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THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (1917–1918)
1
...
It removed
Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia’s traditional monarchy with the world’s first
Communist state
...
The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin, would solidify its power only
after three years of civil war, which ended in 1920
...
Prior to the revolution, the Russian monarchy had become progressively weaker
and increasingly aware of its own vulnerability (and therefore more reactionary)
...
When Nicholas II himself became
tsar in 1894, he used similarly severe measures to subdue resistance movements, which were
becoming bolder and more widespread every year
...
These concessions
continued gradually until Nicholas II’s grip on power became very tenuous
...
Although this famous leader of the October Revolution was not even in Russia for the
February Revolution—he had lived in self-imposed exile in Europe since 1900 and returned to
Russia only in April 1917—he nonetheless exerted tremendous influence
...
Born in 1870 in the provincial town of Simbirsk as Vladimir Ilich
Ulyanov, the young Lenin was profoundly affected by his older brother Alexander’s 1887 execution
for being involved in a plot to assassinate the tsar
...
Nevertheless, his actions would one day become
very adventurous indeed
...
Although
the new government would prove to be at least as repressive as the one it replaced, the country’s
new rulers were drawn largely from the intellectual and working classes rather than from the
aristocracy—which meant a considerable change in direction for Russia
...
Prior to1917, Russia was
a mostly agrarian nation that had dabbled in industrial development only to a limited degree
...
After the revolution, new urban-industrial regions appeared quickly in Russia and became
increasingly important to the country’s development
...
Education also took a major upswing, and illiteracy was almost entirely eradicated
...
Lenin’s government
immediately pulled Russia out of World War I, changing the balance of forces for the remaining
participants
...

Over the next several decades, the Soviet Union actively sponsored and assisted Communist
movements and revolutions around the world in an effort to broaden its sphere of influence
...

Threatened by the possibility of revolutions in their own lands, the governments of many Western
nations viewed Communism as a spreading threat and moved to isolate the Soviet Union as much as
possible
...
As this Cold War got under way, the two
countries emerged as superpowers with much of the rest of the world falling in behind one or the
other
...


2
...
The February Revolution, which removed Tsar Nicholas II from power,
developed spontaneously out of a series of increasingly violent demonstrations and riots on the
streets of Petrograd(present-day St
...

Though the February Revolution was a popular uprising, it did not necessarily express the wishes of
the majority of the Russian population, as the event was primarily limited to the city of Petrograd
...

The October Revolution

The October Revolution (also called the Bolshevik Revolution) overturned the interim provisional
government and established the Soviet Union
...
The Bolsheviks, who led this coup, prepared their
coup in only six months
...
By October, the Bolsheviks’ popular
base was much larger; though still a minority within the country as a whole, they had built up a
majority of support within Petrograd and other urban centers
...
As a result,
they formally abandoned the democratic process in January 1918 and declared themselves the
representatives of a dictatorship of the proletariat
...

A Note on the Russian Calendar

Until February 1918, Russia used the Julian calendar, while the Western world used the Gregorian
calendar in use today
...
During the twentieth century, the Julian calendar
fell thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar
...
Dates prior to February 1, 1918 use the Julian calendar; dates after that point follow

the Gregorian calendar
...
Key People & Terms:
People
Alexander I

The Russian tsar, or emperor, whose death in 1825 prompted a mild secession crisis that created an
appearance of weakness in the Russian monarchy
...
Later revolutionaries such as Lenin saw the Decembrists as heroes
...
Though reformers hailed the move, it engendered a severe economic crisis,
angered landowners, and prompted a number of revolutionary groups to agitate for a constitution
...

Alexander III

The son of and successor to the assassinated Tsar Alexander II
...
Alexander III’s son, Nicholas II, was the tsar in power during the Russian Revolution
in 1917
...

Following the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin appointed Dzerzhinsky head of the Cheka, the
first Soviet secret police force and an early forerunner of the KGB
...
k
...
Lev Rosenfeld)

A prominent member of the Bolshevik Party who initially resisted Lenin’s call to hold a revolution
sooner rather than later
...

Alexander Kerensky

A member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and an active participant in both the provisional
government and the Petrograd Soviet
...
Within the provisional government, he served as minister of justice, minister of
war, and later as prime minister
...

