World History: Reforming Russia

Repin, Volga barge haulers, 1873

Throughout the nineteenth century several states tried to undergo a nebulous process called 'modernisation'. This basically meant industrialising and adapting institutions from Western Europe and the US. However, states did this for different reasons with varying outcomes. Today we'll be looking at one of these attempts in Russia. Russia has always been seen as a land of autocracy whether it be under tsar, soviet, or president, but there has been a tendency to overlook limits to autocracy and how people lived in Russia. In the last few decades nineteenth century Russia has started going through a change of image - particularly the reign of, quoting Edvard Radzinsky, 'The Last Great Tsar' Alexander II (1855-1881). Today we'll be looking at how Russia faced its challenges to autocracy ending just over a decade before the collapse of Russian tsardom during the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Russia at the Start of the Century

1920 painting of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow

As we saw last time when we looked at Russia we discussed how diverse Russia actually was - stretching from Poland to Alaska within Russia's borders many. national identities existed. Naturally, Russians were at the top of society but other national identities could exercise power. With it being a Grand Duchy Finland had a measure of self-autonomy granting Finnish national identity to continue. Meanwhile, other identities were ruthlessly persecuted - antisemitism was commonplace and many Jews were confined to 'The Pale' (a section of land in Eastern Europe), Polish nationalism was brutally crushed, and Central Asian pastoralists were regularly dispossessed of their land. There was a large disparity between the culture of the Russian peasantry (the overwhelming majority of the population) and the nobility. There was a push-and-pull among the nobles between adopting 'Slavic' or 'Western' policies and cultural practices - this would continue until the nobility was abolished by the Bolsheviks. While the peasantry spoke their own languages - whether it be Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, or any other language - the nobles spoke French, it was even made language of the court by Catherine the Great. Large part's of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace was written in French to show how this. The Christianity of the peasantry in Russia was very different to that of the nobility - it was a blend of Russian Orthodoxy and local pre-Christian beliefs. Of course, there were many other beliefs including Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism, to name a few, present in the empire. Serfdom was very present in Russia - by the time of emancipation in 1861 there were over 10 million serfs. Russian serfdom was brutal - treated like slaves they could be sold, beaten, and sexually abused by landowners.

In 1801 a court coup deposed tsar Paul I for trying to limit the power of the nobility and issuing in land reform. His son, Alexander I, was crowned after helping conspire to overthrow his father who then proceeded to solidify his power. By overturning some of his father's despotic laws and bringing loyal friends, including his mother Marya Feodorovna, to key positions of court he found support among the public and could outnumber the other conspirators. However, he did appeal to conservative forces - with the exception of Marya women in court were curtailed and he hoped to act as a mediator to prevent Napoleon's expansion. One of Alexander's major allies, Mikhail Speranskii, started implementing further reforms which angered the nobility as he expelled corrupt nobles, supported financial policies which harmed their interests, and formed the State Council as a buffer to their power. To win back noble support Alexander exiled Speranskii to Siberia at the worst possible time. Speranskii could see that Napoleon was gearing up to invade Russia so was preparing the army - his exile weakened these efforts. When the Grand Armée, numbering half a million (twice the size of the Russian army), invaded on June 1812. Knowing that Russia could not stand against Napoleon generals, especially Mikhail Kutuzov, decided to let the land itself wear down Napoleon. The Russian army would retreat and burn fields and cities, including Moscow in September, depriving Napoleon of using local resources - a tactic he had used during the wars in Central Europe. In fact, around half of the Grand Armée was made of non-French conscripts. Through lack of supplies, Russian partisans, and the weather only 10% of Napoleon's forces escaped. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 left Russia as one of the three conservative 'policemen' of Europe - the other two being Prussia and Austria.

Reform and Revolt

The Decembrists

The rest of Alexander's reign has been characterised as intense conservatism and autocracy - this is not entirely inaccurate though. David Ransell has argued that we should instead see this period split into two - one of conservative reform and one of repression. As late as 1818 Alexander discussed how he wanted a constitutional order for Russia and in 1820, in private, expressed hopes for the constitution being drafted. Emancipation of serfs had been slowly developing since the reign of Catherine the Great and Alexander continued this trend, although all that came of it were rejected proposals. Immediately following the defeat of Napoleon literature helped expand Russian vernacular which would pave the way for Dostoevsky and Tolstoy decades later. The reformist ethos collapsed after 1820. With the nobility again disliking emancipation of serfs Alexander abandoned any pretence of reform. The semi-independent Polish diet, the Sejm, angered him so in 1821 he argued to the French envoy that it was 'unworkable' in 'less educated societies'. In 1825 Alexander died and his conservative son, Nicholas I, would come to power - two revolts would set Russia on the stage for conservative repression for the next few decades.

The first was the Decembrist Revolt in 1825. Not all of Russia's powerful were opposed to reform - secret societies were deeply upset by Alexander's abandonment of reform. Seeing the ideas of both the American and French Revolutions had inspired a younger generation, and the Napoleonic Wars inspired by a deeper patriotism in Russia and gave them an opportunity to see the rest of Europe. One Decembrist, Nikolai Bestuzhev, testified saying 'My five months stay in Holland in 1815, when a constitutional administration was being introduced there, gave me my first concept of the benefits of laws and civil rights; then two visits to France and a voyage to England and Spain confirmed my attitude.' The secret Union of Salvation wanted serfdom to be abolished and for Russia to become a constitutional monarchy - as Freemasons were influential in America and France their secrecy and hierarchy was based off of Masons. Seeing Nicholas become tsar scared the Decembrists into action who rose up in St Petersburg in December but were soon crushed; a second rising in Ukraine was soon crushed. 282 were hanged and the rest were imprisoned or exiled - in a trend in Russian history women eagerly joined their husbands in exile seeing themselves as supporting a new Russia. Their writings in exile would start a literary model for Russian exiles. Several years later, in November 1830, Russia planned to send troops to help crush the rebellions in France and Belgium which Polish secret societies strongly disliked. Polish nationals had long looked to France for inspiration and Napoleon had established a Polish, but puppet, state. In November the Polish army rose up and the Congress supported the rebellion - after a year the Imperial Army crushed the revolt and Poland was declared to be 'an integral part of Russia'. These two revolts made the conservative Nicholas even more willing to crush nationalist, liberal, or socialist opposition - the famous image of the 'Russian exile' properly began in this period. Russia has had a long history of secret societies, and the repression of Nicholas' reign influenced their continuation. Nicholas helped out abroad - in 1849 Russia helped crush revolution in Hungary, as an example. Thanks to his socialist writings, like Poor Folk (1845), Fyodor Dostoevsky was exiled to Siberia in 1849.

