Bolshevik Revolution in Russia

Bolshevik Revolution in Russia

The "History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union" takes into account the period of great change for Russia and the rest of the world. The terms Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union are used synonymously in every day vocabulary, however when we talk of the foundation of the Soviet Union, Soviet Russia is a term that refers to the few years after the abdication of the Russian empire crown by Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 but before the Soviet Union was created in 1922.in the early times of its conception, the Soviet Union struggled to ensure there was harmony among everyone in all the countries (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014).

There were only few changes that were made by Tsar after the Russian revolution in 1905 which displeased many people. Russia therefore ended up being a hot belt for socialism, anarchism and other radical political systems. Russian Social Democratic Part (RSDLP), which was the dominant socialist party subscribed to the Marxist ideology.as from 1903 there were a series of splits between two main leaders; the Bolsheviks which meant the majority under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin and the Mensheviks which meant minority and under the leadership of Julius Martov. However significant differences between these tow leaders saw the eventual split of the party. This was the beginning of the need for political dominance between these two leaders. These groups fought with each other and also common enemies especially those who tried to bring Tsar back to power (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014).

The Bolshevik Revolution

We will then look at the background of the Russian revolution.by 1917 most of the Russians had lost their faith in the leadership abilities of Czar Nicholas II .there was a lot of corruption in government while the Russian economy remained backward. However the immediate cause of the February revolution which was the first phase of the Russian revolution of 1917 was the disastrous involvement of Russia in the First World War. The military imperial Russia could not match up to the industrialized Germany which resulted to Russian Causalities being greater than those that were sustained by any other nation in any of the wars that had taken place previously.at the same time the economy of Russia was disrupted by he costly war and moderates came together in the call for overthrowing Czar (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014).

The February Revolution started on March 8,1917 that saw demonstrators taking to the streets in the capital of Russia Petrograd who were supported by crowds of industrial workers on strike .The protestants ended up clashing with the police but refused to leave the streets .T his strike spread among all the workers in Petrograd and the irritated mob destroyed police stations.in the aftermath of the February revolution there was sharing of power between weak provisional government and Petrograd soviet.in November 6th and 7th 1917,Vladimir Lenin launched an almost bloodless coup d'etat against the Provisional government. This was what was known as the Bolshevik Revolution .the Bolsheviks and their allies ended up occupying government buildings as well as other strategic locations in Petrograd eventually forming a new government with Lenin as its leader. He became a virtual dictator which saw his government making peace with Germany, distributed land and nationalized industry.in 1918 there was a devastating civil war against the anti-Bolshevik white forces.in 1920 the anti-Bolsheviks were defeated which saw the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922 (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014).

war communism

During the Civil war between 1917 and 1921 the Bolsheviks adopted the war communism that led to the breaking up of landed estates as well as forcible seizure of agricultural surpluses.in the cities there were intense food shortages as well as a break down of monetary system. City dwellers fled to the countryside to tend to the land which Bolshevik break up of the lands estates had transferred of peasants. Early 1921 there was a lot of public discontent with the state of economy resulting to numerous strikes and protests. The Kronstadt rebellion was a sign that there was a growing unpopularity of war communism. However the tenth party congress decided to end war communism and put in place the New Economic Policy whereby the state allowed a limited market to exist the Soviet NEP 1921-1929 was a period of market socialism that saw agricultural yields recovering to the levels they were before the Bolshevik Revolution

The death of Lenin