Vladimir Lenin (a
...
a
...
Lenin spent most of the early twentieth century living in exile in Europe (primarily
Britain and Switzerland)
...


Though not involved in the February Revolution, he returned to Russia in April 1917 and
orchestrated the October Revolution that turned Russia into a Communist state
...
This unorthodox succession from older
to younger brother caused a small public scandal in 1825and enabled the Decembrist Revolt to take
place
...

Nicholas II

The last Russian tsar, who ruled from 1894 until 1917
...
Nicholas II abdicated on March 2, 1917, as a result of the February
Revolution
...

Grigory Rasputin

A Russian peasant and self-proclaimed mystic who gained significant influence over Tsar Nicholas
II’s wife, Alexandra, in the years immediately prior to the revolutions of 1917
...
Aware that Rasputin’s presence was
damaging Nicholas II’s credibility, supporters of the tsar had Rasputin killed in late 1916
...
k
...
Joseph Dzhugashvili)

A Bolshevik leader who became prominent only after Lenin’s return to Petrograd in April 1917
...
As Stalin was a member of an ethnic minority—he was
from the central Asian region of Georgia, not Russia proper—Lenin felt he would be an effective
ambassador of sorts to the many ethnic minorities within the former Russian Empire
...

Petr Stolypin

The prime minister under Nicholas II
...
A hangman’s noose was often referred to at the time as a “Stolypin necktie
...

Leon Trotsky (a
...
a
...
Trotsky, who
was in exile abroad during the February Revolution, returned to Russia in May 1917, closely
aligned himself with Lenin, and joined the Bolshevik Party during the summer
...

After the revolution, he was appointed commissar of foreign affairs and led Russia’s negotiations
with Germany and Austria for the armistice and subsequent peace treaty that made possible Russia’s
exit from World War I
...
k
...
Osvel Radomyslsky)

A prominent member of the Bolshevik Party, closely associated with Lev Kamenev and a close
friend of Lenin during Lenin’s years in exile
...
However, he became a member of the
Politburo in1919 and went on to serve in the Soviet government until he was arrested and executed
during Stalin’s purges in the 1930s
...

They were published in the newspaper Pravda on April 7
...
He believed that other countries would follow Russia’s example
...
The Bolshevik Party favored a closed party consisting of and run by
professional revolutionaries and supported the idea of a dictatorship that would accelerate the
transition to socialism
...

Cadets

A political group (an acronym for Constitutional Democrats) that wanted to see Russia established
as a democratic republic governed by a constitution and an elected parliament
...
The Cadets
drew support primarily from professional workers and the bourgeois class
...
WhenNicholas II abdicated in February 1917,
the provisional government that took power made plans for the formation of this Constituent
Assembly in order to choose a more permanent government for Russia
...

Dual Power

A term referring to the two governments that Russia had following the February Revolution—
the provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet
...
The term, an ancient Russian word referring to small
village councils that existed in early Russia, was resurrected when Tsar Nicholas II agreed to allow
the formation of a legislature after the uprising of 1905
...


Mensheviks

A political group that, like the Bolsheviks, split from the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party
...

Petrograd Soviet

A body that existed prior to the February Revolution as a sort of underground revolutionary labor
union for workers and soldiers in the Petrograd area, containing members of a number of different
political parties
...
However, they quickly found
themselves competing with the provisional government
...
The
provisional government was meant to be temporary and would rule Russia only until
the Constituent Assembly decided on a permanent government later
...
In 1903, the RSDLP split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks
...
The SRs drew their support primarily from the
peasantry and thus had a much larger base than the other parties in Russia
...
After the revolution, however, the Bolsheviks abandoned the SRs after the
SRs enjoyed a major victory over the Bolsheviks in the elections for the Constituent Assembly
...
” In the early twentieth century, Soviets were governing
bodies, similar to labor unions, that existed primarily on the local/municipal level and collectively
made policy decisions for their respective regions
...
When Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in early 1917, the powerful Petrograd
Sovietwielded significant political power in Russia
...
A Century of Unrest:
Events

1825 Alexander I dies; succession crisis prompts Decembrist Revolt
1861 Alexander II abolishes serfdom
1881 Alexander II assassinated; Alexander III cracks down on dissenters
1894 Nicholas II becomes tsar
1905 Troops fire on Russian civilians during demonstration in St
...
Ever since the War
of 1812 , many Russians, especially military personnel who had served abroad, were inspired by
growing democratic movements in Europe
...
Alexander actually considered the idea of a
constitution, and indeed granted one to Poland, but never made up his mind about creating one for
Russia
...

