Causes of 1917 Russian Revolution

By Barbara Gardner: There were many causes of the Russian Revolution of October 1917. In this essay I am going to consider long term, medium term and short term causes. I will then conclude by considering what I think is the most important cause. With regards to long term causes I will consider the state ofRussia’s economy and the discontent with the regime led by Tsar Nicholas the Second. Regarding to medium term causes I will look at the role of World War One in radicalising huge parts of the Russian population, especially in creating discontent in the army and navy eventually leading to mutinies and desertions. Finally when considering short term causes I will look at the events of 1917 itself, the February revolution, the consequent failure of the provisional government to reunite the country and how the Bolshevik party managed to capitalise on that failure. In the early 20

th century Russia was a very backward country with a peasant population that had only

been freed in 1870. It was still led by the Tsars of the Romanov family and there wasn’t democracy as was emerging in the rest of the world. The result of this was in 1905 there was a revolution. Russia was losing a war against Japan which had created much economic hardship and discontent. The revolution began when Father Gapon, a priest, led a march on the Winter Palace in St Petersburg asking for more food. On what became known as Bloody Sunday, the Tsar ordered the army to shoot on the crowd. This shattered many peoples beliefs in the Tsar who they believed was there to protect them. After the revolution the Tsar tried to reform the Duma (the Russian parliament) but in the period before the First World War he took more and more powers away from the Duma. In 1912 there was a massacre at the Lena Goldfields mine which led to more anger amongst Russian workers. By the time the First World War began in 1914 Russia was struggling economically. Initially, however the war was quite popular but as the years went on Russia suffered serious defeats. This went alongside the perception that the Tsar and Tsarina were living a life of luxury. They had hired theRussian Orthodox church priest Rasputin to help their son who was sickly. But people believed that Rasputin had too much power in the Russiangovernment and influenced the Tsarina too much. As the war went on Tsar Nicholas was mocked as a weak war leader, until eventually on 25

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February 1917 women went out on the streets to march for bread. This was the start of the Russian Revolution. Within a week there were mass strikes and the Tsar was forced to resign and was replaced by his cousin Prince Lvov. Very quickly however it became clear that Prince Lvov was too closely associated with the Tsar so he was forced to resign in mid-March aswell. He was replaced by Alexander Kerensky, a charismatic leader and member of the ?? party. Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party arrived back in Russia in April 1917. At that point the Bolsheviks were considering joining the government. The other parties, the Mensheviks, and the main peasant party, the Socialist Revolutionaries, had both decided to join the provisional government. Lenin argued viciously against joining the provisional government because he thought it would mean they were associated with its mistakes. Alongside the government what was known as Soviets had been set up. Soviets were organisations that governed parts of workplaces. In February 1917 the Bolsheviks were a minority within the Soviets, but the very existence of the soviets meant the new provisional government faced a rival. This period in 1917 is known as dual power. Over the course of 1917 the provisional government made a series of fatal mistakes. First of all they refused to pull out of World War One. A disastrous offensive in June that led to thousands of deaths resulted in huge desertions from the army. Secondly in August a military leader called General Kornilov tried to launch a coup. The upper classes around Kornilov had got frustrated with the prevarication of Kerensky. They wanted to impose a regime much like the old regime of the Tsar. Kerensky was forced to call on the soviet to defend St Petersburg. The soviet did defend the capital against the coup but it meant that Kerensky had lost all legitimacy, from all sides. It now became a matter of time before another crisis. The situation of dual power would have to be resolved. Eventually in October 1917 the Bolshevik party took over the Winter Palace. The following day they won a majority in the St Petersburg soviet which they used to claim legitimacy for their new government. Ultimately the October Revolution came through the ability of the Bolsheviks ability to catch the mood of the time. The Bolshevik slogan of “Peace, Land and Bread” connected with what workers wanted. Many people wanted peace, workers wanted food and peasants wanted land. I think

the most important reason that the October revolution occurred was because of the disastrous mistakes the provisional government made throughout 1917. They isolated themselves from each different grouping in Russia and didn’t appease any part. This left a vacuum which the Bolshevik party were able to fill.