Crimea - A Turning Point

Russia had long seen itself as the defender of Slavic peoples and the Orthodox Church - Russian influence helped bring independence to Greece in 1830. By the 1850s the Ottoman Empire was undergoing its own attempts to reform - one of our future World History posts - which other European powers were exploiting. Both France and Russia had been putting pressure on the Ottomans to grant special rights for Christian communities in Palestine - France for Catholics and Russia for Orthodox. When the Ottomans refused to grant Russia its demands Nicholas declared war in 1853 and quickly took Moldavia and Wallachia, however, he did not realise that the Ottomans had refused due to them being supported by Britain and France. Thus the Crimean War began. Crimea was a disaster. Russia had issues mobilising due to a lack of railways and infrastructure, serfdom meant that a properly trained army was hard to create, and the navy and army proved to be very outdated. Quoting Edvard Radzinsky 'It turned out that his army was fighting the army of Napoleon III with weapons of the era of Napoleon I'. The war soon became unpopular with all combatants - Lord Tennyson's poem Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) laments Britain's ineptitude during the Battle of Cardigan. It was also the first major war to have photographs sent home which soured opinion - war could not be celebrated when it looked so bloody. It was even worse for Russia - Nicholas I lost his ego upon seeing the enemy navy from his villa in Alexandria. Demoralising the army Nicholas died in 1855, and his son, Alexander II, had to sign a peace in 1856. No one could avoid reform now - Slavophile Iurii Samarin wrote that 'We were defeated not by external forces of the Western alliance, but by our own internal weakness...Stagnation of thought, depression of productive forces, the rift between government and people, disunity between social classes and the enslavement of one of them to another'. 

Alexander II

Abolishing Serfdom

As mentioned earlier there had been reforms of serfdom, enacted or just planned, since the reign of Catherine. The question is, why was Alexander so eager to abolish serfdom? There have been several theories why: the triumph of liberal humanitarian ideas, Romanticist Vassily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was made chief tutor to the young heir; the economic decline of the nobility when debts grew and estates became less productive; and the fear of peasant revolt, 1796-1826 there had been 990 disorders which rose to 1,799 in 1826-1856. Emancipation had been promised to those who enlisted in the army, when those promises had started to be broken there was a fear of reprisal. Despite the title of 'Tsar Liberator' Alexander II was still conservative. Emancipation was to be from 'above' which would ensure the nobility remained in power. Loosening hold on the press allowed liberal voices for reform to spread and committees were formed to plan emancipation. It came in 1861 it was a let down for the peasants. Similar to how freed slaves in the US viewed their emancipation a few years later the 10 million serfs hoped they would now own the land they had been tied to. Alexander hoped to turn the serfs into small landowners, but not immediately - they were segregated into 'village societies', mirs, which answered to a self-rule administration called volosti, and they had to pay a redemption payment initially estimated to take 49 years to pay off. Furthermore, payments were increased by inflated evaluations of the land and nobles could keep parts of their old estate. As a result, the 'emancipated' serfs were subjected to their set of laws, where corporal punishment remained legal, and Alexander's new zemstvos had no say in them. Immediately disorders rose - from 126 in 1860 to 1,889 in 1861. 

Other Reforms

From peasants to workers

Alexander did not just focus on emancipating serfs - he wanted a 'Western' but distinctly Russian state. We have already mentioned the zemstvos which were formed in 1864, and were followed by municipal councils in 1870, to form a network of elective local government systems. They were both progressive and conservative. Non-nobles, and some peasants, could finally have a chance to influence local politics - doctors in zemstvos rose from 613 in 1870, to 1,558 in 1890, and 3,082 in 1910. However, peasants were still excluded and the municipalities were very elitist - in St Petersburg the richest 202 individuals, 705 middle-class, and poorest 15,233 all had the same number of seats. Defeat in Crimea made the military supportive of any reforms which started being reformed on Western lines. A massive standing army with no reserves was replaced by universal military training; new training on Western lines was implemented; and the Universal Training Act of 1874 established all-class conscription where education determined length of service. This encouraged greater education, wealthy students stayed in university for as long as possible to avoid conscription, and wealthier peasants sent their children to elementary education for two-years as it reduced terms of service from six to two years. Rural primary schools rose from 23,000 in 1880 to 54,416 in 1890, however, rural peasants often saw little education regardless. Censorship, to an extent, was reduced - if the Chief Censorship Committee of Ministry of the Interior could ban anything they disliked. Preliminary censorship in 1865 ended for newspapers, periodicals, and books over 160 pages to lighten the load on the strict system - hence why radical socialist Leo Tolstoy managed to publish so much, War and Peace definitely exceeded 160 pages. Alexander also amnestied many exiles, especially surviving Decembrists, although there were many limits - most famously anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin. Industry also began in this period although it was very sluggish - it would take until the time of Stalin to properly industrialise. As late as 1910 Russia imported in the vast majority of its machinery. A novel way to raise money Alaska was even sold to the US.

Russification

One thing that Alexander wanted to do, and that of his successors well into the twentieth century, was tie the people to Russia - he wanted a nation, not a state. Panslavism was a very important driving force in the ideas of the elite - leading newspaper editor Mikhail Katkov regarded Russian identity as a super-nation like British identity. As Britain was composed of English, Scottish, Welsh and some Irish he hoped that Russia could be the same; something Dostoevsky also advocated for. Russian was implemented in local schools and governments, the Imperial Army absorbed minorities hoping it would turn them into Russians, and nationalists were deported. In Central Asia Russian settlers were encouraged to colonise the region, albeit not a new policy, to displace local peoples. Following the emancipation of the serfs Polish szlachta (land-owners) hoped this could pave the way for Polish emancipation, and secret societies were formed to agitate for Poland. When the Imperial Army was going to conscript Poles in January 1863 an uprising began which, like the Decembrists, were crushed. Over 18,000 nationalists were deported to Siberia and 365 leaders were publicly executed. Polish was banned in administration and schools, the University of Warsaw was converted into a Russian institution, and only Russians could become local governors. Geoffrey Hosking has highlighted the destructive nature of Russification of Russia's Jews - as the Pale started seeing restrictions very slowly lifted between 1859 and 1879 antisemitism became weaponised for nationalism. Panslavist Ivan Aksakov argued that Jews continued to live by their own rules and were backed by foreign powers. In 1903 the Protocols of the Elders of Zion first appeared - a conspiracy theory stating that leaders of 'international Jewry' were using liberalism and the French Revolution to take over the world and, eventually, Russia. Antisemitic violence broke out during times of political turmoil - in Kishinev in 1903 blood libel accusations led to a pogrom killing 47 Jews. Only the semi-independent Finland managed to escape the brunt of Russification, in 1863 it even was awarded its own parliament. However, under the reign of Nicholas II it was attempted again - the 1899 February Manifesto declared that Russia had supreme power over Finland, and the 1900 Language Manifesto forbade Finnish.

Jan Matejko, Polonia, 1864

Russification was not formerly implemented and was actively resisted. Despite banning Polish it was continued to be taught, and spoke, and this was repeated with Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Finnish. Throughout the 1870s the state continuously clashed with intellectuals in Ukraine who promoted Ukrainian as a language, so much so it that Galicia became known as a 'Ukrainian Piedmont'. Nationalist groups continued to grow across the political spectrum - Josef Pilsudki of the Polish Socialist Party tried to obtain arms from Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, and the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania became Marxist. Meanwhile, Roman Dmowski of the National Democrats wanted Poland to be autonomous but in the empire. Persecution of Jews saw resistance - Zionism began growing in popularity (it would take until after this period for it to become a popular identity) and Jews disproportionally joined socialist and Marxist parties due to their emancipatory rhetoric. Leading Bolshevik Leon Trotsky was born to a Jewish family, as an example. This brings us neatly onto our next section.

