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97-697: The Mezhraiontsy merged with the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution of 1917 . Russian social democrats had been split into numerous factions along political and ethnic lines since at least 1903 when the original divisions between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks arose. After the defeat of the Russian Revolution of 1905 , both the Bolshevik and the Menshevik factions split into smaller factions. In January 1912,

194-506: A centrist position between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. At the outbreak of World War I in July–August 1914 and the subsequent change of St. Petersburg's name to "Petrograd", the faction lines within the RSDLP were drastically redrawn over the issue of support for the war. Those who supported the war were called "Defensists", and those who were opposed to it were called "Defeatists". Most members of

291-601: A citywide council to unite these deputies with representatives of the socialist parties. On 27 February, socialist Duma deputies, mainly Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, took the lead in organizing a citywide council. The Petrograd Soviet met in the Tauride Palace , room 13, permitted by the Provisional Government. The leaders of the Petrograd Soviet believed that they represented particular classes of

388-465: A constituent assembly, and so on). They met in the same building as the emerging Provisional Government not to compete with the Duma Committee for state power, but to best exert pressure on the new government, to act, in other words, as a popular democratic lobby. The relationship between these two major powers was complex from the beginning and would shape the politics of 1917. The representatives of

485-506: A democratically elected parliament (the State Duma ). Although the Tsar accepted the 1906 Fundamental State Laws one year later, he subsequently dismissed the first two Dumas when they proved uncooperative. Unfulfilled hopes of democracy fueled revolutionary ideas and violent outbursts targeted at the monarchy. One of the Tsar's principal rationales for risking war in 1914 was his desire to restore

582-523: A firm belief that his power to rule was granted by Divine Right , Nicholas assumed that the Russian people were devoted to him with unquestioning loyalty. This ironclad belief rendered Nicholas unwilling to allow the progressive reforms that might have alleviated the suffering of the Russian people. Even after the 1905 Revolution spurred the Tsar to decree limited civil rights and democratic representation, he worked to limit even these liberties in order to preserve

679-459: A foreign war would mitigate the social unrest over the persistent issues of poverty, inequality, and inhumane working conditions. Instead of restoring Russia's political and military standing, World War I led to the slaughter of Russian troops and military defeats that undermined both the monarchy and Russian society to the point of collapse. The outbreak of war in August 1914 initially served to quiet

776-483: A higher cost of living, but with little increase in income. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming . Thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time, rising prices led to demands for higher wages in the factories, and in January and February 1916, revolutionary propaganda , in part aided by German funds, led to widespread strikes. This resulted in growing criticism of

873-517: A possibility, the war made it logistically difficult. Eventually, German officials arranged for Lenin to pass through their territory, hoping that his activities would weaken Russia or even – if the Bolsheviks came to power – lead to Russia's withdrawal from the war. Lenin and his associates, however, had to agree to travel to Russia in a sealed train : Germany would not take the chance that he would foment revolution in Germany. After passing through

970-400: A problem especially in the capital, St. Petersburg , where distance from supplies and poor transportation networks made matters particularly worse. Shops closed early or entirely for lack of bread, sugar, meat, and other provisions, and lines lengthened massively for what remained. Conditions became increasingly difficult to afford food and physically obtain it. Strikes increased steadily from

1067-528: A socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a civil war . It can also be seen as the precursor for the other revolutions that occurred in the aftermath of World War I , such as the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . The Russian Revolution was one of the key events of the 20th century . The Russian Revolution was inaugurated with the February Revolution in early 1917, in

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1164-460: A source of comfort and reassurance in the face of difficult conditions and as a means of political authority exercised through the clergy. Perhaps more than any other modern monarch, Nicholas II attached his fate and the future of his dynasty to the notion of the ruler as a saintly and infallible father to his people. This vision of the Romanov monarchy left him unaware of the state of his country. With

1261-539: A terrible disaster would grip the country unless a constitutional form of government was put in place. Nicholas ignored these warnings and Russia's Tsarist regime collapsed a few months later during the February Revolution of 1917. One year later, the Tsar and his entire family were executed. At the beginning of February, Petrograd workers began several strikes and demonstrations. On 7 March [ O.S. 22 February], Putilov , Petrograd's largest industrial plant

