Causes of the Russian Revolution

Causes of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution had many contributing factors; many of those were developed over time beginning with Peter the Great, and the political system of autocracy which imposed extreme and harsh measures on its people, with absolute disregard for human life and liberty. Later Alexander II emancipated the serfs in 1861, and allowed radical change that would permit the Industrial Revolution a path for growth and give the peasants economic mobility and some simple freedoms. I would like to show how there were pivotal events that directly, and indirectly led to the Russian revolution, and how a growing and maturing Russia and radical thinking during those days caused the eventual revolution and civil war.

Russia entered upon the Industrial Revolution late among the major European powers, really only in the 1880's and 1890's. Nonetheless, by the outbreak of war in 1914 a significant industrial capacity existed and also an important industrial working class. Russian Industrialization, coming relatively late and involving extensive government subsidy and foreign investment , created certain special features in the economy and society, the most striking of which-and the most important for us-was the formation of very large factories and their concentration in a very few places.

Karl Marx saw capitalism as the ultimate evil. Prior to the Industrial revolution, Feudalism was the only economic method, run by large land owners and operated by serfdom. The aristocracy would tax the peasants and consume any profit and take food indiscriminately. Capitalism had been introduced to Europe during the renaissance, but was applied using feudal methods. The Industrial Revolution created factories and housing for the peasants, and made many businessmen very wealthy while they exploited the common man. Marx believed this system was unfair, where the intelligent fortunate ruled the peasants, and created a new type of aristocracy. So Marx came up with the idea of communism. "A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people."

Peter I, (Peter the Great) began a transformation in the 18th century. Muscovy was changed from a static and isolated traditional state into a dynamic, secularized Russian empire. He developed a foundation to create an empire over the next two centuries.

The reforms of Peter the Great were already ripening within a Russia

that was growing out of its medieval ideas. It is interesting that the common people, in the seventeenth as in the tenth century, remained either passively submissive or actively hostile to the "reformers." This second cultural schism was still unhealed at the time of the 1917 Revolution.

Russia continued to lag behind the rest of the world during the industrial Revolution because of its retention of serfdom, which caused problems for this new empire. After Peter, his wife Catherine I took the throne. Following Peter's death, Russia began to engage in European affairs with a new vigor. From 1726 to 1761 Russia was allied with Austria against the Ottoman Empire. Between 1734 and 1739 Russia re-acquired the port of Azov. But Russia's greatest involvements in foreign affairs were during the 7 years war, (1756 to 1763). This war fought on three continents between France and Great Britain had many allies. Elizabeth died in 1762, and Peter III, her successor, allied Prussia with Russia because of his devotion to the Prussian Emperor, Fredrick the Great. Catherine II was notable for her imperial expansion which added large new territories in the west and south. But her monarchy failed in many other areas. "Decades of totalitarian rule and monolithic discipline have robbed the people of their capacity for self-expression, spontaneous action, and self organization". In 1783 Catherine annexed Crimea, beginning the new war with the Ottoman Empire in 1787. With continued exploitation, Russia's westward expansion under Catherine increased by the apportioning of Poland. In 1772 Russia, Prussia and Austria divided portions of Poland and Russia, received parts of Belorussia and Livonia, and by 1795 Poland was eventually non-existent.

Catherine had, in effect, helped to realize the policies of Peter the Great and brought to fruition and set the foundation for the 19th century Empire. Russia became very powerful and able to compete with its European neighbors politically, militarily, and diplomatically. Society remained unchanged from Peter the Great to the end of Catherine's reign until the emancipation of serfdom in 1861, and the end of the monarchy in 1917. National movements at the turn of the century were something new, and minority parties had a voice.

Finally the development of modern political parties in Russia, which took place around 1900, led to the formation of national parties among the minorities, which in almost all instances adopted either liberal or socialist programs and affiliated themselves closely with their Russian counterparts. Until the breakdown of the tsarist regime, such Russian and minority parties fought side by side for parliamentary rights, local self-rule, and social and economic reforms; but while the Russian parties stressed the general needs of the whole country, the minority parties concentrated on local regional requirements.

The Russian Revolution actually began in 1905 at Petrograd, on January 22, when troops fired on an unarmed, peaceful crowd of workers and peasants led by a priest, that were marching to the Winter Palace to petition Tsar Nicholas II. This was eventually called "bloody Sunday", and was followed by months of strikes, various riots, mutinies and many peasant uprisings. This event and others sharply divided many of the peasant groups and Cossacks, into two groups. Those Cossacks on the right, or the whites were united and determined to support the Tsar. "We don't need a constitution. We don't want a Republic. We won't betray Russia. We will defend the Tsars throne". Nicholas was unwilling to capitulate or, ignorant of a path for a reasonable solution for the masses. But he did agree to allow the establishment of a consultative representative Dumas, which could meet some of the workers' demands. However, this was too little too late and a general strike was called. The social democrats organized a soviet, or a workers council, in St. Petersburg, and decided to continue the strike.