The Left

Tolstoy organising famine relief in 1891

Despite most of Europe's socialist thought being directed at urban workers primarily rural Russia, but the Left became a strong force despite this and political repression. The lifting of some censorship restrictions allowed socialist papers to enter Russia - the 160 page limit even allowed Das Kapital to escape censorship for some time. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which was socialist at the time, regularly translated Marxist papers and sent them to Russia. That is not to say that Russia lacked its own radical population. The reform era, and its limits, inspired a new class who saw themselves as 'the new people' or the 'intelligentsia' - N.G. Chernyshevskii's What is to be Done? (1863), which inspired Lenin years later, reflected this. Agrarian socialism, suitable for overwhelmingly rural Russia, became a driving force on the Left. Leo Tolstoy was a proponent of aiding the rural poor, he organised several famine reliefs, and advocated for a blend of Christianity, spiritualism, and anarchism. Tolstoy's views would become highly influential to Gandhi - both would steep themselves in spiritualism and dress as peasants. We also saw a look at the urban poor. We have already mentioned Mikhail Bakunin - one of the major thinkers behind modern anarchism - who travelled around Europe advocating worker revolt, and clashing with a young Karl Marx over property. Perhaps the most influential anarchist is Pyotr Kropotkin. Born into a landowning factory he became disillusioned with society and in the 1870s joined a revolutionary society. Like many other radicals he was imprisoned and eventually escaped to live in exile. In 1892 he published the very influential Conquest of Bread which went beyond Bakunin's collectivism and instead advocated for mutual aid. There were also Marxists - the most famous being Vladimir Lenin. Like other radicals he had been exiled and spent years developing his theories. Alexandra Kollontai became an advocate for Marxist feminism and Finnish independence, and her time in exile helped establish feminism in Scandinavia. Furthermore, Kollontai helped lay the groundwork for International Women's Day.

Not all left-wing activity in Russia was theoretical. Violent secret societies - very much in line with previous movements - aimed to shape society. The most famous was Narodnaia volia, 'People's Will', which broke off from another group, Zemlia i volia, in 1879 after a disagreement. Their aim was to destabilise the government by assassinating key officials until the state could be overthrown, and following this a new regime could be put in place which would convene an assembly to represent the people. They believed it could work. Emerging radical Vera Zasulich in 1878 was acquitted by court, and got widespread public sympathy, after she had almost successfully assassinated Fyodor Trepov - who had help put down the 1830 and 1863 Polish rebellions and had recently had a political prisoner flogged. Narodnaia volia had one figure in mind - Alexander II. After several failed attempts on March 1 1881 a bomb was thrown at Alexander's carriage in St Petersburg - he died shortly after thanks to his wounds. The aftermath saw an antisemitic wave across Russia, outpouring of grief for the tsar, and the very conservative Alexander III becoming tsar. Leon Trotsky would denounce People's Will and individual acts of terror on the basis that it created martyrs out of the slain, and justified harsh reprisals.

Alexander II's funeral procession

Reaction

Wanted poster for Sergey Degayez

With the death of Alexander II and the crowning of Alexander III Russia went from a conservative reformer to an outright reactionary. Reaction did happen under Alexander II, we can see this with the reprisals against peasants and nationalists. Following the tsar's assassination a secret police known as the okhrana was formed - they were tasked with disseminating false information, infiltrating left-wing groups or trade unions, and disrupting the labour movement. It is quite possible that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was written by okhrana agents. There is an interesting case of leading inspector Georgy Sudeykin, who in 1879 had exposed the Kiev branch of People's Will, and was able to supervise all secret agents. Sudeykin arrested a key figure in People's Will, Sergey Degayez, and the two formed an agreement: Sudeykin would use the okhrana to eliminate Degayez's enemies in People's Will as Degayez would eleminate Sudeykin's enemies using People's Will. Together they arrested the group's leader Vera Figner. However, People's Will learnt of Degayez's betrayal and offered a new deal - kill Sudeykin or be killed. He killed his former ally and fled to the US. Meanwhile, jurist and adviser Konstantin Pobedonostsev was appointed to enforce conservative and reactionary rulings until his death in 1907. He managed to ensure that Alexander III heard his policies which included condemning elections and democracy, deviations from strict Christianity, a call for excommunicating Tolstoy in 1901, extensive Russification, and in 1882 he managed to implement the May Laws which persecuted Jews and reinforced the Pale of Settlement. When Alexander died in 1894 his son, Nicholas II, continued his father's reactionary politics - he himself had watched Alexander II bleed out. Bloody Sunday in 1905 saw his guard attack a protest killing hundreds and would set the stage for revolution.

Conclusion

Russia's nineteenth century was not a great time of liberalism which ended with a bomb, nor was it a time of overarching repression. Alexander II wanted reform that could keep the nobility in power but also create a new Russian, 'modern' state. Meanwhile, political repression, even under Alexander III and Nicholas II, was never total and saw resistance. The limits of reforms and changes in society would set the stage for the Russian Revolution in 1917. A question arises, would this post exist if it did not set the stage for 1917? Quite possibly. Russia was not the only state to attempt to 'modernise' in the 1800s - in future posts we'll also look at attempts in Japan, China, and the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. These ideas could be found across the world and were adapted or changed in each setting. We can see how malleable ideas and policies are by looking at this period. Of course, to understand the rise of the Russian Revolution we have to understand this time period. It has also becomes relevant in recent years - counteracting Soviet historiographies Alexander II in particular has been cast as 'The Last Great Tsar' or 'The Tsar Liberator' (a term also used during his life). Nicholas II has also seen a partial rehabilitation despite the political repression and antisemitism of his reign. Looking at the 1800s can we possibly discuss these narratives?

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917, (London: HarperCollins, 1997)

-Gregory Freeze, Russia: A History, Third Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)

-Edvard Radzinsky, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar, Trans. Antonia Bouis, (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005)

-Walter Moss, Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, (London: Anthem, 2002)

-Christopher Read, 'In Search of Liberal Tsardom: The Historiography of Autocratic Decline', The Historical Journal, 45:1, (2002), 195-210

-N.G.O. Pereira, 'Alexander II and the Decision to Emancipate the Russian Serfs, 1855-61', Canadian Slavonic Papers, 22:1, (1980), 99-115

-Herburtus Jahn, 'Politics at the Margins and the Margins of Politics in Imperial Russia', Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 14:1, (2013), 101-116

-Alexandra Kollontai, The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman, Trans. Salvator Attansio, marxists.org

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. For other World History posts we have a list here. Next time we will be looking at the US Civil War, the Reconstruction era, myth, successes and failures.

World History: The Rise of Russia

A map of Russian expansion

The last time we looked at Russia, here, the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan IV, was crowned Tsar of all Russia in 1547. Just over a hundred years prior Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Empire and over the next century Moscow became the dominant power in eastern Europe. The Byzantines, who had ruled Constantinople, had been an Orthodox state which the future Tsardom of Russia was. Russia viewed itself as the 'Third Rome' and the rulers named themselves 'Caesars' which explains the etymological origins of the word 'tsar.' With this post we'll see how Russia's land, institutions, and society evolved since the reign of Ivan IV. We go from a largely Slavic population west of the Urals to a society stretching from Warsaw to Alaska comprising of Poles, Russians, Tatars, Kazakhs, and Chechens to name just some of the various ethnic groups to exist in the Empire. Writing in 1838 tutor to the royal family and conservative historian Mikhail Pogodin wrote:

Ten thousand versts in length, extending almost from the middle of Europe...to the faraway lands of America! And five thousand versts in width, running from Persia to the Polar Circle. What other state can compare to her in size? To half of her? How many states can even compare to a twentieth or fiftieth of her size?

