The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 is one of the most significant dates in the history of Europe." How far do you agree with this statement?

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“The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 is one of the most significant dates in the history of Europe.” How far do you agree with this statement?

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Europe, in 1917 was in a state of disrepair; the First World War was wreaking havoc on both the western allied front and the eastern Russian front. Although industrially backwards Russia had originally entered the war, in 1914, in high spirits, winning many victories over Germany, but by 1917 disillusionment with the regime had spread:

“In two and a half years the Russians had suffered five and a half million casualties; the troops were short of ammunition, the civilian population of food; the transport system was in chaos; and the Government was so divided by petty feuds that in the last twelve months of Tsarism, there were four different Prime Ministers, three different War Ministers, and three different Foreign Ministers.”

These casualties led to dissent from the army and thus provoked the series of revolutions that had been occurring since the beginning of the twentieth century, for protests had erupted causing the Tsar, Nicolas II to establish a constitution and a legislative, (Duma) with a Prime Minister, in order to grant some democracy into the system in 1905, and in February (occurring on the eighth of March by the western calendar) of 1917 strikes and riots broke out, the troops sided with the rioters, revolting against the Tsar who was forced to abdicate. By the time of the Bolshevik, or October revolution, (by the western calendar this occurred on November sixth), there was a provisional government in place, set up by the Duma, who were not managing the war to any great effect, and thus the overthrow by Lenin and his comrades sought to end the war, with the promises of “Peace, Land and Bread” the Bolshevik party came to power and negotiated themselves out of the war through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which led to an armistice on December fifth.

This withdrawal from the war left the allied forces angry at Russia, for it allowed Germany to concentrate the fighting to the western front. However Russia also suffered through Brest-Litovsk, for Russia had to surrender ‘Poland, the Baltic provinces, the Ukraine, Finland, and the Caucasus’ leaving the newly formed Bolshevik government in disarray. And as such the October revolution had induced the withdrawal from the war leaving the allied soldiers to cope with a more intensified threat, therefore leading them to be angered towards Russia and provoking harsher relations.

This was further intensified by Lenin’s belief that revolution would spread around the world,

“As soon as Lenin arrived at the Finland station in Petrograd on 3rd April 1917, he made the extent of his revolutionary ambitions clear: ‘any day’ he is reported to have said to crowds outside, ‘if not today or tomorrow, the crash of the whole of European imperialism may come. The Russian revolution, made by you, has begun and it has opened a new epoch. Hail the worldwide socialist revolution!”

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Lenin’s optimism that the Russian revolution would induce a series of revolutions across the continent, and even the world was promoted by the teachings of Marx and “Lenin had justified the timing of the Russian October Revolution by referring to the imminence of Revolution in Europe.” Who stipulated that the oppressed would rise up and overthrow their oppressors, however once revolutions failed to spread naturally the Bolsheviks tried to encourage them to occur,

“By January 1919, it appeared to the Russian Bolsheviks’ that it was the absence of a true Bolshevik party that was holding up the European revolution. Invitation ...

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