Download Russian Revolution of 1917

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Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution refers to the events of 1917,
which overthrew the Russian imperial regime and
instituted the first communist state. The impact of the
revolution on the leaders of Russia and the world was
without parallel in 20th-century history. Both the
reality of a communist government and its ideological
commitment to fomenting international revolution
shifted the basis of international diplomacy away from the 19th-century practice of balancing
great powers and into the 20th-century struggle for ideology.
The structure of the Russian government had already been shaken in the revolution of 1905. All
of the complaints from that earlier conflict had been greatly exacerbated during World War I, as
the Russian people endured shortages of food and fuel (necessary for heat), the increasingly
repressive rule of Czar Nicholas II, and the deaths of thousands of Russians in military defeats.
In March 1917, the czar was forced to abdicate because of riots in the capital, Petrograd (now
St. Petersburg). The liberal Provisional Government in coalition with the Petrograd Soviet came
to power.
The liberals, led by Aleksander Kerensky, were dedicated to parliamentary rule and many far
reaching reforms. Yet they also continued the war effort, anxious to identify with the liberal
republics of their allies, France and England. Unable to pursue the war and social change, the
government was plagued by continued social unrest. Such unrest provided the conditions in
which the more radical wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, the Bolsheviks,
were able to gain control of the workers' soviets in the summer of 1917.
In the October Revolution (November by the Western calendar), the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir
Lenin organized an insurgency of armed workers, soldiers, and sailors who seized government
"Russian Revolution of 1917." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 27 May 2014.
Name: ____________________________________Date ____________________ Period: _______ Unit
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Russian Revolution of 1917
buildings and the Winter Palace in Petrograd without much opposition. Harder fighting was
required in Moscow, but that city was also brought under control as the Bolshevik Party took
over the government. They soon signed a peace treaty with Germany that many Russians
thought was humiliating. More problematic was the fact that the Bolsheviks were not the most
popular party.
The armies of Britain, France, the United States, and Japan sent troops to Russia in an attempt
to reverse the revolution, but the intervention accomplished nothing, and the war weary troops
soon withdrew. Far more devastating was the Russian Civil War in which czarist generals,
religious peasants, and minority nationalities fought against the communist regime. By 1922,
Lenin and the Bolsheviks (renamed the All-Russian Communist Party) had restored order
through the military expertise of the Red Army under the command of Leon Trotsky and a new
economic program that stabilized the food supply. By 1923, a new constitution recognized the
multinational character of the nation, changing its name from Russia to the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.
"Russian Revolution of 1917." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 27 May 2014.