1358-423: A total of nearly 5,000,000 men. These staggering losses played a definite role in the mutinies and revolts that began to occur. In 1916, reports of fraternizing with the enemy began to circulate. Soldiers went hungry, lacked shoes, munitions, and even weapons. Rampant discontent lowered morale, which was further undermined by a series of military defeats. Casualty rates were the most vivid sign of this disaster. By

1455-547: A violently anti-German stand, while Alexander Parvus supported the German war effort as the best means of ensuring a revolution in Russia. The Mensheviks largely maintained that Russia had the right to defend herself against Germany, although Julius Martov (a prominent Menshevik), now on the left of his group, demanded an end to the war and a settlement on the basis of national self-determination, with no annexations or indemnities. It

1552-588: The Romanov family . A short wave of patriotic nationalism ended in the face of defeats and poor conditions on the Eastern Front of World War I . The Tsar made the situation worse by taking personal control of the Imperial Russian Army in 1915, a challenge far beyond his skills. He was now held personally responsible for Russia's continuing defeats and losses. In addition, Tsarina Alexandra , left to rule while

1649-748: The Russian Civil War concluded with the defeat of the White Army and most separatist factions, leading to mass emigration from Russia . The victorious Bolshevik Party reconstituted itself into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and would remain in power for the following 69 years. The Russian Revolution of 1905 was a major factor contributing to the cause of the Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered nationwide protests and soldier mutinies . A council of workers called

1746-579: The Russian Civil War , Manuilsky worked in the People's Commissariat for Food , before being sent to Ukraine, where Lenin assigned him the task of organising the peasant population around Kharkiv to defeat the White Army of Anton Denikin . In January 1919, he and Inessa Armand were sent to Paris, in the hope they could stoke a revolution in France, but he was arrested and deported. He was People's Commissar for Food in

1843-579: The Russian Duma (the parliament). During the civil unrest, soviet councils were formed by the locals in Petrograd that initially did not oppose the new Provisional Government; however, the Soviets did insist on their influence in the government and control over various militias. By March, Russia had two rival governments . The Provisional Government held state power in military and international affairs, whereas

1940-582: The Russian Empire . The RSFSR initially focused its efforts on the newly independent republics of Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Georgia , and Ukraine . Wartime cohesion and intervention from foreign powers prompted the RSFSR to begin unifying these nations under one flag and created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Historians generally consider the end of the revolutionary period to be in 1922, when

2037-525: The Social-Democrats or Mensheviks , Social Revolutionaries , and Anarchists , as well as the Bolsheviks , a far-left party led by Vladimir Lenin . Initially the Bolsheviks were a marginal faction; however, they won popularity with their program promising peace, land, and bread : cease war with Germany, give land to the peasantry, and end the wartime famine. Despite the virtually universal hatred of

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2134-622: The St. Petersburg Soviet was created in this chaos. While the 1905 Revolution was ultimately crushed, and the leaders of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested, this laid the groundwork for the later Petrograd Soviet and other revolutionary movements during the leadup to 1917. The 1905 Revolution also led to the creation of a Duma (parliament) that would later form the Provisional Government following February 1917. Russia's poor performance in 1914–1915 prompted growing complaints directed at Tsar Nicholas II and

2231-611: The Tsarevich . Nicholas nominated his brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich , to succeed him. But the Grand Duke realised that he would have little support as ruler, so he declined the crown on 16 March [ O.S. 3 March], stating that he would take it only if that was the consensus of democratic action. Six days later, Nicholas, no longer Tsar and addressed with contempt by the sentries as "Nicholas Romanov",

2328-416: The poor railway system , workers abandoned the cities in droves seeking food. Finally, the soldiers themselves, who suffered from a lack of equipment and protection from the elements, began to turn against the Tsar. This was mainly because, as the war progressed, many of the officers who were loyal to the Tsar were killed, being replaced by discontented conscripts from the major cities who had little loyalty to

2425-546: The Bolshevik commissar Leon Trotsky began organizing workers' militias loyal to the Bolsheviks into the Red Army . While key events occurred in Moscow and Petrograd, every city in the empire was convulsed, including the provinces of national minorities, and in the rural areas peasants took over and redistributed land. As the war progressed, the RSFSR began to establish Soviet power in the newly independent republics that seceded from

