The year of 1914 offered the Tsar an opportunity to rectify the failure of the Russo-Japanese war. The declaration of war was accompanied by an outburst of patriotism, but this did not last for long. Nicholas had made the destructive decision to take personal command at the front, and as defeat lead to defeat, the blame fell directly to Nicholas. War is a time that shows a leader in their true colours, and what made Russia different from other leading countries was that their leader was shown to be completely incompetent. This combined with the terrible conditions and food shortages the Russian people were experiencing equalled the opportunity for revolution.
The February 1917 revolution resulted in the abdication of the Tsar as a big sacrifice was needed. The initial plan was to replace him with a more efficient ruler, perhaps his brother, but no-one would accept the vacant position in fear of assassination. Unintentionally Russia went from absolute monarchy to no monarchy overnight. Tsardom had ended but no-one was prepared, the Duma in Petrograd set up a Provisional Government to temporarily control the country.
As a reaction to the years of suppression, the Provisional Government introduced a range of reforms such as; amnesty, freedom of speech,press,assembly. They scrapped the police and introduced the constituent assembly that had been long awaited.
It was these reforms plus the general chaotic state of the country which made it possible for Lenin to return from exile and ultimately overthrow the Provisional government. The Provisional Government signed its own death warrant. At a time of war and national chaos it would have been sensible to impose more restrictions on the people, not to grant them unlimited freedoms.
Lenin returned from exile at the beginning of April and immediately published his April Theses. This set out what he thought the Bolsheviks aims should be and also instructed that the Bolsheviks must cease all co-operation with the Provisional Government. During the summer of 1917, nothing went right for the government, and the popularity of the Bolsheviks began to increase, since they were the only party not tainted by the failure of the Provisional Government. This shows Lenin’s decision was the right one.
The Kornilov affair had important results for the Bolsheviks. It convinced the people that there was a real possibility of a counter-revolution and that the Bolsheviks were the only party that could be relied upon to act independently in the interest of the people.
On 31st August, the Bolsheviks won the majority in the Petrograd Soviet for the first time and by late September in the Moscow Soviet as well.
Lenin returned in secret to Petrograd early in October and convinced the Central committee of the Bolshevik party that now was the time to seize power.
Using forces acting in the name of the Soviet, the Bolsheviks took over the important cities on the night of 24th October. The ministers of the Provisional Government were arrested and the Soviets were declared the true government of Russia. It had almost been too easy for the Bolsheviks to seize power.‘ The Bolsheviks did not seize power in this year of revolution, they picked it up. ‘The actual revolution was a minor affair without heroics’.
Their real success could only be judged by their handling of the major tasks that lay ahead of them.
Once in power Lenin classified democratic centralism (those at the top decide), Trotsky warned that this would lead to a dictatorship.
Both Marx and Lenin believed in ‘Permanent Revolution’ in which Russia must encourage revolutions in the industrial countries, they must be a ‘beacon’ to the rest of the world’. Lenin blamed the failure of revolutions in other countries on Imperialism-the highest form of capitalism.
This changed with Stalin he focused on ‘socialism in one country’
Bolsheviks had a lot of luck, events that happened which enabled them to stage a revolution, if it had not been for the Feb. 1917 revolution or the war then in all probability the Bolsheviks wouldn’t have succeeded as they hadn’t achieved much prior to WW1 due to many reasons such as;
Why had the Bolsheviks achieved so little before the war?
The Tsars secret police had been very effective in suppressing opposition by infiltrating their parties.
After the split in the Social Democratic Party in 1903, its followers became disillusioned, it weakened the movement. Lenin wanted a secret elite organisation. From 1905 onwards Lenin was convinced that the peasants were under the control of the Bolsheviks and with the workers they could bring about a bourgeoisie revolution which might be soon, followed by a Socialist revolution if the Bolsheviks kept them on the right track. Lenin’s policy and his idea of party organisation led to bitter arguments between the Social Democrats. E.g., the Mensheviks disagreed with Lenin’s idea of ‘anything in the name of the party’ such as bank robberies. They also disagreed about whether to join the Duma now that it was available.
Once in power I believe that the Bolsheviks were very successful and efficient, but I would not use this term to define the success of revolution in Russia. All prior revolutions had been staged by the people, spontaneous uprisings; however, the October Revolution took no-one by surprise as the timing of the revolution had been discussed in the newspaper.
We also need to define the word definition and establish at what time a revolution is most likely to take place.
Hannah Arendt defined Revolution as a ‘spontaneous, popular upheaval, during which new forms of self government were developed from below.
If we go by this definition does the October ‘revolution’ even qualify? We can see that the February revolution would, but the Bolsheviks didn’t really have any involvement in this. On some level, we could say that the Bolsheviks took credit for the people’s work.
De Tocqueville pointed out, revolutions tended to happen at a time of improvement and rapid, and unsettling social change rather than at a time of grinding poverty. Which would explain the 1905 revolution if it was indeed a result of the emancipation. But what about the 1917 Revolutions?
Reasons for success in Revolution
Russia hadn’t evolved into a democratic state like the other leading powers; which was always going to lead to discontentment in the people, the only option the people in Russia had to make a change in their country was to stage a revolution. The 1905 Revolution was not successful in the sense that it didn’t result in a new form of government.
The Russian Revolution – Niall Rothnie