Which was accepted in Russia at that time. And although the Gregorian calendar was introduced already in February of the year ( a new style) and already the first anniversary of the revolution (like all subsequent ones) was celebrated on November 7, the revolution was still associated with October, which was reflected in its name.
The name “October Revolution” has been found since the first years of Soviet power. Name Great October Socialist Revolution established itself in Soviet official historiography by the end of the 1930s. In the first decade after the revolution, it was often called, in particular, October Revolution, while this name did not carry a negative meaning (at least in the mouths of the Bolsheviks themselves), but, on the contrary, emphasized the grandeur and irreversibility of the “social revolution”; this name is used by N. N. Sukhanov, A. V. Lunacharsky, D. A. Furmanov, N. I. Bukharin, M. A. Sholokhov. In particular, the section of Stalin’s article dedicated to the first anniversary of October () was called About the October Revolution. Subsequently, the word “coup” became associated with conspiracy and illegal change of power (by analogy with palace coups), and the term was removed from official propaganda (although Stalin used it until his last works, written in the early 1950s). But the expression “October revolution” began to be actively used, already with a negative meaning, in literature critical of Soviet power: in emigrant and dissident circles, and, starting with perestroika, in the legal press.
Background
There are several versions of the reasons for the October Revolution:
- version of the spontaneous growth of the “revolutionary situation”
- version of a targeted action by the German government (See Sealed Car)
Version of the “revolutionary situation”
The main prerequisites for the October Revolution were the weakness and indecisiveness of the Provisional Government, its refusal to implement the principles it proclaimed (for example, the Minister of Agriculture V. Chernov, the author of the Socialist Revolutionary program of land reform, pointedly refused to carry it out after he was told by his government colleagues that expropriation landowners' lands damages the banking system, which lent to landowners against the security of land), dual power after the February Revolution. During the year, the leaders of radical forces led by Chernov, Spiridonova, Tsereteli, Lenin, Chkheidze, Martov, Zinoviev, Stalin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, Kamenev and other leaders returned from hard labor, exile and emigration to Russia and launched extensive agitation. All this led to the strengthening of extreme leftist sentiments in society.
The policy of the Provisional Government, especially after the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets declared the Provisional Government a “government of salvation”, recognizing for it “unlimited powers and unlimited power,” led the country to the brink of disaster. The production of iron and steel fell sharply, and the production of coal and oil decreased significantly. Railway transport came to almost complete disarray. There was a sharp shortage of fuel. Temporary interruptions in the supply of flour occurred in Petrograd. Gross industrial output in 1917 decreased by 30.8% compared to 1916. In the fall, up to 50% of enterprises were closed in the Urals, Donbass and other industrial centers; 50 factories were stopped in Petrograd. Mass unemployment arose. Food prices rose steadily. Real wage workers fell by 40-50% compared to 1913. Daily war expenses exceeded 66 million rubles.
All practical measures taken by the Provisional Government worked exclusively for the benefit of the financial sector. The provisional government resorted to money emission and new loans. In 8 months, it issued paper money worth 9.5 billion rubles, that is, more than the tsarist government did in 32 months of the war. The main burden of taxes fell on workers. The actual value of the ruble compared to June 1914 was 32.6%. The national debt of Russia in October 1917 amounted to almost 50 billion rubles, of which the debt foreign powers amounted to over 11.2 billion rubles. The country was facing the threat of financial bankruptcy.
The provisional government, which did not have any confirmation of its powers from any expression of the people's will, nevertheless declared in a voluntaristic way that Russia would “continue the war until the victorious end.” Moreover, he failed to get his Entente allies to write off Russia’s war debts, which had reached astronomical amounts. Explanations to the allies that Russia is not able to service this public debt, and the experience of state bankruptcy of a number of countries (Khedive Egypt, etc.) were not taken into account by the allies. Meanwhile, L. D. Trotsky officially declared that revolutionary Russia should not pay the bills of the old regime, and was immediately imprisoned.
The provisional government simply ignored the problem because the grace period for loans lasted until the end of the war. They turned a blind eye to the inevitable post-war default, not knowing what to hope for and wanting to delay the inevitable. Wanting to delay state bankruptcy by continuing an extremely unpopular war, they attempted an offensive on the fronts, but their failure, emphasized by the “treacherous”, according to Kerensky, surrender of Riga, caused extreme bitterness among the people. Land reform was also not carried out for financial reasons - expropriation of landowners' lands would have caused mass bankruptcy financial institutions, lending to landowners against the security of land. The Bolsheviks, historically supported by the majority of the workers of Petrograd and Moscow, won the support of the peasantry and soldiers (“peasants dressed in greatcoats”) through the consistent implementation of the policy of agrarian reform and the immediate end of the war. In August-October 1917 alone, over 2 thousand peasant uprisings took place (690 peasant uprisings were registered in August, 630 in September, 747 in October). The Bolsheviks and their allies in fact remained the only force that did not agree to abandon their principles in practice to protect the interests of Russian financial capital.
Revolutionary sailors with the flag "Death to the Bourgeois"
Four days later, on October 29 (November 11), there was an armed revolt of the cadets, who also captured artillery pieces, which was also suppressed using artillery and armored cars.