Before we look at what would become the Russian empire at its height we need to look at Ivan IV who began the rapid expansion east, (and west), Ivan IV - or as he is better known Ivan the Terrible.

Ivan the Terrible

An 1897 painting of Ivan the Great

Ivan IV was born in 1530 and has gone by several titles. The most accurate titles are the Great, Awe-Inspiring, Formidable, or Awesome but in the West he is best known as 'the Terrible' for his tyranny of his later rule. Ivan's father, Vasili III, was the Grand Prince of Moscow but died through a abscess and inflammation in his leg when Ivan was aged three. His mother, Elena Glinskaya, was made regent but tragedy hit again at the age of eight when Elena died, possibly through an assassination via poisoning. Before her death the boyars (very important aristocrats) had been vying for power over the young Ivan, and after Elena's death this increased. It is quite possible that this court infighting might have contributed to Ivan's autocratic rule later in his life, especially as he started hunting and torturing animals before the age of 16. When he turned 16 the decision was made to crown Ivan 'Tsar of All Russians', on top of his title of Grand Prince of Moscow in 1547. There was a clear religious aspect to his enthronement. As mentioned earlier the Orthodox faith of Russia created the idea that Russia was the legitimate successor of Rome. When he went out in 1552 to conquer the primarily Muslim Khanate of Kazan, which was also the first time Muscovy annexed a non-Russian state, the chroniclers wrote about the conquest in very religious terms:

With the aid of our Almighty Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers of the Mother of God...our pious Tsar and Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievich, crowned by God, Autocrat of all Rus, fought against the infidels, defeated them firmly and captured the Tsar of Kazan Edigei-Mahmet. And the pious Tsar and Grand Prince ordered his regiment to sing an anthem under his banner, to give thanks to God for the victory; and at the same time ordered a life-giving cross to be placed and a church to be built, with the uncreated image of our Lord Jesus Christ, where the Tsar's colours had stood during the battle.

In reality religion was less of a factor in the conquest of the Asian khanates. Following the disintegration of the Golden Horde various khanates emerged creating an uneasy sea of shifting territories, alliances and enemies. As mentioned in the previous post the Kievan Rus had been conquered by the Mongols so the fear of the East had never truly left Russia. By almost nervously expanding eastwards this removed the existential and potential threat which the khanates offered. However, by framing expansion in a religious sense this was an attempt to legitimize Russia as the Third Rome; Russia was expanding against the Muslim 'infidel' and spreading Christendom. Although it should also be noted that Ivan did try westward expansion with the Livonian War which was an unsuccessful war to muscle into the Baltic. 

Ivan also tried to legitimize his rule domestically. In a similar way to how the Qing tried to legitimize themselves in China he had Metropolitan Makarii combine church, dynasty and land in order to tie it to an imperial heritage. These were compiled in the Great Almanach (Velikie Chet'i-Minei) and the Book of Degrees of the Imperial Genealogy (Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia). The Almanac was a collection detailing the lives of saints, church resolutions, sermons, epistles, and histories which was creatively laid out so each document could be read each day of the year. However, the most important aspect of the Almanac was that the documents were directly saying that from Creation to the present day God intended to create a Christian state in the lands of the Rus. The Book of Degrees was the 'secular' equivalent of the Almanac emphasizing the Orthodox Byzantine heritage of Russia while also ignoring or downplaying the claims of rival states as successors to Kiev; this included Novgorod, Lithuania, and the Golden Horde. Even in a seemingly secular text religion was present with the Book of Degrees saying itself that it was an account of the 'enlightened God-ordained sceptre-holders who ruled in piety the Russian land.' Russia's legacy of print culture began under Ivan with the Moscow Print Yard being formed in 1553 with the intention to print religious texts, much like the earlier Gutenberg printing press. Most famously Ivan IV had St. Basil's Cathedral constructed to commemorate his victory over the Kazan, and it remains one of Russia's major landmarks. 

Oprichnina 

Oprichniki by Nikolai Nevrev

This was the most famous part of Ivan's reign and the most infamous. From 1564 to 1572 around half the tsardom (including all the lucrative trading areas to the north and northwest of Moscow) was made Ivan's personal realm. We know half the reason why the oprichnina was implemented. In 1558 Ivan's request for the Livonian Confederation to allow him access to the Baltic Sea was rejected so he went to war which expanded when Denmark, Sweden and Poland-Lithuania also went to war against Russia. In 1564 Prince Andrei Kurbsky defected to the Lithuanians which made Ivan extremely paranoid of further aristocratic treason. However, some historians have retroactively diagnosed Ivan and have claimed that the oprichnina was part of a mental illness. Nancy Shields Kollman, for one, emphasizes the psychological aspect of the formation of the oprichnina; V.O. Kliuchevskii and S.B. Veselovskii have argued that Ivan was insane or paranoid; and Edward L. Keenan has argued that a debilitating spinal illness made Ivan create the oprichnina in order to abdicate power. Geoffrey Hosking has suggested that the oprichnina might have been an attempt to break the boyars' independence and have them beg him to return; especially as the zemshchina (the rest of Russia not in the oprichnina) were poorer and boyar land was seized in order to create the oprichnina. 

To rule the oprichnina Ivan created the oprichniki which he referred to as 'brothers.' They acted as a mixture of an army and secret police dressed in unadorned black clothes resembling a monk's habit in order to represent the ideal Christian life. The oprichniki were given free reign to ransack, torture, and kill anyone deemed to be treasonous. The exact figures of the oprichniki's victims remains unknown but the gentry and boyars were killed by the thousands, Suzdal for example lost 80% of its gentry. Ivan even managed to eliminate his most important dynastic rival, Vladimir Staritskii, in 1569 by making him drink poison after publicly accusing him of plotting to kill him. He also expected the city of Novgorod of supporting Staritskii so in January 1570 so he unleashed the oprichniki onto the city. Over the course of a few weeks up to 3,000 were executed, of which the nobility faced the brunt of the violence. Ivan even took his son to watch the sacking of the city. When the Crimean Khanate routed the oprichniki when Khan Devlet-Girei managed to sack Moscow Ivan had the oprichniki dissolved and the oprichnina merged with the zemshchina. 

As it was largely the nobility who faced the oprichniki's violence the common people have remembered Ivan's reign rather fondly as a result through fairly evident reasons. If it wasn't thanks to the oprichnina and later paranoia Ivan would likely be seen more positively. The rest of Ivan's reign was dominated by the Livonian War and increased bouts of paranoia. In 1574 he abdicated for a year before returning and married several times. When his son and heir apparent (tsarevich), Ivan, failed to quickly produce a son he had his daughter-in-law sent to a convent, and he did the same to Ivan's second wife. By 1581 the tsarevich he remarried, to Yelena Sheremeteva, and had started clashing with his father over the Livonian War. In October Yelena was pregnant but once she was wearing light clothing Ivan beat her making her miscarry. When the younger Ivan confronted him Ivan struck his son over the head with a staff which accidentally killed him. Ivan spent the rest of his life grieving until he died during a game of chess in 1584. His son Feodor succeeded him but was interested in politics. He died heirless.

