Group+6-1917+Revolution

__** 1917 Revolution **__

**__ Introduction __** In 1916 and 1917, a nationwide crisis had descended into Russia, where up to fifty percent of enterprises in industrial centers across the country had been shut down. As result of this, there was mass unemployment and many could not afford the rising cost of living. This put the poor in a desperate situation where their only real option was to revolt against the government and the rich landowners. By October 1917, there were thousands of peasant uprisings against the landowners.





**__ The Tsar __** Until the Russian Revolution of 1917-1918, Russian government was controlled by a monarchy. The royal family was called the Romanovs. Tsar Nicholas II was the emperor, but he acted as God. Since the monarchy was autocratic, he held all the power and wealth. Tsar Nicholas II was reluctant to change these ways because they benefited him, his family, and the rich bourgeoisie of the country. While the royal family lived in luxury, the Russian citizens (who were made of mainly working class people) lived in poverty. They were not happy with Tsar Nicholas, especially because he was blamed for the huge loss from the Great War. On top of that, he and his wife had begun to put their trust in the corrupt Rasputin. Rasputin was thought of as a holy man after he supposedly healed Nicholas II’s son Alexei Romanov from hemophilia. His newfound power allowed him to poison the minds of the royal family with his truly evil ways. Eventually, the entire monarchy went downhill.

**__ Kerensky & The Provisional Government __** The Provisional Government came to power during the February revolution after the dissolution of the Tsar monarchy. The head of this government was Alexander Kerensky. Kerensky came into power as the Prime minister and succeeded Prince Lvov and soon declared Russia a republic. This was Kerensky’s first mistake because the understanding was that his provisional government was only to rule until the Constituent Assembly could decide Russia’s new form of rule. Three years of the Great War had passed and Russia was feeling finished with the war. Russia was now in the war to fulfill its obligations to the triple entente and was not doing much to give hope or care for a victory. The proletariat, soldiers, and middle class had all thought the fighting would stop with the introduction of the Provisional Government, but they were wrong. Kerensky continued the involvement in the war and bit by bit began to completely lose discipline and his leadership because the people of Russia were fed up. When the provisional government tried to get the armed forces to intervene, they stated that they did not support the government, and therefore, would not carry out their orders. To add to Kerensky’s issues, The Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) were offering “All Power to the Soviets!” and “Peace, Land, and Bread” as their catch phrases and were appealing to a majority of the public eye. Kerensky continued his support in the war even though he already feared the failing economy, his lack of government power, and the lack of resources. Two million men in his army had unofficially left the war but Kerensky’s mind led him to make more and more mistakes. He became known as an inconsistent leader and the “persuader in chief” rather than commander. His decision to not withdraw and his arrest of Kornilov left him stranded and alone and without his strong allies he was now vulnerable to his enemies. The Bolsheviks became his strongest enemy and ultimately his downfall.

**__ The Bolshevik Government __** Once the provisional government began to lose popularity, workers, soldiers, and peasants grouped together to become the Bolsheviks. They were also known as the Soviets. The goal of the Bolsheviks was to overthrow the provisional government. This group was in favor of the proletariats and wanted land divided equally between them. Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist and supporter of the ideas of Karl Marx, led the Bolsheviks. He brought to light two very important ideas that were highly thought of by the working class. “Peace, land, and bread!” meant that there should be no more involvement in the Great War, that land should be given to the lower classes, and that everyone should have food and good living conditions. “All power to the soviets!” meant that the average citizens who formed the Bolsheviks/Soviets would overthrow the provisional government. The people were happy with the platform of the Bolsheviks. However, things eventually became too extreme. Since the government was so involved with the workers, it owned all the industries. All businesses were under the government’s control. The Bolsheviks created a secret police force to ensure that there were no private businesses being run secretly. As all this happened, the Bolshevik government lost popularity.