On the side of the Bolsheviks were the workers of Petrograd, Moscow and other industrial centers, land-poor peasants of the densely populated Black Earth Region and Central Russia. An important factor The victory of the Bolsheviks was the appearance on their side of a considerable part of the officers of the former tsarist army. In particular, the officers of the General Staff were distributed almost equally between the warring parties, with a slight advantage among the opponents of the Bolsheviks (at the same time, on the side of the Bolsheviks there were a larger number of graduates of the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff). Some of them were subjected to repression in 1937.
Immigration
At the same time, a number of workers, engineers, inventors, scientists, writers, architects, peasants, politicians from all over the world who shared Marxist ideas moved to Soviet Russia, to participate in the program of building communism. They took some part in the technological breakthrough of backward Russia and the social transformation of the country. According to some estimates, the number of Chinese and Manchus alone who immigrated to Tsarist Russia due to the favorable socio-economic conditions created in Russia by the autocratic regime, and then taking part in building a new world, more than 500 thousand people. , and for the most part these were workers who created material values and transformed nature with their own hands. Some of them quickly returned to their homeland, most of the rest were subjected to repression in the year
A number of specialists from Western countries also came to Russia. .
During the Civil War, tens of thousands of internationalist fighters (Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Serbs, etc.) who voluntarily joined its ranks fought in the Red Army.
The Soviet government was forced to use the skills of some immigrants in administrative, military and other positions. Among them we can name the writer Bruno Jasensky (shot in the city), administrator Belo Kun (shot in the city), economists Varga and Rudzutak (shot in the year), employees special services Dzerzhinsky, Latsis (shot in the year), Kingisepp, Eichmanns (shot in the year), military leaders Joachim Vatsetis (shot in the year), Lajos Gavro (shot in the year), Ivan Strod (shot in the year), August Kork (shot in the year), the head of Soviet justice Smilga (shot this year), Inessa Armand and many others. The financier and intelligence officer Ganetsky (shot in the city), aircraft designers Bartini (repressed in the city, spent 10 years in prison), Paul Richard (worked in the USSR for 3 years and returned to France), teacher Janouszek (shot in the year), can be named. Romanian, Moldavian and Jewish poet Yakov Yakir (who ended up in the USSR against his will with the annexation of Bessarabia, was arrested there, went to Israel), socialist Heinrich Ehrlich (sentenced to death and committed suicide in the Kuibyshev prison), Robert Eiche ( executed in the year), journalist Radek (executed in the year), Polish poet Naftali Kohn (twice repressed, upon release he went to Poland, from there to Israel), and many others.
Holiday
Main article: Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution
Contemporaries about the revolution
Our children and grandchildren will not be able to even imagine the Russia in which we once lived, which we did not appreciate, did not understand - all this power, complexity, wealth, happiness...
- October 26 (November 7) is L.D.’s birthday. Trotsky
Notes
- MINUTES of August 1920, 11-12 days, judicial investigator for particularly important cases at the Omsk District Court N.A. Sokolov in Paris (in France), in accordance with Art. 315-324. Art. mouth corner. court., inspected three issues of the newspaper “Obshchee Delo”, submitted to the investigation by Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev.
- National Corpus of the Russian Language
- National Corpus of the Russian Language
- J.V. Stalin. The logic of things
- J.V. Stalin. Marxism and issues of linguistics
- For example, the expression “October revolution” is often used in the anti-Soviet magazine Posev:
- S. P. Melgunov. Golden German Bolshevik key
- L. G. Sobolev. Russian Revolution and German gold
- Ganin A.V. On the role of General Staff officers in the Civil War.
- S. V. Kudryavtsev Elimination of “counter-revolutionary organizations” in the region (Author: Candidate of Historical Sciences)
- Erlikhman V.V. “Population losses in the 20th century.” Directory - M.: Publishing house "Russian Panorama", 2004 ISBN 5-93165-107-1
- Cultural Revolution Article on the website rin.ru
- Soviet-Chinese relations. 1917-1957. Collection of documents, Moscow, 1959; Ding Shou He, Yin Xu Yi, Zhang Bo Zhao, The Impact of the October Revolution on China, translated from Chinese language, Moscow, 1959; Peng Ming, History of Sino-Soviet Friendship, translated from Chinese. Moscow, 1959; Russian-Chinese relations. 1689-1916, Official documents, Moscow, 1958
- Border sweeps and other forced migrations in 1934-1939.
- "Great Terror": 1937-1938. Brief chronicle Compiled by N. G. Okhotin, A. B. Roginsky
- Among the descendants of immigrants, as well as local residents who originally lived on their historical lands, as of 1977, 379 thousand Poles lived in the USSR; 9 thousand Czechs; 6 thousand Slovaks; 257 thousand Bulgarians; 1.2 million Germans; 76 thousand Romanians; 2 thousand French; 132 thousand Greeks; 2 thousand Albanians; 161 thousand Hungarians, 43 thousand Finns; 5 thousand Khalkha Mongols; 245 thousand Koreans and others. For the most part, these are descendants of the colonists of tsarist times, who have not forgotten native language, and residents of border, ethnically mixed areas of the USSR; some of them (Germans, Koreans, Greeks, Finns) were subsequently subjected to repression and deportation.