2522-727: The Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904. During the 1905 revolution he was assigned by the Bolsheviks to the naval base in Kronstadt where he took part in the naval revolt in July. Arrested, he was held in Kronstadt prison in 1905–06, then exiled, but escaped, arriving in Kiev and then, in 1907, to Paris. There he aligned with the ultra-left group led by Alexander Bogdanov , who challenged Lenin for

2619-626: The Bolshevik one was called RSDRP(b) and the Menshevik one RSDLP(m). As a result of the developments, by late 1912 there were two separate social democratic organizations in St. Petersburg , the capital of the Russian Empire . The Bolsheviks had their "St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP (Bolsheviks)", and the "August Bloc" supporters had their "Initiative Group of the RSDLP". Some St. Petersburg social democrats were unhappy with that split and created an alternative organization that would, they hoped, eventually unite all fragments of revolutionary social democracy in Russia. The only exception that they made

2716-486: The Central War Industries Committee about a possible coup to force the abdication of the Tsar. In December, a small group of nobles assassinated Rasputin , and in January 1917 the Tsar's cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas , was asked indirectly by Prince Lvov whether he would be prepared to take over the throne from his nephew, Tsar Nicholas II. None of these incidents were in themselves the immediate cause of

2813-461: The Duma that morning, leaving it with no legal authority to act. The response of the Duma, urged on by the liberal bloc, was to establish a Temporary Committee to restore law and order; meanwhile, the socialist parties established the Petrograd Soviet to represent workers and soldiers. The remaining loyal units switched allegiance the next day. The Tsar directed the royal train back towards Petrograd, which

2910-623: The Eastern Front. The superior German Army  – better led, better trained, and better supplied – was quite effective against the ill-equipped Russian forces, driving the Russians out of Galicia, as well as Russian Poland during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive campaign. By the end of October 1916, Russia had lost between 1,600,000 and 1,800,000 soldiers, with an additional 2,000,000 prisoners of war and 1,000,000 missing, all making up

3007-544: The February Revolution, but they do help to explain why the monarchy survived only a few days after it had broken out. Meanwhile, Socialist Revolutionary leaders in exile, many of them living in Switzerland , had been the glum spectators of the collapse of international socialist solidarity. French and German Social Democrats had voted in favour of their respective governments' war efforts. Georgi Plekhanov in Paris had adopted

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3104-456: The Mezhraionka, as well as Lenin and some Mensheviks, adopted an anti-war position, and by late 1915, the organization had 60-80 members. Growing popular disillusionment with the war caused, by the time the February Revolution of 1917 broke out, the organization to have 400-500 members. Mezhraionka members were active in Petrograd during the revolution by seizing a printing plant and publishing

3201-567: The Petrograd district councils in May–June 1917, the IDO and Bolsheviks formed a bloc. The Mezhraionka, with about 4,000 members, merged with the Bolsheviks at the 6th Congress of the RSDLP in late July to early August 1917 in which both the groups formed a party that was formally independent of the Mensheviks. Many of its former members played an important role during the October Revolution later in

3298-504: The Provisional Government agreed to "take into account the opinions of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies", though they were also determined to prevent interference which would create an unacceptable situation of dual power. In fact, this was precisely what was being created, though this "dual power" (dvoyevlastiye) was the result less of the actions or attitudes of the leaders of these two institutions than of actions outside their control, especially

3395-428: The Provisional Government, including Lev Kamenev . With Lenin's arrival, the popularity of the Bolsheviks increased steadily. Over the course of the spring, public dissatisfaction with the Provisional Government and the war, in particular among workers, soldiers and peasants, pushed these groups to radical parties. Despite growing support for the Bolsheviks, buoyed by maxims that called most famously for "all power to

3492-490: The Provisional Government, transferring all its authority to the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks, acting in the framework of the soviet councils, established their own government and later proclaimed the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Under pressure from German military offensives, the Bolsheviks soon relocated the national capital to Moscow . The RSFSR began

3589-445: The Provisional Government. As minister of war and later Prime Minister, Kerensky promoted freedom of speech , released thousands of political prisoners , continued the war effort, even organizing another offensive (which, however, was no more successful than its predecessors). Nevertheless, Kerensky still faced several great challenges, highlighted by the soldiers, urban workers, and peasants, who claimed that they had gained nothing by