The Time of Troubles

Ivan IV had shook up Russian society and the sickly Feodor I was taken advantage of. For example, the eastern Patriarchs in 1589 were convinced to make the Metropolitans of Moscow Patriachs. Ivan's youngest son, Dmitrii, (who was born after Ivan died), mysteriously vanished in 1591. With no heir the throne was offered to Feodor's regent and brother-in-law Boris Godunov. Initially, as he was not from the main branch of the Rurik dynasty the zemsky sobor (the Russian estates) offered him the throne but with reduced powers. However, Boris kept on refusing until the sobor chose stability over limiting Boris and granted him the throne with full powers. Boris gained supporters among nobles who feared the peasantry moving to richer lands so he started passing laws preventing peasants from moving; something which caused a schism among the landowners who had benefited from this. Soon he started arresting and executing enemies while a series of bad harvests hit from 1601 to 1603. Not long after someone claiming to be Dmitrii came out attracting support from nobles, peasants wanting an end to serfdom, and Cossacks wanting their independence back. The Boris died in 1605 followed by an invasion by Poland-Lithuania and Sweden. After a series of wars, pretenders and famines (which caused 2 million to starve) in 1613 the zemsky sobor elected a new tsar, Mikhail Romanov, whose dynasty would last until 1917. The Romanovs were closely related to the Ruriks so it was a clear attempt to continue a hereditary dynasty. Meanwhile, the Time of Troubles weakened the boyars in a way which the oprichnina never could do. The rift among the boyars and rise of nobles owning serfs displaced the power the boyars once had.

The Peasantry

Serfs in Russia

Until Stalin's industrialization the peasantry played a huge role in Russian society. Although it is important to remember that not all the peasantry were farmers and serfs. Trappers, artisans, fishers, loggers, and manual laborers often originated in the peasant class, or were serfs themselves. One of the famous images of the serfs was a painting of burlaki, barge-haulers. The army also drew heavily from the peasantry; in 1727 Prince Menshikov  in a report said 'The army is so necessary that without it the state cannot stand, and for its sake we must take care of the peasants; for the soldier is bound to the peasant, like the soul to the body, and if there is no peasant, then there will be no soldier.' One of the stereotypes about the Russian peasantry is that they were all serfs. This is partially due to how serfdom lasted in Russia until the 1800s. In 1784 visiting Englishman William Richardson wrote that 'the peasants in Russia...are in a state of abject slavery, and are reckoned the property of the nobles to whom they belong, as much as their horses or dogs.' This is rather ironic seen as at this time a huge portion of British wealth was made by the slave trade in the Caribbean. Serfdom developed in Russia centuries after western Europe so it generated much criticism from the rest of Europe. By 1811 58% of Russia's population were serfs. The move towards serfdom began under Ivan IV where in 1580 he suspended a practice which allowed a household to move elsewhere on St. George's Day, and in 1603 it was abolished. In 1581 and 1592 land cadasters established a peasant's legal residence, and it was legal for landowners to reclaim them if they moved illegally. Finally, the Law Code of 1649 bound a peasant, or their family, to the land they lived on. 

Although conditions for serfs were horrific, especially for women, they had some agency. For one, they had some independence as richer serfs could be taxed, and others could be enlisted into the army to get money. Often peasants retained their own courts independent from the state courts. In particular peasants used religion to define themselves. Especially with those moving east peasants regularly came into contact with non-Russians and they used their Orthodox faith to identify themselves. The Russian empire was made up of a multitude of peoples of various faiths so Russians used Orthodoxy to distinguish themselves from the empire's Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and other populations. However, peasant Orthodoxy was different to the Orthodoxy of the cities. Until the rise of the Soviet Union the Russian peasantry was largely illiterate and no Russian Bible emerged until the nineteenth century. Instead they often mixed Orthodoxy with pre-Christian ideas; so much so that city-dwellers often commented that the peasants might as well be worshiping a different religion. The Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian folklore, is believed by some folklorists to have originated as a pre-Christian 'mother spirit' who turned into an evil force with the arrival of Christianity. 

Siberia

Russia expanded quickly after 1500. In the seventeenth century around 51,000 square miles were added to Russia a year, mostly in Siberia. When the Russians destroyed the khanates this opened up Siberia for Russian conquest and colonization. To an extent it can be compared to the colonization of the Americas. Initially trade was established between Russian merchants and the Siberian tribes with fur in particular being popular. In Russia stereotypical, and at times demeaning, depictions of the Siberians started appearing in Russian prints. Slowly Russian rule started expanding to include Siberia over various ways. One was offering protection to tribes from nomads in return for a tribute in the form of fur. A second way was direct conquest and then expulsion for settlers. The third way was direct settlement, often followed by Cossacks or the military attacking the Siberians. Fleeing serfs, convicts and Old Believers (those who opposed the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow), often made up the settles by the 1700s. Soon enough Russian settlement came into conflict with China who under the Qing were eager to look outwards. To avoid conflict the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed in 1689 where the Kangxi emperor looked favorably on Russian culture; he even practiced Russian eating and drinking habits when he met Russians. In an odd turn Russia even colonized Alaska possibly in the 1600s in order to obtain Alaskan furs. It was sold in 1867 to the United States when the beaver and mink populations dropped.

Looking West

Peter the Great in an 1838 painting

Russia has always had an existential relationship with the West. Being one of Europe's most easternmost state with most of its land being east of the Urals Europe has long condemned it for not being European enough. Meanwhile, Russia has always seen itself as European. At various intervals Russia has attempted to 'westernize', or more accurately, reinterpret European ideas for Russia itself. Catherine the Great adapted ideas of the Enlightenment, Alexander II issued reforms to liberalize the empire, Joseph Stalin started rapidly industrializing to replicate the industrial prowess of Britain and Germany, and most recently Boris Yeltsin adapted the neo-liberalism of the EU and USA. Peter the Great is perhaps the most famous example of Russia looking west for inspiration. After a failed war against the Ottoman empire for the Black Sea Peter began the 'Grand Embassy' in 1697. Traveling incognito with a Russian delegation across Europe for a year he visited many European courts and peoples to understand what he saw there. In 1698 he returned to very brutally put down a rebellion, where 1,200 were tortured, executed and publicly displayed. Peter then began his reforms. Russia's calendar started from the estimated time of the Creation making the year 7207, so Peter changed it to starting with the birth of Christ making the year 1700. He ordered that Western clothing should be worn over Russian clothing, put a tax on boyars who refused to shave their beards, and banned arranged marriages as he argued that it encouraged domestic violence. Following victory in the Great Northern War in 1722 Peter wanted to break the boyar influence in the army so issued the Table of Ranks where merit over birth determined rank. He also replaced a land tax for a poll tax to fund his new capital in the lands taken from Sweden during the Great Northern War. This city would remain Russia's capital until 1917 and is today's St. Petersburg. 

