Unit 6: The Russian Empire and Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and Their Legacy
The Russian revolution had a profound impact on the world stage. It involved a complete transformation from a monarchical to a communist system and led to socialist movements in Cuba, North Korea, China, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
In this unit, we investigate the Russian Empire, the cultures and religions that shaped Russian society, the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and the formation of the Soviet Union. As you progress through the unit, think about how the Industrial Revolution and the ideals of the Enlightenment influenced communism. World War I also influenced the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify the imediate and long-term causes of revolution in Russia during the 20th century;
- review how Marxist ideology contributed to the Russian revolution;
- give examples of the foundational ideas and ideology of the Bolshevik revolutionaries and the future leaders of the Soviet Union;
- describe the economic, social, and cultural conditions in Russia that led to the rise of the Soviet Union; and
- discuss the influence the Soviet Union had on the social and political structure of other countries in Eastern Europe.
- identify the imediate and long-term causes of revolution in Russia during the 20th century;
6.1: A Brief History of Russia
For most of the premodern period, Russia was composed of pre-Christian tribal societies. These "Russian aborigines" were primarily nomadic, traversing the arctic tundra driving large herds of reindeer. In 750, Scandinavian conquerors established a settlement of Kievan Rus, where three brothers (Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor) created communities in Novgorod, Sineus, and Izborsk. Two of the brothers died, and Rurik became the sole ruler of the territory and progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty, which lasted from 862 to 1598. The Romanovs succeeded it in 1613 after the Time of Troubles (1598–1613).
Prince Oleg (c. 845–912), the second ruler of Novgorod, established diplomatic relations with Byzantium. In 988, Vladimir the Great (956–1015) converted to Christianity through his alliance with Byzantium and constructed several churches, including St. Sophia Cathedral in 1045. In Russia, the Eastern Orthodox Church later evolved into the Russian Orthodox Church.
During the crusades, Russia provided reinforcements to Byzantium to defend against the European crusaders, but political stability weakened Novogrod, and it broke into smaller principalities. In 1219, Mongolian armies invaded and conquered most of Russia to establish the Golden Horde, which maintained its power until 1502. However, by this time, the Golden Horde itself was falling apart. Ivan III Vasilyevich (1440–1505), also known as Ivan the Great, consolidated control and ascend the throne in 1462 as part of the Rurik Dynasty. In 1547, his successor Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530–1584), also known as Ivan the Terrible due to his autocratic and despotic rule, declared himself Tsar, which means "Caesar". He styled his absolute monarchy after Byzantium and claimed he was the direct continuation of the Roman Empire. Ivan IV had eight wives – he married Anastasia Romanovna in 1547, the great aunt of the future Tsar who would found the Romanov dynasty, which lasted until 1917.
Ivan IV had created an absolute monarchy. The serfs (or peasants) were essentially enslaved and did not have any rights or protections. While the government united the principalities of Russia into one system, they oppressed the citizenry, which would eventually lead to its downfall. After 15 years of conflict, Mikhail Romanov (1596–1645) was crowned Tsar in 1613 after successfully deposing the Rurik Dynasty. The Romanov Dynasty lasted 300 years and included the monarchs Peter I the Great (1672–1725) and Catherine the Great (1729–1796). The Romanovs continued the tradition of absolute monarchy, while Peter forced the people to adopt cultural reform and restricted the power of the nobility. The royal family had great wealth and power, which also rendered them responsible for major decisions and the direction of government policy.
Political instability began to set in during the reign of Tsar Alexander III (1845–1894). His son Nicholas II (1868–1918), the last Tsar of Russia, was highly regarded as weak and ineffectual. The Russian people lost faith in the Tsar's ability to govern due to his poor handling of the Russo-Japanese War and the ascension of Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916), a religious zealot who served as a healer and spiritual advisor to the royal family.
Read the text on the rise of discontent in Russia and why its people rose in revolution.
6.2: Origins of Revolution
During their massive effort to modernize and industrialize their country, the Tsarist regime instituted unpopular policies that caused deep resentment among the Russian peasants and workers who lived in the urban centers. As in France and Mexico, the lower classes suffered from low pay, food shortages, and poor living and working conditions. At the same time, the government and wealthy classes insisted they pay increasingly more taxes to support their expensive military campaigns and extravagant lifestyle. As in Mexico, the Tsarist leaders encouraged foreign investment to achieve rapid industrialization. Their reliance on outside funding eventually created anti-foreign sentiment and promoted radical nationalism.
Read this text which explores the roots of Russian discontent. Think about the connections between these Russian protests and the social upheaval we discussed in earlier units on the Industrial Revolution.
