russian revolution essay introduction

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Russian Revolution

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 27, 2024 | Original: March 12, 2024

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the 20th century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. Economic hardship, food shortages and government corruption all contributed to disillusionment with Czar Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

When Was the Russian Revolution?

In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting into motion political and social changes that would lead to the eventual formation of the Soviet Union .

However, while the two revolutionary events took place within a few short months of 1917, social unrest in Russia had been brewing for many years prior to the events of that year.

In the early 1900s, Russia was one of the most impoverished countries in Europe with an enormous peasantry and a growing minority of poor industrial workers. Much of Western Europe viewed Russia as an undeveloped, backwards society.

The Russian Empire practiced serfdom—a form of feudalism in which landless peasants were forced to serve the land-owning nobility—well into the nineteenth century. In contrast, the practice had disappeared in most of Western Europe by the end of the Middle Ages .

In 1861, the Russian Empire finally abolished serfdom. The emancipation of serfs would influence the events leading up to the Russian Revolution by giving peasants more freedom to organize.

What Caused the Russian Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution gained a foothold in Russia much later than in Western Europe and the United States. When it finally did, around the turn of the 20th century, it brought with it immense social and political changes.

Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the population of major Russian cities such as St. Petersburg and Moscow nearly doubled, resulting in overcrowding and destitute living conditions for a new class of Russian industrial workers.

A population boom at the end of the 19th century, a harsh growing season due to Russia’s northern climate, and a series of costly wars—starting with the Crimean War —created frequent food shortages across the vast empire. Moreover, a famine in 1891-1892 is estimated to have killed up to 400,000 Russians.

The devastating Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 further weakened Russia and the position of ruler Czar Nicholas II . Russia suffered heavy losses of soldiers, ships, money and international prestige in the war, which it ultimately lost.

Many educated Russians, looking at social progress and scientific advancement in Western Europe and North America, saw how growth in Russia was being hampered by the monarchical rule of the czars and the czar’s supporters in the aristocratic class.

Russian Revolution of 1905

Soon, large protests by Russian workers against the monarchy led to the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905 . Hundreds of unarmed protesters were killed or wounded by the czar’s troops.

The Bloody Sunday massacre sparked the Russian Revolution of 1905, during which angry workers responded with a series of crippling strikes throughout the country. Farm laborers and soldiers joined the cause, leading to the creation of worker-dominated councils called “soviets.”

In one famous incident, the crew of the battleship Potemkin staged a successful mutiny against their overbearing officers. Historians would later refer to the 1905 Russian Revolution as ‘the Great Dress Rehearsal,” as it set the stage for the upheavals to come.

Nicholas II and World War I

After the bloodshed of 1905 and Russia’s humiliating loss in the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II promised greater freedom of speech and the formation of a representative assembly, or Duma, to work toward reform.

Russia entered into World War I in August 1914 in support of the Serbs and their French and British allies. Their involvement in the war would soon prove disastrous for the Russian Empire.

Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Food and fuel shortages plagued Russia as inflation mounted. The already weak economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort.

Czar Nicholas left the Russian capital of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1915 to take command of the Russian Army front. (The Russians had renamed the imperial city in 1914, because “St. Petersburg” sounded too German.)

Rasputin and the Czarina

In her husband’s absence, Czarina Alexandra—an unpopular woman of German ancestry—began firing elected officials. During this time, her controversial advisor, Grigory Rasputin , increased his influence over Russian politics and the royal Romanov family .

Russian nobles eager to end Rasputin’s influence murdered him on December 30, 1916. By then, most Russians had lost faith in the failed leadership of the czar. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma , the toothless Russian parliament established after the 1905 revolution, when it opposed his will.

Moderates soon joined Russian radical elements in calling for an overthrow of the hapless czar.

February Revolution

The February Revolution (known as such because of Russia’s use of the Julian calendar until February 1918) began on March 8, 1917 (February 23 on the Julian calendar).

Demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets of Petrograd. Supported by huge crowds of striking industrial workers, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets.

On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, the regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets and the troops began to waver.

The Duma formed a provisional government on March 12. A few days later, Czar Nicholas abdicated the throne, ending centuries of Russian Romanov rule.

Alexander Kerensky

The leaders of the provisional government, including young Russian lawyer Alexander Kerensky, established a liberal program of rights such as freedom of speech, equality before the law, and the right of unions to organize and strike. They opposed violent social revolution.

As minister of war, Kerensky continued the Russian war effort, even though Russian involvement in World War I was enormously unpopular. This further exacerbated Russia’s food supply problems. Unrest continued to grow as peasants looted farms and food riots erupted in the cities.

Bolshevik Revolution

On November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar, which is why the event is often referred to as the October Revolution ), leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup d’état against the Duma’s provisional government.

The provisional government had been assembled by a group of leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin instead called for a Soviet government that would be ruled directly by councils of soldiers, peasants and workers.

The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in Petrograd, and soon formed a new government with Lenin as its head. Lenin became the dictator of the world’s first communist state.

Russian Civil War

Civil War broke out in Russia in late 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution. The warring factions included the Red and White Armies.

The Red Army fought for the Lenin’s Bolshevik government. The White Army represented a large group of loosely allied forces, including monarchists, capitalists and supporters of democratic socialism.

On July 16, 1918, the Romanovs were executed by the Bolsheviks. The Russian Civil War ended in 1923 with Lenin’s Red Army claiming victory and establishing the Soviet Union.

After many years of violence and political unrest, the Russian Revolution paved the way for the rise of communism as an influential political belief system around the world. It set the stage for the rise of the Soviet Union as a world power that would go head-to-head with the United States during the Cold War .

The Russian Revolutions of 1917. Anna M. Cienciala, University of Kansas . The Russian Revolution of 1917. Daniel J. Meissner, Marquette University . Russian Revolution of 1917. McGill University . Russian Revolution of 1905. Marxists.org . The Russian Revolution of 1905: What Were the Major Causes? Northeastern University . Timeline of the Russian Revolution. British Library .

