The Bolshevik Revolution

The Bolshevik Revolution

My topic for the three page report was about the Bolshevik Revolution. They were a Russian party that wanted to overthrow the Russian provisional government that was ruled by Alexander Kerensky in the early 1900's. I am going to tell you about all of the events that happened during and after the Bolshevik revolution.

Before the year 1917, Russia was a sort of monarchy being ruled by Ð''czars' or kings. The last czar was Nicholas II and a lot of people were against him including Japan. Japan did not like that Russia was spreading into east Europe. In 1905, the Japanese attacked Russia. Nicholas II was forced to make reforms after a couple of key losses to Japan. He was forced to make a constitution and a new parliament called a Duma.

After the war with Japan came to a close, Nicholas II tried to get back to his old ways by taking away a lot of the freedoms that the Russian people got from the new constitution and the Duma. People grew angry at this and workers began creating protests and other signs of unhappiness. Nicholas reacted violently be killing and arresting some of the people. He maintained control of the people, but their hate for Nicholas II grew larger and larger. Then in 1912, the social democrat group split into two parties: The Bolsheviks (majority) and the Mensheviks(minority). Then came the real trouble for Russia. World War I broke out in the western part of Russia. Russia lost some important battles, and a severe food drought struck this country. The economy of Russia soon after collapsed. Riots broke out in Petrograd, which is now called St. Petersburg. Soon, the Duma accepted the proposal of a provisional government, which is a government that is formed temporarily until a permanent one is created.

The provisional government started in the early months of 1917. The first leader of the provisional government was George Lvov. He did not last long at the leader point and then came Alexander Kerensky. The people favored Kerensky most out of everyone in the government because of his political past. While Kerensky was in power, the Bolsheviks were getting more and more support from the frustrated soviets. The people of Russia did not like this weak government. On July 19, Kerensky gave orders for the arrest of the leading Bolsheviks who were campaigning against the war. The leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, went into hiding from that point on. Kerensky then shut down all of the Bolshevik's newspapers. This got the Bolshevik party angry and Leon Trotsky, a person in the Bolshevik party urged to overthrow the provisional government.. On October 25, 1917, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace ,which was the house of the government officials, and arrested all of the provisional government's officials.

Many people were amazed that the Bolshevik Revolution succeeded. Here are some of the reasons that the Bolshevik revolution succeeded:

Citation for information below: CLARE, JOHN D. (2002), Ð''Bolshevik Revolution, November 1917',at Greenfield History Site

http://www.johndclare.net/Russ5.htm

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