The Russian Revolution occurred in two stages. During the first stage, liberal movements challenged the monarchy and the Russian tsar following Russia's humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). Major revolutionary fever followed, with a series of uncoordinated worker uprisings in the major urban centers and peasant uprisings in 1905. While Tsar Nicholas II (1868–1918) created a Duma (Russian legislature) in 1906, the government was essentially an authoritarian constitutional monarchy since the Duma had little control or influence.
As you read this text, note the major causes of the 1905 uprisings, the key events, failures, and results.
Read this manifesto that Tsar Nicholas II issued in response to the revolutionary coalition's demands. Compare it to the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" that the French revolutionaries issued in 1789 (See Unit 3, section 3.3). Name some similarities and differences between the two documents.
The second stage of revolution followed Tsar Nicolas II's decision to enter World War I (1914–1917), which led to five million casualties, disease, starvation, and disaster for Russia and its Tsarist regime. In February 1917, Tsar Nicolas II was forced to abdicate due to these leadership failures. In 1918, Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family were executed. However, the Duma that replaced him had no experience running a government. Petrograd was torn by strikes by industrial workers, such as a strike at the Putilov Mill, women's demonstrations, food shortages, and general middle-class discontent. Local soviets, or workers councils, organized in the cities while groups of peasants claimed the land in the countryside in response to this decentralization.
Read this text. Why do you think the structure of the provisional government was considered "moderate"? Compare it to the Manifesto of 1905. Why was it ultimately ineffective?
By October 1917, the Bolshevik Party, a communist organization led by Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), staged a revolution against the provisional government and seized control of the state. Interestingly, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland during World War I. Germany helped Lenin return to Russia. Lenin initiated the October Revolution upon his return, which drew Russia out of World War I. Many historians believe German involvement was a strategic move to weaken Allied Powers at the apex of the war.
Listen to this dramatic reading of the October Revolution. Note Lenin's involvement and examine the role of the Bolshevik Party in the revolution and its outcome.
The Bolsheviks used military force to consolidate power and establish control over the local soviets. Throughout the 1920s, Lenin and his successor Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) used violence and political control to implement communism across Russia's political, economic, and social institutions. Communist leaders tried to export the revolution by supporting communist political organizations in Europe and the United States.
Read the program of the Bolshevik Party. How do their claims and demands compare to the previous revolutions we have studied? In the next section, we will explore how these complaints relate to Marxist ideals and the alienation and social inequities the industrial revolution caused.
6.3: The Manifesto of the Communist Party
As with the other revolutions we have studied, the Russian revolutionaries discussed, defended, and revised their ideas through the documents they wrote and shared with their compatriots.Their premise for revolution lay in the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engles argued that class struggle was the basis of human existence and that socialism (and eventually communism) would surpass capitalist society, which would naturally collapse or implode.
As we discussed in Unit 1, Marx and Engels advocated for creating a more equitable society with the rise of the proletariat (the laborers or working class) against the bourgeoisie (the wealthy owners of the means of production). This new communist society would support a progressive income tax, abolish inheritances and private property, abolish child labor, support free public education, nationalize transport and communication systems, centralize credit via a national bank, and expand publicly-owned land. Eventually, the state would wither away and lead to creating a stateless and classless society.
Lenin, who came to lead the Bolshevik party, wrote the April Theses (1917), an indictment of the Russian provisional government which had taken control after the 1905 revolution. Marx articulated communist theory in terms of a series of historical stages: from feudalism to the "withering away" of the state. He argued that human society had moved beyond the feudal stage to a period when the bourgeoisie was exploiting the proletariat, controlling the means of production, and paying workers less than their labor was worth. The bourgeoisie would attempt to thwart a worker uprising by pitting different worker groups against each other, using differences in religion, nationality, language, industry, race, and other elements, to prevent the proletariat from seeing their commonality as an oppressed underclass.
This declaration, published in January 1918, outlines the key rights to be obtained in the new Soviet state. Compare it with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the English Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Bill of Rights. What common themes and values do you notice? What is unique about this document when compared to earlier revolutionary declarations?
Read this crucial revolutionary text from 1902. Make a note of Lenin's motivations and how he justifies the need for revolution. How does this document compare to the Declaration of Rights published in 1918?
Read this text written by Lenin in 1918. Consider how his ideas evolved from 1902. Also, consider how his ideas laid the foundation for what would become the soviet state of Russia.