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Russian Revolution of 1905 — Interpreting the Russian Revolution: Perspectives and Debates

Interpreting The Russian Revolution: Perspectives and Debates

• Categories: Russian Revolution of 1905

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Words: 2880 |

15 min read

Published: Oct 11, 2018

Words: 2880 | Pages: 6 | 15 min read

Revisionist

Works cited.

• Carr, E.H. (1950). The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923. W.W. Norton & Company.
• Fitzpatrick, S. (1982). The Russian Revolution. Oxford University Press.
• Hill, C. (1961). The Russian Revolution. Jonathan Cape.
• Hosking, G. (2011). The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. Harvard University Press.
• Lenin, V. I. (1917). State and Revolution. Marxist Internet Archive.
• Pipes, R. (1997). Russia under the Bolshevik regime. Vintage Books.
• Service, R. (2000). Lenin: A Biography. Harvard University Press.
• Trotsky, L. (1930). The History of the Russian Revolution. Marxist Internet Archive.
• V.I. Lenin Institute (1963). Lenin on the State. Lawrence and Wishart Publishers.
• Woods, A. (2017). Russia’s Revolution: Essays 1989-2017. Wellred Books.

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In 1917 Russia was convulsed by two major seizures of power. The Tsars of Russia were replaced first in February by a pair of co-existing revolutionary governments, one mainly liberal, one socialist, but after a period of confusion, a fringe socialist group lead by Lenin seized power in October and produced the world’s first socialist state. The February Revolution was the start of a genuine social revolution in Russia, but as the rival governments were seen to increasingly fail, a power vacuum allowed Lenin and his Bolsheviks to stage their coup and seize power under the cloak of this revolution.

Decades of Dissent

Tensions between the autocratic Tsars of Russia and their subjects over a lack of representation, a lack of rights, disagreements over laws and new ideologies, had developed across the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth. The increasingly democratic west of Europe provided a strong contrast to Russia, which was increasingly viewed as backward. Strong socialist and liberal challenges had emerged to the government, and an abortive revolution in 1905 had produced a limited form of parliament called the Duma .

But the Tsar had disbanded the Duma when he saw fit, and his ineffective and corrupt government had grown massively unpopular, leading to even moderate elements in Russia seeking to challenge their long-term ruler. Tsars had reacted with brutality and repression to the extreme, but a minority, forms of rebellion like assassination attempts, which had killed Tsars and Tsarist employees. At the same time, Russia had developed a growing class of poor urban workers with strong socialist leanings to go with the mass of long term disenfranchised peasants. Indeed, strikes were so problematic that some had wondered aloud in 1914 whether the Tsar could risk mobilizing the army and sending it away from the strikers. Even the democratically-minded had been alienated and started agitating for change, and to educated Russians, the Tsarist regime increasingly appeared like a horrific, incompetent, joke.

World War 1: The Catalyst

The Great War of 1914 to 1918 was to prove the death knell of the Tsarist regime. After initial public fervor, alliance and support collapsed due to military failures. The Tsar took personal command, but all this meant was that he became closely associated with the disasters. The Russian infrastructure proved inadequate for Total War, leading to widespread food shortages, inflation and the collapse of the transport system, exacerbated by the failure of the central government to manage anything. Despite this, the Russian army remained largely intact, but without faith in the Tsar. Rasputin , a mystic who exerted a hold over the imperial family, changed the internal government to his whims before he was assassinated, further undermining the Tsar. One politician remarked, “Is this stupidity or treason?”

The Duma, which had voted for its own suspension for the war in 1914, demanded a return in 1915 and the Tsar agreed. The Duma offered to aid the failing Tsarist government by forming a ‘Ministry of National Confidence’, but the Tsar refused. Then major parties in the Duma, including the Kadets , Octobrists, Nationalists, and others, supported by the SRs , formed the ‘Progressive Bloc’ to try and pressure the Tsar into acting. He again refused to listen. This was probably his realistic last chance to save his government.

The February Revolution

By 1917 Russia was now more divided than ever, with a government that clearly couldn’t cope and a war dragging on. Anger at the Tsar and his government led to massive multi-day strikes. As over two hundred thousand people protested in the capital Petrograd, and protests hit other cities, the Tsar ordered the military force to break the strike. At first, troops fired on protestors in Petrograd, but then they mutinied, joined them and armed them. The crowd then turned on the police. Leaders emerged on the streets, not from the professional revolutionaries, but from people finding sudden inspiration. Freed prisoners took looting to the next level, and mobs formed; people died, were mugged, were raped.

The largely liberal and elite Duma told the Tsar that only concessions from his government could stop the trouble, and the Tsar responded by dissolving the Duma. This then selected members to form an emergency Provisional Government and, at the same time socialist-minded leaders also began to form a rival government in the form of the St, Petersburg Soviet. The early executive of the Soviets was free of actual workers but full of intellectuals who tried to assume control of the situation. Both the Soviet and the Provisional Government then agreed to work together in a system nicknamed ‘Dual Power / Dual Authority’.

In practice, the Provisionals had little choice but to agree as the soviets were in effective control of key facilities. The aim was to rule until a Constituent Assembly had created a new government structure. Support for the Tsar faded quickly, even though the Provisional Government was unelected and weak. Crucially, it had the support of the army and bureaucracy. The Soviets could have taken total power, but its non-Bolshevik leaders stopped, partly because they believed a capitalist, bourgeois government was needed before the socialist revolution was possible, partly because they feared a civil war, and partly because they doubted they could really control the mob.

At this stage, the Tsar discovered the army would not support him and abdicated on behalf of himself and his son. The new heir, Michael Romanov, refused the throne and three hundred years of Romanov family rule was ended. They would later be executed on mass. The revolution then spread across Russia, with mini Dumas and parallel soviets formed in major cities, the army and elsewhere to take control. There was little opposition. Overall, a couple of thousand people had died during the changeover. At this stage, the revolution had been pushed forward by former Tsarists - high ranking members of the military, Duma aristocrats and others - rather than by Russia’s group of professional revolutionaries.

