Following, Marx ideas of socialism, the Social Democratic Party was set up in 1898. However, four years later in 1903 they spilt into 2 groups- the Bolsheviks (lead by Lenin) and the Mensheviks (lead by Martov). Lenin proposed that the party should be limited only to dedicated revolutionaries but Martov argued that membership should be open to anyone who accepted the party programme and was willing to follow the instructions of the party leaders. Lenin won the debate and his group was later called the Bolsheviks whilst Martov’s group was called the Mensheviks. This disagreement arose because of a profound difference in their beliefs of the role of the party.
Russia was still an autocratic state (the Tsar held completed political power). The reformist groups wanted to amend this so the Tsar had less power. The reformist groups also known as the radical parties all had various different ideas as to how they were going to go about reforming the country. They grew in numbers from 1881 and gained a lot of support from various different social groups. The Socialist Revolutionary Party wanted to completely abolish the Tsar’s power and give the peasants power to advance Russia.
The ongoing debate within the Bolshevik party between the years 1924 and 1928 regarding the New Economic Policy was largely responsible for the power struggle that followed Lenin’s death. However, there were other factors, such as the nature of the leadership the party should adopt and the direction the Revolution should take ideologically. Additionally, personal ambitions played a part in the struggle for power. The New Economic Policy was introduced after the end of the Civil War as a substitute to War Communism in 1921. This was an economic concession that Lenin was forced to make due to the deteriorating economic conditions and the real threat of a revolt against the Bolshevik government.
All Russian governments in this period faced strong opposition to their regime with the period as a whole punctuated by riots, disturbances and revolutions. Political change was expected in Russia during this period, particularly during the Tsarist regime where the growth of the revolutionary intelligentsia, ironically an effect of the Great Reforms, led many to question the need for a Tsar or a royal family at all. The first main success of political opposition is widely considered to be the assassination of Alexander II at the hands of the People’s Will in 1881. Although they assassinated their Tsar, it is very likely this did not actually lead to their desired outcome, it being greater political freedom/democracy. Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia.
The long-term policies of Russification imposed by the Tsar in the 1880s, caused a lot of political unrest within Russia and these contributed to the 1905 revolution. Russia was the only country within Europe with no elected national parliament. The only form of elected representation (what the Tsar referred to as ‘senseless dreams’) was the “Zemstva”. The Union of Liberation demanded in December 1904, that a parliament should be set up because they felt the Russian population needed an outlet to express their views. At the time, the formation of political parties was illegal but despite this, they still existed.
After it’s establishment in 1900, the fledgling party acted as a pressure group on the Liberal government’s 1906 to 1914, and were instrumental in, for example, The Trades Dispute Act of 1906 and for pushing the governments further than they otherwise would have gone in terms of social reform. The impact of World War One on the Labour Party is significant as to how they managed to form a coalition government with the Liberals in 1924. The Labour Party was a new party formed in 1900 that had no previous experience of working in government. At the beginning of the war they were split between the pacifist views of MacDonald and the pro-war faction views of Henderson. By 1915-1916 the majority of the Labour Party supported the war and Henderson.
In December 1905 he was again arrested after showing his public support of the Bolsheviks during his imprisonment Trotsky developed the idea of Permanent revolution – he argued that a revolution could not survive in one country for long it would need an ally. In May 1917 Trotsky returns to Russia and witnesses food shortages and violence in the streets. By now both Trotsky and Lenin believe that the time is right for a socialist revolution. Trotsky’s life includes the significant role he played in the 1917 revolution. Initially he persuaded Lenin to hold off the revolution until November because he believed that the time and place for the transfer of power was the Second Annual all Russian Congress of the soviets so that the Bolsheviks could claim that they were claiming power for the
During this time, Russian cities were dying because all the workers and peasants were focused on rebelling against the government and seizing the land of their landlords, instead of working in the factories and living the life of a peasant or urban worker. The Russian Revolution of 1905 only decreased the strength of the empire further but a positive outcome for the people of Russia was instituted. Sergei Witte suggested an elected legislative assembly and after the Revolution of 1905, The Duma, a parliamentary institution, was established. Although the Revolution was officially over, violence and tension continued,
The first was the nagging question whether this fragile republic, this precarious new democracy, would survive in a world bestrode by monarchs, czars, tyrants, and aristocrats. Americans were painfully aware that most republics through history had collapsed into anarchy or tyranny or had been overthrown by foreign invaders. Some Americans alive in 1860 had seen two French republics rise and fall. Latin American republics seemed to succumb regularly to dictators, military rulers, or anarchy. The hopes for the birth of democratic government in Europe during the revolutions of 1848 had been dashed by counterrevolutions that entrenched the Old Order of monarchy and aristocracy.
The increasing pressures of World War 1 combined with years of injustice, lead to the fall of Russian Romanov Tsar Nicholas 2 in March 1917. Forced to step down from power, Nicholas was replaced by a Provisional government committed to continuing the war. However there was increasing losses and fear of German advance on Moscow showed what little support remained for the war and, undermined the provisional government’s authority. Hoping to aggravate the uproar, the Germans were said to have secretly transported, an exile Vladimir Lenin from Switzerland to Russia. In November Lenin led a group of Bolsheviks from the Russia's Social Democrat Party, in a successful attempt to gain power in St. Petersburg.