- L. Anninsky. In memory of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Historical magazine "Rodina" (RF), No. 9-2008, p. 35
- I.A. Bunin "Cursed days" (diary 1918 - 1918)
Links
- The Great October Socialist Revolution on the wiki section of the RKSM(b) portal
- Decrees of the Soviet government. Volume 1. October 25, 1917 - March 16, 1918
- John Reed"Ten Days That Shook the World"
- Rabinovich A."The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd"
- Hobsbawm E.“World Revolution”, second chapter of the book “The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century (1914-1991)”
- Buldakov V.
Russia between two revolutions. Dual power
After the overthrow of the autocracy during the February Revolution, dual power was established in the country. Official power belonged to Provisional Government(Prince G. Lvov, P. Milyukov, A. Guchkov, A. Konovalov, M. Tereshchenko, A. Kerensky). Under the Provisional Government, a Legal Conference was created to monitor the legality of the measures being taken. The imperial state apparatus underwent partial reorganization, and some ministries were destroyed. During the crises of the Provisional Government, its composition and leadership changed several times. In 1917, the government was headed by A. Kerensky.
Local power was divided between bodies that arose on the initiative of the Provisional Government and the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies created during the first Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. and became active again during the February Revolution of 1917. The most important of them was Petrograd Soviet and its Executive Committee. A few months before the October Revolution of 1917, the number of local Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies increased from 600 to 1429. The majority of them belonged to the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. In May 1917, the first All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies was held, at which the policy of the Provisional Government was approved and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) was elected.
In the first months of the revolution, the tsarist administration was replaced by provincial, city and district commissariats of the Provisional Government. On the initiative of the Provisional Government, elected temporary committees of public organizations (city and zemstvo self-government) were created. Since April, district self-government bodies (dumas and councils) have been established in large cities. In plants and factories, on the initiative of the Soviets, factory committees (factory committees) arose, electing leadership from the workers and dealing with issues of rationing the working day and wages, introducing an 8-hour working day, creating a workers' militia, etc. In Petrograd, at the beginning of the summer of 1917, the Central Council of Factory Committees of Petrograd was elected.
Policy of the Provisional Government
Transformative activities were aimed at satisfying democratic demands, attempting to resolve the national question and some socio-economic transformations.
The first steps were to implement a number of democratic transformations. On March 3, 1917, the Declaration on civil liberties, amnesty for political prisoners, the abolition of national and religious restrictions, freedom of assembly, abolition of censorship, gendarmerie, hard labor, etc. was adopted. Instead of the police, the militia was created. By decree of March 12, 1917, the government abolished the death penalty and also established military revolutionary courts. In the army, military courts were abolished, commissar institutions were created to monitor the activities of officers, and about 150 senior commanders were transferred to the reserve.
IN national issue The Provisional Government was forced to make some concessions to the national outskirts and grant them self-determination. On March 7, 1917, Finnish autonomy was restored, but the Finnish Diet was dissolved. In March-July, a struggle unfolded over the granting of autonomy to Ukraine. On June 10, 1917, the Central Rada (formed on March 4, 1917 in Kyiv from representatives of the Ukrainian Socialist Federalist Party, the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party) proclaimed the autonomy of Ukraine. The Provisional Government was forced to recognize this step and adopt the Declaration of Autonomy of Ukraine (July 2, 1917).
Socio-economic the problems were hardly addressed. A struggle ensued in resolving the land issue. Most parties agreed that the land should go into the hands of the peasants, but the Provisional Government insisted on a ban on the seizure of landowners' lands. In March-April 1917, the Provisional Government established land committees to develop agrarian reform. Acts were issued against unauthorized seizures of landowners' lands, which became widespread throughout the country. However, these steps did not lead to any significant changes. The implementation of agrarian reform, as well as other fundamental socio-economic reforms, was postponed until the election Constituent Assembly.
The provisional government tried to decide food issue and lead the country out of the food crisis that arose back in 1915. To overcome the crisis situation, food committees were created in early March 1917, and on March 25, a food card system and a grain monopoly were introduced: all grain was to be sold at fixed prices to the state. However, these measures did not normalize the supply, and the shortage of bread led to the fact that the government was forced to double the price of bread, but this did not help either. Of the 3502.8 million poods of grain collected in 1917, the state received only 280 million poods according to the allocation.
Has not been resolved the task of Russia's exit from the war. A huge increase in expenses due to Russia’s participation in the First World War, a difficult situation in industry, which could not cope with its tasks due to a shortage of raw materials, the collapse of the structure and the dispersal of the administration, an increase in indirect taxes, a depreciation of the ruble due to the release of unsecured paper money led to a severe economic and then political crisis.
Crises of the Provisional Government
First - April crisis(April 18, 1917) - was caused by the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs P. Miliukov about the national desire to bring the world war to victory. This sparked anti-war demonstrations in Petrograd, Moscow, Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities. The Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District, General L. Kornilov, ordered troops to be sent against the demonstrators, but officers and soldiers refused to carry out this order. In the current situation, the Bolsheviks began to gain increasing influence, especially in factory committees, trade unions and Soviets. The Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, accusing the Bolsheviks of conspiracy, sought to ban anti-war demonstrations organized by the Bolsheviks. The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, trying to defuse the situation, demanded an explanation from the Provisional Government, which led to the resignation of P. Milyukov and a change in the composition of the government. But despite these steps, it was not possible to stabilize the situation.
