During the first seven years of the twentieth century, Russia suffered a mass political civil war which included multiple political parties attempting to overthrow the current government. Terrorism, civil unrest, work strikes, and military bombings spread panic throughout Russia. After the brief but destructive civil war, Nicholas II was able to declare himself the absolute leader of Russia and the Autocracy was restored. In the end of the civil war several political parties were made legal including the then minority group Bolsheviks. Composition IV’s picture plane is divided into two sides, a left and a right.
The influence on terrorism in the Western hemisphere by the Russian revolution began with a vow by Czar Alexander to make changes to distinguish the nobles and peasants. The Peoples Will was a violent socialist revolution whose goal was to reform and modernize Russia and overthrow Czar Alexander. “When it (Peoples Will) launched a campaign of revolutionary terrorism in the 1870s, it faced confrontation with conservative elements such as the church, police, and military. Peoples’ Will came to believe it was necessary to terrorize these subversive organizations into submission” (Byrnes, 2003-2007). During that time, the view was that terrorist acts were a way to overthrow the government.
The purges and show trials aimed to terrorise Soviet society into compliance with Stalin’s regime, and ‘remove potential enemies,’ to allow Stalin to found an almost entirely ‘new’ Communist party, which comprised of ‘more dependable’ members. The Terror fundamentally had the impact of manipulating and destroying social norms, and disarranging the political and military structure which had formed in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. During the purges and show trials which comprised the Terror, the Communist Party were forced into submission, which essentially impacted the party in an adverse manner. 90 per cent of the once established Bolshevik party members were purged, including Bukharin, Yagoda and Rykov at show trials, and the remaining members were exhausted of any power. The removal of these skilled and able members was detrimental for the Communist party, as it weakened them industrially and economically, and resulted in an endemic lack of experience across the party.
This resulted in risings such as the Spartacist rising where communists fuelled by the success of the Russian revolution almost occupied nearly every major city in Germany. However, the Reichstag led by the SPD had stepped into a power that was left by the Kaiser, and as a result of this it had no real option but to accept the Versailles Treaty. The most irritating part for the German people was the to pay reparations to Britain and France. Germany's failure to pay her debt led to the invasion of the Ruhr, resulted in very little success for France but did succeed in the complete collapse of the German economy. This led to the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 Hitler aided by General Lundendorff and a few hundred supporters marched on the Munich town hall as a pretext to a national revolution, unfortunately for Hitler this attempt failed and he was sent to prison.
It displays Lenin’s striking similarity to the way the Tsar reacted to political pressure from opposing ideologies and factions. In other words, he simply illustrated that he was not the democratic and just leader he made himself out to be before the Revolution. The formation of the Red Army and Cheka also demonstrated Lenin’s likeness to the Tsar on many occasions after the takeover of the Winter Palace. Both bodies were significant instruments of Terror and both stringently enforced compliance to the communist government by committing atrocities against both the White Armies and dissident Worker and peasants. These atrocities included things such as torture, imprisoning the wives of enemies and seriously wounding prisoners
Stalin was able to eliminate all effective opposition through a series of purges. The Show Trials, which began in 1936, were designed to create an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia. As the purges swept through the party, many highly prominent Bolsheviks were put on trial and accused of being part of a Trotsky counter-revolutionary bloc. During the first Show Trial, of 1936, Stalin eliminated Kamenev and Zinoviev, who forcibly confessed to being part of Trotsky’s conspiracy and were consequently executed. In 1937 Stalin began the purge of the military, accusing them of spying for Nazi Germany.
As the sailors were heroes of the 1917 revolution against the PG, their uprising came as a shock to the Bolsheviks, especially to Lenin. Nevertheless, Trotsky ordered the Red Guard to put down the uprising and Marshal Tukhachevshy rounded up the sailors, who shot them without a trial. Lenin realised that the peasants and some measure of economic liberalisation were essential for the regime to survive. Discontent could no longer be suppressed. Lenin said that the Kronstadt revolt was “the flash that lit up reality more than anything else”.
Lenin had also ended the war with Germany by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. However, this was a humiliating treaty for Russia as the Germans had been extremely harsh and the treaty took land, industries and people from Russia. After the Reds’ victory in the civil war, Lenin set about creating the world’s first communist state. He introduced war communism whereby the people saw the rapid nationalization of all industries as well as the requisitioning of all surplus grain from the peasants. Even though this solved all the immediate needs of the communist state, the majority of the peasants were unhappy about the new policies and rebelled against the Bolsheviks.
The term Russian Revolution includes not only one event or even process but a sequence of disruptive and strongly violent happenings which occurred more or less at the same time. It started as a rebellion of the most conservative elements in Russian society, dissatisfied with the Royal family and their connection to the self-styled monk Rasputin and the mismanagement of the decision in the war. But the riots were soon spread to the liberals who feared that of the monarchy remained as it was, the revolution would become inescapable. The Romanov dynasty had lasted over 300 years but Nicholas II, who ascended the throne in 1894, turned out to be the last tsar of Russia. How did such an ancient monarchy collapse so dramatically?
“The Bolsheviks were able to overthrow the Provisional Government because they had the support of the Russian people and armed forces.” Do you agree with this view? On the 7th of November in 1917, the Bolsheviks, who were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government, which was led by Alexander Kerensky, after the long revolt against them. The Provisional Government initially came to power after the February revolution; after the Russian monarchy was overthrown in March of 1917. There are many different interpretations and opinions from historians; many suggest that the Bolsheviks were hugely supported by the ordinary people and citizens of Russia. Others indicate that their rise to power and the overthrow of the Provisional Government was more influenced by the faults and failures of the Provisional Government.