Alexander had no legitimate children, and there was confusion over which of his two brothers
would succeed him
...
Therefore, the crown
passed to the youngest brother, Nicholas I, resulting in a small public scandal
...
Petersburg, demanding
that Constantine take the throne and also calling for a constitution
...
In the coming years, they came to be seen as heroes among Russian
revolutionaries
...
Though a positive development in some ways,
it also created a number of new problems, including a severe economic crisis and significant
resentment from landowners
...

Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, a host of organizations formed to promote the introduction of a
constitution, a parliamentary government, and socialistic values to Russia
...
A series
of assassination attempts on Alexander II ensued, and in 1881, one of these attacks succeeded
...
Petersburg
...
Although the
assassination failed to trigger a revolution as the plotters had hoped, the incident did serve as a
source of inspiration to underground revolutionaries throughout the country, who increasingly saw
the autocracy as vulnerable
...
TsarNicholas II, who had come to power
in 1894, had never shown leadership skills or a particular desire to rule, but with the death of his
father, Alexander III, the Russian crown was thrust upon him
...
When it came to public opposition or resistance, he avoided direct
involvement and simply ordered his security forces to get rid of any problem as they saw fit
...

Violence in 1905
The year 1905 brought the most extreme examples of Nicholas II’s perceived indifference, brutality,
and weakness
...
Petersburg
...

The police, who had just finished putting down a series of strikes by industrial workers, followed
their standing orders to get rid of any problems
...
As the crowd scattered, police pursued
them on horseback, continuing to fire on them
...
Estimates of the total death toll range from a few hundred to several thousand
...
The incident earned Nicholas the title “Nicholas the Bloody” even though he did not in
fact know about the violence until it was already over
...

The Russian Constitution and Duma
Any chance for Nicholas II to regain his standing was soon lost, as Russia was rocked by a long
series of disasters, scandals, and political failures
...
Later in the year, the tsar reluctantly gave in to heavy
political pressure and granted Russia its first constitution
...

The Duma became a constant thorn in Nicholas’s side, as increasingly radical political parties
emerged into the open after years of existing underground
...
During the same period, a renewed outbreak
of assassinations and terrorism prompted the tsar to empower his prime minister, Petr Stolypin, to
eliminate the threat of terror once and for all
...
Thousands were executed over the
next several years
...

Rasputin
In the meantime, Nicholas’s own family became the subject of a different sort of crisis
...
In time, the self-proclaimed monk Rasputin gained
political influence over the tsar through his wife, while at the same time engaging in scandalous
sexual escapades throughout the Russian capital
...


World War I
It was in the midst of this scandal that Nicholas drew Russia into World War I in the summer
of 1914
...

The war was the final straw for the Russian people
...
Within three months, Russia would be without a monarch for the first time
in its history
...
Starting in the
early 1700s with Tsar Peter the Great, the ruling Romanov family increasingly modeled itself on,
and intermarried with, the great royal families of Europe
...

At the same time, Russians had more exposure to the culture and happenings of Europe than ever
before, and many were inspired by the various democratic and socialist movements taking place
there
...
A series of
military failures, starting with the Crimean War in the mid-1800s, and continuing with the RussoJapanese War of 1904–1905 and finally World War I, further damaged the image of Russia’s
leaders
...
Never in Russian history had
so many political organizations existed at the same time
...


5
...
Violent
encounters between protesters and authorities also increased
...
The gathering took the form of a protest
demonstration calling for “bread and peace
...
Feeding on their outrage with each passing day, the demonstrations became larger and
rowdier, and the outnumbered police were unable to control the crowds
...
In their efforts to carry out the tsar’s order, several troops of a local guard
regiment fired upon the crowds on February 26
...
The next day, more than 80,000 troops mutinied and
joined with the crowds, in many cases directly fighting the police
...
The Duma (the state legislature)
was already in active session but was under orders from the tsar to disband
...

During the same period, the Petrograd Soviet, an organization of revolutionary-minded workers and
soldiers dominated by the Menshevik Party, convened on February 27
...