The failure of the offensive of the Russian army (June-July 1917) on the fronts caused July crisis. The Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), deciding to take advantage of the situation, proclaimed the slogan “All power to the Soviets!” and began preparations for a mass demonstration to force the Provisional Government to hand over power to the Soviets. On July 3, 1917, demonstrations and rallies began in Petrograd. Armed clashes occurred between demonstrators and supporters of the Provisional Government, during which more than 700 people were killed and injured. The provisional government accused the Bolsheviks of treason. On July 7, an order was given for the arrest of Bolshevik leaders - V. Lenin, L. Trotsky, L. Kamenev and others. Under pressure from the cadets, the death penalty was restored on July 12, 1917. On July 19, instead of General A. Brusilov, General L. Kornilov was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief. On July 24, 1917, there was another reshuffle in the Provisional Coalition Government.
Third crisis was associated with a military uprising and an attempted military coup under the command of L. Kornilov. General L. Kornilov, a supporter of a hard line, developed demands for the Provisional Government (to ban rallies in the army, to extend the death penalty to the rear units, to create for disobedient soldiers concentration camps, declare martial law on the railways, etc.). The demands became known to the Bolsheviks, who began preparing for the removal of Kornilov. The remaining parties (monarchists, cadets and Octobrists) came out in support of him. Under such conditions, the Provisional Government tried to use Kornilov to eliminate the Soviets. Having learned about this, the Bolsheviks began preparing an armed uprising.
However, the general had his own plans. After Kornilov put forward his demands, full power was transferred to him and the Provisional Government was dissolved. A. Kerensky demanded that the general surrender his powers as commander-in-chief. Kornilov refused to obey and accused the Provisional Government of colluding with the German command and tried to send troops to St. Petersburg. After this, the government declared the general a rebel. On September 1, Kornilov was arrested, and Kerensky took over as commander-in-chief. Thus, the Provisional Government managed to avoid such an alternative as the military dictatorship of Kornilov. Instead of the discredited Provisional Government, a Directory was created that proclaimed Russia a republic.
October Revolution 1917
The unresolved nature of the most important problems, the passivity of reform activities, political crises, and ministerial leapfrog led to a decline in the authority of the Provisional Government. An alternative to him were the Bolsheviks, who advocated more radical reforms.
In the face of constantly emerging government crises, the Bolsheviks, who carried out anti-government and anti-war agitation, were in opposition to the new regime. Supporters of the Bolsheviks advocated the transfer of power to the Soviets. V. Lenin demanded that members of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), the Moscow and Petrograd committees of the Bolshevik party immediately begin an armed uprising. This provoked the government - trying to get ahead of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky began to gather troops towards Petrograd. The Executive Committee headed by L. Trotsky and the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet (13 Bolsheviks, 6 Socialist Revolutionaries and 7 Mensheviks) supported Lenin’s course towards armed uprising.
To lead the uprising, a Politburo was created, which included V. Lenin, L. Trotsky, I. Stalin, A. Bubnov, G. Zinoviev, L. Kamenev (the last two denied the need for an uprising). On October 12, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (MRC) was created to develop a plan for the uprising; it included F. Dzerzhinsky, Y. Sverdlov, I. Stalin, and others. Preparations began with the appointment of Bolshevik commissars in military units and at a number of important facilities. The agitation was intensified and measures were taken to discredit the government. In response to this, the government ordered the destruction of Bolshevik printing houses that printed leaflets and the arrest of members of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. Confrontation broke out again between supporters of the Bolsheviks and Kerensky. On October 24, an armed uprising began. Drawbridges across the Neva, Nikolaevsky Station, Central Telegraph, State Bank were captured, Pavlovsk, Vladimir infantry and other military schools were blocked. On the night of October 25-26, 1917, the Provisional Government was presented with an ultimatum; after its rejection, the storming of the Winter Palace began, the signal for which was the volleys of guns from the cruiser Aurora. The provisional government was overthrown.
At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Mensheviks and Right Socialist Revolutionaries condemned the actions of the Bolsheviks and proposed to peacefully resolve the situation, but finding no support, they left the congress. The Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who remained at the congress accepted decrees. The Congress adopted the Decree on Power, an appeal written by V. Lenin “To Workers, Soldiers and Peasants,” which announced the transfer of power to the Second Congress of Soviets, and locally to the Councils of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. On October 26, the congress adopted the Decree on Peace without annexations and indemnities. The Decree on Land adopted at the congress proclaimed the abolition of private ownership of land, the confiscation of landowners' lands, and its redistribution among peasants with the help of local peasant committees and county councils of peasant deputies.
At the congress, a temporary government body was created - Council of People's Commissars(SNK), which was supposed to act until the convening of the Constituent Assembly. The composition of the Council of People's Commissars was completely Bolshevik, since the Left Socialist Revolutionaries refused to participate in it, believing that the government should be multi-party and coalition. As a result, the Council of People's Commissars included: Chairman ~ V. Lenin (Ulyanov), People's Commissars: A. Lunacharsky, I. Teodorovich, N. Avilov (Glebov), I. Stalin (Dzhugashvili), V. Antonov (Ovseenko), etc. The Congress elected the new composition of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which included Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and Mensheviks. L. Kamenev was elected Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and on November 8, 1917, after his resignation, Ya. Sverdlov became the chairman.