3686-535: The Romanov monarchy openly well before the turmoil of World War I. Dissatisfaction with Russian autocracy culminated in the huge national upheaval that followed the Bloody Sunday massacre of January 1905, in which hundreds of unarmed protesters were shot by the Tsar's troops. Workers responded to the massacre with a crippling general strike, forcing Nicholas to put forth the October Manifesto , which established

3783-521: The Soviet Union delegation on Comintern's executive, and the lead representative at congresses of the French, German, and Czechoslovak communist parties. From 1935 until the dissolution of Comintern in 1943, he acted as deputy to its General Secretary, Georgi Dimitrov . Between 1944 and 1952, he held the largely meaningless post of Foreign Minister of Ukraine. From 1952 to 1953, he was Ukrainian ambassador to

3880-461: The Soviets", the party held very little real power in the moderate-dominated Petrograd Soviet. In fact, historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick have asserted that Lenin's exhortations for the Soviet Council to take power were intended to arouse indignation both with the Provisional Government, whose policies were viewed as conservative, and the Soviets themselves, which were viewed as subservients to

3977-641: The St. Petersburg branch of the security police, the Okhrana , in October 1916, warned bluntly of "the possibility in the near future of riots by the lower classes of the empire enraged by the burdens of daily existence." Tsar Nicholas was blamed for all of these crises, and what little support he had left began to crumble. As discontent grew, the State Duma issued a warning to Nicholas in November 1916, stating that, inevitably,

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4074-545: The Tsar commanded at the front, was German born, leading to suspicion of collusion, only to be exacerbated by rumors relating to her relationship with the controversial mystic Grigori Rasputin . Rasputin's influence led to disastrous ministerial appointments and corruption, resulting in a worsening of conditions within Russia. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Central Powers in October 1914, Russia

4171-475: The Tsar or the government. Russia's first major battle of the war was a disaster; in the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg , over 30,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded and 90,000 captured, while Germany suffered just 12,000 casualties. However, Austro-Hungarian forces allied to Germany were driven back deep into the Galicia region by the end of the year. In the autumn of 1915, Nicholas had taken direct command of

4268-480: The Tsar ordered the army to suppress the rioting by force, troops began to revolt. Although few actively joined the rioting, many officers were either shot or went into hiding; the ability of the garrison to hold back the protests was all but nullified, symbols of the Tsarist regime were rapidly torn down around the city, and governmental authority in the capital collapsed – not helped by the fact that Nicholas had prorogued

4365-415: The Tsar. Many sections of the country had reason to be dissatisfied with the existing autocracy. Nicholas II was a deeply conservative ruler and maintained a strict authoritarian system. Individuals and society in general were expected to show self-restraint, devotion to community, deference to the social hierarchy and a sense of duty to the country. Religious faith helped bind all of these tenets together as

4462-474: The US, 1914, the figures were 18%, 47% and 35% respectively). World War I added to the chaos. Conscription across Russia resulted in unwilling citizens being sent off to war. The vast demand for factory production of war supplies and workers resulted in many more labor riots and strikes. Conscription stripped skilled workers from the cities, who had to be replaced with unskilled peasants. When famine began to hit due to

4559-692: The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1920 to 1921, then switched to journalism, and from 1922 was working for the Comintern. From 1923 to 1952 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , as well as a member of the elite inner circle known as the "malaia comisiia", a five-member group that ruled the eleven-member Political Secretariat. In 1926, he supplanted Nikolai Bukharin as leader of

4656-741: The United Nations. During the Great Purge , almost every Old Bolshevik with a past link with Trotsky was killed or imprisoned, except Manuilsky, whom Stalin despised but by whom he did not feel in any way threatened. In 1939, he told Dimitrov: "Manuilsky is a toady! He was a Trotskyite! We criticised him for keeping quiet and not speaking out when the purges of Trotskyite bandits were going on, and now he has started toadying!" The Montenegrin communist Milovan Djilas , who met Manuilsky in 1944, admired his learning and writing talent, but remembered him as "a slight and already hunched veteran, dark-haired, with

4753-465: The army, personally overseeing Russia's main theatre of war and leaving his ambitious but incapable wife Alexandra in charge of the government. Reports of corruption and incompetence in the Imperial government began to emerge, and the growing influence of Grigori Rasputin in the Imperial family was widely resented. In 1915, things took a critical turn for the worse when Germany shifted its focus of attack to