The Bolshevik leaders of the Russian revolution attempted to move beyond this stage and into the next, when the underclass would rise up and seize the means of production, including all private property. In the "Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Peoples", the new Soviet collective did away with private ownership of property and collectivized all industry and farms. Many sociologists categorize Marxist theory as conflict theory, which examines social inequalities in terms of competition for power and resources. Throughout the long Russian Revolution, Soviet leaders attempted to move human society through the stages of history faster than Marx had predicted. Many argue that Marx would have opposed the authoritarian regime that resulted had he lived to see it.
This is an authoritative English translation of Marx and Engels' "Communist Manifesto". It was originally published in German in London, in 1848, shortly before a wave of revolutions swept through Europe. Marxist theory was fundamental for Lenin and other Russian Revolutionaries. Reading the Manifesto will give you insights into the key claims, problems, and contradictions that characterize Marxist theory.
Read both the "Preamble" and "Chapter I: Bourgeois and Proletarians", focusing on the following questions: how do the authors characterize these social classes? What is the role of the bourgeoisie in world history? What role do the proletarians play? Does individual human will matter in history? Can we predict a sociopolitical system's future?
Examine this propaganda. As you analyze, think about the Manifesto of the Communist Party and examine what evidence of communist philosophy is evident in the propaganda.
This resource explores the symbolism in revolutionary propaganda and how it is used to communicate its message.
Watch this video, which analyzes the Russian propaganda campaign led by Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), another Bolshevik leader.
6.4: Revolutionary Legacies
In November 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, took advantage of the power vacuum and assumed control of Petrograd with the slogan of peace, land for the peasants, and bread. A civil war followed between the communist Red Guard, led by the Bolsheviks, Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and the White Army, a disorganized mix of forces with disparate goals, including those who wanted to restore the Tsarist regime and support from foreign countries that opposed communism.
Lenin's "April Theses" was a crucially important document that outlined the aspirations of the Bolshevik Party. Read it and compare it to the Communist Manifesto. How did Lenin depart from the Communist Manifesto?
By the end of the civil war in 1920, the Bolsheviks had to build the new economic infrastructure of the new Soviet Union. Lenin introduced his New Economic Policy (NEP) which created some stability and instituted limited free-market policies, such as land ownership. However, Joseph Stalin eventually won the power struggle that followed Lenin's death in 1924, when Nikolai Bukharin (1888–1938), a supporter of the NEP, was expelled from the Politburo in 1929 and executed in 1938. Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927 and exiled in 1929.
Like the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution of 1918 was plagued by excessive violence. The advent of new weapons and technology only aided an already volatile situation. Read this article which examines why the Russian Revolution descended into violence, and the long-term impact the terror had on the formation of the Soviet Union.
During the 1930s, Stalin nationalized the Soviet economy and reinstituted the strict policies of wartime to create a command economy. He demanded laborers build the heavy industrial base that would create a modern industrialized economy, forced the peasants into mass collective farms that led to millions of deaths during the Great Famine (1932–1933), and provoked a mass migration of millions of peasants to the Russian urban centers (1928–1932). By 1934, Stalin declared the revolution was over.
Read this article. Make a timeline as you read and consider the long-term impact of the revolution on world history.
- Communism stressed the inherent equality of the sexes and was a liberating ideology for women who participated in the revolution and civil war. Reforms in literacy and education also promoted greater opportunities for women. Read this article to explore how the Russian Revolution affected the role of women in Russian society.
Since secularism is a key component of communist ideology, the revolutionaries directly conflicted with the Russian Orthodox Church, which had become a significant part of Russian society. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 changed Russia's economy and political structure and dramatically weakened the church's position. Churches were demolished, religion outlawed, and many practitioners were forced to take their faith underground.
Read this article, which explores Lenin's ideas about the Russian Orthodox Church.
- This article also examines the church's role in Russian history and the consequences of the Bolshevik revolution.
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 changed the political structure of Eurasia. The Soviet Union was officially established in 1922 and eventually included Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. At the Yalta Conference at the end of World War II (1945), President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin divided Europe into the Western and Eastern (Soviet) Blocs, and Soviet influence expanded into Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
Germany was partitioned into East and West Germany, and the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to divide east from west Berlin. This evolution would draw the Soviet Union into a protracted competition with the United States following World War II, known as the Cold War.
Read this lecture on the formation of the Soviet Union. Focus on how the Soviet Union came to control Eastern European politics and economies.
While the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, the authoritarian nature of its governance structure is still in place today. We consider many countries communist, but few could argue they still follow the principles Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined in 1848 in the Communist Manifesto. Nevertheless, the Russian Revolution radically changed the social and political structure of Russia and Eastern Europe. These founding principles would become attractive to many nations, including Cuba, China, and Vietnam, which were successful in removing the shackles of imperialism.
Unit 6 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.