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THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917 : Causes

Nicholas II learnt little from the 1905 Revolution. He blindly adhered to autocracy as soon as the Revolution was over. From 1905 to 1914, he had adopted agrarian reforms and factory reforms, but they were too piecemeal in nature and so failed to remove the discontent of the peasants and the workers. When the First World War broke out, their discontent exploded in the form of a revolution. Then Czardom collapsed.

A. THE ATTEMPT TO DIMINISH THE POWER OF THE DUMA

( 1 ) The Fundamental Laws

No sooner had the 1905 Revolution died out than Nicholas 11 thought of withdrawing the liberal concessions from the people.

Before the first Duma met, the government promulgated the constitution the Fundamental Laws. The Czar was described as 'the supreme autocratic power' in the constitution. He retained huge executive and legislative powers, including the control of the army and foreign policy, the right to dissolve the Duma and to dismiss his ministers.

The Duma was to consist of the Upper and Lower Chambers. Half of the members of the Upper Chamber were appointed by the Czar. Although the Lower Chamber was elected by wide male suffrage and secret voting, the elaborate system of indirect voting favoured the wealthier class. The voters first voted for the electors who then voted for those further electors who could finally vote for the members of the Duma. This system of election favoured the wealthier class who had the leisure to take part in a series of elections. The wealthier class was usually conservative in their political outlook and tended to support the Czar.

Thus the autocratic power of the Czar was well-protected by the undemocratic provisions of the constitution.

(2) The First Duma (May-July 1906) and the Second Duma (March-June 1907)

The First Duma took place in May. Even though indirect voting favoured the wealthier and politically conservative classes (The conservative classes comprised the landowners, rich merchants and pro-Czarist supporters), the majority of the people elected to sit in the First Duma was anti-government. The First Duma consisted of the members of the following groups: the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets - The Cadets comprised liberals who demanded the establishment of a parliament, with legislative power. Their views were very much like those of the British liberals.), the Octobrists (The Octobrists were the right-wing liberals. They were well-satisfied with the October Manifesto and would not ask for more political rights.), the national groups, the labour group, the peasant members (The national groups represented the national minorities. The labour group and the peasant members represented those peasants and workers who did not join the Social Revolutionary Party and the Social Democratic Party), a few Social Democrats (The socialist parties boycotted the first election because they had not forgotten the suppression of St. Petersburg and the Moscow Soviets. But a few Social Democrats disobeyed the order of the Party and took part in the elections.) The largest party was the Cadets. These political groups and parties demanded ministerial responsibility and full control of all affairs of the state, including taxation. In other words, they wanted a constitutional monarchy. The Czar promptly dissolved the Duma. Altogether the First Duma lasted for 73 days.

In the election of the Second Duma the Czar intimidated many anti-government voters to give up their candidature or their right to vote. But intimidation was useless. Many antigovernment candidates were elected to the Second Duma. Most threatening to the Czar, 65 Social Democrats were elected. The Social Democrats made demands to liberalize the Czarist government. As a result, the Second Duma met the same fate as the First Duma. Within 3 months (March-June, 1907), it was again dissolved by the Czar.

(3) The Third Duma (1907-1912) and the Fourth Duma (1912-1917)

The Czar was determined not to face a rebellious Duma again. He altered the franchise to deprive many of the peasants and non-Russian nationalities of the vote and to give so many votes to the wealthy landowners as to assure that 60 percent of the seats of the Duma were taken up by them. (According to the government decree of 1907, the Duma should be elected on a class basis by a number of electoral colleges. The wealthier landowners were to choose 60 per cent of the electors, the peasants 22 per cent, the merchants 15 per cent, and the working men 3 per cent.) Because of the new franchise system, most of the men elected into the Duma were government supporters.

The Third Duma (1907-1912) and the Fourth Duma (1912-1917) served their period of office of five years. They were dominated by the Octobrists and the Monarchists. The Cadets and the handful of socialists occupied about one quarter of the seats in the Duma. As the Duma grew conservative in its composition, the dissatisfaction among the Russian masses found little chance of expression in the Duma. Many of the Russian people turned against Czardom again.