4850-553: The authority of an institution that claimed to represent the will of workers and soldiers and could, in fact, mobilize and control these groups during the early months of the revolution – the Petrograd Soviet Council of Workers' Deputies. The model for the Soviets were workers' councils that had been established in scores of Russian cities during the 1905 Revolution. In February 1917, striking workers elected deputies to represent them and socialist activists began organizing

4947-510: The authority of the Provisional Government but also of the moderate socialist leaders of the Soviets. Although the Soviet leadership initially refused to participate in the "bourgeois" Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky , a young, popular lawyer and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRP), agreed to join the new cabinet, and became an increasingly central figure in the government, eventually taking leadership of

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5044-469: The autumn of 1914, he had insisted that "from the standpoint of the working class and of the labouring masses the lesser evil would be the defeat of the Tsarist Monarchy"; the war must be turned into a civil war of the proletarian soldiers against their own governments, and if a proletarian victory should emerge from this in Russia, then their duty would be to wage a revolutionary war for the liberation of

5141-409: The battlefields. The soldiers did not feel as if they were valuable, rather they felt as if they were expendable. By the spring of 1915, the army was in steady retreat, which was not always orderly; desertion , plundering , and chaotic flight were not uncommon. By 1916, however, the situation had improved in many respects. Russian troops stopped retreating, and there were even some modest successes in

5238-505: The cities, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a considerable problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests , which had not been significantly altered during wartime. The indirect reason was that the government, in order to finance the war, printed millions of rouble notes, and by 1917, inflation had made prices increase up to four times what they had been in 1914. Farmers were consequently faced with

5335-479: The conservative government. By some other historians' accounts, Lenin and his followers were unprepared for how their groundswell of support, especially among influential worker and soldier groups, would translate into real power in the summer of 1917. Dmitry Manuilsky Dmitriy Zakharovich Manuilsky or Dmytro Zakharovych Manuilsky ( Russian : Дми́трий Заха́рович Мануи́льский ; Ukrainian : Дмитро Захарович Мануїльський ; 3 October 1883 – 22 February 1959)

5432-516: The cost of living). At the same time, urban industrial life had its benefits, though these could be just as dangerous (in terms of social and political stability) as the hardships. There were many encouragements to expect more from life. Acquiring new skills gave many workers a sense of self-respect and confidence, heightening expectations and desires. Living in cities, workers encountered material goods they had never seen in villages. Most importantly, workers living in cities were exposed to new ideas about

5529-466: The divisions over Russia's participation in the war proved to be too deep. On April 12, 1917, the Mezhraionka refused to participate in a Menshevik-sponsored unification conference because it would be dominated by the Defensist wing of the Mensheviks. From that point onward, their positions began to converge with the Bolshevik positions, which were becoming more radical after Lenin's return from abroad. With

5626-634: The dominant Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin , held a meeting in Prague , and expelled Mensheviks from the party. In response, the Mensheviks, Leon Trotsky 's followers, the Jewish Bund and other ethnic social democratic groups held a meeting in Vienna in August 1912 in which they called Lenin's action illegal and formed their own leadership of the RSDLP , the so-called August Bloc . To distinguish between competing RSDLPs,

5723-618: The editorial board was changed, and No. 9 of the journal appeared as the organ of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). Publication was discontinued in September 1917 by decision of the Central Committee. Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia , starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt

5820-437: The end of 1914, only five months into the war, around 390,000 Russian men had lost their lives and nearly 1,000,000 were injured. Far sooner than expected, inadequately trained recruits were called for active duty, a process repeated throughout the war as staggering losses continued to mount. The officer class also saw remarkable changes, especially within the lower echelons, which were quickly filled with soldiers rising up through

5917-486: The first leaflet calling for an armed uprising on February 27 O.S. After the formation of the Petrograd Soviet later that night, the Mezhraionka was given one seat in its Presidium, as opposed to the two seats allocated to each nationwide socialist party like the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party . Although the Mezhraionka's original goal was to unite all Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in one party,

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6014-404: The front, he arrived in Petrograd in April 1917. On the way to Russia, Lenin prepared the April Theses , which outlined central Bolshevik policies. These included that the Soviets take power (as seen in the slogan "all power to the Soviets") and denouncing the liberals and social revolutionaries in the Provisional Government, forbidding co-operation with it. Many Bolsheviks, however, had supported

