The Revolution of 1917
In the middle of WWI, poverty, hunger and violence forced the people of Russia to desperately seek a solution. Something, anything new. A ghost that had been wandering around Europe for the past few decades was reviving itself. Beginning with the protests in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Consequently, the military joined the people’s indignation and rising, took over the government of the Tsar and installed a provisionary institution instead that was familiar to the Empire before the Tzar: the Duma. All this, happened in February 1917. But the war wasn’t over and food hadn’t come, so people carried on with their demands. Finally the Tsar abdicated, we already know that story. But what happened between the end of the Romanov’s and the great communist State?
Massive protest in Petrograd
Vladimir Lenin came back from Switzerland to take advantage of the confusion and chaos (He had been exiled after the failure of the revolution 12 years before, which ended up in the holocaust of the Bloody Sunday). In April, he declared that all the power should be taken away from the new government and given to the Soviets (the worker’s unions). In order to get there, he had to remove all opposition to the Bolshevik party. Far from answering his demands, the official military lead by Alexander Kerensky, opened another war front deepening the crisis. People started to follow Lenin’s revolutionary rhetoric again, but again their protests were repressed. And, just like before, Lenin managed to run away.
Lenin giving a speech
Two months before the democratic elections, protests started once more. And Lenin saw a new opportunity to siege power with the Bolsheviks, so he came back from Finland, where he was exiled. They occupied strategic positions in official buildings and palaces in the middle of an October night. And just like that, they arrested all the ministers and leaders of the provisional government gaining real control over all the people of Russia. They made immediate reforms, took the country out of the war and installed a socialist State which removed all of the opposition parties. Not everyone was very happy with this, instigating a Civil War between the supporters of the former regime and the communists. The book Red Snow, Gold Clouds, which is still at work by Marianna Baker, tells the story of young Lydia Markova; her escape during the Civil War as she journeyed from Moscow to Harbin, China, in 1919.
Depiction of the Revolution
Sources:
http://www.orlandofiges.info/section6_TheOctoberRevolution1917/index.php
http://www.ditext.com/yarmolinsky/yarframe.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution
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