(4) Repression

Despite the promises of the October Manifesto that civil liberties would be granted to the people, a policy of repression was adopted by Stolypin, Prime Minister from 1906 to 1911. He was notorious for persecuting the Jews and harsh treatment of rioters in the countryside. To punish the Finnish nationalists, he deprived Finland of independence. Many Social Democrats, including Lenin, were exiled.

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B. CONTINUANCE OF POPULAR OPPOSITION

(1) Discontent of the Peasants

In order to consolidate his autocratic rule, Czar Nicholas II had attempted to remove the discontent of the peasants by adopting some agrarian reforms.

The peasants were always discontented with the payment of redemption dues (i.e. the annual payments the peasants paid to the government for 49 years) and the insufficient amount of land they received during the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861.

Shortly after the 1905 Revolution, the Czar cancelled the redemption dues. When Stolypin became the Prime Minister in 1906, he abolished the communal system. In each village community, the peasants could take their own share of land as their private property. The more able peasants were allowed to buy additional land from the less able peasants.

The agrarian reform of 1906 pleased the more able peasants but not the less able peasants. The less able peasants, because of their poor management of their land, were often forced to give up their land as years went by. These landless peasants were ready to take part in any revolutionary outbreaks if they came.

(2) Discontent of the Workers

After 1905, Russian industrialization made great and rapid progress. Foreign trade grew rapidly. The wages and the savings of the workers also increased. The workers had a better chance to receive education. (From 1905 to 1909 there were fewer strikes and the active membership of the revolutionary groups also declined. But increased prosperity, by making the struggle for existence easier, led the workers to think more of meaningful existence--a prosperous living and political reform.) But the workers had other grievances. Trade unions were still strictly controlled. Strikes were regarded as illegal. Few factory laws were passed to improve the poor working conditions of the workers. As a result, some workers held secret meetings to discuss revolutionary ideas. In the two and a half years before the outbreak of the war, there were more than six thousand strikes. Terrorism also revived. Stolypin was assassinated by one of the terrorists.

(3) Discontent of the non-Russian National Minorities

The repression of the national minorities continued with greater ferocity. The national minorities hated the policy of Russification. They wanted local autonomy. It was to be expected that the Poles, Finns, Jews, Latvians and Lithuanians would welcome a chance to revolt, if it came.

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C. GOVERNMENT DECADENCE

In his declining years, the Czar was more and more influenced by his wife, the Czarina Alexandra. She believed that without autocratic rule Czardom would collapse. Czarina Alexandra wanted to pass the throne intact to the Czarevitch (the son of the Czar).

The latter suffered from the disease of haemophilia. Only the peasant-monk, Rasputin, could stop him from bleeding and so Rasputin was respected by the Czarina as her greatest friend. Rasputin made use of his influence with the Czarina to strengthen her determination to preserve the autocratic monarchy. Then he persuaded the Czarina to appoint his own favourites to hold all the important offices in the government. For example, Iran Goremykin was appointed Prime Minister, even though he was an ignorant reactionary. The Czar also distrusted any able men. He dismissed Witte and distrusted Stolypin even though both were able Prime Ministers. The Romanov dynasty became a symbol of corrupt and decadent government.

In short, on the eve of the First World War, the Romanov Dynasty was no longer supported by the Russian people. Almost every class was estranged from the dynasty and its fall was almost certain. (During 1906-1914, many revolutionary leaders (including Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin) were in exile because of the repression policy of the Czar. But they maintained some control over the labour movements in Georgia, the Urals and northern Russia.)

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D. THE IMMEDIATE CAUSEOF THE 1917 REVOLUTION: THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND ITS DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES ON CZARDOM (JULY 1914 - MARCH 1917)

The First World War was a disaster for Czardom in the following ways:

(1) Military defeats

Because Russia was the least industrialized power in Europe, her army was ill-equipped for the war. Many generals were old and ignorant. As early as 1914, Russian armies suffered heavy defeat in the battle of Tannenberg. German armies overran Poland, most of the Baltic states and big areas in the Ukraine and White Russia. When the Czar himself acted as the commander-in-chief in the field in 1915, more battles were lost. The Czar was in fact ignorant of military affairs and gave wrong advice in military strategy. Terrible human losses were recorded. By late 1915, casualties reached 3,800,000 (in 1917 Russian casualties were 9,750,000). As a result of heavy defeats and losses of lives, Russia's position was already hopeless by 1916. Defeatism grew rapidly among the army and there was mass desertion from the army.

