservative groups demanded that the government adopt a strong policy and call a halt to the revolution. The workers responded with economic and political strikes and with demands that the government institute measures to cope with the crisis. The Congress of Soviets, which supported the government, declared in favor of state monopolies of bread and other necessary items. The government, however, like its predecessor, subordinated all problems to the prosecution of the war. On June 16 Kerensky ordered an offensive that ended in a complete defeat and the virtual disorganization of the army—all of which added credibility to Bolshevik propaganda. Discipline broke down, and millions of soldiers streamed home from the front to escape further fighting and to take part in the division of the land.

The July Uprising

During the ill-fated offensive, the opposition by workers and soldiers in Petrograd to a renewal of military hostilities forced the Congress of Soviets to adopt a resolution calling for the abolition of the Duma—that is, the political base of the Provisional Government—and setting September 30 as the date for the convocation of a constituent assembly. A mammoth demonstration of about 400,000 Petrograd workers, organized by the Congress of Soviets during the offensive, unexpectedly revealed that the Bolshevik influence was very strong in the working class of the capital; the prevailing slogans in the demonstrations were "Down with the Offensive" and again "All Power to the Soviets." On July 3, 4, and 5, this mounting impatience, perhaps quickened by the resignation of the Kadet ministers over the issue of Ukrainian autonomy, was expressed in an impromptu armed demonstration of 500,000 workers, soldiers of the city garrison, and sailors of the nearby naval fortress of Kronstadt. The demonstrators denounced the government and converged on the Tauride Palace, where the Congress of Soviets was in session, to force it to assume sole power.

Bolshevik Leadership

Caught by surprise, the Bolshevik leadership at first attempted to restrain the masses, but when that proved impossible, the party openly placed itself at the head of the movement, with the declared intention of keeping the demonstration peaceful. In this the Bolsheviks were largely successful. Their policy was motivated by the consideration that they could have seized power easily in the capital but could not have held it in the rest of the country without support by a majority of the soldiers at the front and of the peasants in the provinces. The executive committee of the Congress of Soviets denounced the demonstration as a counterrevolutionary Bolshevik insurrection and summoned troops from the front to disperse the demonstrators. The troops, arriving on July 5, when the demonstration had run its course, placed themselves at the disposition solely of the Congress of Soviets, in effect recognizing it as the supreme governing authority in the country. On July 10 Kerensky succeeded Lvov as prime minister, and on July 23 a second coalition government, including the Socialist and Kadet wings, was formed, with Kerensky and his political friends holding the decisive posts.