Tsarist Russia: Decline, Revolution, and the Rise of the Soviets
The Tsarist Era: In the early twentieth century, Russia was a vast multinational empire spanning Europe and Asia. Ethnic Russians constituted about 40% of the population around 1900. The Russian minority enforced a policy of Russification, imposing Russian administration, language, and the Orthodox religion. However, most regions were united only by the authority of Emperor Nicholas II, Tsar of all the Russias since 1894. Economically and socially, the Russian Empire lagged behind most European states. By 1914, 80% of the population lived in rural areas, engaged in cereal-based agriculture and dependent on landowners. Peasants were impoverished but theoretically free to migrate, yet they remained tied to rural life as laborers or tenants, cultivating lands owned by large landowners (kulaks). Industrial growth in Russia was late, accelerating in the 1880s, driven by railway construction (e.g., the Trans-Siberian Railway), foreign capital, and state funding. Industrialization was concentrated and deemed essential for the empire’s survival as a political, military, and territorial power. Tsarist Russia was an autocratic system, based on the Tsar’s sovereign will. The Tsar’s power was supported by the traditional aristocracy, the Orthodox Church, the army, and a highly centralized bureaucracy.
Opposition to the Regime and the 1905 Revolution: Political activity was clandestine, aiming to change the system through revolution. Russian political groups and parties were small circles of conspirators. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and the resulting military disaster fueled discontent, triggering the 1905 Revolution. On January 22nd (Bloody Sunday), a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg was brutally suppressed by the army, sparking a wave of strikes. Workers demanded not only better working conditions but also political changes. Unrest spread to the troops, including the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin. Workers formed assemblies (Soviets), electing delegates from factories. The most significant was the St. Petersburg Soviet. Liberals, supported by the middle class and students, also mobilized, aiming to persuade the Tsar to convene a constituent assembly and establish a parliamentary monarchy. Peasant revolts demanded land redistribution, and national minorities protested for autonomy or secession. The Tsar promised a Duma (legislature). The 1905 Revolution resulted in the Duma, but it did not become a true parliament, remaining a body largely controlled by the government. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, along with Trotsky, analyzed the 1905 Revolution and concluded that: the bourgeoisie was weak and timid as a revolutionary force; the working class could replace it and lead a revolution without bourgeois intervention; and the Soviets, not a bourgeois parliament, should govern in a future workers’ state. They also recognized the peasantry, previously considered conservative by Marxists, as a potential revolutionary force and ally of industrial workers. A highly disciplined party gradually emerged, contrasting with the disorganized social and political forces of the 1905 Revolution.
The 1917 Revolutions: The revolution of 1917 began with strikes demanding “peace and bread,” escalating to calls for political reforms. A strike on February 23, 1917, initiated by Petrograd textile workers, led to a general strike and a garrison mutiny on February 27th, with soldiers joining the workers. A Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was formed in Petrograd. The liberal-dominated Duma established a provisional government led by Prince Lvov, forcing the Tsar to abdicate. The new government formed a pact with the Soviet and moderate socialists, with Kerensky becoming Prime Minister in July 1917, aiming to hold elections for a Constituent Assembly. Soviets proliferated, creating a dual power structure: the government and the popular assemblies. There was a widespread desire for peace. In his April Theses, Lenin rejected the provisional government and its war policy, advocating for Soviet control of production and distribution, and the transformation of the Republic into a Republic of Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviets. Kerensky’s government refused to accept Lenin’s demands, losing support among the left, workers, and peasants. In October 1917, Lenin convinced his party that the time was ripe for an armed rebellion against Kerensky’s government (October 25th).