278
Tsar Nicholas II were toppled.
Soldiers refused to obey orders to
fire on the crowd, but police shot
and killed 50 people.Rise of revolutionary parties
With violence erupting on city
streets, the Tsar abdicated in
March, having relinquished power
to the Provisional Government in
February, with Prince Georgi Y.
Lvov as its head. The government
still represented only the middle
classes and continued to back
Russia’s involvement in World War
I. Groups such as the Petrograd
Soviet of Workers and Soldiers, a
council made up of workers and
peasants agitating for change, grew
stronger and gained power within
the Provisional Government. Lenin,
in exile for revolutionary activities,
was anxious to return to Petrograd,
convinced that the collapse of
world capitalism was imminent.
He received the help of the German
government, which hoped that
he could further destabilize the
political situation in Russia for their
war effort, and arrived secretly in a
sealed train. Full of revolutionary
zeal, he was determined to shape a
new Russian government accordingto his ideas, and he accused his
associates of not doing enough to
overthrow the current regime.
Prime Minister Lvov resigned
after the disastrous July Offensive
on the Western Front. His successor,
Alexander Kerensky, formed a
new socialist government with
the Petrograd Soviet, but he, too,
insisted on keeping Russia in the
war. After mass demonstrations
in Petrograd encouraged by the
Bolsheviks, Kerensky banned them
and arrested many of their leaders.
Lenin fled to Finland.Revolution is nigh
In August, Kerensky faced a new
threat. General Lavr Kornilov,
Russia’s army commander-in-chief,
ordered troops into Petrograd.
Kerensky believed that Kornilov
was plotting to seize power. In
desperation, he released the
Bolsheviks, who armed those
who wanted to prevent a counter-
revolution. This was a massive
boost for their cause. They were
able to represent themselves to the
people as defenders of Petrograd.
By September the Bolsheviks had
taken control of the Petrograd
Soviet. Lenin seized the moment,THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
This painting of the storming
of the Winter Palace portrays the
dramatic moment in the October
Revolution when the Bolsheviks
seized the government building.returned to Russia, and renewed
calls for revolution. He handed
responsibility for military tactics
to Leon Trotsky, a fellow Marxist.
Peasants and farmers were
revolting in rural areas, workers in
the cities. Lenin decided the time
was ripe for a Bolshevik seizure of
power. The Bolsheviks took
government buildings and the
Winter Palace, where Kerensky’s
cabinet had sought refuge.
On the night of October 25
(November 7, GC), Lenin issued a
brief address to the Russian people:
“The Provisional Government has
been overthrown. Long live the
workers, soldiers, and peasant
revolution!” After this initial
triumph, Lenin was compelled to
hold democratic elections, but the
Bolsheviks received only a quarter
of the vote. Lenin dissolved the
elected government and sent
armed guards to prevent it meeting
again. In February 1918, he signed
a peace treaty with Germany, but
the terms were extremely harsh.
Russia ceded the Baltic States to
Germany, while Ukraine, Finland,
and Estonia were transformed
into independent states. Russia
was also forced to pay six billion
German marks in reparations.
This move freed the Bolsheviks
from the German threat, but the
terms of the treaty were deeply
unpopular. Many regarded it as
a betrayal of their country.Civil war
The Bolsheviks had gained power,
but now they had to keep it. Lenin
established a highly centralized
government system, banned allUS_276-279_Oct_Revolution.indd 278 15/02/2016 16:44
279
Vladimir Lenin addresses his
troops in Moscow’s Red Square
in 1919, during the civil war that
followed the October Revolution.opposition, and started the Red
Terror, a campaign of intimidation,
executions, and arrests against
anybody perceived to be a threat
to the Bolsheviks.
The Bolsheviks were a minority
in Russia, and their opponents
marshalled their forces against
them, primarily the Whites, made
up of former tsarists, army officers,
and democrats. The Bolsheviks were
known as the Reds.
As various factions fought over
the future of the country, a civil war
characterized by extreme violence
erupted in Russia and ran from 1918
to 1921. The Whites received help
from Russia’s former allies—Britain,
France, the US, and Japan—which
feared the spread of communism. At
first, they made significant gains.
However, they were badly
coordinated, and Trotsky proved to
be a brilliant military tactician.
In 1920, Lenin ordered a war
against Poland to liberate the
workers of eastern and central
Europe, but at the Battle of Warsaw,
after a magnificent counterattack,
the Red Army was driven back.A country in ruins
By 1921, the Whites had been
defeated, and Lenin could finally
turn his attention to rebuilding
the Russian economy.
He faced a country on the verge
of collapse. In the countryside,
around 6 million peasants had died
of starvation, and there was rioting
in the cities. The Kronstadt naval
rebellion in March 1921 further
undermined the regime. Kronstadt
was a naval town on an island off
the coast of Petrograd. In 1921,
16,000 soldiers and workers signed
a petition calling for “Soviets
without Bolsheviks”: freely elected
Soviets and freedoms of speech
and press. The Reds reacted
ruthlessly, executing several
hundred ringleaders and expelling
over 15,000 sailors from the fleet.
In May 1922, Lenin suffered
a stroke. In December, the
Soviet government declared the
establishment of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),
a federal union consisting of
Soviet Russia and neighboring
areas that were ruled by branchesTHE MODERN WORLD
of the communist movement.
From its inception, the USSR
was based on a premise of one-
party rule, prohibiting all other
political organizations.
Lenin was disheartened by
political infighting and worried
about how the USSR would be run
after his death. In late 1922 and
early 1923, he dictated what became
known as his “testament,” in which
he expressed regret at the direction
the Soviet government had taken.
He was especially critical of Joseph
Stalin, then general secretary
of the Communist Party. Stalin’s
aggressive behavior had brought
him into conflict with Lenin.
Lenin died in 1924, but his
legacy lives on. The Bolshevik
Party’s establishment of the world’s
first socialist state in the largest
nation affected every country in
the world. The victorious socialist
revolution inspired workers
with an alternative to capitalism
and old imperialist regimes. ■The execution of the
Tsar and his family was
needed not only to... instil
a sense of hopelessness in
the enemy, but also to
show that ahead lay total
victory or total doom.
Leon TrotskyUS_276-279_Oct_Revolution.indd 279 15/02/2016 16:44