The Tsar’s Abdication
Despite the mutinies in the army and government, there was still no consensus that the monarchy
should be dismantled entirely; rather, many felt that Nicholas II should abdicate in favor of his
thirteen-year-old son, Alexis
...
Therefore, both the Duma and military leaders placed heavy pressure on
the tsar to resign
...
However, on the next day Michael also abdicated, leaving Russia

with no tsar at all
...
The provisional government was to serve
temporarily, until a Constituent Assembly could be elected later in the year to decide formally on
the country’s future government
...
The
Petrograd Soviet was in essence a metropolitan labor union made up of soldiers and factory
workers
...
Dominated by Mensheviks, the group was chaotic in structure and
favored far more radical changes than did the provisional government
...
With every major decision, the two groups coordinated with each
other
...
In time he would become the Russian minister of
justice, minister of war, and then prime minister of the provisional government
...
It began in much the same way as had
dozens of other mass demonstrations in Russia in previous years and might well have ended in the
same manner, if the military had not gotten involved
...
Afterward, many political groups competed for power, but
they did so relatively peacefully
...
Meanwhile, the various rival political parties also developed
cooperative attitudes and worked with one another
...


6
...
Though

historians disagree about specifics, they concur that the government of Germany deliberately
facilitated Lenin’s return to his homeland in the spring of 1917
...
The Germans provided Lenin with a
guarded train that took him as far as the Baltic coast, from which he traveled by boat to Sweden,
then on to Russia by train
...

Lenin arrived in Petrograd on the evening of April 3, 1917
...
To their surprise, however,
Lenin expressed hostility toward most of them, denouncing both the provisional government and
the Petrograd Soviet that had helped to bring about the change of power
...
He considered any who stood
outside his own narrow Bolshevik enclave to be his sworn enemies and obstacles to the “natural”
flow of history
...
On April 7, the Bolshevik newspaperPravda published the ideas contained
in Lenin’s speeches, which collectively came to be known as the April Theses
...
The immediate effect of Lenin’s attitude,
however, was to alienate most other prominent Socialists in the city
...

“All Power to the Soviets”
In the meantime, Lenin pulled his closest supporters together and moved on toward the next step of
his plan
...
In formulating his strategy, Lenin believed that he
could orchestrate a new revolution in much the same way that the previous one had happened, by
instigating large street demonstrations
...

Failed Early Coup Attempts
From the moment Lenin returned to Russia, he began to work toward seizing power for the
Bolsheviks using every means available
...
As frustrated military personnel began to demonstrate in the streets, the
Bolsheviks attempted to agitate the troops by demanding the ouster of the provisional government
...

During the spring and summer, the Bolsheviks would make several more attempts to bring about a
second revolution by inciting the masses
...

The Bolsheviks and the Military
Lenin recognized that the current Russian leaders’ hesitation to pull the country out of World War

I was a weakness that could be exploited
...
While
other politicians bickered over negotiating smaller war reparations—and even over whether Russia
might possibly make territorial gains by staying in the war longer—Lenin demanded that
Russia exit the war immediately, even if it meant heavy reparations and a loss of territory
...
Thus, he launched an aggressive propaganda campaign
directed specifically at the Russian troops still serving on the front
...

Indeed, his radical positions caused greater division than ever among Russia’s various political
groups
...

Eventually, Lenin did backtrack temporarily on his earlier extreme positions, with the aim of
garnering more support
...
Although this
effort did have some limited success, it failed to produce the level of support that Lenin had hoped
for
...


7
...
Out
of 784 delegates who had a full vote, the Bolsheviks numbered105; though they were a minority,
their voice was loud and clear
...
As if on cue, Lenin promptly stood up and announced, “There is such a party!” Laughter
was reportedly heard following Lenin’s pronouncement, and few took him seriously
...

Bolshevik-Incited Demonstrations
On June 9, the Bolsheviks made an open proclamation calling for civilians and soldiers alike to fill
the streets of the capital and to condemn the provisional government and demand an immediate end
to the war
...
That evening, the Congress of Soviets,
anticipating the potential for violence, prohibited demonstrations for a period of several days
...

Russia’s Final War Offensive
In June, Minister of War Alexander Kerensky ordered the Russian army to undertake a renewed
offensive along the Austrian front in World War I
...
Once under way, the Russian troops
made brief progress against the Austrians and even captured several thousand prisoners
...