Troubled Months

As the Provisional Government attempted to negotiate a way through the many different hoops for Russia, the war continued in the background. All but the Bolsheviks and Monarchists initially worked together in a period of shared joy, and decrees were passed reforming aspects of Russia. However, the issues of land and the war were sidestepped, and it was these that would destroy the Provisional Government as its factions grew increasingly drawn to the left and right. In the country, and across Russia, the central government collapsed and thousands of localized, ad hoc committees formed to govern. Chief among these were village/peasant bodies, based heavily on the old communes, which organized the seizure of land from the landowning nobles. Historians like Figes have described this situation not as just ‘dual power’, but as a ‘multitude of local power’.

When the anti-war soviets discovered the new Foreign Minister had kept the Tsar’s old war aims, partly because Russia was now dependent upon credit and loans from its allies to avoid bankruptcy, demonstrations forced a new, semi-socialist coalition government into creation. Old revolutionaries now returned to Russia, including one called Lenin, who soon dominated the Bolshevik faction. In his April Theses and elsewhere, Lenin called for the Bolsheviks to shun the Provisional Government and prepare for a new revolution, a view many colleagues openly disagreed with. The first ‘All-Russian Congress of Soviets’ revealed that the socialists were deeply divided over how to proceed, and the Bolsheviks were in a minority.

The July Days

As the war continued the anti-war Bolsheviks found their support growing. On July 3 -5th a confused armed uprising by soldiers and workers in the name of the Soviet failed. This was the ‘July Days’. Historians are divided over who was actually behind the revolt. Pipes has argued it was an attempted coup directed by Bolshevik high command, but Figes has presented a convincing account in his ‘A People’s Tragedy’ which argues that the uprising started when the Provisional Government tried to move a pro-Bolshevik unit of soldiers to the front. They rose up, people followed them, and low-level Bolsheviks and anarchists pushed the rebellion along. The top-level Bolsheviks like Lenin refused to either order the seizure of power, or even give the rebellion any direction or blessing, and the crowds milled aimlessly about when they could easily have taken power had someone pointed them in the right direction. Afterward, the government arrested major Bolsheviks, and Lenin fled the country, his reputation as a revolutionary weakened by his lack of readiness.

Shortly after Kerensky became Prime Minister of a new coalition that pulled both left and right as he tried to forge a middle path. Kerensky was notionally a socialist but was in practice closer to the middle class and his presentation and style initially appealed to liberals and socialists alike. Kerensky attacked the Bolsheviks and called Lenin a German agent - Lenin was still in the pay of German forces - and the Bolsheviks were in serious disarray. They could have been destroyed, and hundreds were arrested for treason, but other socialist factions defended them; the Bolsheviks would not be so kind when it was the other way round.

The Right Intervenes

In August 1917 the long-feared right-wing coup appeared to be attempted by General Kornilov who, afraid the Soviets would take power, tried to take it instead. However, historians believe that this ‘coup’ was much more complicated, and not really a coup at all. Kornilov did try and convince Kerensky to accept a program of reforms that would have effectively placed Russia under a right-wing dictatorship, but he proposed this on behalf of the Provisional Government to protect it against the Soviet, rather than to seize power for himself.

There then followed a catalog of confusions, as a possibly mad intermediary between Kerensky and Kornilov gave the impression that Kerensky had offered dictatorial powers to Kornilov, while at the same time giving the impression to Kerensky that Kornilov was taking power alone. Kerensky took the opportunity to accuse Kornilov of attempting a coup in order to rally support around him, and as the confusion continued Kornilov concluded that Kerensky was a Bolshevik prisoner and ordered troops forward to free him. When the troops arrived in Petrograd they realized nothing was happening and stopped. Kerensky ruined his standing with the right, who was fond of Kornilov and was fatally weakened by appealing to the left, as he had agreed to the Petrograd Soviet forming a ‘Red Guard’ of 40,000 armed workers to prevent counter-revolutionaries like Kornilov. The Soviets needed the Bolsheviks to do this, as they were the only ones who could command a mass of local soldiers, and were rehabilitated. People believed the Bolsheviks had stopped Kornilov.

Hundreds of thousands went on strike in protest at the lack of progress, radicalized once more by the attempted right-wing coup. The Bolsheviks had now become a party with more support, even as their leaders argued over the right course of action, because they were almost the only ones left arguing for pure soviet power, and because the main socialist parties had been branded failures for their attempts to work with the government. The Bolshevik rallying cry of ‘peace, land, and bread’ was popular. Lenin switched tactics and recognized peasant land seizures, promising a Bolshevik redistribution of land. Peasants now began to swing in behind the Bolsheviks and against the Provisional Government which, composed partly of landholders, was against the seizures. It’s important to stress the Bolsheviks were not supported purely for their policies, but because they seemed to be the soviet answer.

The October Revolution

The Bolsheviks, having persuaded the Petrograd Soviet to create a ‘Military Revolutionary Committee’ (MRC) to arm and organize, decided to seize power after Lenin was able to overrule the majority of the party leaders who were against the attempt. But he didn’t set a date. He believed it had to be before elections to the Constituent Assembly gave Russia an elected government he might not be able to challenge, and before the All Russian Congress of Soviets met, so they could dominate it by already having power. Many thought power would come to them if they waited. As Bolshevik supporters traveled among soldiers to recruit them, it became apparent the MRC could call on major military support.

As the Bolsheviks delayed attempting their coup for more discussion, events elsewhere outpaced them when Kerensky’s government finally reacted – triggered by an article in a newspaper where leading Bolsheviks argued against a coup - and tried to arrest Bolshevik and MRC leaders and send Bolshevik army units to the frontlines. The troops rebelled, and the MRC occupied key buildings. The Provisional Government had few troops and these stayed largely neutral, while the Bolsheviks had Trotsky ’s Red Guard and the army. Bolshevik leaders, hesitant to act, were forced into acting and hurriedly taking charge of the coup thanks to Lenin’s insistence. In one way, Lenin and the Bolshevik high command had little responsibility for the start of the coup, and Lenin – almost alone – had responsibility for the success at the end by driving the other Bolsheviks on. The coup saw no great crowds like February.

