The Nature of Revolutions Leon Trotsky once remarked that if poverty was the cause of revolutions, there would be constant revolutions because most people in the world are poor.

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Morgan Caruso

Grade 11 IB

The Nature of Revolutions

Leon Trotsky once remarked that if poverty was the cause of revolutions, there would be constant revolutions because most people in the world are poor. What is needed to turn a million people's discontent into a crowd on the streets is not hunger or poverty, its suffering. Whether the suffering comes in the form of violence, oppression, economic stance, or lack of resources, what causes people to revolt against their government or leader is their desire for change. Change is inevitable when a community starts asking questions; regardless of whether they get the answers they are looking for; because they recognise their ability to provoke a change. The most important part of change is realizing the answers in the long run not just the primary target.

The Russian revolution took place in 1917, and the transformation which occurred replaced the Russian traditional monarchy with the world’s first communist state led my Vladimir Lenin. The underlying causes of this very abrupt revolution could be traced back to Nicholas I’s reign. For centuries as the autocratic and repressive tsarist regimes ruled, a massive percentage of the population lived under dire economic and social conditions with brutal oppression the Tsar imposed, in addition to severe measures to subdue resistance movements.

Several events during the 19th and 20th century were aimed at overthrowing the government’s oppression, both of which were unsuccessful. The revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in 1905 which attempted to establish a constitutional monarchy and Russia’s failed involvement in WWI only increased the population’s discontent about the government’s corruption and inefficiency. When the Russian monarchy had become progressively weak and increasingly aware of its own vulnerability, the establishment of the Bolshevik party finally exercised authority against the Tsarist regime and they assumed control over the country.

The Bolshevik revolution was one of the most radical points in Russia’s history; it affected economics, social structure, culture, international relations, industrial development, and left a huge benchmark by which one might measure revolution. There were many reasons for the Russian revolution, but the Bolshevik slogan “Break, Land and Peace” was the origin.

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The Russian Revolution was a revolution against economic oppression; it started out as a revolution for democracy. However this is not always the case, the basis of any revolution initiates from motivation for change. This motivation is found when society is unsatisfied with the circumstances or status that they are given, therefore the basic revolution conditions are similar. Revolution’s occurred because a class of category of people are considered inferior, and are downtrodden by members of a higher autonomous stance. Whether this sense of dissatisfaction arouses from lack of food, like in Russia, or respect and equality, like in the ...

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