6111-516: The government, including an increased participation of workers in revolutionary parties. Liberal parties too had an increased platform to voice their complaints, as the initial fervor of the war resulted in the Tsarist government creating a variety of political organizations. In July 1915, a Central War Industries Committee was established under the chairmanship of a prominent Octobrist , Alexander Guchkov (1862–1936), including ten workers' representatives. The Petrograd Mensheviks agreed to join despite

6208-419: The leadership of the Bolsheviks, and worked on the newspaper Vpered ( Forward ). After the outbreak of war in 1914, he worked on the newspaper Nashe Slovo and acted as the main contact between the Bolsheviks and the smaller group associated with Leon Trotsky . After his return to Russia in May 1917, he joined Trotsky's group, the Mezhraiontsy , who amalgamated with the Bolsheviks in August 1917. During

6305-414: The masses throughout Europe. An elementary theory of property , believed by many peasants, was that land should belong to those who work on it. At the same time, peasant life and culture was changing constantly. Change was facilitated by the physical movement of growing numbers of peasant villagers who migrated to and from industrial and urban environments, but also by the introduction of city culture into

6402-468: The middle of 1915, and so did crime, but, for the most part, people suffered and endured, scouring the city for food. Working-class women in St. Petersburg reportedly spent about forty hours a week in food lines, begging, turning to prostitution or crime, tearing down wooden fences to keep stoves heated for warmth, and continued to resent the rich. Government officials responsible for public order worried about how long people's patience would last. A report by

6499-434: The midst of World War I . With the German Empire dealing major defeats on the war front, and increasing logistical problems in the rear causing shortages of bread and grain, the Russian Army was steadily losing morale, with large scale mutiny looming. High officials were convinced that if Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, the unrest would subside. Nicholas agreed and stepped down, ushering in a new provisional government led by

6596-426: The network of Soviets held more power concerning domestic affairs. Critically, the Soviets held the allegiance of the working class , as well as the growing urban middle class. During this chaotic period, there were frequent mutinies, protests and strikes. Many socialist and other leftist political organizations were struggling for influence within the Provisional Government and the Soviets. Notable factions included

6693-474: The objections of their leaders abroad. All this activity gave renewed encouragement to political ambitions, and in September 1915, a combination of Octobrists and Kadets in the Duma demanded the forming of a responsible government, which the Tsar rejected. All these factors had given rise to a sharp loss of confidence in the regime, even within the ruling class, growing throughout the war. Early in 1916, Guchkov discussed with senior army officers and members of

6790-428: The offensives that were staged that year, albeit at great loss of life. Also, the problem of shortages was largely solved by a major effort to increase domestic production. Nevertheless, by the end of 1916, morale among soldiers was even worse than it had been during the great retreat of 1915 . The fortunes of war may have improved, but the fact of war remained which continually took Russian lives. The crisis in morale (as

6887-461: The ongoing social movement taking place on the streets of Russia's cities, factories, shops, barracks, villages, and in the trenches. A series of political crises – see the chronology below – in the relationship between population and government and between the Provisional Government and the Soviets (which developed into a nationwide movement with a national leadership). The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets (VTsIK) undermined

6984-689: The people " in campaigns called the Red Terror , consciously modeled on those of the French Revolution . Although the Bolsheviks held large support in urban areas, they had many foreign and domestic enemies that refused to recognize their government. Russia erupted into a bloody civil war , which pitted the Reds (Bolsheviks), against their enemies, collectively referred to as the White Army . The White Army comprised independence movements , monarchists , liberals , and anti-Bolshevik socialist parties. In response,

7081-499: The population of the capital, Saint Petersburg, nearly doubled from 1,033,600 to 1,905,600, with Moscow experiencing similar growth. This created a new 'proletariat' which, due to being crowded together in the cities, was much more likely to protest and go on strike than the peasantry had been in previous times. One 1904 survey found that an average of 16 people shared each apartment in Saint Petersburg, with six people per room. There

7178-410: The population, not the whole nation. They also believed Russia was not ready for socialism. They viewed their role as limited to pressuring hesitant " bourgeoisie " to rule and to introduce extensive democratic reforms in Russia (the replacement of the monarchy by a republic, guaranteed civil rights, a democratic police and army, abolition of religious and ethnic discrimination, preparation of elections to

