The October Revolution was very different to the February revolution in that the October Revolution had been planned for a long time. Vladimir Lenin had already attempted an overthrow of the government but had failed to do so twelve years prior to the revolution of the tzar. However, Lenin didn’t spend these ten years doing nothing. He was a busy man, and had used the time to build relationships with the Germans. He lived in Dresden, and there he thought of a plan with how he could finally complete his vision of ruling Russia. Since Germany very much liked the idea of a revolutionist bringing the monarchy to fall, they gave Lenin lots of money to fulfill his wishes. Russia was fighting with the Allied Powers against Germany. Thanks to Russia, Germany had to fight a war on two fronts; on the Western Front facing France, and on the Eastern Front facing Russia. Germany wanted to be able to concentrate all of its forces on one front, and seeked to do so by neutralizing Russia. The idea that Germany had was that when Lenin had overthrown the Russian monarchy and took the leadership into his own hands, he would end Russia’s military movements towards Germany or even better ally Russia with Germany. This strengthens the fact that the October Revolution was an extensively planned government overthrow, which the February Revolution clearly wasn’t.
The effect of the October Revolution was extremely dramatic, and ended up to be one of the most bloody coup d'état’s of modern history. After Lenin had risen to power, one person was still a major thorn in his eye. This person was former tzar of Russia Nicholas II. Even though he didn’t have power anymore, a large number of Russia’s citizens believed that the power of the tzar couldn’t just vanish, because of a government overthrow. It was a popular belief that the tzar was always appointed by God himself, and that the tzar still had absolute power even though Vladimir Lenin didn’t believe so. So Lenin put forth a plan to assassinate the whole Romanov family. Knowing this, the tzar and his family were first sent from St. Petersburg to Siberia, and finally to Yekaterinburg. There, in the summer of 1918, a troop of the Red Guard assassinated the entire Romanov family including Nicholas II’s five children and his wife. By doing so, Lenin finally didn’t have to worry about Russia’s people doubting his right to rule. After this event, Lenin had taken over Russia, and led the Bolsheviks to superiority in Russia. Ultimately, in 1952 the Bolshevik Party was renamed into the Communist Party and made up the government of the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin.
The role of military involvement was very different in both revolutions. In the February Revolution, almost everybody in St. Petersburg stormed the streets to protest the monarchy, and yet the St. Petersburg garrison did nothing. This had a specific reason, which was that the soldiers themselves were unhappy with the situation at hand in Russia. They weren’t paid well and didn’t receive enough food. Also they were scared to enter the war after so many of their friends and relatives had already perished in the battle fields. Due to this the St. Petersburg garrison sympathized with the public havoc on the streets and joined in with the rioting crowd, rather than destroying the riot with clubs and guns. Much different than in the February Revolution, in the October Revolution military forces played a highly significant role. In fact, Lenin had even formed his own private army, which he called the Red Guard. Later on the Red Guard was made larger so that it became called the Red Army. Its purpose was to eliminate enemies of the Bolshevik regime, and also to fulfill tasks as the assassination of the Romanov family. The Red Army was a type of watchdog for Lenin, since anyone who opposed the Bolshevik ideas was immediately put in place by the Red Army. Undoubtedly, the October Revolution lived from the military strength of the Red Guard much more, than the February Revolution did.
The idea of Marxism-Leninism was the proclaimed ideology of Russia after the Bolshevik takeover took place. As the name makes clear, its founders were the German philosopher Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Actually the idea was of Marx’s origin, and he also wrote it down in his book, the Communist Manifesto. However, Lenin deserves to have his name mentioned in the political idea, since he was the one who enforced the belief so much in Russia, and also made it very well known across the whole world. This idea led to Communism, which during Stalin’s rule became the form of government for the Soviet Union. Not only the Soviet Union made use of the ideology, but also widespread countries like Cuba, North Korea, and China adopted the Communist form of government. Many of these countries still hold on to the Communist way. This shows how important Lenin’s introduction of Marxism-Leninism was to Russia and the entire world.
The Bolshevik Party was the party of whom Lenin was the leader. They split away from the Mensheviks during Lenin’s first appearance in 1903. The Bolshevik Party had a strict internal hierarchy, and believed that each person should earn the same amount of money, regardless of the job or social position that the person had. This idea seems very closely tied to Communism which it really is. It has the same ideology as communism and the same beliefs as Communism has. Due to this, it was only a matter of time until the Bolsheviks changed its party name from Bolsheviks to Communist Party of Russia. Under this name, the Communist Party set up the world’s first socialist state in Russia.