Results and significance
The October Revolution was a natural stage, prepared by many prerequisites. The first alternative, the military dictatorship of Kornilov, was destroyed by the Provisional Government, which did not want to allow the restoration of the monarchy or the rule of one leader. The second alternative, represented by the slow democratic development within the framework of the policies of the Provisional Government, was impossible due to its failure to implement the most important requirements and tasks (exit from the war, recovery from the economic and political crisis, solution of land and food issues). The victory of the Bolsheviks was facilitated by such factors as skillfully organized propaganda, their policy of discrediting the Provisional Government, the radicalization of the masses, the growing authority of the Bolsheviks, which allowed them to use the most favorable situation to seize power. The bulk of the population supported the new government, since the first steps were the announcement of the immediate transfer of land for the use of peasants, the cessation of the war and the convening of the Constituent Assembly.
Oct. Revolution 2 version (Wikipedia)
October Revolution(full official name in USSR - Great October Socialist Revolution, other names: October Revolution, Bolshevik coup, third Russian revolution) - one of the largest political events of the 20th century, which influenced its further course, occurred in Russia in October 1917. As a result of the October Revolution, it was overthrown Provisional Government, and a government formed II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the absolute majority of whose delegates were Bolsheviks ( Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks)) and their allies left socialist revolutionaries, also supported by some national organizations, a small part Mensheviks-internationalists, and some anarchists. In November 1917, the new government was also supported by the majority of the Extraordinary Congress of Peasant Deputies.
The provisional government was overthrown during an armed uprising on October 25-26 ( 7 - November 8 according to the new style), the main organizers of which were V. I. Lenin, L. D. Trotsky, Y. M. Sverdlov and others. Direct leadership of the uprising was carried out by Military Revolutionary Committee Petrograd Soviet, which also included left socialist revolutionaries.
To understand when there was a revolution in Russia, it is necessary to look back at the era. It was under the last emperor from the Romanov dynasty that the country was shaken by several social crises that caused the people to rebel against the authorities. Historians distinguish the revolution of 1905-1907, the February Revolution and the October Revolution.
Prerequisites for revolutions
Until 1905, the Russian Empire lived according to the laws absolute monarchy. The Tsar was the sole autocrat. The adoption of important government decisions depended only on him. In the 19th century, such a conservative order of things did not suit a very small stratum of society consisting of intellectuals and marginalized people. These people were oriented towards the West, where the Great Great Patriotic War had long since taken place as an illustrative example. French revolution. She destroyed the power of the Bourbons and gave the inhabitants of the country civil liberties.
Even before the first revolutions took place in Russia, society learned about what political terror is. Radical supporters of change took up arms and carried out assassinations on senior government officials in order to force the authorities to pay attention to their demands.
Tsar Alexander II ascended the throne during Crimean War, which Russia lost due to its systematic economic lag behind the West. The bitter defeat forced the young monarch to begin reforms. The main one was the abolition of serfdom in 1861. This was followed by zemstvo, judicial, administrative and other reforms.
However, radicals and terrorists were still unhappy. Many of them demanded a constitutional monarchy or the abolition of royal power altogether. The Narodnaya Volya carried out a dozen attempts on the life of Alexander II. In 1881 he was killed. Under his son, Alexander III, a reactionary campaign was launched. Terrorists and political activists were subjected to severe repression. This calmed the situation for a short time. But the first revolutions in Russia were still just around the corner.
Mistakes of Nicholas II
Alexander III died in 1894 at his Crimean residence, where he was recovering his failing health. The monarch was relatively young (he was only 49 years old), and his death came as a complete surprise to the country. Russia froze in anticipation. The eldest son of Alexander III, Nicholas II, was on the throne. His reign (when there was a revolution in Russia) was marred from the very beginning by unpleasant events.
Firstly, one of the first public speaking the tsar declared that the progressive public’s desire for change was “meaningless dreams.” For this phrase, Nikolai was criticized by all his opponents - from liberals to socialists. The monarch even got it from the great writer Leo Tolstoy. The count ridiculed the emperor's absurd statement in his article, written under the impression of what he heard.
Secondly, during the coronation ceremony of Nicholas II in Moscow, an accident occurred. The city authorities organized a festive event for peasants and the poor. They were promised free “gifts” from the king. So thousands of people ended up on the Khodynka field. At some point, a stampede began, due to which hundreds of passers-by died. Later, when there was a revolution in Russia, many called these events symbolic hints of a future great disaster.
Russian revolutions also had objective reasons. What were they? In 1904, Nicholas II became involved in the war against Japan. The conflict erupted due to the influence of the two rival powers on Far East. Inept preparation, stretched communications, and a cavalier attitude towards the enemy - all this became the reason for the defeat of the Russian army in that war. In 1905, a peace treaty was signed. Russia gave Japan the southern part of Sakhalin Island, as well as lease rights to the strategically important South Manchurian Railway.