(2) Political incompetence

In 1915 when the Czar had left the capital to act as commander-in-chief in the field, the home administration was left to Alexandra who depended on Rasputin. He filled the ministries by his own favourites. To please the Czarina, he encouraged pro-German sentiments in the country. Rasputin's administration was detested by all Russians. By the end of 1916, even the Russian nobles could not tolerate the evil influence of Rasputin in undermining the entire official civil service. They killed him. The liberals in the Duma were not satisfied with the assassination of Rasputin only. They were determined to extract more political concessions from the Czar. Even though they did not like a revolution, they would be in sympathy with a revolution, if it came.

(3) Economic inflation

Prices rose high because all kinds of goods and food became scarce during the war. In general, the price rose by 500 - 700 per cent between 1914 and 1917. The scarcity of food and all kinds of goods were due to the following reasons: (i ) Russia was cut off from outside aid by the blockade of the Central Powers; (ii) the transport system was inadequate; (iii) the devastation of the wheat-growing Ukraine early in the war; (iv) the factories had to manufacture military goods to meet the needs of the unnaturally large army. (Because Russia was industrially backward, she found it necessary to recruit a large army to fight against Germany so that her superiority in numbers could compensate her deficiency in equipment. By 1917 about fifteen million were recruited 37% of the male population of working age. This led to labour shortage and less production in factories.) Because of the exorbitant prices of bread, many Russian people were hungry. Hunger led to waves of strikes of workers who cried out not only economic demands but also political demands: "Down with the Czar".

The Czar was hated by all his people in 1917. His fall from power was inevitable.

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THE MARCH REVOLUTION AND THE NOVEMBER REVOLUTION (MARCH- NOVEMBER 1917)

A. THE FIRST STAGE -- THE FALL OF CZARDOM

On March 8, 1917, there were waves of strikes. Hungry strikers thronged the streets in Petrograd. They demanded bread. The Czar ordered his troops to suppress the strikers. When the Petrograd troops turned to the side of these hungry strikers on March 10, it meant that the army which had been used to preserve the autocratic monarchy would not protect the Czar. On March 12, the Czar ordered the Fourth Duma to suspend its sessions. The Duma refused. Since both the upper and lower classes did not accept the rule of the Czar, the rule of Czar Nicholas II was over.

Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favour of Michael, his brother, in order to pacify the discontent of his people. But his brother knew that there was widespread hatred of Czardom. He declined the throne on March 15. The Romanov dynasty, after ruling Russia for three centuries (1613-1917), came to an end.

The March Revolution was a spontaneous revolution initiated by the lower classes. It came as a result of their deep-seated hatred of the Czars who deprived them of political freedom, and brought them grave economic sufferings and military defeats. The First World War brought the discontent of the Russians to a head. The Russian masses made the revolution spontaneously without any leadership from the revolutionary parties.

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B. THE SECOND STAGE -- DUAL POWER

(1) Two Parallel Developments

On March 12, the Duma, rejecting the Czar's order to dissolve, chose a Provisional Government to rule Russia. On March 11, the hungry strikers and the Petrograd troops had set up the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Workers and soldiers in other places followed their example and also set up soviets to take over functions of local governments. These soviets were popularly elected by the masses and so enjoyed more popular support than the Provisional Government which represented mainly the middle classes.

The Provisional Government, formed under the premiership of Prince Lvov, was recognized as the legal authority by both the foreign governments and the soviets in Russia. The foreign governments recognized the Provisional Government because it advocated those democratic principles close to British and American democracy. The soviets accepted the legality of the Provisional Government on condition that it did not go against the aims of the soviets. A curious situation arose: the Provisional Government ruled the country with full support only of the middle classes, the soviets got the majority support from the people but did not want to rule the country. Thus, the rule of the Provisional Government had to depend upon the conditional support of the soviets.

(2) The Attempts of the Provisional Government to Preserve Its Own Power

The Provisional Government tried to strengthen its authority by various means but all of her efforts gave more chances for the political opponents to attack it.

