October Revolution

 

 

 

• Kerensky would argue later that Russia was, for a few months, the freest country in the world. But individual liberties meant little to a starving population.

• As a result the soldiers, the proletariat and the peasantry turned to the revolutionary parties.

 

 

	What was the problem?	What did the government do?	Results / Assessment
Peace (Soldiers)	▪ The Provisional Government was forced to carry on the war by Russia’s allies, who threatened to cut financial assistance if she pulled out.	▪ Kerensky kept morale high with inspiring speeches and promised there would be no more major offensives[1]. ▪ However, the Milyukov Telegram suggested that the government was still annexationist; sure enough, in June a massive, disastrous offensive was launched.	▪ Liberals lose credibility, increase of support for Bolsheviks ▪ Riots in July led to the formation of a new government: Kerensky was appointed as Prime Minister ▪ But he rapidly lost support too: his liberal-socialist coalition permanently squabbled. ▪ “I want to take a middle road, but no-one will help me” (Kerensky)
Bread (Proletariat)	▪ Inflation ▪ Crippled railways ▪ No grain	▪ State monopolies introduced ▪ New Economic Council ▪ Increased income taxes	▪ Mensheviks lose credibility, increase of support for Bolsheviks ▪ All these measures were simply ignored, so PG prints more money = hyperinflation. ▪ Real wages fall by 50%,
Land (Peasantry)	▪ Peasants expected fall of Tsar and the seizure of Crown estates to be followed by radical land reform	▪ Nothing. Giving more land to the peasants now would lead to mass desertions from the front and entail massive compensation payments to the nobility which the government could not afford.	▪ SRs lose credibility, increase of support for Bolsheviks ▪ The Peasantry simply seized the land anyway and started hoarding their grain to feed their own families = bread prices triple.

 

 

 

 

• Lenin returned to Russia in April with German help:

He returned from Switzerland via Germany in a sealed train. The Germans hoped that his presence in Russia would create further instability. Winston Churchill referred to Lenin as the "most grisly of all weapons…a plague virus".

 

• Lenin’s role was crucial in a number of respects:

▪ He was a brilliant orator and inspired the masses with his dismissal of the Provisional Government as a “stinking corpse”.

▪ He wrote “State and Revolution” to persuade his Bolshevik party to launch a revolution.

▪ He wrote the “April Theses” to persuade the ordinary people to launch a revolution.

▪ He coined the slogans “All Power to the Soviets” and “Peace, Bread and Land”, which were exactly what Russians wanted to hear.

 

• Nevertheless, the party still had less than 30,000 members, and his policies were regarded as unrealistic. At the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets in June 1917, they commanded only a hundred or so of the 822 delegates.

 

Also important, though, was the contribution of Trotsky:

▪ Lenin was the inspirational speaker, Trotsky was the organiser.

▪ He had helped to set up the St. Petersburg Soviet and now established the Red Army, a communist fighting force which soon numbered over 10,000.

 

• Eventually, the failures of the Provisional Government led to direct attempts to overthrow it. In July, the challenge came from the Left – led by Lenin; in August, from the Right – led by General Kornilov. Both of these particular attempts failed. Nevertheless, the fear of an effective counter-revolution from the Right saved the Bolsheviks, who finally succeeded in seizing power in October.

 

The main events were as follows: …

▪ The provisional government became very unpopular when the July offensive was easily defeated by Germany. The Russians were really weary of war.

▪ A spontaneous uprising of 500,000 soldiers, workers and sailors marched from the Kronstadt naval base to the Tauride Palace demanding the overthrow of the ’10 capitalist ministers’.

▪ The Bolsheviks were (once again) caught by surprise and played little part in the uprising, which was crushed within days; Lenin did not want to take leadership as he did not think the time was right.

 

The government responded in the following way…

▪ They blamed the Bolsheviks anyway and outlawed them. Lenin fled into exile in Finland, Trotsky was imprisoned.

 

The results were beneficial for the government because…

• This was the lowest point for the Bolsheviks: as Fitzpatrick puts it “The whole affair damaged Bolshevik morale and Lenin’s credibility as a revolutionary leader”.

 

The main events were as follows: …

General Kornilov, discontented with the provisional government and the shambolic state of the army, called for its overthrow. He wanted a restoration of the death penalty for desertion, the abolition of the Soviets and the appointment of himself as new leader. With these objectives, he marched from the front line with his troops towards Petrograd.

 

The government responded in the following way: …

Kerensky, with little popular support, initially made overtures to Kornilov by asking him to join a coalition. When rebuffed, he therefore had to ask the Petrograd Soviet to help him defend the capital. They agreed, but only once he had released Bolshevik prisoners and given them arms. He was therefore put into the unenviable position of having to give weapons to a group of people who were determined to overthrow his regime. In the end, Kornilov surrendered without a struggle.

 

The results were disastrous for the government because…

Politically, it lost support on both Left and Right. The Right-Wing were appalled that Kerensky had chosen to arm the communists against a decorated soldier. The Left were appalled that Kerensky had initially tried to compromise with Kornilov and turned instead to the organisation of the Bolsheviks, the “True defenders of the Revolution” (Lenin).

Militarily, the army lost all faith in the government and started to come apart at the seams. General Alekseev resigned after praising Kornilov and stating that “Our officers are martyrs”.

 

 

The main events were as follows:

▪ By September, the Bolsheviks had a majority in both the Moscow and the Petrograd Soviets.

▪ Lenin argued that “Everything now hangs by a thread” and that delay would put the Bolsheviks at the mercy of an uncertain election, a resurgence of government support of defeat at the hands of the Germans.

▪ In October, the Bolsheviks decided to seize power = although Kamenev and Zinoviev, leading Bolsheviks, voted against this

▪ The Petrograd Soviet, controlled by the Bolsheviks, was used by Trotsky as the tool for seizing power. He created within it a Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) and this quickly won over the support of the Peter/Paul fortress, with its 100,000 rifles.

▪ On October 25th, A shot rings out from the Battleship Aurora, anchored nearby in the Neva river. Revolutionary troops and Red Guards methodically occupied one key point after another- the railway stations, the power station, the telephone exchange, the State Bank, the bridges over the Neva. The same evening, the Winter Palace was occupied and Trotsky consigned the Social Revolutionaries to “The dustbin of history”. It was almost bloodless. 

 

The government responded in the following way: …

After a failed attempt to regain control of Moscow, Kerensky fled to America.

 

The Bolsheviks ultimately succeeded in taking power because…

Of Trotsky’s organisational skills and Lenin’s inspirational oratory. Lenin returned the night before the seizure of power, and found that there was nothing for him to do but sit and watch the efficient execution of Trotsky’s plan

 

▪ For the moment, Lenin’s gamble had succeeded. However, the Bolsheviks would now have to turn from their traditional aggressive, destructive stance to a constructive, defensive one. The problems which faced Lenin over the next few years demonstrated what a much more complex and formidable task that this was.