7275-541: The prestige that Russia had lost amid the debacles of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). Nicholas also sought to foster a greater sense of national unity with a war against a common and old enemy. The Russian Empire was an agglomeration of diverse ethnicities that had demonstrated significant signs of disunity in the years before the First World War. Nicholas believed in part that the shared peril and tribulation of

7372-499: The prevalent social and political protests, focusing hostilities against a common external enemy, but this patriotic unity did not last long. As the war dragged on inconclusively, war-weariness gradually took its toll. Although many ordinary Russians joined anti-German demonstrations in the first few weeks of the war, hostility toward the Kaiser and the desire to defend their land and their lives did not necessarily translate into enthusiasm for

7469-667: The process of reorganizing the former empire into the world's first socialist state , to practice soviet democracy on a national and international scale. Their promise to end Russia's participation in the First World War was fulfilled when the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918. To secure the new state, the Bolsheviks established the Cheka , a secret police and revolutionary security service working to uncover, punish, and eliminate those considered to be " enemies of

7566-400: The ranks. These men, usually of peasant or working-class backgrounds, were to play a large role in the politicization of the troops in 1917. The army quickly ran short of rifles and ammunition (as well as uniforms and food), and by mid-1915, men were being sent to the front bearing no arms. It was hoped that they could equip themselves with arms recovered from fallen soldiers, of both sides, on

7663-460: The return of many anti-war social democratic émigrés from European exile in April to June 1917, the Mezhraionka was a natural place for them to join. A number of prominent social democrats like Leon Trotsky , Adolf Joffe , Anatoly Lunacharsky , Moisei Uritsky , David Riazanov , V. Volodarsky , Lev Karakhan , Dmitry Manuilsky and Sergey Ezhov (Tsederbaum) joined it at that time. At the elections to

7760-501: The revolution: The political group that proved most troublesome for Kerensky, and would eventually overthrow him, was the Bolshevik Party , led by Vladimir Lenin . Lenin had been living in exile in neutral Switzerland and, due to democratization of politics after the February Revolution, which legalized formerly banned political parties , he perceived the opportunity for his Marxist revolution. Although return to Russia had become

7857-522: The social and political order. The social causes of the Russian Revolution can be derived from centuries of oppression of the lower classes by the Tsarist regime and Nicholas's failures in World War I. While rural agrarian peasants had been emancipated from serfdom in 1861, they still resented paying redemption payments to the state, and demanded communal tender of the land they worked. The problem

7954-590: The ultimate authority of the crown. Despite constant oppression, the desire of the people for democratic participation in government decisions was strong. Since the Age of Enlightenment , Russian intellectuals had promoted Enlightenment ideals such as the dignity of the individual and the rectitude of democratic representation. These ideals were championed most vociferously by Russia's liberals, although populists, Marxists, and anarchists also claimed to support democratic reforms. A growing opposition movement had begun to challenge

8051-536: The village through material goods, the press, and word of mouth. Workers also had good reasons for discontent: overcrowded housing with often deplorable sanitary conditions, long hours at work (on the eve of the war, a 10-hour workday six days a week was the average and many were working 11–12 hours a day by 1916), constant risk of injury and death from poor safety and sanitary conditions, harsh discipline (not only rules and fines, but foremen's fists), and inadequate wages (made worse after 1914 by steep wartime increases in

8148-530: The war, the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting to support its allies , giving the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions a justification to advance the revolution further. The Bolsheviks merged various workers' militias loyal to them into the Red Guards , which would be strong enough to seize power. The volatile situation reached its climax with the October Revolution , a Bolshevik armed insurrection by workers and soldiers in Petrograd that overthrew

8245-441: The workers in the streets and at public meetings. To quell the riots, the Tsar looked to the army. At least 180,000 troops were available in the capital, but most were either untrained or injured. Historian Ian Beckett suggests around 12,000 could be regarded as reliable, but even these proved reluctant to move in on the crowd, since it included so many women. It was for this reason that on 11 March [ O.S. 26 February], when

8342-575: The year and the subsequent Russian Civil War . The group published a journal of its own, Vperyod . One number was put out illegally in 1915, and publication was resumed in 1917, when it came out legally from June to August as the organ of the St. Petersburg Inter-District Committee of the United Social-Democrats (Internationalists). Eight issues were put out. After the Sixth Congress of the Party

