Significant Events: 20th Century Revolutions

Revolution is a situation in which people or citizens of a particular geographical region completely change their government or political system usually by the use of force. Many countries have changed their government or political system, but the Russian Revolution occurred recently compared to other Revolutions. The Russian Revolution is a term giving to some series of revolution in Russia in 1917, the February revolution and October revolution which made it significant in the 20th century.

The Russian revolution that took place in the 1905 was considered to be the major factor that led to the revolution of 1917. The occurrence of the bloody Sunday encouraged a line of protest. Group of workers known as St. Petersburg Soviet was established in the chaos which begun the communist protest. Another factor that led to the revolution was that their king Tsar Nicolas failed them in a war which made him unfit to rule. The war also developed inflation because the gover The revolution dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and gave advent to the creation of Russian SFSR. The Russian emperor was force to abdicate, while the provision government was adapted in place of the old regime in the February revolution 1917. Most parts of the crown had reasons to be displeased with the opened autocracy. Tsar Nicholas was a extreme traditional ruler and he maintained a harsh authoritarian system. Citizens and society in whole were expected to show self-restraint and devotion to the community, deference and to the social hierarchy. Religious faith contributed and also helped bind all of these canons together as a resource of reassurance and confort in the face of hard conditions and as a way of political power exercised through the strict ways. Perhaps even more than any other system of monarchy, Tsar Nicholas II combined his fate and the future of his empire to the opinion of the ruler as a virtuous and infallible father to his citizens. This idea of the Romanov monarchy and blinded him to the original state of his nation. With a strong belief that his authority to rule was decided by the Divine Right, Nicholas II also understood that Russian natives were dedicated to him with an absolute loyalty. This belief made Nicholas not to allow the progressive changes that might have brought the affliction of the Russian people. Meanwhile after the 1905 revolution allowed the Tsarist system to decree partial civil rights and democratic demonstration, Nicholas worked to limit even the liberties in order to conserve the ultimate power of the crown. The war also developed inflation because the government was busy printing millions of rouble notes instead of financing ammunations. The citizens experienced lack of food and the prices of things were very high. All these was a growing criticism of the government. The citizens were made to work for long hours and received low wages in return. They experienced poor sanitary conditions which led them to constant risk of injury and sometimes death. These things made most villagers migrate to the cities in which social and political life was a bit better.

February revolution occurred mainly around Petrograd in which member of the imperial parliament (Duma) assumed the control of russia, creating the Russian provisional government. At the beginning of february workers started several strikes and demnstrations where several series of meeting were held, later on students, teachers and white collar workers joined them. The meeeting gradually turned to economic and political gatherings. Many workers by that time went on strike to the extent that all petrograd industrial and services enterprises had been shut down. To stop the riot Tsar ordered an amry of 180000, but most of the army were injured or untrained and it was hard for the army to stop the riot since there were women being involved. Tsar ordered the army to suppress the fight by force, and the soldirs began their work. Most of the people were not shot nor went to hide infact the riot went on which showed that the Tsarist rgime was slowly torn off while the government authority collapsed. The duma were giving commands to establish a temporary team to bring back law and order, meanwhile the socialist party formed the petrograd soviet to represent soldiers and workers. Tsar ministers and army cheifs suggested that he abdicated the throne during his journey by train to petrograd. Tsar Nicholas nominated his brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. His brother declined the crown as he realised that he would have little support. Six days later Nicholas and his family were arrested by the provisional government. In march a provisional government was annoced and was initially governed by Prince Georgy Yevgenievich Lvov. The Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet competed for power over Russia. Petrograd soviet believed that have particular group of people and not the whole people, meanwhile they believed that russia was not ready for socialism. They saw their role as limited to rule and introduce democratic reforms in russia. Soviet of workers also tried to prevent government interfearance to prevent dual power. Political crises started among Provisional government and the soviets. Socialist Revolutionary Party agreed to join the cabinet and gradually taking the leadership of the provisional government. The Bolshevik Committee drafted a resolution, and calling up for the termination of the Provisional Government in the Petrograd Soviets favor. The resolution was passed Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev prominently dissenting and the October Revolution began. AlThough the February Revolution was a popular event, it did not express the wishes of most people in russia.

The October revolution also known as Bolshevik Revolution was based upon the ideas or writings of Vladimir Lenin that was based on Karl Marx social and political ideology commonly known as Marxism-Leninism. This event marked the start of communism in 20th century which also made the Russian revolution a significant event at that time. . The revolution outran the temporary provisional government and created the Soviet Union. the Revolution was much more intentional event, established by a small group of people. Meanwhile The Bolsheviks party that led this coup, formally planned their coup in six months. They were commonly viewed as radical group and had little limited support when they began serious hard work in April 1917. The october revolution was less chaotic than that of the February revolution, and came as a result of coordinating and planning to that end. At that time lenin was the leader of Bolshevik party and was being argued that since lenin was not there during the takeover of winter palace, people concluded that Trotsky’s organization led to the revolution. Critics on the other hand have been argued that the financial assistance of the germans by Alexander Parvus was a major component as well that led to the revolution. On November 7th 1917, Vladimir Lenin led his revolutionaries to revolt against the provisional government. The October revolution ended the February phased revolution and replacing Russia’s provisional government with the government by soviet, councils elected by workers and peasants. Monarchist and liberal forces were organized into white Army and immediately ran into war against the Bolsheviks red Army which was formally considered to be the Russian civil war. the Bolsheviks party popular base was much more larger; although was still limited within the country in general, the bolsheviks had built up majority of support inside Petrograd and other urban sides.

Later on, the Bolsheviks realized that they might not maintain control in an election-based structure without giving out power to other parties and consulting their principles. As a result, the bolsheviks officially neglected the democratic progression in January 1918 and they declared themselves the council of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Meanwhile, the Russian Civil War broke out. Initially soviet party was freely elected but must of the socialist revolutionaries party (SRP) members created oppositions to the red Army through the soviets themselves. It was clear that the bolshevist had limited support outside some areas like the Saint Petersburg and Moscow, they just barred the people that are not Bolsheviks from membership in the union (soviet). These movements led to mass domestic tensions where many individuals who previously called for political reform were revolting and calling up for a 3rd Russian revolution. The calling for revolution receieved a great amount of support. The most notably example of the anti-bolsheviks mentality were being expressed in Tombov Rebellion, and the Koronstadt rebellion. All these movements made a wide range of demand which also made the involvement of poor effective coordinations which were finally defeated along with the white army.

In conclusion, the Russian revolution was a series of revolution in Russia which happened between Russian parties and happened within a very short span of time. Russian revolution till date generally remain as the most significant event in the 20th century.