Conclusion

The period covering Russian history from the start of the sixteenth century until the start of the eighteenth century served to greatly influence the rest of Russian history. The dawn of the multi-ethnic Russian state, the gradual destruction of the boyars' power, the rise of serfdom, and its identity of a European v. Asian state all found its roots in this time period. This turbulent time greatly shaped Russia and its view of being a 'Third Rome.' For centuries to come Russia being the beacon of Roman civilization would greatly influence thought in the Russian empire. The next World History post shall discuss another part of European history which greatly influenced thought for centuries to come: the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Willard Sunderland, 'Russian Empire, 1552-1917', in John Marriott and Philippa Levine (eds.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Modern Imperial Histories, (Oxon, 2012)

-Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917, (London, 1997)

-Nancy Shields Kollman, 'Muscovite Russia 1450-1598', in Gregory L. Freeze, Russia: A History, Third Edition, (Oxford, 2009)

-Hans-Joachim Torke, 'From Muscovy to St Petersburg,' Ibid

-John T. Alexander, 'The Petrine Era and After 1689-1740', Ibid

-James H. Billington, The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture, (New York, 1970)

-George Vernadsky, A History of Russia, Volume V: The Tsardom of Moscow, 1547-1682, Parts 1 and 2, (Binghamton, 1969)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. For other World History posts please see here. For future posts please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. 

History in Focus: The October Revolution

Lenin during the October Revolution

As I am writing we are coming up to the centenary of possibly the most influential revolution in the history of the twentieth century. On November 7 1917, October 25 in Russian using the Julian calendar, the first successful revolution Marxist revolution took place which would go on to change world history. A deeply politicized aspect of history regardless of where you stand on the October Revolution it remains one of the most significant events to shape the world we live in. Before we look at the October Revolution, Lenin, Trotsky, and the Soviets we must first understand how this revolution came to pass.

Background to Revolution

The October Revolution was not the first revolution to hit Russia in 1917. In February (March) a revolution rocked the Russian Empire which we looked at in February, which I would suggest reading to better understand the October Revolution. As a result we shall only briefly discuss the long term origins of the October Revolution. Since the mid-nineteenth century Russia had hoped to 'catch up' to the states of western Europe - France, the UK, and Germany especially - starting with the reforms of Tsar Alexander II, including abolishing serfdom in 1861. Russia hoped to be an industrialized, capitalist power without the powerful democratic institutions which the UK and France had. Although they accepted some form of democracy, like the creation of the local governments called zemstvos, power was supposed to remain with the tsar. After the assassination of Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) in 1881 his successors opted for more autocracy than Alexander. Russian society had changed by this time. Industrialization had created a new class of people, universities had allowed left-wing ideas to flourish, and nationalism was slowly emerging in the multi-ethnic empire. Internationally Russia was seen as backward and autocratic with it facing a humiliation over the Russo-Japanese War which saw Russia defeated by Japan. This inspired the 1905 Revolution which actually saw Leon Trotsky arrive on the scene. Although defeated the 1905 Revolution led to the creation of a parliament, called the Duma, which was extremely weak. The tsar could, and did, dissolve it whenever he wished and the first prime minister, Pyotr Stolypin, was actually chosen because he crushed the rebellion in 1905.

Soldiers in Sarikamish

After years of dissatisfaction from several sectors of society the principal factor in causing the revolution was not in fact domestic in origin. Russia had been portraying itself as the guardian of the Slavic peoples and had created an alliance with Serbia. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia following the assassination of heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand Russia was drawn into the war. Thus the First World War began. However, Russia was vastly unprepared. Initially the Russian populace was in favor of the war seeing Tsar Nicholas II in a positive light; all except the radical left-wingers of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin. Like the Russo-Japanese War military setbacks caused the populace to turn against the war. Thousands were killed as they were caught in between advancing German artillery and the Russian army's scorched earth tactics. Between 5 and 10 million civilians 'voluntarily' left their homes. 

Marxism and Lenin

Karl Marx

In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels released their seminal pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. Since 1848 the writings of Marx and Engels have influenced up to possibly millions around the world, and they expanded upon it with works such as Das Capital. To summarize Marxist ideology, it opposes capitalism and where private property, as a form of means of production, is communally owned. The writings of Marx and Engels spread across the world with future member of the Mensheviks, the less radical leftists, Vera Zasulich personally writing to Marx saying: You are not aware that your Capital enjoys great popularity in Russia. Although the edition has been confiscated, the few remaining copies are read and re-read by the mass of more or less educated people in our country. The October Revolution was not the first time there was an attempt to create a state inspired by Marxism. Following the collapse of the Second French Empire the Paris Commune was formed which was brutally suppressed by the French army; later Lenin would count to see if his communist state would outlast the Paris Commune. This brings us onto Lenin. Vladimir Lenin, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, became involved in Marxism while in university, and his brother Aleksander was also a Marxist. Aleksander was later executed for his involvement in an assassination attempt of a tsar which may have caused Lenin's radicalization. In 1902 he had caused a stir with his booklet What is to be done? calling for a disciplined, centralized party to act as a vanguard of the working class which he elaborated on in 1905 stating that the Romanov monarchy should be abolished in favor of a 'provisional revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.' To achieve this rather paradoxical idea revolutionary terror, similar to that of the French Revolution, would be required. He would also expand upon Marx in 1917, in what is now described as Marxist-Leninism, stating that imperialism was the last stage of capitalism.

Lenin was not the only revolutionary in Russia. He was part of the Social Democratic Labour Party which was split between the Bolsheviks, Lenin and like-minded individuals, and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians). The Mensheviks called for a more decentralized party without the projected dictatorship. Meanwhile, there was also Viktor Chernov's Socialist Revolutionaries who disagreed with the Social Democrats in who the revolutionary class were. The Democrats viewed the urban proletariat as this class whereas the Revolutionaries viewed the peasantry holding this distinction. In 1897 Lenin and his family were exiled, and with a few exceptions spent most of his time in exile until 1917.

The February Revolution

The February Revolution

On March 8 (February 23) in Petrograd, (St. Petersburg), on International Women's Day the socialist Social Democrats issued leaflets to women waiting in food lines. These leaflets read:

The government is guilty; it started the war and cannot end it. It is destroying the country and your starving is their fault. The capitalists are guilty; for their profit the war goes on. It's about time to tell them loud: Enough! Down with the criminal government and all its gang of thieves and murderers. Long live peace!

Through this the women started protesting which in turn inspired factory workers in the Vyborg District and Putilov Factory. As protests escalated the troops Tsar Nicholas II sent to put down the protests mutinied and joined the protesters as mutineers in the navy threw their officers into the sea. In the 1905 workers' councils called soviets were formed to organize the working classes and they returned in the February Revolution. However, Lenin and Leon Trotsky were in political exile when they were formed. Two shadow governments were formed in Petrograd: the Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government began arresting the tsar's ministers as a way to prop themselves up, and to protect them from the Soviet. Then with no option Nicholas II released this statement on March 15:

In agreement with the State Duna, we have thought it best to abdicate the throne of the Russian state and to lay down the supreme power. Not wishing to part with our beloved son, we hand down our inheritance to our brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.