Lenin then announced a seizure of power, and the Bolsheviks tried to influence the Second Congress of Soviets but found themselves with a majority only after other socialist groups walked out in protest (although this, at least, tied up with Lenin’s plan). It was enough for the Bolsheviks to use the Soviet as a cloak for their coup. Lenin now acted to secure control over the Bolshevik party, which was still divided into factions As socialist groups across Russia seized power the government was arrested. Kerensky fled after his attempts to organize resistance was thwarted; he later taught history in the US. Lenin had effectively backed into power.

The Bolsheviks Consolidate

The now largely Bolshevik Congress of Soviets passed several of Lenin’s new decrees and created the Council of People’s Commissars, a new, Bolshevik, government. Opponents believed the Bolshevik government would swiftly fail and prepared (or rather, failed to prepare) accordingly, and even then there were no military forces at this point to retake power. Elections to the Constituent Assembly were still held, and the Bolsheviks gained only a quarter of the vote and shut it down. The mass of peasants (and to some extent workers) didn’t care about the Assembly as they now had their local soviets. The Bolsheviks then dominated a coalition with the Left SR’s, but these non-Bolsheviks were quickly dropped. The Bolsheviks began to change the fabric of Russian, ending the war, introducing new secret police, taking over the economy and abolishing much of the Tsarist state.

They began to secure power by a twofold policy, born out of improvisation and gut feeling: concentrate the high reaches of government in the hands of a small dictatorship, and use terror to crush the opposition, while giving the low levels of government entirely over to the new worker’s soviets, soldier’s committees and peasant councils, allowing human hate and prejudice to lead these new bodies into smashing the old structures. Peasants destroyed the gentry, soldiers destroyed the officers, workers destroyed the capitalists.  The Red Terror  of the next few years, desired by Lenin and guided by the Bolsheviks, was born out of this mass outpouring of hate and proved popular. The Bolsheviks would then go about taking control of the lower levels.

After two revolutions in less than a year, Russia had been transformed from an autocratic empire, through a period of shifting chaos to a notionally socialist, Bolshevik state. Notionally, because the Bolsheviks had a loose grasp on government, with only slight control of the soviets outside major cities, and because quite how their practices were actually socialist is open to debate. As much as they later claimed, the Bolsheviks didn’t have a plan for how to govern Russia, and they were forced into making immediate, pragmatic decisions to hold onto power and keep Russia functioning.

It would take a civil war for Lenin and the Bolsheviks to consolidate their authoritarian power, but their state would be established as the  USSR  and, following Lenin’s death, taken over by the even more dictatorial and bloodthirsty  Stalin . Socialist revolutionaries across Europe would take heart from Russia’s apparent success and agitate further, while much of the world looked at Russia with a mixture of fear and apprehension.

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• The Russian Civil War
• Russian Revolution Timeline
• Timeline of the Russian Revolutions: 1918
• Timeline of the Russian Revolutions: 1905
• America Joins the Fight in World War I
• The Red Terror
• When Was St. Petersburg Known as Petrograd and Leningrad?
• Timeline of the Russian Revolutions: 1906 - 1913
• Bloody Sunday: Prelude to the Russian Revolution of 1917
• Biography of Czar Nicholas II, Last Czar of Russia
• Order Number 1 Nearly Destroyed the Russian Army: What Was It?
• Execution of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and His Family
• World War I and The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Top Books: Modern Russia - The Revolution and After

• Modern History

What happened in the 1917 Russian Revolution?

In the year 1917, Russia experienced two political revolutions that resulted in the overthrow of the Romanov monarchy, which had ruled Russia for centuries: from 1613 to 1917, ruling for a little over 300 years.

The causes of the Russian Revolution had existed for over a century in Russian society, but the economic and social stresses were increased by the length and severity of World War One.

At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Russia was a monarchy, which meant it was ruled over by a Tsar called Nicholas II.

For a long time before the war, the Russian people were growing angry with the power the Tsar held over them and how little the imperial family seemed to care about their poverty.

In the fifty years before the war, Tsars had been attacked by their own people in an effort to force change in society.

Some of the most active political groups calling for change were those that followed the ideology of communism. 

Communists argued that Russia should not be controlled by a monarchy and, instead, should be controlled by the Russian people themselves.

These groups encouraged the peasants to stage an armed take-over of the country to get rid of the Tsar all together.

In its place, they wanted to set up a government that focused on the needs of the peasants and the regular workers in society. 

However, despite the encouragement by communist political groups, the Russian population did not rise up and overthrow the Tsar, as most people still felt a loyalty to the imperial family. 

That was until the First World War occurred. Russia had not fared well in the conflict and there was growing resentment at home.

The Russian army continued to suffer defeats and peasants were growing hungrier due to restrictions placed on food.

The popularity of communist political groups increased as they called for Russia to leave the war.

The Tsar, however, refused to let Russia quit from the conflict, no matter how much his people were starving or suffering.

This finally led some people within Russian society to call for the overthrow of the Tsar.

The revolution finally occurred in 1917. However, it was a revolution that occurred in stages over the course of the year.

It can be a complex topic to study, but this article will try and keep things simple, by explaining the three broad stages that took Russia from a monarchy to a communist country. 

Stage 1: The February Revolution

The first stage of the Russian Revolution occurred in February 1917, and it was the event that finally removed the Tsar and the imperial family from power.

This stage began on February 23rd, when women workers in the city of Petrograd walked away from their factory jobs to march onto the streets in protest.

This day was important for them to protest upon, because it was International Women's Day.

Around 90,000 women marched in this protest, calling for more food, the removal of the Tsar and an end to the war. 

On the very next day, over 150,000 men and women protested again. Then, on the 25th of February, the city of Petrograd was again filled with protestors as more people walked off their jobs.