At the beginning of the war, there was a surge of patriotism and hostility towards new national enemies in the country. Now, after the defeat, the revolution of 1905-1907 broke out with unprecedented force. in Russia. People wanted fundamental changes in the life of the state. Discontent was especially felt among workers and peasants, whose standard of living was extremely low.
Bloody Sunday
The main reason for the outbreak of civil confrontation was the tragic events in St. Petersburg. On January 22, 1905, a delegation of workers went to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar. The proletarians asked the monarch to improve their working conditions, increase salaries, etc. Political demands were also made, the main one of which was the convening of a Constituent Assembly - a people's representative body on the Western parliamentary model.
The police dispersed the procession. Was applied firearms. According to various estimates, from 140 to 200 people died. The tragedy became known as Bloody Sunday. When the event became known throughout the country, mass strikes began in Russia. The discontent of the workers was fueled by professional revolutionaries and agitators of left-wing convictions, who had previously carried out only underground work. The liberal opposition also became more active.
First Russian Revolution
Strikes and walkouts varied in intensity depending on the region of the empire. Revolution 1905-1907 in Russia it raged especially strongly on the national outskirts of the state. For example, Polish socialists managed to convince about 400 thousand workers in the Kingdom of Poland not to go to work. Similar unrest took place in the Baltic states and Georgia.
Radical political parties (Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries) decided that this was their last chance to seize power in the country through an uprising of the popular masses. The agitators manipulated not only peasants and workers, but also ordinary soldiers. Thus began armed uprisings in the army. The most famous episode in this series is the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin.
In October 1905, the united St. Petersburg Council of Workers' Deputies began its work, which coordinated the actions of strikers throughout the capital of the empire. The events of the revolution took on their most violent character in December. This led to battles in Presnya and other areas of the city.
Manifesto October 17
In the fall of 1905, Nicholas II realized that he had lost control of the situation. He could, with the help of the army, suppress numerous uprisings, but this would not help get rid of the deep contradictions between the government and society. The monarch began to discuss with those close to him measures to reach a compromise with the dissatisfied.
The result of his decision was the Manifesto of October 17, 1905. The development of the document was entrusted to the famous official and diplomat Sergei Witte. Before that, he went to sign peace with the Japanese. Now Witte needed to help her king as soon as possible. The situation was complicated by the fact that in October two million people were already on strike. Strikes covered almost all industrial sectors. Railway transport was paralyzed.
The October 17 Manifesto introduced several fundamental changes to the political system of the Russian Empire. Nicholas II previously held sole power. Now he transferred part of his legislative powers to a new body - the State Duma. It was to be elected by popular vote and become a real representative body of government.
Such social principles as freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of assembly, and personal integrity were also established. These changes became an important part of the basic state laws of the Russian Empire. This is how the first national constitution actually appeared.
Between revolutions
The publication of the Manifesto in 1905 (when there was a revolution in Russia) helped the authorities take control of the situation. Most of the rebels calmed down. A temporary compromise was reached. The echo of the revolution could still be heard in 1906, but now it was easier for the state repressive apparatus to cope with its most irreconcilable opponents, who refused to lay down their arms.
The so-called inter-revolutionary period began, when in 1906-1917. Russia was constitutional monarchy. Now Nicholas had to take into account the opinion of the State Duma, which might not accept his laws. The last Russian monarch was a conservative by nature. He did not believe in liberal ideas and believed that his sole power was given to him by God. Nikolai made concessions only because he no longer had a choice.
The first two convocations of the State Duma never fulfilled the period assigned to them by law. A natural period of reaction began, when the monarchy took revenge. At this time, Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin became the main associate of Nicholas II. His government could not reach an agreement with the Duma on some key political issues. Because of this conflict, on June 3, 1907, Nicholas II dissolved the representative assembly and made changes to the electoral system. The III and IV convocations were already less radical in their composition than the first two. A dialogue began between the Duma and the government.
World War I
The main reasons for the revolution in Russia were the sole power of the monarch, which prevented the country from developing. When the principle of autocracy became a thing of the past, the situation stabilized. Has begun the economic growth. Agrarian helped peasants create their own small private farms. A new social class has emerged. The country developed and grew rich before our eyes.
So why did subsequent revolutions take place in Russia? In short, Nicholas made a mistake by getting involved in the First World War in 1914. Several million men were mobilized. As with the Japanese campaign, the country initially experienced a patriotic upsurge. As the bloodshed dragged on and reports of defeats began to arrive from the front, society became worried again. No one could say for sure how long the war would drag on. The revolution in Russia was approaching again.
February Revolution
In historiography there is the term “Great Russian Revolution”. Usually, this generalized name refers to the events of 1917, when two coups d’etat took place in the country at once. First World War hit the country's economy hard. The impoverishment of the population continued. In the winter of 1917 in Petrograd (renamed due to anti-German sentiments) mass demonstrations of workers and citizens dissatisfied high prices for bread.
This is how the February Revolution took place in Russia. Events developed rapidly. Nicholas II at this time was at Headquarters in Mogilev, not far from the front. The Tsar, having learned about the unrest in the capital, took the train to return to Tsarskoe Selo. However, he was late. In Petrograd, a dissatisfied army went over to the side of the rebels. The city came under rebel control. On March 2, delegates went to the king and persuaded him to sign his abdication of the throne. Thus, the February Revolution in Russia left the monarchical system in the past.
