Russian Revolution

The 1917 Russian Revolution, which ousted the imperial authority and assembled the Bolsheviks in power. Increased national corruption, Emperor Nicholas II's reactionary policies, and Russia's disastrous losses in World War I ultimately contributed to widespread discontent and economic despair.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Empire in 1914

Tsar Nicholas II and his empire governed Russia in 1914. The Russian Empire stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific, and included modern-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, sections of Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Russian Orthodox Christianity was practised by the majority of the people.

Socialism in Russia

  • Socialists founded the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party who respected Marx’s ideas. Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists.

  • Throughout the nineteenth century, socialists were active in the countryside and formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900.

  • The party struggled for peasants’ rights and demanded land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants. The party was divided over the strategy of organisation.

The First World War and The Russian Empire


In 1914, a war erupted between two European alliances: Germany, Austria, and Turkey (the Central powers) and France, the United Kingdom, and Russia (the Western powers) (later Italy and Romania). The year was 1914, and the world was at war. The war grew in popularity, and the Tsar refused to consult the main parties in the Duma as it progressed. The support has worn thin. On the eastern front and on the western front, the First World War was very different. Between 1914 and 1916, the Russian army suffered a series of defeats in Germany and Austria. To prevent the adversary from being able to survive off the land, the Russian army destroyed crops and dwellings. German control of the Baltic Sea shut the country off from other sources of industrial commodities. By 1916, the railway lines had started to fall down. Bread and flour were in short supply for city dwellers. Bread shop riots were prevalent by the winter of 1916.

The February revolution in Petrograd

  • Petrograd city is divided among its people. On the right bank of the River Neva workers quarters and factories were located and on the left bank located fashionable areas such as the Winter Palace and official buildings. Food shortages deeply affected the workers’ quarters.

  • On the right bank, a factory was shut down on February 22. Women also led the way to strikes and it is called International Women’s Day.

  • The government imposed a curfew as the fashionable quarters and official buildings were surrounded by workers. Duma was suspended on 25th February. The streets thronged with demonstrators raising slogans about bread, wages, better hours and democracy.

  • The Soldiers and striking workers gathered to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’ in the same building as the Duma met. Russia’s future would be decided by a constituent assembly, elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Petrograd had led the February Revolution that brought down the monarchy in February 1917.

After February

Liberals and socialists worked together after February to form an elected government. Public meetings and associations were no longer restricted. Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, returned to Russia from exile in April 1917. The 'April Theses' were three demands made by Lenin. He desired the end of the conflict, the transfer of land to the peasants, and the nationalisation of banks. Throughout the summer, the workers' movement grew in strength. Factory committees arose, and the number of trade unions grew. Peasants and their Socialist Revolutionary leaders fought for land redistribution in the countryside. Peasants seized land between July and September 1917, aided by the Socialist Revolutionaries.

The revolution of October 1917

  • The schism between the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks became more pronounced. Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist takeover of power on October 16, 1917.

  • The Soviet created a Military Revolutionary Committee under Leon Trotskii to organize the seizing. The Military Revolutionary Committee issued an order for supporters to seize government buildings and detain ministers.

  • The city was under the committee's control before nightfall, and the ministers had surrendered. The Bolshevik action was overwhelmingly endorsed during a gathering of the All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd.

Stalinism and Collectivisation

The collectivization of agriculture during the early Planned Economy period was a catastrophe. By 1927-28, food supply in Soviet Russia's towns had become a serious issue. Stalin imposed stringent emergency measures. In 1928, members of the party went on a tour of grain-producing districts, supervising forced grain collections and attacking 'kulaks,' a term for well-off peasants. Land had been handed to peasants after 1917. Since 1929, the Communist Party has forced all peasants to work in collective farms (kolkhoz). The kolkhoz profit was split among the peasants who worked on the land. The number of cattle declined by one-third from 1929 and 1931. Some independent growing was permitted by Stalin's regime, but such cultivators were handled harshly. Despite collectivisation, productivity did not increase immediately, and nearly 4 million people perished as a result of terrible harvests between 1930 and 1933. Accusations were levelled across the country, and by 1939, nearly 2 million people had been imprisoned or forced to work in labour camps.

The Global Influence of The Russian Revolution and The USSR

Communist parties, such as the Communist Party of Great Britain, were created in several nations. The Conference of the Peoples of the East included non-Russians from outside the USSR (1920). The Comintern was created by the Bolsheviks (an international union of pro-Bolshevik socialist parties). The USSR had given socialism a global face and significance before the onset of World War II. The USSR grew into a major power, with sophisticated industries and agriculture, and the poor were nourished. The USSR's international standing as a socialist country had deteriorated by the end of the twentieth century.

written by - Aarna , Sarah and Anamika

class- IX (dldav model school)