Even the military units that were sent in by the Tsar to control the protests quit their own jobs and joined the crowds.

Tsar Nicholas II knew that the protests were occurring, but he was not in Petrograd at the time, so he did not respond to the calls for change.

However, by March 1st, the protests and anger were becoming a national security threat and the Tsar finally admitted that it was time to step down.

On March the 2nd, Tsar Nicholas II signed the official abdication forms, which meant that he was no longer in power.

He and his family no longer controlled Russia, and power was handed over to the Russian people. 

Stage 2: The Provisional Government

The second stage of the Russian Revolution covers the months between March to October 1917.

During this time, Russia tried to create a government that could effectively replace the Tsar.

However, what people quickly found was that running a country was a far more difficult thing to do than they first realised, and different versions of governments were quickly created and disbanded.

Once the Tsar had stepped down, it wasn't immediately clear who now made the decisions about what should happen in Russia.

Two main political groups became the most influential. The first group was composed of former members of the government body known as the duma and was made up of people from the wealthy middle class of Russian society, rather than by the peasants or workers.

The second group was a collection of people who claimed to represent the workers of the city of Petrograd and was known as the 'Petrograd Soviet'. 

It was the duma that created the first government to replace the Tsar, and it is known as the Provisional Government.

It was considered to be a 'provisional' government, as its main job was to ensure that an election would be held later in the year for the people to vote for a permanent government.

However, instead of planning for an election, the Provisional Government essentially decided that they were the permanent government instead. 

During the first few weeks in power, the Provisional Government did implement some changes to Russian society, but refused to end Russia's involvement in World War One.

This meant that very little changed for the Russian peasants and workers. There were still food shortages, people were still being recruited for the army and Russia was still losing battles in the war.

Instead of solving the problems that caused the revolution, the Provisional Government was making the same problems worse. 

Lenin arrives in Russia

One of the most important people in Russian history was a man called Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

He was the leader of a political group known as the Bolsheviks, which promoted communist ideals.

While Lenin was born in Russia, he had been living in exile elsewhere in Europe when the February Revolution occurred.

He believed that the Provisional Government had not done enough to help the Russian people, and he travelled back to Russia on a train to raise enthusiasm for a more radical government.

He was transported through Germany in a sealed train. By doing this, Germany hoped that Lenin's return would create further instability in Russia, which would help them in the war.

Lenin arrived in the city of Petrograd on April 3, 1917. Crowds of workers and soldiers were there to meet him, waving red flags.

The colour red would become associated with the third stage of the Russian Revolution. 

Lenin gave a speech to his supporters, in which he called for the end of the Provisional Government because it had not given the Russian people 'peace, bread or land'.

As the Russian people grew more discontent with the Provisional Government, the popularity of Lenin's Bolshevik party began to grow.

Also, Lenin's call for another revolution, a more violent one, also grew in popularity.

Stage 3: The October Revolution

The third and final stage of the Russian Revolution occurred in October 1917, and it was when the communist Bolsheviks took control of Russia.

On the 10th of October, the Bolshevik party held a secret meeting where Lenin drew up plans for his followers to stage an armed revolution and seize control of the country.

Once agreed upon, the Bolshevik leadership began planning.

Then, in the early morning of October 25, the Bolshevik revolution began. Soldiers who supported the Bolsheviks quickly took control of the telegraph systems, power stations, roads, post offices, railways, and even the banks in the city of Petrograd.

These were the most important pieces of infrastructure that governments and militaries needed to function.

By taking these first, not only could the Bolsheviks claim to be the government, but they also stopped anyone else fighting back against their control.

By midday, the Bolsheviks controlled Petrograd. The only place left to fall to them was the former home of the Tsar, called the Winter Palace, where the members of the Provisional Government were. 

It would not be until the next day that troops entered the palace and finally removed the last of the politicians.

The final stage of the revolution was not as bloody as many had feared. Ultimately, it was a quick overthrow, and the Bolsheviks took control of Russia.

Once in power, Lenin began a more radical change to Russian society. 

The Russian Civil War

Very soon after the October Revolution, the new government ended Russia's participation in World War One.

However, to achieve this, Russia had to surrender a significant amount of land to Germany.

This meant that there was less farmland to grow crops for the starving Russian people. As a result, very few of the problems were solved.

Then, in June 1918, Russia went to war with itself, in what is known as a 'civil war'. One army formed which was called 'The Whites', which wanted the Bolsheviks out of power.

The Whites were a coalition of anti-Bolshevik forces with varying goals, including monarchists, republicans, and others. 

The other army that fought against them was known as 'The Reds', which was the army of the Bolshevik government.

Afraid that the Whites wanted to return the Tsar to Power, the Reds killed Nicholas II and his entire family on July 16-17, 1918.

The Russian Civil War lasted for over three years and resulted in a huge loss of life. Ultimately, the Reds won, and the Bolsheviks would create the Soviet Union, which would last until 1991. 

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Russian Revolutions and Civil War, 1917–1921

Introduction, general overviews.

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Russian Revolutions and Civil War, 1917–1921 by Michael Kort LAST REVIEWED: 09 February 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 22 September 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0088