Tzar Nicholas II was the ruler that let these two revolutions takes place. He was born into the royal Romanov family, and didn’t seem unfit for the job as “Tzarevich”. The more surprising was the fact, that his sense of judgment let him down during the gruesome times in which he led Russia into. The factors that led to Nicholas II, and subsequently to Russia’s downfall, were numerous. He was the monarch who brought Russia from being a prosperous country of thriving economic growth, to a country in ruins. Even though the amounts of mistakes which Russia’s last tzar made are countless, the foremost fatal step Russia’s entrance into the First World War. In the war, Russia used up all its natural resources, and also lost an insane amount of soldiers. Interestingly, Russia lost the most amounts of soldiers from all the countries involved in war, even though their appearance in war ended early with the overthrow of tzar Nicholas II. All of these factors ultimately brought the once powerful Russian Empire to its knees.
A captivating character of the time was Gregory Rasputin. Nowadays, regarded as a fictional eastern magician, he really was an immensely significant man to the Russian Revolution. He was given a job at the royal court, when his supernatural healing abilities were heard of. He healed the hemophiliac son of Nicholas II, Alexei. But this was only a small part of his series of inexplicable actions. Next to being gifted with healing abilities, he was also rumored for being able to see into the future. In a letter to tzar Nicholas II, Rasputin wrote that if he would be killed by the tzar’s will then his entire family would be killed by the rioting public. Also, he predicted that entering the First World War would inevitably bring great grief to Russia. Rasputin made these predictions before the tzar made his decision to enter the World War, so perhaps if Nicholas II would have listened to Rasputin, and believed in his paranormal skills, Russia would have been spared of the terrors of war. Still, it is useless to speculate whether or not Rasputin’s advice would have changed everything for the better, since history can’t be rewritten.
The reason that the Bolshevik Party’s popularity increased so much in a short period of time was because it recognized that the people longed for a new government. Also the Bolsheviks knew what promises the people wanted to hear. In their political campaigns, the Bolsheviks used slogans like “Peace, Land, and Bread for all!” These slogans were exactly the right thing to promise to the people during a time where, not even survival was guaranteed. The Bolsheviks also promised to not only halt the rapid inflation which was going on, but reverse it to a point where Russia had a thriving economy again. Thanks to their omnipresent propaganda, and promises that appealed to the people, the Bolshevik Party faced no particular hardships in gaining control of Russia’s government. What is quite interesting is that nearly the same occurrence happened in Germany during their great depression. There, the Austrian Adolf Hitler took control of government much like Lenin did. They both came from not exactly royal families, and managed to gain extreme power by sheer knowledge of what might excite the public. They both understood that the only way to gain support as fast as they did was to count on simple, but effective paroles. It also helped the two that they had lived in rags much as the majority of the people did. With the cases of Lenin and Hitler it is remarkable to see how parallels constantly show up throughout history.
The Russian Provisional government was set up after the February Revolution, and lasted until the October Revolution when Lenin took power. Following the February Revolution, tzar Nicolas II laid down his title of tzar, but in truth he was actually still in control of Russia’s government. Prince Gregory Lvov was named prime minister in that short period of time, but this reign didn’t last very long at all. Also the tzar still acted like a puppet master for the prime minister in that time. The Provisional Government in Russia was perhaps the shortest government in office ever. Needless to say, the Provisional Government produced nearly no long-term effects at all. In fact, the reality is that if you ask anybody which government ruled Russia from the time of the February Revolution until the October Revolution, very few people would be able to answer that. After this provisional government was replaced by the Bolsheviks, the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic was introduced, and just four years later the Soviet Union was set up.
In summary, the two revolutions were totally different in their happenings, but they had the one similarity that they were so much favored by the people of Russia because of the same reasons. While one served no particular cause, the October Revolution’s clear purpose was to overthrow Russia’s monarchy. Also the October Revolution was much more significant to the events that led up to the creation of the Soviet Union. Another difference was that the army played no role in the February Revolution, while it played a major role in the October Revolution. The one significant similarity between the two revolutions was that the people supported both of them for the same reasons. The two Russian revolutions were rather fascinating in their developments, and led to many important things in later Russian history, like in the creation of the Soviet Union. All in all, it was a great topic to write about.
Bibliography
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Russian Revolution Information | Encyclopedia.com: Facts, Pictures, Information!" 04 Mar. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-RussianR.html>.
"Russian Revolution." 20th Century History. 04 Mar. 2009 <http://history1900s.about.com/cs/russianrevolution/>.
Bolsheviks." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. 04 Mar. 2009 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSbolsheviks.htm>.
"Bolsheviks." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. 04 Mar. 2009 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSbolsheviks.htm>.
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