(i) The granting of political freedom:

Many of the members of the Provisional Government were middle-class liberals. They believed in political democracy. Thus the Provisional Government granted an amnesty to political prisoners, cancelled the discriminatory legislation, introduced the eight-hour day, legalized strikes, and granted freedom of the press, speech and assembly. The ethnic minorities received autonomy. The political prisoners were allowed to return to Russia. Thus the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had full freedom to attack the Provisional Government as soon as they returned from their exiles.

(ii) Compromise with the Soviets:

The Petrograd Soviet declared that it would support the Provisional Government if it approved the latter's action. On March 14, the Soviet issued the Army Order No. 1. According to this order, the soldiers should send their representatives to the Petrograd Soviet, should elect their own committees to run their military units and should take orders only from the Petrograd Soviet. In short, the Provisional Government had to share her control of the Russian army with the Petrograd Soviet. Since the Petrograd Soviet did not encourage the army to fight and so there was a further decline in the fighting spirit of the army.

(iii) The continuation of the war:

The Provisional Government decided to continue the war. They still thought that if they could win the war, they could gain the support of the Russian people. Moreover, they hoped to honour their international obligations with the Allied countries-- Britain and France, for example, the Anglo-Russian Entente and the French-Russian Alliance. . Besides all these, the Provisional Government hoped to get Constantinople. Thus the Provisional Government fought many battles in May and June, although the Russian army was unwilling to fight.

In July, the Russian forces were mobilized for a 'July offensive in Galacia'. Russian forces suffered heavy losses. People at the front and behind the front turned to the Bolsheviks because they demanded the immediate ending of the war.

(iv) The calling of the Constituent Assembly:

Soon after the March Revolution, the Provisional Government promised to call a Constituent Assembly to be elected by universal manhood suffrage. The general public hoped that the election for the Constituent Assembly would be held as soon as possible.

The peasants expected that once the Constituent Assembly was called, it would legalize the confiscation and distribution of the landlords' estates. To the great disappointment of the Russian people, the Provisional Government hesitated to call the Constituent Assembly due to the turmoil within the country. Meanwhile the prices of food and other daily necessities continued to rise, this turned many Russians against the Provisional Government.

To sum up, the Provisional Government which had support from the upper and middle classes could only prolong its rule by getting the support from the masses. The continuation of the war and the failure to tackle with the economic questions of the day alienated the masses from the Provisional Government. Under this situation, any political party professing to satisfy these needs of the masses would be welcomed and could easily seize political power. The Bolsheviks led by Lenin seized this opportunity.

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C. THE THIRD STAGE -- LENIN'S RETURN (APRIL 1917) AND INTERNAL SPLIT WITHIN THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT (AUGUST 1917)

(1) Lenin's Return

When the March Revolution broke out, the prominent leaders of the Bolshevik Party were in exile. In April, Lenin returned to Russia with the help of the German government because the latter thought that they could make use of Lenin's anti-war propaganda to weaken the Provisional Government's will and ability to fight. (Being a socialist, Lenin adopted an antiwar policy during the First World War. He advocated that the First World War was a fight among the capitalistic government for influence and power. The workers should not assist them.)

As expected, Lenin immediately launched his antiwar attack on the Government upon his arrival at Finland Station in Russia. He demanded the Provisional Government to give 'All power to the Soviets'. (Other demands of Lenin included the speedy conclusion of the war without annexation, the renunciation of all secret diplomatic agreements, the control of factories by workers and the immediate seizure of land by peasants.) He convinced his Bolshevik supporters that the seizure of power by the soviets would be the signal for a European-wide socialist revolution. To prepare for the seizure of power, his Bolshevik supporters set out to win support from the masses in the soviets. Up to June, their efforts were not very successful. When the First All Russian Congress of Soviets met in the capital, the Social Revolutionaries (285 deputies) and the Mensheviks (245 deputies) still dominated the soviets. (Soon after the Revolution, the soviets of the masses came under the control of the Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.) The Bolsheviks had 105 deputies in the Congress.

From June onwards the situation began to change. A number of moderate Socialists took part in the Provisional Government. Kerensky, a leading member of the Social Revolutionary Party, even became the Prime Minister of the government. He was responsible for continuing to send the poorly-equipped troops into battle and inviting the Mensheviks to take part in the administration. Thus the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks were discredited in the eyes of the Russian people as they were identified with the unpopular Provisional Government. The popularity of the Bolshevik Party rose as a result of its antiwar policy.

