Imagine This …

Imagine being a Russian in 1916. Many men are off fighting in World War I without adequate supplies. There aren’t enough people home on the farms to harvest the crops. In cities, people wait in long lines outside the grocery stores. There isn’t enough food and fuel to go around.

Now imagine that it is 1918. You hear that the tsar (the emperor of Russia) has been killed. There is a new leader who has a plan for peace. He wants to bring the men home from war. He plans to shift the power from the upper class to the poor working classes. This man, Vladimir Lenin, is the head of a socialist political party, the Bolsheviks.¹ Can you understand why Lenin brought hope to the lower-class Russians?

The backstory of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was an important event not only for Russia but for the entire world. To see how this all came to be, let’s look back about a decade to 1905.

Many Russians staged protests of Tsar Nicholas II in the capital of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) because he refused to withdraw from a humiliating war with Japan. The tsar’s military forces killed hundreds of protesters on “Bloody Sunday.” This sparked massive protests and civil war across the country. The tsar ended the protests by agreeing to form a legislative assembly called the Duma.

During this 1905 civil war, Russian workers organized groups called soviets (workers’ groups). These soviets helped create a community identity for workers. Russia was a large and diverse country with many ethnic groups. There was very little common “national” identity. Political revolutionaries such as Vladimir Lenin wanted to unite workers into one community.

The Russian Revolution of 1917: What happened? Why does it matter?

The Russian Revolution began in March 1917. Factory workers and women protested in Petrograd and called for the tsar to step down. Some members of the military joined the protesters. The Duma created a Provisional Committee to govern the country.

On March 15, Nicholas II abdicated (gave up his power) and the Provisional Committee took control. Many workers supported the Bolsheviks, who were led by Lenin. The committee agreed to share power with the Petrograd Soviet council.

This was the first phase of the Russian Revolution. It is known as the February Revolution (Russia’s calendar differed from the Western calendar). In the months that followed, the Duma supporters and the Soviet council clashed over how to run the country. The workers continued to protest.

The Bolsheviks supported communism. They believed it would be instituted after a struggle between the wealthy and the working class. They saw the continued protests as a sign of this class struggle.

In November 1917, the Bolsheviks took control of Petrograd and Lenin took power. This was the second phase, called the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks immediately began arresting political opponents. In March 1918, they signed a treaty ending Russia’s involvement in World War I.

Although they were out of the global war, Russia was still in a civil war that lasted until 1921. The Bolsheviks were victorious over the Provisional Committee and other political parties. After so many years of fighting, the Russian people were still suffering.

Under the leadership of Lenin, the Bolsheviks instituted a communist government. Communism is a form of socialism in which the state controls the economy. Lenin ended the private ownership of land and factories. Lenin wanted everyone to be unified by their class. Everyone would be one community of laborers working for the common good of everyone in the nation.

The revolution reshaped not only Russia but also the world. It resulted in the first communist nation-state in the world. Communism became an alternative to capitalism and a huge political force during the twentieth century.

After the Russian Revolution

By 1922, Russia’s civil war was over, and Russia was now a nation-state. It became the Soviet Union (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or U.S.S.R.). Under Lenin, there was more bread, land, and peace, but there was also repression. Lenin died in 1924, but communist leadership would continue. Josef Stalin took control of the Soviet Union.

There were many challenges facing the Soviet Union. How would the communists maintain power? How would a young communist Russia survive within a world of capitalist nations? How could it unite a large and diverse country? These challenges would change world history for the remainder of the twentieth century.

1 The Bolsheviks began as a workers’ party that wanted socialist reforms for Russia. Lenin led this branch of the Socialist Party and called for the public ownership of the means of production (factories) and the elimination of capitalism, or the private ownership of businesses. The Bolsheviks would later become the Russian Communist Party. Communism is a political ideology that advocates for public (state) control of the economy. In theory, communism calls for the community to own all properties, including businesses, and the people share in the profits based on their contributions and needs.