The operation was a complete failure and weakened Kerensky politically
...

The July Putsch
On June 30, the Petrograd Machine Gun Regiment, one of the largest and most politically volatile
military regiments in the city, was ordered to report for duty on the front
...

On July 3, Bolshevik leaders decided to try to use the regiment, in combination with their own
armed forces and 20,000 sailors from a nearby naval base, to take over the Petrograd Soviet
...

The mob had little organization, and as rumors circulated that seasoned troops from the front were
on the way to Petrograd to put down the demonstrations, fear spread rapidly through the group, and
many began to leave
...

By the end of the day, the mob had dissipated, and frontline troops did indeed come into the capital
and restore order
...
Most were caught but

were not prosecuted because of resistance by the Petrograd Soviet
...
Kerensky, for his effectiveness in neutralizing the Bolsheviks, was promoted from minister
of war to prime minister
...
The July Putsch, as it came to be called, was a
disaster for the Bolsheviks on many levels
...
The accusations of their collusion with Germany further damaged their reputation,
especially among the military, and Lenin was unusually ineffective in countering the charges
...
Worst of
all for the Bolsheviks, most of their leadership, including the crucial figure Leon Trotsky, were now
in jail, and Lenin was once more in hiding, which made communication and planning difficult
...
Kornilov, a popular and highly respected figure in the army, reportedly had little
interest in politics but had a strong sense of patriotism
...
Kornilov had his own doubts about
Kerensky as well, and a mutual lack of trust grew quickly between them
...

The Kornilov Affair
This tenuous relationship quickly fell apart, although it is not clear what exactly transpired
...
Lvov believed that the only way to save Russia was to install a military dictator and felt
that Kornilov fit the bill
...
In short, Lvov told Kornilov that Kerensky was
offering him dictatorial powers in Russia if he would accept them
...

Because neither Kerensky nor Kornilov knew each other’s intentions, the situation deteriorated
rapidly
...
Kornilov, in turn, was dumbfounded and infuriated at this
accusation, as he was under the impression that he had been invited to take power
...

Other historians believe that the so-called Kornilov affair involved far less intrigue and merely
arose from a series of misunderstandings
...
Moreover, although Lvov did
indisputably act as a liaison between the two men, it is not entirely clear that he engineered the rift
that developed
...
The incident had two important effects that hastened the downfall of the

provisional government
...
Second, it strengthened the
Bolsheviks, who used the incident very effectively to boost their own platform
...
Altogether, the affair finally set the stage for the Bolsheviks to make
a real attempt at revolution that autumn
...
The October Revolution:
Events

August 31, 1917 Bolsheviks achieve majority in the Petrograd Soviet
September 5 Bolsheviks achieve majority in the Moscow Soviet
October 10 Lenin and the Bolshevik Central Committee decide to proceed with revolution
October 23 Provisional government acts to shut down all Bolshevik newspapers
October 24 Provisional government deploys junkers Bolshevik troops begin to take over
government buildings in the city
October 25 Kerensky escapes Petrograd Bolsheviks struggle all day long to capture Winter Palace
Second Congress of Soviets convenes
October 26 Provisional government is arrested early in the morning Lenin issues Decree on Peace
and Decree on Land Congress approves Soviet of the People’s Commissars, with all-Bolshevik
membership, as new provisional government
Key People

Vladimir Lenin - Bolshevik leader; became leader of Russia after October Revolution; issued
Decree on Peace and Decree on Land
Lev Kamenev - Bolshevik leader who resisted Lenin’s plans for a prompt revolution
Grigory Zinoviev - Bolshevik leader who sided with Kamenev, voting against revolution
Alexander Kerensky - Prime minister of provisional government; fled Russia during revolution to
live in Europe and then the United States
The Red Resurgence
During late August and September, the Bolsheviks enjoyed a sudden growth in strength, following
their failures during the summer
...
Lenin, fearing arrest
after the events of July, continued to hide in rural areas near the Finnish border
...

Although Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky’s authority was faltering, the provisional government
was coming closer to organizing the Constituent Assembly, which would formally establish a
republican government in Russia
...

Lenin knew that once this process started, it would be far more difficult to seize power while still
preserving the appearance of legitimacy
...