Grand Duke Michael, however, could not keep control and just after a day he abdicated ending four hundred years of Russian Tsardom. The Provisional Government took over under liberals, conservatives, businessmen, liberal nobles, and professionals under Prince Georgy Lvov. Only major socialist was part of this government, the Justice Minister Alexander Kerensky who the tsarina had even called for him to be hung. Inspired by Europe and the USA they established freedom of speech, and 'an immediate and complete amnesty in all cases of a political and religious nature, including terrorists acts, military revolts, and agrarian offences.' If there were these reforms why did the October Revolution happen?

Between Revolutions

Catherine Evtuhov and Richard Stites has described the Provisional Government as 'dual powerlessness.' The Government was intensely divided with it having moderate socialists like Kerensky, and former nobility like Prince Lvov. While the liberal Kadets wanted to keep the old tsarist administration whereas the socialists wished to grant non-Russian peoples increased autonomy, like in Ukraine. During the February Revolution the Soviets had become powerful but the Government became distant from the Soviets; in early June soviets around the country sent representatives to Petrograd to the First All-Russia Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Most importantly the Government had continued to fight the very unpopular war. Soldiers were executed for desertion, food was diverted from the starving population to the front, and Russia was still facing military setbacks. At the start of April Lenin presented his April Theses criticizing the apparent failures of the February Revolution and that power should lie with the soviets who should bring about socialism. Germany, wishing to disrupt Russia, smuggled Lenin into Russia via train from Switzerland as others returned from internal or external exile, including Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. In April workers and soldiers protested in Petrograd due to the continuation of the war, and following another protest in July the state chose to brutally crush it and blame the Bolsheviks. Many Bolsheviks were arrested and Lenin had to go into hiding. The people were dissatisfied and started turning to the Bolsheviks seeing the moderate socialists as betraying them. A former soldier in Moscow said:

You [The Provisional Government] have the audacity to say that freedom has come. But isn't your current power over the people that the bourgeoisie delivered to you, based on coercion?...The bourgeoisie is striving for democratic forms of governance because in them it sees the most convenient method of oppression and exploitation.

Following the July Days Kerensky took over the government but anger at the government remained. Unlike Lvov he was more eager to use violence against deserters and protesters, such as sending troops to suppress the 'Tsaritsyn Republic' declared by radicalized soldiers and Bolsheviks. Then the Kornilov Affair happened. Commander-in-Chief General Lavr Kornilov wished to end left-wing protests, and some of his followers wanted him to seize power. However, he just wanted to hang soviet members and see order return to Petrograd. When Kerensky asked Kornilov to come to Petrograd to help restore order in September the general opted to purge the government, so Kerensky released Bolsheviks, including Trotsky's Red Guard, to stop him. Soldiers deserted Kornilov when the Red Guard infiltrated his army, and workers and railway workers went on strike disrupting his supply lines. In the end Kornilov's coup failed and there was a drastic swing to the left in the soviets and army. Thus the stage was set for October.

October

Lenin speaking to soldiers during the Revolution

Following the July Days Lenin had been hiding in Finland where he had been advocating armed revolution. In October he returned, in secret, to Petrograd to plan a revolution. On October 23 the Bolshevik Central Committee voted 10-2 to oust Kerensky's government, and they formed a committee under Trotsky to organize the revolution itself. They were so confident that they didn't even bother concealing their plans so Kerensky actually knew some details of it! However, Kerensky's weak position and, the radicalization of the urban masses and army meant there was little he could do other than seize the Bolshevik press, which he soon lost control of. On October 25 armed forces occupied railway stations and military strongholds while at Kronstadt sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolsheviks. The next day the Provisional Government's headquarters, the Winter Palace, was seized and ten years later was mythologized in, what has been regarded as a cinematic epic, Sergei Einstein's October. Despite popular depictions the seizing of the Winter Palace was not actually violent; often the October Revolution has been described as a bloodless revolution. Thus history was made.

Aftermath

Although the Revolution itself was bloodless the aftermath was not. A bloody three-way civil war lasting several years broke out between the Bolsheviks, (the Reds), the peasant armies (Greens), and anti-Communists and foreign powers (Whites). Costing between seven and ten million lives the Russian Civil War was a brutal affair which devastated entire communities. The Bolshevik Revolution did inspire people all across the world. In Germany the Spartacists under Rose Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht tried to form a communist government without the revolutionary terror and dictatorship of Leninism until they were crushed in 1919; a similar attempt was made in Hungary under Bela Kun; mass movements across the globe from China to Argentina; and the rise of Communist Parties across the world. Regardless if they agreed with Lenin, like the newly formed Japanese Communist Party, or virulently disagreed with him, like Luxemburg, people across the world became inspired. There was also a right-wing backlash. Many countries including the USA, UK, Japan and France actually fought the Red Army during the Civil War, and at home anti-communism was rife. The First Red Scare hit the USA in the 1920s, the forged 'Zonviev letter' helped cause the British Labour Party to be defeated in the 1924 General Election, and when Japan enfranchised all men in the mid-1920s it came with a law suppressing radical politics. Left and Right were greatly influenced by the October Revolution.

Conclusion

The October Revolution is by far one of the most significant events of the twentieth century, and perhaps the most important political revolution since the French Revolution. To this day millions have been affected or inspired by the October Revolution. It made Marxism the most discussed ideology until the 1990s and recently Marxism has returned. I myself am a Marxist, although I am a Luxemburgist instead of a Marxist-Leninist, and I became one through reading the Menshevik-Bolshevik debates. Regardless of your political standing you cannot deny the significance of the October Revolution. Whether you believe it changed history for good or for ill it went on to shape the entire history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The events of 1917 affect our lives in 2017.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-A History of Russia since 1800: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces by Catherine Evtuhov and Richard Stites

-The Penguin History of Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-First Century by Robert Service

-The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 by Richard Sakwa

-The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923. Vol. 1 by E.H. Carr

-Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917 by Geoffrey Hosking

-A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
-The Age of Extremes, 1917-1991 by Eric Hobsbawm

-History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky

-Imperialism, The Highest State of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby

History in Focus: The February Revolution

February Revolution

This year we will see the centenary of possibly one of the most important revolutions in modern history: the communist October Revolution in Russia. However, there was another revolution which preceded the famous communist revolution. This revolution, the February Revolution, took place between March 8 and March 16 1917 (Russia still used the Julian calendar then), and caused the end of the Russian Empire. To understand the later October Revolution we first have to understand the February Revolution.

Long Term Origins

Tsar Nicholas II

Since the mid-nineteenth century Russia had been slowly industrializing and liberalizing. The industrialization effort went slowly but the liberalization efforts were more rocky. Tsar Alexander II has been seen as the one who started this process but after his assassination by members of a socialist organization called Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) the liberal reforms were setback. By the time that Nicholas II became Tsar (1894) Russian society was rapidly changing. Industrialization had brought people from the countryside to cities like Moscow; university educated intelligentsia started agitating for more democratic institutions like in France and Britain; and socialists and anarchists started agitating for more radical changes to Russian society. Russia was caught between a growing industrial power, and the old feudal, aristocratic order. The intelligentsia, anarchists and socialists began educating the lower classes about new politics and societal orders which could change their lives. Then in 1904 war with Japan broke out. Russia had regarded the growing Japanese Empire as a 'backward Asian island' so had not taken Japan seriously over the claims to the Liaodong peninsula in China. Russia had been using a port there, Port Arthur, as a warm-water port and had the Trans-Siberian Railway ending in the region. Meanwhile, Japan wanted to expand into China and did not want Russian influence in the area. The Russo-Japanese War was an utter failure for Russia. In 1904 at the Battle of Liaoyung 125,000 Japanese troops with 485 guns defeated 160,000 Russians with 592 guns, and at the Battle of Tsushima in April 1905 the Japanese navy decimated the Russian navy which had been making its way from the Baltic.