(2) Lenin's Setback

The Bolsheviks were soon involved in a spontaneous rising of the workers in July. Kerensky immediately seized this opportunity to suppress the Bolshevik Party. Lenin escaped to Finland and Trotsky was imprisoned. (Trotsky was a Marxist and for a long time worked as an independent revolutionary in Russia. Before 1914 he had attempted to bring about great cooperation between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, but he failed. In 1917, after the March Revolution, he returned from exile in America. In July, he decided to join the Bolsheviks.) The Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda, was suppressed. The growing influence of the Bolsheviks came to a halt for a short while, but soon the Bolsheviks had their chance to seize power again.

The Bolsheviks quickly revived their influence when the Provisional Government had to make use of the military support of the Bolshevik workers in Petrograd to defeat a coup d'etat by a right-wing politician named Kornilov in August. (The right-wing politicians believed that a left-wing revolution was imminent. So Kornilov decided to move his troops towards Petrograd. He wanted to set up a military dictatorship to forestall a left-wing revolution.)

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D. THE FOURTH STAGE THE NOVEMBER REVOLUTION (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1917)

Kornilov's coup, combined with more battle defeats by the Germans and the failure of the government to solve the economic problems of the workers and peasants, produced a decisive swing of opinion in Petrograd towards the Bolsheviks. In September, the Bolsheviks, for the first time, won a majority in both the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. Trotsky, released from prison, was elected as the President of the Petrograd Soviet.

Seeing that the prestige of the Provisional Government was at its lowest ebb, Lenin made the decision to seize power on October 20. A 'Military Revolutionary Committee' was set up for the coup d'etat.

On November 6, under the direction of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Red Guards and the regular troops occupied the key points in Petrograd. (The regular troops in Petrograd and Moscow were won over because of the propaganda against the war policy of Lvov and Kerensky.) The Provisional Government, like the Czarist government before them, offered almost no resistance. Kerensky escaped from Russia and power passed to the soviets.

On November 7, in the evening, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd and approved by a two-thirds of the coup. (Lenin had manipulated the Congress in such a way as to dominate it.) The Congress elected the Council of People's Commissars as the executive body of the Soviets. Lenin was the Chairman of the Commissars, Trotsky was the Commissar for Foreign Affairs and Stalin was the Commissar for Nationalities. (Stalin arrived from Siberia after the March Revolution and took a leading role in carrying out the coup d'etat.)

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A SUMMARY OF THE 1917 REVOLUTIONS

The two revolutions in 1917 were of different character. The first was a spontaneous revolution made by the masses. They hated the reactionary monarchy for its suppression of personal liberty and its general backwardness. The Provisional Government, soon set up, consisted chiefly of liberal bourgeoisie. (The Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks joined the Provisional Government only after July 1917). They wanted to create a democratic republic similar to that of the United States and France. They wanted to give to the Russians those political liberties and civil liberties as enjoyed by the Western countries. They regarded Russia as an ally of the western democratic nations and deemed it necessary to continue the war against Germany. But the middle class had neglected the land hunger and war-weariness of the masses.

The masses gradually turned to the Bolsheviks. The peasants welcomed the Bolsheviks' slogan 'peace, land and bread'. The workers welcomed the Bolsheviks' slogan 'All power to the Soviets'. Popularity of the Bolsheviks increased when there was rapid inflation at home and more military defeats at the front. The number of party members increased tenfold between January and August 1917. (The Bolsheviks had 200,000 members in August.) When the Provisional Government was digging its own grave by an internal split in August, Lenin made use of his well-organized and highly disciplined party to seize power at once. (The other socialist parties (the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries) had a wrong belief that their historical hours had not yet arrived. They allowed the bourgeois government to stay in power. They still thought a socialist revolution would only take place after a period of bourgeois rule.) Lenin's coup d'etat was a planned revolution and his intention was to set up a socialist society in Russia. This was the first communist government set up in the world. 

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(Next Soviet Russia)

@HW Poon, 1979. Adapted by TK Chung.