**__ Kornilov Coup __** General Lavr Kornilov was the Russian Army’s commander-in-chief on the South-Western front during WWI. The government that had just come to power after the Tsar was Kerensky’s Provisional government. Kerensky worked secretly with Kornilov and planned to disestablish the Soviets also known as the Bolsheviks. The problem with their plan was that Kerensky’s democratic government had changed its general idea in such a way that it would now favor the Soviets. It had single handedly taken itself out of the picture. General Kornilov foresaw this and turned against Kerensky with the goal of overthrowing Kerensky’s provisional government whilst defeating the Soviets. Once Kerensky had realized Kornilov’s ultimate plans, he knelt down and begged for the support of the Soviets solely for his survival. The Provisional Government had now given itself up to the Soviets and in doing so they were able to crush Kornilov’s detachment in less than 4 days and stop him from coming to power.

**__ Comparing The Three Governments __** When comparing the three governments in place in Russia during 1917 and 1918, it is evident that the rule of the Tsar was the worst for the average Russian citizen. While the country was being run by the royal family, the needs of the lower classes of people were not being met. The autocratic monarchy did not use its absolute power for the good of the nation. Tsar Nicholas needed to make up for losses to Russia due to humiliation in past wars and corruption by Rasputin, but did not. Kerensky’s provisional government helped the average Russian citizen by abolishing the Tsar’s rule. The Bolshevik government operated solely for the good of the working class. Eventually it became extreme, but the idea overall benefited the people of Russia, not just the rich. Therefore the government under Tsar Nicholas’s rule was the worst for the average Russian citizen.

**__ A New Way Of Thinking __** During the reign of the Tsar in 1917, many people were opposed to Nicholas II’s way of running the country. Karl Marx was a strong believer in rights for the working class, and he began to share his ideas with anyone who would hear them. He pointed out a new way to run a country, and this eventually became known as communism. Karl Marx’s ideas would be a big reason for the October and February Revolutions of 1917.

**__ The February Revolution __** In February of 1917, the people of Russia decided that it was time to take the Tsar out of power. Nicholas II was not a good ruler, and there were food shortages that needed to be dealt with. Russian citizens held protests and strikes in the capitol city of Petrograd. The people had the support of the Russian army. Finally, Nicholas II gave up his throne and the provisional government took the place of the Tsar.

**__ The October Revolution __** The nationwide revolt was supported by the Bolshevik party, a communist political party in Russia at the time. On September 23rd 1917, the Bolshevik Central Committee voted to stage an armed uprising to overthrow the provisional government. On October 7th, the Bolsheviks took their forces to the uprising in Petrograd, where they seized government facilities with little fuss. As a result of the overthrowing of the Government, the power was given to Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Although the revolution did achieve the goal set by the Bolsheviks and their followers of defeating the oligarchs, the way in which the Bolsheviks took power and their socialists ideas met a lot of criticism with people like farmers, republicans, land owners, monarchists and other non-socialist political parties, leading to the Russian Civil War, which took place immediately after the Great War, between 1917 and 1923. As a result of the crisis period, during which there was the Great War, the Russian Civil War and a prolonged period of famine and drought, there were millions of deaths within the country. The Civil War claimed 1.5 million lives while widespread disease and starvation claimed millions more. There were also cases of genocide where Jews and Cossacks were found and killed as the governments planned to rid Russia of them altogether. This left the country with an estimated seven million street children, a struggling economy and little to no industry. This obviously meant the Soviet Union’s development was hindered greatly and the country’s economy would not stabilize until the 1930s when Stalin came to power. Although the revolution did satisfy the people’s goals at first, the devastation it caused tells us that the revolution’s results were not so glorious after all.

The Gregorian calendar is named after its introducer, Pope Gregory XIII. It is also referred to as the Western Calendar and the Christian Calendar. The Pope proposed this calendar on February 24th, 1582. Eventually countries began to adopt the system, leaving behind the old ways of the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar served as the accepted system in Western Europe until then. The Gregorian was thought to be the right choice of calendar because it improved upon the Julian, for example it allowed all Christians to celebrate Easter on the same day. Furthermore, a proper system was implemented to decide which years would be leap years. Even after other countries switched to the new system, Russia continued to use the Julian calendar until February 1918, after the revolution. The significance of the two calendars is that according to the Gregorian calendar, the October Revolution of 1917 actually occurred in November and the February Revolution of 1917 actually occurred in March. However, Russia continued to use the Julian calendar which stated that the events occurred in October and February.
 * __ The Julian And Gregorian Calendars __**

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