A study of Russian governments in the period 1855 – 1964 suggests that Russia simply exchanged one form of autocracy for another after 1917. How far do you agree? When the February revolution brought an end to Tsarist rule, there was a strong belief that the instatement of the Provisional Government would lead to a more democratic Russia. However in deposing the Provisional Government, the October Revolution had removed any such hope. The totalitarian Government of the Communist Party continued and intensified many aspects of the Tsarist regime including use of the secret police and an intolerance for opposition and democracy in general.
These views are expressed in his two key works, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (published in 1995) and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime 1919-1924 (published in 1994). Pipe’s believes that Lenin was primarily responsible for the success of the uprising, even though Pipe’s recognizes Lenin’s role as the most important, he still hypocritically called Lenin’s April Theses “totally out of touch with reality, if not positively mad” despite the fact that this theses played a huge role in the Lenin and Bolshevik uprising. Pipe’s also believes that Trotsky just carried out Lenin’s commands. However the role or Trotsky and his actions before the October revolution were very evidently done on his own accord, with Lenin accompanying Trotsky in his decisions. In early October, 1917, Trotsky was elected
So in October 1917 the Bolsheviks replaced the Coalition Government. This is known as the October Revolution. However, all the problems the Coalition Government faced did not disappear and on top of that Lenin was facing huge opposition from the Soviets, which even became a civil war. The Bolsheviks overcame the struggles of the first 6 months after the October Revolution by simply giving in into the worker’s and peasant’s requests. This was one of the party’s policies that were based on Lenin’s April thesis.
Opposition did influence governmental change under every ruler apart from Alexander III who kept the opposition “underground”. Opposition was responsible for two changes in governments; the assassination of Alexander II and the Bolshevik revolution. However, both cases did not result in any governmental development to a more liberal and modern style of government. The assassination of Alexander II only led to his replacement by the far more reactionary Alexander III who actually caused the development of Russian government to regress as he removed several reforms that Alexander II was responsible for. Lenin had a similar effect as ultimately Russia remained an autocratic state, and also resulted in a regression in the development of Russian government initially as the Communist state had even less representation than under Nicholas II by virtue of the removal of the state duma.
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.
Lenin was an oppressor not a liberator. To what extent do you agree with this interpretation of Lenin’s leadership? Lenin has gone down in history as the liberator of Russia from the out-dated Tsarist regime bringing Russia to what we know it as today. However many have been led to question whether he was the Liberator many have been led to believe. Lenin was exiled by Tsar Nicholas as an extremist and only made his way back to liberate Russia due to the First World War, in which he managed to sneak through the German frontline to help lead the Bolshevik uprising.
The Germans, who continued making territorial gains (marked 2), eventually began aiding the pro-Tsarist White Russian forces, attempting to stem the very revolt they had helped to foster. However the damage to the Russian infrastructure was too great, and the "White" Russians were eventually forced from power by the "Red" Communists. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk was finally concluded with the new Bolshevik government on March 3, 1918, stripping their country of all provinces west of the Ukraine. That treaty was annulled by the Armistice of November 11, and the new government in Moscow eventually re-established its presence in all of the previously held lands. Ironically, one of the lasting actions by the Bolsheviks was the attempted indoctrination of German prisoners-of-war.
Finally the failures of the Provisional Government made them vulnerable which coincidentally worked to advantage the Bolsheviks. Personally, I believe that the vulnerable position of the Provisional Government, timing of the governments mistakes, discontent of the soldiers as well as the workers and the occasional guidance from other Bolshevik leaders, was exploited by Lenin, alongside his popular policies and leadership skills he catalyzed the revolution that was inevitable, planning it in such a way that it would benefit long term and not short-term as it had done in 1905 and February 1917. In disagreement, the failures of the provisional government to make the correct decisions led to the Bolsheviks’ success because the Bolsheviks were efficient in using this time to take control of the vulnerability of the Provisional Government which had caused this upon itself. The first mistake was allowing Lenin return from Germany in April as a part of democracy terms, since Lenin, despite being
After Lenin’s death, there was a dispute over the succession between Bukharin, Trotsky, Kamenev and Stalin. Trotsky could end the dispute and took power as the head of the Bolsheviks with Lenin's Testament, which criticized the oppositions Trotsky. However, he did not do it, and Stalin, using his position in the Bolshevik Party was able to get his men in high positions and policies through a swing, a union with his opposition to displace others, was able to take power in 1923 and the elimination of his violent Trotsky opposition, using a "ban on faction’’. In some cases, single-party leaders use a combination of legal and illegal methods to come to power. For Stalin, what he did was entirely legal.
The Russian Revolution (1905-1917) were many small revolutions aggregated, with two major reformations; which ended with the Czar’s regime, outsetting the Provisional Government. In the 1905’s revolutions, there were three main causes: agrarian problem, nationality problem and labour problem. However, the 1917’s revolutions disassembled the Czar’s autocratic government and placed the Bolsheviks in power; whom after winning the civil war, 1922, gave rise to the Soviet Union. In 1903, the Social Democratic Laborers Union’s second party (which already carried Marxist ideals) split into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks factions. Bolsheviks were lead by Lenin, and believed that a Revolution could already have been started; while, Mensheviks claimed