Thanks to military setbacks during the war grievances over poverty, nationality, and various other reasons flared up into revolution in January 1905. Orthodox priest Gregory Gapon had led a march to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to Tsar Nicholas II. The Imperial Guard opened fire where the government claimed 96 died while the anti-government media claimed 4000 died. Socialists and nationalists organized strikes as a result. In Warsaw the Polish Socialist Party and Social Democratic Party triggered a strike which ended violently while there were major strikes and demonstrations in Riga. On October 30 1907 the October Manifesto was created which set out a constitution and Duma (parliament) which Nicholas II only accepted when Grand Duke Nicholas threatened to shoot himself. In July 1906 P.A. Stolypin became prime minister thanks to his suppression of rebellion in Saratov Province. Unlike Congress in the United States or Britain's Parliament the tsar still held huge amounts of power. Only Nicholas could change the Fundamental Laws; the Duma's budget did not include court, naval and military expenditures; the Duma could be dissolved by the tsar; and Article 87 allowed the tsar to issue emergency decrees when the legislature was not in session. Meanwhile, the press boomed with the Gazeta kopeika (The Kpock Newspaper) reached a circulation of 250,000 in only the second year of publication. These papers told the literate the many affairs and criticisms of the ruling elite, who would then inform the masses. One such example are the rumors and innuendos about Grigori Rasputin's religious and sexual activities. Among these rumors was that Rasputin was sleeping with the tsarina and helping influence Russian politics through this. Before 1914 the Dumas were constantly being dissolved and Stolypin himself was assassinated in 1911 by a leftist called Dmitry Bogrov, although Nicholas' canceling the judicial investigation made many believe that the conservative monarchists were truly behind the assassination. As domestically the tsar was losing control in Sarajevo heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated sparking the First World War.

World War One

Russia in the War

On July 28 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, an ally of Russia, causing Nicholas II to order Russia's mobilization. Germany declared war on Russia and thus Russia entered the First World War. Just like with the war with Japan the First World War went disastrously for Russia. Initially the war had caused a surge of nationalism and loyalty towards the Tsar with the only group opposing the war being the Bolshevik Party and Vladimir Lenin. Lenin (who would lead the October Revolution) opposed the war seeing it as an imperialist war. This unity soon dissipated as the Russian army faced defeat after defeat. Despite several victories, such as under the Brusilov Offensive in 1916, the military saw many catastrophic defeats, like at Tannenburg. Germany quickly pushed into Poland and horrific tragedies occurred. People in Poland and the Baltics first had to endure shelling from the German forces, and then had to face forced removals by the Russian military as they were seen as 'enemy aliens'. This 'Great Retreat' of 1915 by the Russian military led to burning of buildings and farms, mass raping women, and mass deportations. It is estimated that a million were driven out of their homes, and a further 5-10 million 'voluntarily' left their homes. One Russian said:

Polish peasants who had fled from their villages sat or lay on the ground near their covered wagons. Babies howled, turned blue in the arms of their exhausted and disheveled mothers.

Thousands of Jews, Polish, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Ukrainians faced the cold, hunger, disease, and mistreatment. In Kazakhstan Russian homesteaders clashed with Kazakhs and Kirgiz causing thousands of deaths. The Tsarist army had relied on the Allies to supply arms but the German fleet blockaded the Baltic, and the Turkish blockaded the Black Sea straits cutting off this supply. It took until 1916 for Russian industry to produce enough shells. As major grain producing regions of Poland and Ukraine were lost grain prices skyrocketed so people printed more money to counteract this which in turn caused mass inflation. The Tsar still mistrusted the Duma seeing it as trying to usurp his power. Angry over Rasputin's influence over government appointments several nobles assassinated the monk in 1916. By 1917 the situation was at breaking point.

The Revolution

Students firing at police

On March 8 (February 23 in Russia) Petrograd Social Democrats on International Women's Day issued leaflets. Food production problems, rising inflation rates, and war setbacks had caused mass dissatisfaction with the regime, and the Social Democrats handed leaflets to women waiting in food lines. Their leaflets read:

The government is guilty; it started the war and cannot end it. It is destroying the country and your starving is their fault. The capitalists are guilty; for their profit the war goes on. It's about time to tell them loud: Enough! Down with the criminal government and all its gang of thieves and murderers. Long live peace!

Women started bread protests which inspired factory workers in the Vyborg District and the Putilov Factory. Activists joined the protests and protesters crossed the frozen Neva River where they clashed with the police beginning the revolution. Two days later Tsar Nicholas II ordered the garrison to put down the revolt but many units joined the crowd with a few killing their officers. Ships anchored in Helsinki and Kronstadt had sailors throwing their officers overboard, or into furnaces. The Duma urged Nicholas to implement immediate political measures but in response he dismissed the Duma. On March 12 the tsar's crack units, the Volynian Regiment, mutinied and joined the revolt. The same day two shadow governments were formed: the Provisional Government made of senior Duma members at the Tauride Palace, and the Petrograd soviet in another wing of the palace. The Provisional Government soon arrested some of the tsar's ministers although this was done to protect them from revolutionaries. With the monarchy losing all control on March 15 Nicholas II made this statement:

In agreement with the State Duna, we have thought it best to abdicate the throne of the Russian state and to lay down the supreme power. Not wishing to part with our beloved son, we hand down our inheritance to our brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.

Michael reigned for just a day ending Russian monarchy which had ruled for a thousand years, four hundred years of Tsardom, and three hundred years of Romanov rule. Incidentally this decade saw the end of many monarchies across the world: in 1910 Japan annexed Korea ending the monarchy there, 1910 the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown, 1911 Qing emperor Puyi abdicated ending monarchy in China (although in 1916 Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor briefly before becoming president again), 1914 Portugal ended the Kongolese monarchy, defeat in the war ended monarchies in Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, newly independent Finland and Lithuania became republics when Germany surrendered, and Montenegro lost its monarchy when it merged into Yugoslavia. 

Aftermath

Lenin in the October Revolution

The Provisional Government was set up to replace the tsar under Prince Georgy Lvov. This government was made of the moderate conservative Octobrists, the liberal Kadets, the Marxist Social Democrats (SDs), with two branches (the moderate Mensheviks and radical Bolsheviks), and the peasant-oriented Socialist Revolutionaries. However, the Provisional Government was extremely weak thanks to the economic woes from tsarist rule, and it chose to continue fighting the war. Many viewed the war negatively and saw no need to continue an imperialist war. Vladimir Lenin arrived in April from his exile in Switzerland and started criticizing the Provisional Government. By November with the war still waging, mass mutinies, and rising unpopularity a second revolution took place. A hundred years ago the tsardom fell, and later this year a hundred years would have passed since the first successful communist revolution.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:

-A History of Russia since 1800 by Catherine Evtuhov and Richard Stites

-Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917 by Geoffrey Hosking