Internal Opposition
Before a revolution could happen, Lenin faced considerable opposition from within his own party
...
On October 10, shortly following Lenin’s
return to Petrograd, the Bolshevik Party leadership (the Central Committee) held a fateful meeting
...
Most of
those present—only twelve men in all—initially were reluctant
...
What had yet to be decided was precisely when the revolution would
happen
...
ASecond Congress of Soviets was now in the works, scheduled
for October 25, and the Bolsheviks were confident that they would have its overwhelming support,
since they had taken pains to invite only those delegates likely to sympathize with their cause
...
The two Bolshevik
leaders who had voted against the uprising after the October 10 meeting, Lev Kamenev and Grigory
Zinoviev, continued to protest the plan and resist Lenin’s preparations
...

By this point, the Bolsheviks had an army of sorts, under the auspices of theMilitary Revolutionary
Committee, technically an organ of the Petrograd Soviet
...
However, they expected that at least the main Petrograd garrison would support them once
they saw that the Bolsheviks had the upper hand
...
Prime Minister Kerensky and other members of
the provisional government discussed the matter endlessly; Kerensky pressed for greater security
and for the arrest of every Bolshevik who could be found, especially those in the Military
Revolutionary Committee
...

Nonetheless, the provisional government did make a few modest preparatory arrangements
...
Although this move did actually catch the
Bolsheviks off guard, it had little practical effect
...
One of these
positions was the tsar’s old Winter Palace, which the provisional government now used for its
headquarters
...

October 24
In truth, little happened on October 24 , the first day of the Russian Revolution
...


Late that evening, Bolshevik troops made their way to preassigned positions and systematically
occupied crucial points in the capital, including the main telephone and telegraph offices, banks,
railroad stations, post offices, and most major bridges
...
Even the headquarters of
the General Staff—the army headquarters—was taken without resistance
...
At 9:00 A
...
, Kerensky sped out of the city in a car commandeered from the U
...

embassy
...
Meanwhile, Bolshevik forces brought a warship, the cruiser Aurora , up the
Neva River and took up a position near the palace
...
By that afternoon, the palace was
completely surrounded and defended only by the junker guards inside
...

The Bolsheviks spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening attempting to take control of the
Winter Palace and arrest the ministers within it
...
Instead, small groups broke through the palace windows and
negotiated with the junkers, eventually convincing many of them to give up
...
The ministers were finally
arrested shortly after 2:00 A
...
on October 26 and escorted to prison cells in the Peter and Paul
Fortress
...

The Second Congress of Soviets
Although Lenin had hoped that the revolution would be over in time to make a spectacular
announcement at the start of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets in the late afternoon of
October 25, events transpired differently
...

Lenin became increasingly agitated and embarrassed by the delay
...
Furthermore, despite the
Bolshevik leaders’ efforts, dedicated Bolsheviks constituted only about half of the 650 delegates at
the Congress
...
The meeting lasted the rest of the night, adjourning
after 5:00 A
...
on October 26
...
The first motion approved was Lenin’sDecree on Peace, which declared
Russia’s wish for World War I to end but did not go so far as to declare a cease-fire
...
Finally, a new provisional government was formed to replace
the old one until the Constituent Assembly met in November as scheduled
...
Lenin was its chairman, and all of its
members were Bolsheviks
...

Life After the Revolution
Life in Russia after October 25, 1917, changed very little at first
...
Few expected the
new government to last for long, and few understood what it would mean if it did
...
In other regions, local politicians (of various
party loyalties) simply took power for themselves
...
The new
Bolshevik-led government, meanwhile, improvised policy quite literally on the fly, with no longterm plan or structure in place other than vague intentions
...
There was little if any bloodshed, the provisional government barely tried to resist, and
afterward, few Russians seemed to care about or even notice the change in governments
...
However bloodless the
Russian Revolution initially may have been, it would ultimately cost tens of millions of Russian
lives and shock the nation so deeply that it has not yet come to terms with what happened
...
In all likelihood, they seized power believing that they were doing so for the greater good
...
Unfortunately, this
steadfast belief in Marxism would come to be implemented through brutal and repressive means
...
The Aftermath:
Events