The Russian Revolution has not permitted Western historians the comfort of neutrality. It led to the establishment of a regime, the Soviet Union, that on the basis of Marxist ideology claimed to be building the world’s first nonexploitative and egalitarian society. As such, the Soviet regime further claimed to represent humanity’s future and therefore the right to spread its communist revolution worldwide. These pretentions, however dubiously realized in practice, won the Soviet Union millions of loyalists over the world. At the same time, because these pretentions also threatened any society organized according to different principles, including those of liberal democracy and free enterprise, they made the Soviet regime the object of intense fear and opposition. This reaction was reinforced as the Soviet Union quickly became a brutal dictatorship and, after World War II, emerged as one of the world’s two nuclear superpowers. For these reasons Western scholarship on the Russian Revolution has had an element of contentiousness not often seen in other fields. That, in turn, is why any serious student of the Russian Revolution must be familiar with its historiography, and why this article not only contains a major section on historiography but also includes historiographic commentary in many of the individual entries. The term Russian Revolution itself refers to two upheavals that took place in 1917: the February Revolution and the October, or Bolshevik, Revolution. The former was a spontaneous uprising that began in Russia’s capital in late February 1917 and led to the collapse of the tsarist monarchy and the establishment of the Provisional Government, a regime based on the premise that Russia should have a parliamentary government and free-enterprise economic system. The latter took place in late October and was the seizure of power by a militant Marxist political party determined to rule alone, turn Russia into a communist society, and spark a worldwide revolution. (These dates are according to the outdated Julian calendar in use in Russia at the time, which trailed the Gregorian calendar used in the West by thirteen days. According to the Gregorian calendar, the two revolutions took place in March and November, respectively.) Because the Bolsheviks did not consolidate their power until their victory in a three-year civil war, many histories ostensibly about the “Russian Revolution” include not only the events of 1917 but also their immediate aftermath in early 1918, and then the civil war, which began in mid-1918 and lasted until 1921. That framework has been adopted for this article as well. Matters of evidence and documentation have additionally complicated this subject. In this case the key date is 1991, as that is when the collapse of the Soviet Union finally made many important Russian archives available to scholars for the first time. This significant development is covered in the Published Documentary Collections section of this article.

Although all of the volumes listed in this section can be called general overviews, they vary considerably in their structure and approach. Carr 1950–1953 provides a multivolume and extraordinarily detailed institutional narrative of the establishment and consolidation of the Bolshevik regime, which the author essentially endorses. Chamberlin 1965 is a traditional, sweeping narrative that is critical of the Bolshevik regime, as is Figes 1998 , which begins the story in 1891 and carries it to 1924. Pipes 1996 provides a broad narrative in the condensation of two large volumes on this subject, and provides a view that is highly critical of the Bolshevik regime. Schapiro 1984 , likewise, is an interpretive essay, albeit from a liberal perspective critical of the Bolsheviks. Read 1996 is a revisionist narrative that, while scholarly, comes close to being a textbook. (See the introduction to the Historiography section for the definition of revisionist and related terms in the context of Soviet history.) Shukman 1998 is a short survey with a conclusion critical of the Bolshevik regime. Engelstein 2017 covers the period 1914 to 1921 with an emphasis on how the Bolsheviks betrayed the prevailing democratic sentiments in Russia in 1917 and successfully mobilized power to crush their opponents between 1917 and 1921. McMeekin 2017 begins in 1905 and covers through 1922, stressing how blunders first by Nicholas II and then by the Provisional Government under Kerensky’s inept leadership opened the gates for Lenin and the Bolsheviks to come to power. Smith 2017 covers the period 1890 to 1928, focusing on economic and social factors that caused the revolutions of 1917 and affected the Bolshevik regime into the late 1920s.

Carr, Edward Hallett. A History of Soviet Russia: The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1923 . 3 vols. London: Macmillan, 1950–1953.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-63648-8

The first three volumes of a series that, first under Carr and then R. W. Davies, eventually totaled fourteen volumes and thousands of pages upon reaching its terminus in 1929. Some scholars argue these volumes constitute a classic work; others, largely because Carr writes as if the Bolshevik regime was the inevitable outcome of the revolution that ended the tsarist regime, dismiss them as an apologia for Bolshevism and therefore largely useless.

Chamberlin, William Henry. The Russian Revolution, 1917–1921 . 2 vols. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1965.

Originally published in 1935, this work remains an extremely valuable source. The author, who covered Russia for the Christian Science Monitor from 1922 to 1933, was a skilled writer, objective observer, and careful researcher. Many specialists believe it has still not been surpassed as an overall history of the period. Volume 1, 1917–1918: From the Overthrow of the Czar to the Assumption of Power by the Bolsheviks . Volume 2, 1918–1921: From the Civil War to the Consolidation of Power .

Engelstein, Laura. Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914–1921 . New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

This broad narrative faults the tsarist regime for fomenting internal tensions as it fought World War I, most notably but not exclusively by targeting Jews, which weakened its authority during a time of crisis. Engelstein views the February Revolution as broadly democratic. It unfortunately was undermined by the Provisional Government’s inability to deal with the urgent problems caused by World War I and with disorder at home. Lenin and the Bolsheviks were fundamentally undemocratic and exploited the disorder in Russia to seize power in a coup d’état, after which they succeeded in applying brutal force, especially through the Cheka and Red Army, to crush their political opponents and social and ethnic groups resisting their rule during and immediately after the Civil War.

Figes, Orlando. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924 . New York: Penguin, 1998.

A panoramic narrative that draws on recently opened archives and numerous anecdotes with great effect. Figes argues, on the one hand, that Russia’s long history of serfdom and its autocratic traditions doomed the 1917 effort to establish a democratic regime and, on the other, that it was Bolshevism and Lenin’s policies after the seizure of power that put in place the basic elements of the Stalinist regime.

McMeekin, Sean. The Russian Revolution: A New History . New York: Basic Books, 2017.

McMeekin argues that Lenin’s improbable path to power was paved by errors on the part of Tsar Nicholas II, liberals who supported Russia’s entry into World War I and then proved to be inept as leaders of the Provisional Government, massive amounts of German money funneled to the Bolsheviks during 1917 in the hope that Lenin and his comrades would undermine Russia’s government and war effort, and Lenin’s fierce will to power and political skill. The ultimate Bolshevik victory was far from inevitable; it took a combination of blunders by others, Lenin’s skill and ruthlessness, and, not infrequently, pure luck for the Bolsheviks to be able to seize power in 1917 and then hold it in the battles and turmoil that followed through 1922.

Pipes, Richard. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution . New York: Vintage, 1996.

