A Short, Easy History of the Russian Revolution
On March 15, , Nicholas II abdicated the throne. Nicholas, his family, and their loyal retainers were detained by the provisional government and were eventually moved to Yekaterinburg. On July 17, , when White army forces approached the area, the tsar and his entire family were slaughtered to prevent their rescue. By the bond between the tsar and most of the Russian people had been broken. Governmental corruption and inefficiency were rampant.
Sometime in the middle of the 19th century, Russia entered a phase of internal crisis that in would culminate in revolution.
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Its causes were not so much economic or social as political and cultural. For the sake of…. Ill-equipped and poorly led, Russian armies suffered catastrophic losses in campaign after campaign against German armies. The war made revolution inevitable in two ways: Riots over the scarcity of food broke out in the capital, Petrograd formerly St.
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When his brother, Grand Duke Michael, refused the throne, more than years of rule by the Romanov dynasty came to an end. The 2, delegates to this soviet were chosen from factories and military units in and around Petrograd. The Provisional Government was unable to countermand the order. All that now prevented the Petrograd Soviet from openly declaring itself the real government of Russia was fear of provoking a conservative coup.
Between March and October the Provisional Government was reorganized four times. The first government was composed entirely of liberal ministers, with the exception of the Socialist Revolutionary Aleksandr F. The subsequent governments were coalitions.
Russian Revolution
None of them, however, was able to cope adequately with the major problems afflicting the country: Meanwhile, soviets on the Petrograd model, in far closer contact with the sentiments of the people than the Provisional Government was, had been organized in cities and major towns and in the army. One reason was that radical socialists increasingly dominated the soviet movement. Kerensky became head of the Provisional Government in July and put down a coup attempted by army commander in chief Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov according to some historians, Kerensky may have initially plotted with Kornilov in the hope of gaining control over the Petrograd Soviet.
By September the Bolsheviks and their allies, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, had overtaken the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks and held majorities in both the Petrograd and Moscow soviets. Although a previous coup attempt the July Days had failed, the time now seemed ripe. On October 24—25 November 6—7 the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries staged a nearly bloodless coup, occupying government buildings, telegraph stations, and other strategic points.
The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which convened in Petrograd simultaneously with the coup, approved the formation of a new government composed mainly of Bolshevik commissars.
Book Review: A Short History of the Russian Revolution by Geoffrey Swain | LSE Review of Books
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Russian Revolution of 1917
Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Oct 30, See Article History. Russian Revolution of Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Its emblem, the hammer and sickle, represented physical labour in factory or field; there was no symbol for the scientist, the statesman, or the scholar. Chapter Five breaks with the chronological progression.
Swain takes a step back to look at the social unrest present in Russia between February and September He describes the creation of factory and land committees, and how deteriorating economic productivity for both urban and rural labourers made it difficult for workers of all types to remain in support of anything short of revolution. Further, many were induced to violence as part of their protest of the existing order, represented in the previous six months by a provisional government and two failed coalitions. The chapter ends with soldiers being asked to quell the unrest, many of whom, the author argues, were likely skeptical of the order they were being used to support.
The final three chapters build a story that ends with a Bolshevik-dominated government at the end of They did so by sowing the seeds of insurrection and unrest. The final two chapters, Seven and Eight, detail the political wrangling that led to the Bolshevik-dominated Soviet Government that set the stage for the five-year civil war that would begin soon after. Perhaps the most striking feature of these last chapters is how tenuous the final outcome seems to be.
It is unclear if Swain intends for the reader to take this away from the text or not. One might consider what would have happened if only the Tzar had been willing to make more concessions prior to If a slightly less repressive industrial and agricultural policy had been developed.
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If the moderates had made a few more concessions in the earlier governments. If Lenin had made a different choice at one of the many pivotal decision points in The current political environment makes it clear that compromise is often difficult for leaders within parties, not to mention between them. Without Lenin healing those cleavages, it is difficult to imagine a Bolshevik-dominated Soviet Government. And without a Bolshevik-dominated Soviet, it is difficult to imagine an easy path for Stalin to come power.
As each layer is pulled back, each new matryoshka exposed, the story seems to get only more complex and the reader is left to wonder if, but for a small change here or there, history could have been otherwise.
In an academic capacity, he has served as a visiting fellow in the government department at Harvard and as an adjunct in the political science department at Tufts. His research interests focus on the intersection of political theory, international relations and jurisprudence.
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For the past several years, he has worked in management consulting as an associate director and research consultant working with heads of HR, audit and risk management to help large, global organisations manage their largest strategic risks. Read more by Barton Edgerton. Click here to cancel reply. Explore the latest social science book reviews by academics and experts.
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