November 1917 Nationwide elections for the Constituent Assembly held throughout the month
December 15 Russia signs armistice with the Central Powers
December 20 Cheka established with Dzerzhinsky as its leader
January 5, 1918 Constituent Assembly meets for first and last time
March 3 Russia and Germany sign peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk
May Bolsheviks institute military conscription
June–July Russian Civil War begins
August 30 Lenin shot in assassination attempt but survives
September 5 Red Terror begins
Key People

Vladimir Lenin - Leader of Russia after the October Revolution; suppressed dissent by disbanding
Constituent Assembly, declaring opposing political parties illegal
Felix Dzerzhinsky - Polish revolutionary whom Lenin appointed head of Cheka secret police
Joseph Stalin - Commissar of nationalities in Lenin’s government; succeeded Lenin as leader of
Russia in 1924

An End to the War
After Lenin’s government secured power, one of its first major goals was to get Russia out of World
War I
...
The effort was ignored
...
On December 15, Russia signed an armistice with
Germany and Austria, pending a formal peace treaty (the treaty was not completed until
March 1918)
...
In the peace, Lenin consented to give up most of
Russia’s territorial gains since the time of Peter the Great
...
The Soviets would not regain these
territories until the end of World War II
...
Communication was poor, and large
chunks of the country, including the Ukraine, were still occupied by foreign armies
...

At least in theory, the SPC was a democratic institution
...
Indeed, Lenin, expecting the Bolsheviks to do well,
allowed elections for members of the Constituent Assembly to proceed as scheduled throughout the
month of November
...
The highest percentage, 40 percent, went to theSocialist Revolutionary
(SR) party, which at the time was mildly sympathetic to the Bolsheviks
...

Revolutionary Dictatorship
Because the Bolsheviks placed only modestly in the elections, the Constituent Assembly became a
problem for them
...
However, they dealt with this problem first by declaring the
Cadet Party illegal and then by demanding that the Constituent Assembly voluntarily give up its
legislative authority—a move that would have remade the body into essentially a rubber stamp for
Bolshevik policy
...
During the meeting, the
assembly refused to give up its authority but did nothing to challenge the Bolsheviks, who watched
over the meeting with loaded guns
...
”

The Third Congress of Soviets
The assembly was replaced by the Third Congress of Soviets, 94 percent of whose members were
required to be Bolshevik and SR delegates
...

Until this point, the Bolsheviks had often used word democracy in a positive sense, but this changed
almost instantly
...
The termsrevolutionary dictatorship and dictatorship of the
proletariat began to pop up frequently in Lenin’s speeches, which began to characterize democracy
as an illusionary concept propagated by Western capitalists
...
This largely symbolic step was a part of the Bolshevik effort to consolidate power
...
Therefore, they rebuilt their military force,
which now largely consisted of 35,000Latvian riflemen who had sided with the Bolsheviks when
they vowed to remove Russia from World War I
...
These
troops effectively suppressed insurrections throughout Russia during the course of 1918 and formed
the early core of the newly established Red Army
...

Officially formed on December 20, 1917, the Cheka was charged with enforcing compliance with
Bolshevik rule
...
Tens of thousands of people
would be murdered at Dzerzhinsky’s behest during the coming years
...
No specific date can be set forth for the beginning of the war, but it generally began
during the summer of 1918
...
Groups opposing the Bolsheviks
ranged from monarchists to democrats to militant Cossacks to moderate socialists
...
A smaller group, known
as the Greens, was made up of anarchists and opposed both the Whites and the Reds
...
The soldiers seized a portion of the Trans-Siberian Railway
and attempted to make their way across Siberia to Russia’s Pacific coast in order to escape Russia
by boat
...
In response to
these growing threats, the Bolsheviks instituted militaryconscription in May 1918 in order to bolster
their forces
...
He survived,
but a brutal crackdown on all forms of opposition commenced shortly thereafter
...
This was the atmosphere under which the
Russian Civil War began
...

Assessing Bolshevik Russia
After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks had very little planning in place, and their rule got off
to a rough start when they came in behind the SRs in the elections of the Constituent Assembly
...

The Bolsheviks faced major opposition from within Russia and for many different reasons
...
Though many had wanted
out of the war, they did not approve of Lenin’s readiness to lose vast amounts of territory
...
The result was the Russian civil war, which
would be horrifically painful for the country and that, in the end, would cost even more lives than
had World War I
...




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