8439-515: Was also no running water, and piles of human waste were a threat to the health of the workers. The poor conditions only aggravated the situation, with the number of strikes and incidents of public disorder rapidly increasing in the years shortly before World War I. Because of late industrialization, Russia's workers were highly concentrated. By 1914, 40% of Russian workers were employed in factories of 1,000+ workers (32% in 1901). 42% worked in 100–1,000 worker enterprises, 18% in 1–100 worker businesses (in

8536-655: Was an important Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and academic who was Secretary of the Executive Committee of Comintern , the Communist International, from December 1926 to its dissolution in May 1943. Manuilsky was born to a peasant family of an Orthodox priest in the village of Sviatets  [ uk ] . After secondary school, he enrolled at the University of St. Petersburg in 1903, and joined

8633-622: Was argued by Allan Wildman, a leading historian of the Russian army in war and revolution) "was rooted fundamentally in the feeling of utter despair that the slaughter would ever end and that anything resembling victory could be achieved." The war did not only devastate soldiers. By the end of 1915, there were manifold signs that the economy was breaking down under the heightened strain of wartime demand. The main problems were food shortages and rising prices. Inflation dragged incomes down at an alarmingly rapid rate, and shortages made it difficult for an individual to sustain oneself. These shortages were

8730-658: Was closed by a workers' strike. The next day, a series of meetings and rallies were held for International Women's Day , which gradually turned into economic and political gatherings. Demonstrations were organised to demand bread, and these were supported by the industrial working force who considered them a reason for continuing the strikes. The women workers marched to nearby factories bringing out over 50,000 workers on strike. By 10 March [ O.S. 25 February], virtually every industrial enterprise in Petrograd had been shut down, together with many commercial and service enterprises. Students, white-collar workers, and teachers joined

8827-483: Was deprived of a major trade route to the Mediterranean Sea , which worsened the economic crisis and the munitions shortages. Meanwhile, Germany was able to produce great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts. The conditions during the war resulted in a devastating loss of morale within the Russian army and the general population of Russia itself. This was particularly apparent in

8924-557: Was for the Mensheviks who were concentrating on legal forms of oppositionist activity at the expense of revolutionary activities. The Mezhraiontsy group was founded in November 1913 by three Bolsheviks ( Konstantin Yurenev , A. M. Novosyolov and E. M. Adamovich) and one Menshevik (N. M. Yegorov). Yurenev was the informal leader of the organization until May 1917 except for one year between February 1915 and February 1916, which he spent in jail on charges of subversive activities. Members occupied

9021-551: Was further compounded by the failure of Sergei Witte 's land reforms of the early 20th century. Increasing peasant disturbances and sometimes actual revolts occurred, with the goal of securing ownership of the land they worked. Russia consisted mainly of poor farming peasants and substantial inequality of land ownership, with 1.5% of the population owning 25% of the land. The rapid industrialization of Russia also resulted in urban overcrowding and poor conditions for urban industrial workers (as mentioned above). Between 1890 and 1910,

9118-476: Was initially chaired by a liberal aristocrat, Prince Georgy Yevgenievich Lvov , a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party (KD). The socialists had formed their rival body, the Petrograd Soviet (or workers' council) four days earlier. The Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government competed for power over Russia. The effective power of the Provisional Government was challenged by

9215-468: Was reunited with his family at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo . He was placed under house arrest with his family by the Provisional Government. The immediate effect of the February Revolution was a widespread atmosphere of elation and excitement in Petrograd. On 16 March [ O.S. 3 March], a provisional government was announced. The center-left was well represented, and the government

9312-479: Was stopped on 14 March [ O.S. 1 March], by a group of revolutionaries at Malaya Vishera . When the Tsar finally arrived at Pskov , the Army Chief Nikolai Ruzsky , and the Duma deputies Alexander Guchkov and Vasily Shulgin suggested in unison that he abdicate the throne. He did so on 15 March [ O.S. 2 March], on behalf of himself, and then, having taken advice on behalf of his son,

9409-520: Was these views of Martov that predominated in a manifesto drawn up by Leon Trotsky (at the time a Menshevik) at a conference in Zimmerwald , attended by 35 Socialist leaders in September 1915. Inevitably, Vladimir Lenin supported by Zinoviev and Radek , strongly contested them. Their attitudes became known as the Zimmerwald Left . Lenin rejected both the defence of Russia and the cry for peace. Since

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