The author calls this volume a “précis” of his two massive, pathbreaking earlier volumes, The Russian Revolution ( Pipes 1990 , cited under the October Revolution and the Establishment of the Bolshevik Regime ) and Russia under the Bolshevik Regime ( Pipes 1994 , cited under the Civil War and Its Immediate Aftermath ). Pipes argues that with the coup of October 1917 fanatical intellectuals seized control of the upheaval of 1917 intent on establishing a socialist utopia, but, in the end, they reconstituted Russia’s authoritarian tradition in a new regime that laid the basis for totalitarianism. Excellent for advanced undergraduates, this volume covers the period from 1900 to 1924.

Read, Christopher. From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution . New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

A comprehensive but reasonably concise (three hundred pages) overview written from a revisionist social history perspective. As the subtitle suggests, Read stresses the activities and efforts of workers and peasants to defend their interests. While sympathetic to Lenin, Read also is critical of the Bolsheviks for suppressing popular movements after seizing power. Includes an extensive bibliography, which increases its value to undergraduates and graduate students.

Schapiro, Leonard Bertram. The Russian Revolutions of 1917: The Origins of Modern Communism . New York: Basic Books, 1984.

Schapiro argues that the Bolsheviks ruthlessly sabotaged the Provisional Government’s effort to lay the basis for democracy in Russia and, having seized power in a coup d’état, laid the basis for a totalitarian regime. A concise account that sums up the lifetime work of a distinguished historian of Soviet Russia. Excellent for undergraduates.

Shukman, Harold. The Russian Revolution . Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1998.

A short but up-to-date survey by the editor of The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution ( Shukman 1988 , cited under Bibliographies and Reference Works ). This work concludes that Lenin prepared the way for Stalin. Suitable for undergraduates.

Smith, Stephen A. Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Smith argues that neither the collapse of tsarism nor the fall of the Provisional Government were preordained. The basic reason tsarism collapsed was that it was a barrier to modernizing forces in Russian society, but the severe additional social and economic strains imposed on Russia by World War I played a vital role in that collapse. The Provisional Government might have saved itself had it withdrawn from the war. The Bolshevik Revolution was driven by egalitarian and democratic ideals but was a failure since it produced a repressive and cruel society. The degeneration of the Bolshevik regime during the civil war was caused by the authoritarianism embedded in Leninist ideology and the desperate struggle the regime faced in its effort to survive. While Smith assigns considerable responsibility to Lenin for Stalin’s coming to power, he rejects the view that Stalinism was the inevitable outcome of the Bolshevik Revolution.

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(page 157) p. 157 Conclusion

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The Conclusion looks at various interpretations of the rise of the Soviet Union. Does ideology constitute the key to understanding the development of Soviet totalitarianism? What elements of Marxism–Leninism were to blame? It is beyond question that ideology was of central importance in determining the course of the Bolshevik revolution. All Bolsheviks believed in the Marxist vision. It is that the Bolsheviks were incapable of realizing their ends. It is their blindness rather than their vision that is striking. Policy was frequently the outcome of improvisation and pragmatism rather than the drive of ideology. The relationship between belief and action was complex. What questions did the revolution raise about justice, equality, and freedom? Are they still relevant today?

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100 Words Essay on Russian Revolution

What was the russian revolution.

The Russian Revolution was a series of events that led to the overthrow of the Russian monarchy and the establishment of the Soviet Union. It began in 1917 with a series of strikes and protests against the government. The Tsar, Nicholas II, abdicated his throne in March 1917. A provisional government was formed, but it was soon overthrown by the Bolsheviks, a radical socialist party led by Vladimir Lenin.

The Bolsheviks seized power

Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917 in a coup known as the October Revolution. They established a new government, the Soviet Union, and began to implement their socialist policies. These policies included the nationalization of industry and land, the abolition of private property, and the creation of a centrally planned economy.

The Russian Civil War

The Bolsheviks’ seizure of power led to a civil war in Russia. The White Army, supported by the Western powers, fought against the Red Army, supported by the Bolsheviks. The Red Army eventually won the civil war in 1921.

The Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party. It was a totalitarian state, with the government controlling all aspects of life. The Soviet Union became a major world power during the Cold War, but it eventually collapsed in 1991.

250 Words Essay on Russian Revolution

Introduction to the russian revolution.

The Russian Revolution was a major event that changed Russia forever. It happened in 1917 and led to the end of the monarchy. This meant the king and queen were no longer in charge. Instead, the country tried to set up a government where the people had more power.

Causes of the Revolution

Many people in Russia were unhappy because they were poor and life was hard. The country was also doing badly in a big war called World War I. This made even more people upset. They wanted changes, like better working conditions, more food, and a fairer system.

The Two Parts of the Revolution

The revolution had two main parts. The first part was in February 1917, when the king gave up his throne. This was because many people, including soldiers, protested in the streets. Then, in October, another group called the Bolsheviks took control. They were led by a man named Lenin who wanted to set up a government based on the ideas of a man named Karl Marx.

After the Revolution

After taking power, the Bolsheviks made big changes. They took land from rich people and gave it to the poor. They also tried to make sure everyone had enough to eat and work. But, these changes led to a civil war, which was a very hard time for Russia.

The Russian Revolution was a turning point for Russia. It led to the end of the monarchy and the start of a new type of government. This event is still important today because it shows how people can come together to try and change their country.

500 Words Essay on Russian Revolution

The spark that ignited a revolution: bloody sunday.

In 1905, a peaceful protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, turned into a bloodbath. The Tsar’s soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds of innocent people. This event, known as Bloody Sunday, became the catalyst for the Russian Revolution.

Seeds of Discontent: Economic and Social Inequality

Russia in the early 20th century was a land of stark contrasts. While the aristocracy and the wealthy lived in luxury, the vast majority of the population, including peasants and factory workers, lived in poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor was vast, and the people were yearning for change.

A Call for Change: Lenin and the Bolsheviks

In the midst of this discontent, a revolutionary group known as the Bolsheviks emerged. Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks preached the overthrow of the Tsar and the establishment of a socialist state. They promised land to the peasants and control of factories to the workers.