Troubled 1917
After the revolution had begun, a Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd. It included politicians previously known from the State Duma. These were mostly liberals or moderate socialists. Alexander Kerensky became the head of the Provisional Government.
Anarchy in the country allowed other radical political forces like the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries to become more active. A struggle for power began. Formally, the Provisional Government was supposed to last until the convening of the Constituent Assembly, when the country could decide how to live further by popular vote. However, the First World War was still going on, and the ministers did not want to refuse assistance to their Entente allies. This led to a sharp drop in the popularity of the Provisional Government in the army, as well as among workers and peasants.
In August 1917, General Lavr Kornilov tried to organize a coup d'etat. He also opposed the Bolsheviks, considering them a radical leftist threat to Russia. The army was already heading towards Petrograd. At this point, the Provisional Government and Lenin's supporters briefly united. Bolshevik agitators destroyed Kornilov's army from within. The mutiny failed. The provisional government survived, but not for long.
Bolshevik coup
Of all domestic revolutions, the Great October Socialist Revolution is the most famous. This is due to the fact that its date - November 7 (new style) - was a public holiday on the territory of the former Russian Empire for more than 70 years.
The next coup was led by Vladimir Lenin and the leaders of the Bolshevik Party enlisted the support of the Petrograd garrison. On October 25, according to the old style, armed groups that supported the communists captured key communication points in Petrograd - the telegraph, post office, and railway. The provisional government found itself isolated in Winter Palace. After a short assault on the former royal residence, the ministers were arrested. The signal for the start of the decisive operation was a blank shot fired on the cruiser Aurora. Kerensky was out of town and later managed to emigrate from Russia.
On the morning of October 26, the Bolsheviks were already masters of Petrograd. Soon the first decrees of the new government appeared - the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land. The Provisional Government was unpopular precisely because of its desire to continue the war with Kaiser Germany, while Russian army I was tired of fighting and demoralized.
The simple and understandable slogans of the Bolsheviks were popular among the people. The peasants finally waited for the destruction of the nobility and the deprivation of their land property. The soldiers learned that the imperialist war was over. True, in Russia itself it was far from peace. The Civil War began. The Bolsheviks had to fight for another 4 years against their opponents (whites) throughout the country to establish control over the territory of the former Russian Empire. In 1922, the USSR was formed. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the event that heralded new era in the history of not only Russia, but the whole world.
For the first time in the then history state power turned out to be radical communists. October 1917 surprised and frightened Western bourgeois society. The Bolsheviks hoped that Russia would become a springboard for the start of the world revolution and the destruction of capitalism. This did not happen.
Revolution of 1917 in Russia
The history of the October Socialist Revolution is one of those topics that attracted and continues to attract the greatest attention of foreign and Russian historiography, because it was as a result of the victory of the October Revolution that the position of all classes and strata of the population and their parties radically changed. The Bolsheviks became the ruling party, leading the work to create a new state and social system.
On October 26, a decree on peace and land was adopted. Following the decree on peace and land, the Soviet government adopted laws: on the introduction of workers' control over the production and distribution of products, on an 8-hour working day, and the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia.” The Declaration proclaimed that from now on in Russia there are no dominant nations or oppressed nations, all peoples receive equal rights to free development, to self-determination, even to the point of secession and the formation of an independent state.
The October Revolution marked the beginning of profound, all-encompassing social changes throughout the world. The land of the landowners was transferred free of charge into the hands of the working peasantry, and factories, plants, mines, railways- into the hands of the workers, making them public property.
Causes of the October Revolution
On August 1, 1914, the First World War began in Russia, which lasted until November 11, 1918, the cause of which was the struggle for spheres of influence in conditions where a unified European market and legal mechanism had not been created.
Russia was the defending party in this war. And although the patriotism and heroism of the soldiers and officers was great, there was no single will, no serious plans for waging war, no sufficient supply of ammunition, uniforms and food. This filled the army with uncertainty. She lost her soldiers and suffered defeats. The Minister of War was put on trial and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was removed from his post. Nicholas II himself became Commander-in-Chief. But the situation has not improved. Despite continuous economic growth (coal and oil production, the production of shells, guns and other types of weapons increased, huge reserves were accumulated in case of a prolonged war), the situation developed in such a way that during the war years Russia found itself without an authoritative government, without an authoritative prime minister. minister, and without an authoritative Headquarters. The officer corps was replenished educated people, i.e. intelligentsia, which was subject to oppositional sentiments, and daily participation in a war in which there was a shortage of the most necessary things gave rise to doubts.
Growing centralization of economic management, carried out against the backdrop of a growing shortage of raw materials, fuel, transport, qualified work force, accompanied by the scale of profiteering and abuse, led to the fact that the role government regulation increased along with the growth of negative factors of the economy (History of the domestic state and law. Part 1: Textbook / Edited by O. I. Chistyakov. - M.: BEK Publishing House, 1998)
Queues appeared in cities, standing in which was a psychological breakdown for hundreds of thousands of workers.
