WHAT DOES LENIN MEAN WHEN HE SAYS THAT THE 1905 REVOLUTION WAS A DRESS REHEARSAL?

Lenin believed that a number of specific requirements (relating to his adaptations of Marx) needed to be fulfilled by the separate social classes and the Bolsheviks themselves.

The main reason why the 1905 revolution was deemed to be a dress rehearsal by Lenin was because there was no unity between the masses and the political parties and no unity within the political parties themselves.

Although the political parties shared the same ultimate goal of overthrowing the existing order of autocracy, they were divided from one another. The Liberals, the Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks and the Social Revolutionaries had different political programmes. In 1905 each political party made its own struggles against autocracy. Thus the autocratic government could suppress these political parties one by one. Besides the division between the political parties, there was disagreement within each of the political parties: the right-wing Liberals disagreed with the radical Liberals, the Mensheviks disagreed with the Bolsheviks, and the moderate Social Revolutionaries disagreed with the radical Social Revolutionaries. The internal division within each party immensely weakened the strength of its struggle against autocracy.

Lenin followed the events inside Russia closely. He revised his revolutionary theory. He drew the conclusion that the peasantry should be sought after as one of the main revolutionary forces in future revolutions. Trotsky also saw the value of the soviet as a form of popular government and the use of a general strike to bring down a government.

To successfully revolutionise, the “masses” needed guidance from a political party.

The masses were the main driving force of the 1905 Revolution. But the masses were not properly led by the political parties to seize power. Lenin strongly believed in ...

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To successfully revolutionise, the “masses” needed guidance from a political party.

The masses were the main driving force of the 1905 Revolution. But the masses were not properly led by the political parties to seize power. Lenin strongly believed in the idea of Vanguardism. This would be a small group of leaders who could enact a revolution from above. Thus, the 1905 revolution was a dress rehearsal because the masses had no guide for advancement.

Linked to this problem was the fact that the political programmes of the political parties failed to secure wholehearted support from the masses because their programmes did not represent the wishes of the masses. In 1917 the Bolsheviks could secure temporary support from the masses because Lenin changed part of the Bolshevik programme. He promised 'Bread, Land and Peace' to the people.

Despite the mounting pressure on the Tsar, the dynasty retained the support of the bureaucracy, the major part of the army and the nobility. Thus the Tsar was able to suppress the strikes and the revolts after the division had appeared among the opposition forces. Lenin therefore had to get the army into the opposition. World War 1 allowed this to happen in the 1917 revolutions.

In 1905, for the first time in the history of Russia, millions of people in the cities and in the villages took part in a revolutionary movement. In the cities, the workers organized the soviets. The soviets were composed of men elected by workers of various factories. They had acted as an effective government for a short period of time. The St. Petersburg Soviet ordered the workers to refuse to pay taxes. The Moscow Soviet ordered the workers to launch a general strike. The peasants also formed a nationwide Peasant Union. Both the peasant unions and the soviets were repeated in 1917. Thus the 1905 Revolution was the dress rehearsal of the 1917 Revolution.

In short, the opposition forces, divided, unprepared to seize power, unable to represent the wishes of the peasants and the workers, failed to overthrow autocracy. Therefore, we can see that the 1905 revolution was a dress rehearsal for the next revolution.

ADAM KHANCHE