The 1917 Revolution: Two Revolutions in One

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not a single event, but rather a series of two interconnected revolutions. The first revolution, known as the February Revolution, led to the overthrow of the Tsar and the establishment of a provisional government. The second, the October Revolution, brought the Bolsheviks to power.

The Reign of the Bolsheviks: A New Era of Repression

Once in power, the Bolsheviks quickly consolidated their control over the country. They established a one-party state and ruthlessly suppressed any opposition. Their rule was marked by widespread violence and terror, as they sought to eliminate their political enemies.

Legacy of the Revolution: A Mixed Bag

The Russian Revolution had a profound impact on Russia and the world. It led to the creation of the Soviet Union, the first communist state in the world. The Soviet Union would become a global superpower and play a major role in the Cold War. The revolution also inspired other communist movements around the world. However, the revolution came at a great cost. Millions of people died in the violence that accompanied the revolution and the subsequent civil war. The Soviet Union, while achieving great economic and scientific advancements, also suppressed individual liberties and dissident voices. The legacy of the Russian Revolution remains a complex and debated topic, with both positive and negative aspects.

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• Animal Farm

George Orwell

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Critical Essays The Russian Revolution

One of Orwell 's goals in writing Animal Farm was to portray the Russian (or Bolshevik) Revolution of 1917 as one that resulted in a government more oppressive, totalitarian, and deadly than the one it overthrew. Many of the characters and events of Orwell's novel parallel those of the Russian Revolution: In short, Manor Farm is a model of Russia, and old Major , Snowball , and Napoleon represent the dominant figures of the Russian Revolution.

Mr. Jones is modeled on Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918), the last Russian emperor. His rule (1894-1917) was marked by his insistence that he was the uncontestable ruler of the nation. During his reign, the Russian people experienced terrible poverty and upheaval, marked by the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1905 when unarmed protesters demanding social reforms were shot down by the army near Nicholas' palace. As the animals under Jones lead lives of hunger and want, the lives of millions of Russians worsened during Nicholas' reign. When Russia entered World War I and subsequently lost more men than any country in any previous war, the outraged and desperate people began a series of strikes and mutinies that signaled the end of Tsarist control. When his own generals withdrew their support of him, Nicholas abdicated his throne in the hopes of avoiding an all-out civil war — but the civil war arrived in the form of the Bolshevik Revolution, when Nicholas, like Jones, was removed from his place of rule and then died shortly thereafter.

old Major is the animal version of V. I. Lenin (1870-1924), the leader of the Bolshevik Party that seized control in the 1917 Revolution. As old Major outlines the principles of Animalism, a theory holding that all animals are equal and must revolt against their oppressors, Lenin was inspired by Karl Marx's theory of Communism, which urges the "workers of the world" to unite against their economic oppressors. As Animalism imagines a world where all animals share in the prosperity of the farm, Communism argues that a "communal" way of life will allow all people to live lives of economic equality. old Major dies before he can see the final results of the revolution, as Lenin did before witnessing the ways in which his disciples carried on the work of reform.

old Major is absolute in his hatred of Man, as Lenin was uncompromising in his views: He is widely believed to have been responsible for giving the order to kill Nicholas and his family after the Bolsheviks had gained control. Lenin was responsible for changing Russia into the U.S.S.R., as old Major is responsible for transforming Manor Farm into Animal Farm. The U.S.S.R.'s flag depicted a hammer and sickle — the tools of the rebelling workers — so the flag of Animal Farm features a horn and hoof.

One of Lenin's allies was Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), another Marxist thinker who participated in a number of revolutionary demonstrations and uprisings. His counterpart in Animal Farm is Snowball, who, like Trotsky, felt that a worldwide series of rebellions was necessary to achieve the revolution's ultimate aims. Snowball's plans for the windmill and programs reflect Trotsky's intellectual character and ideas about the best ways to transform Marx's theories into practice. Trotsky was also the leader of Lenin's Red Army, as Snowball directs the army of animals that repel Jones.

Eventually, Trotsky was exiled from the U.S.S.R. and killed by the agents of Joseph Stalin (1979-1953), as Snowball is chased off of the farm by Napoleon — Orwell's stand-in for Stalin. Like Napoleon, Stalin was unconcerned with debates and ideas. Instead, he valued power for its own sake and by 1927 had assumed complete control of the Communist Party through acts of terror and brutality. Napoleon's dogs are like Stalin's KGB, his secret police that he used to eliminate all opposition. As Napoleon gains control under the guise of improving the animals' lives, Stalin used a great deal of propaganda — symbolized by Squealer in the novel — to present himself as an idealist working for change. His plan to build the windmill reflects Stalin's Five Year Plan for revitalizing the nation's industry and agriculture. Stalin's ordering Lenin's body to be placed in the shrine-like Lenin's Tomb parallels Napoleon's unearthing of old Major's skull, and his creation of the Order of the Green Banner parallels Stalin's creation of the Order of Lenin. Thanks, in part, to animals like Boxer (who swallow whole all of their leader's lies), Stalin became one of the world's most feared and brutal dictators.

Numerous events in the novel are based on ones that occurred during Stalin's rule. The Battle of the Cowshed parallels the Civil War that occurred after the 1917 Revolution. Jones ; Frederick represents Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who forged an alliance with Stalin in 1939 — but who then found himself fighting Stalin's army in 1941. Frederick seems like an ally of Napoleon's, but his forged banknotes reveal his true character. The confessions and executions of the animals reflect the various purges and "show trials" that Stalin conducted to rid himself of any possible threat of dissention. In 1921, the sailors at the Kronshdadt military base unsuccessfully rebelled against Communist rule, as the hens attempt to rebel against Napoleon. The Battle of the Windmill reflects the U.S.S.R.'s involvement in World War II — specifically the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, when Stalin's forces defeated Hitler's (as Napoleon's defeat Frederick). Finally, the card game at the novel's end parallels the Tehran Conference (November 28-December 1, 1943), where Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt met to discuss the ways to forge a lasting peace after the war — a peace that Orwell mocks by having Napoleon and Pilkington flatter each other and then betray their duplicitous natures by cheating in the card game.

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