The predominance of military output over civilian production and rising food prices led to a steady increase in prices for all consumer goods. At the same time, wages did not keep pace with rising prices. Discontent grew both in the rear and at the front. And it was directed primarily against the monarch and his government.
If we take into account that from November 1916 to March 1917, three prime ministers, two ministers of internal affairs and two ministers of agriculture were replaced, then the expression of the convinced monarchist V. Shulgin about the situation prevailing in Russia at that time is indeed true: “autocracy without an autocrat” .
Among a number of prominent politicians, in semi-legal organizations and circles, a conspiracy was brewing, and plans were being discussed to remove Nicholas II from power. The plan was to seize the Tsar's train between Mogilev and Petrograd and force the monarch to abdicate.
The October Revolution was a major step towards transforming a feudal state into a bourgeois state. October created a fundamentally new, Soviet state. The October Revolution was caused by a number of objective and subjective reasons. The objective ones, first of all, include the class contradictions that worsened in 1917:
The contradictions inherent in bourgeois society are the antagonism between labor and capital. The Russian bourgeoisie, young and inexperienced, failed to see the danger of impending class friction and did not take sufficient measures in a timely manner to reduce the intensity of the class struggle as much as possible.
Conflicts in the village, which developed even more acutely. The peasants, who for centuries dreamed of taking the land from the landowners and driving them away themselves, were not satisfied with either the reform of 1861 or the Stolypin reform. They openly longed to get all the land and get rid of long-time exploiters. In addition, from the very beginning of the twentieth century, a new contradiction associated with the differentiation of the peasantry itself intensified in the countryside. This stratification intensified after the Stolypin reform, which tried to create new class owners in the village due to the redistribution of peasant lands associated with the destruction of the community. Now, in addition to the landowner, the broad peasant masses had a new enemy - the kulak, even more hated because he came from his environment.
National conflicts. National movement, not too strong in the period 1905-1907, worsened after February and gradually increased by the autumn of 1917.
World War. The first chauvinistic frenzy that gripped certain sections of society at the beginning of the war soon dissipated, and by 1917 the overwhelming mass of the population, suffering from the diverse hardships of the war, longed for a speedy conclusion of peace. First of all, this concerned, of course, the soldiers. The village is also tired of endless victims. Only the top of the bourgeoisie, who made enormous capital from military supplies, advocated continuing the war to a victorious end. But the war had other consequences. First of all, it armed the millions of workers and peasants, taught them how to use weapons and helped overcome the natural barrier that prohibits a person from killing other people.
The weakness of the Provisional Government and everything state apparatus created by him. If immediately after February the Provisional Government had some kind of authority, then the further it went, the more it lost it, being unable to solve pressing problems in the life of society, first of all, questions about peace, bread, and land. Simultaneously with the decline in the authority of the Provisional Government, the influence and importance of the Soviets grew, promising to give the people everything they longed for.
Along with objective important There were also subjective factors:
Wide popularity in society of socialist ideas. Thus, by the beginning of the century, Marxism had become a kind of fashion among the Russian intelligentsia. It found a response in wider public circles. Even in Orthodox Church At the beginning of the twentieth century, a movement of Christian socialism emerged, albeit a small one.
The existence in Russia of a party ready to lead the masses to revolution - the Bolshevik Party. This party was not the largest in number (the Socialist Revolutionaries had more), however, it was the most organized and purposeful.
The Bolsheviks have a strong leader, authoritative both in the party itself and among the people, who managed to become a real leader in a few months after February - V.I. Lenin.
As a result, the October armed uprising won victory in Petrograd with greater ease than the February Revolution, and almost bloodlessly as a result of the combination of all the factors mentioned above. Its result was the emergence of the Soviet state.
Legal side of the October Revolution of 1917
In the fall of 1917, the political crisis in the country worsened. At the same time, the Bolsheviks carried out active work to prepare for the uprising. It began and was carried out according to plan.
During the uprising in Petrograd, by October 25, 1917, all key points in the city were occupied by detachments of the Petrograd garrison and the Red Guard. By the evening of this day, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies began its work, proclaiming itself the highest authority in Russia. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, formed by the First Congress of Soviets in the summer of 1917, was re-elected.
The Second Congress of Soviets elected a new All-Russian Central Executive Committee and formed the Council of People's Commissars, which became the government of Russia. (World history: Textbook for universities / Edited by G.B. Polyak, A.N. Markova. - M.: Culture and Sports, UNITI, 1997) The congress had a constituent character: it created leading government bodies and the first acts of constitutional, fundamental significance were adopted. The Peace Decree proclaimed the principles of long-term foreign policy Russia - peaceful coexistence and “proletarian internationalism”, the right of nations to self-determination.
The decree on land was based on peasant orders formulated by the councils back in August 1917. A variety of forms of land use were proclaimed (household, farm, communal, artel), confiscation of landowners' lands and estates, which were transferred to the disposal of volost land committees and district councils of peasant deputies. The right of private ownership of land was abolished. The use of hired labor and land rental were prohibited. Later, these provisions were enshrined in the Decree “on the socialization of the land” in January 1918. The Second Congress of Soviets also adopted two appeals: “To the citizens of Russia” and “Workers, soldiers and peasants”, which spoke of the transfer of power to the Military Revolutionary Committee , the Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and locally - local councils.