The Russian Revolution

HISTORY CHAPTER 10 - RUSSIAN REVOLUTION


1) Explain briefly the conditions that brought about the Russian Revolution. What were the main ideas behind it?

In the year 1917, Russia underwent a major change in the form of a revolution that destroyed the monarchy and established socialism. Following are the basic causes that led to the revolution.

Ø Russia was following the old order: As compared to England and France, Russia was very backward. It neither had a constitutional monarchy nor was it a republic. The Russians were steeped in ignorance. Serfdom had come to an end in 1861 but the condition of the peasants was deplorable. They did not have sufficient resources to keep them selves alive.
Ø Small holdings of the farmers: During the years of serfdom, the farmers had been totally exploited. They had no capital to invest in their land, besides the land holdings were so small that it was not profitable to grow anything on them. The farmers paid heavy taxes and there was desperate race for agricultural land.
Ø Absence of middle class: Every society progresses with the help of the middle class. They are the one who carry out the various trades and professions. Russia was an agricultural economy and no heed was paid to the development of industries. Later when it did develop more than half of the capital came from other countries. The investor’s motive was huge profits for which they paid the laborers very low wages. These factors hindered the growth of the middle class.
Ø Conditions of the workers: The condition of the workers in the factories owned by the Russians was as bad as the conditions in the factories owned by the foreign investors. The Russian investors had to compete with the foreigners, so they cut their costs at every level. The foreign investors wanted more and move profits resulting in the poor conditions of the workers.
Ø Czar Nicholas II: He was a weak ruler. He believed in the divine rights of kinds according to which a kind is God’s representative on earth. He was supported by the clergy and bureaucracy and did not have the support of the common man. He banned the word progress and stuck to the old order. He was influenced by his wife who was further influenced by Rasputin, her paramour. Rasputin was an uneducated rudderless person who behaved like a dictator.
Ø Non Russian areas: Russia had acquired many areas surrounding it. These people were non Russians who were forced to speak Russian language, adopt the Russian culture and had no status of equality with the Russians.
Ø Growth of Revolutionary movements: In the last quarter of the 19th century many Russian intellectuals went to the people and inspired them with revolutionary ideas. In 1883 the Russian social democratic party was formed by George Plekhanov. Soon many other parties joined this party under the name of Russian Social Democratic Labour party in 1898. When this party split into the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, over policy matters, it was the later under the leadership of Lenin who became the heroes of the October revolution.

2) Describe the consequences of Russian revolution?

One of the first achievements of the Russian revolution was overthrowing of autocracy, destruction of aristocracy and reducing the power of the church. The second achievement of the revolution was the building of the world’s first socialist society. Union of Soviet Socialist Republic namely USSR was formed with socialist ideals of FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS WORK.
Economic progress was done in a planned way through 5 year plans which India too incorporated in its road to development after independence. This proved to be a great living example as the resources of the country were totally used for the development and as the private enterprise had been abolished, the road to development was easy and the class divide too ceased to exist. Work was provided by the society and it depended on the educational qualification and also the ability to do the type of work, this proved to be a great success as this led to mass education of the people of Russia and education being the corner stone of any country’s development, it led to mass development of Russia.
The non Russian colonies which were earlier suppressed were now a part of USSR willingly and had equal rights and representation. The transition from subjugation to modernization through planned economic progress is one of the most important consequences of Russian revolution.

3) Discuss the impact of Russian revolution on the world.

The Russian revolution had certain consequences which had deep impact on the society of the world. This brought about a changed outlook to the new definitions of the society which was changed because of the said revolution.
The ideals of Marxism like declaration of rights of man and citizen were now being looked and understood with new light. It was no longer a term to be disregarded by the capitalists and the governments all over. Communist parties started having a large following in the world over and many parties were formed in almost all the countries of the world. But the socialist movement as a whole was divided into socialist parties and communist parties.
Planned development in Russia showed to the world how the resources of the country can be used effectively and not wasted away just at the mercy of the capitalists. It also gave a new light to the dignity of labour. Interest of the world at large or internationalism was brought about and the countries now felt responsible enough to promote world peace and harmony and instead of suspecting each other started promoting friendship among the nations.

Russian revolution not only routed out monarchy but also started helping the colonies to gain independence not to suit its imperialist needs for the first time in the history of the world. The ideals of socialist revolution in Russia helped for the unification of china and also helped to annual the unequal treaties imposed on China.

4) Explain the attitude of the Soviet Union towards the movements of independence in Asia.

The Russian revolution served to hasten the end of imperialism. According to Marx, a nation which enslaves another nation can never be free. Political movements based on socialism in countries with colonies have helped the people of the colonies in their independence movements as a part of their struggle for socialism. Socialists all over the world organized campaigns for putting an end to imperialism. The new Soviet state came to be looked upon as a friend of the people of the colonies struggling for national independence. Russia after the revolution was the first country in Europe to openly support the cause of independence of all nations from the foreign rule.
The Soviet government annual led the unequal treaties which the Czar had imposed on China and also lent full support to Sun Yat Sen in the struggle for the unification of China. The Russian revolution also influenced the movements for independence in that the latter gradually broadened the objectives of independence to include social and economic equality through planned economic development.

5) Explain the following terms:

ü Capitalism: Free market system - an economic system based on the private ownership of means of production and distribution of goods characterized by a free competitive market and motivation of profit.
ü Bourgeoisie: The social class that according to Marxist theory owns the means of producing wealth and exploits the working class.
ü Proletariat: The class of wage earning workers in society in Marxist theory, the class of industrial workers whose only asset is the labour they sell to the employer.
ü Socialism: A political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles.
ü Means of production: This usually rests with the capitalist. The machines and the investing capital for raw material all account to means of production of goods. The capitalist invests in these items and expects the worker to produce the finished product with the help of these and the workers are paid wages for their work.
ü Marxism: The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in western societies.
ü Scientific socialism: The theories propagated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are called scientific socialism. It is called so because they logically gave solutions to all problems relating to industries, workers, peasants and how to bring about the development of the country by giving equal rights to every citizen of the country.
ü Utopian Socialists: These were a group of socialists who believed in perfection and also believed in the theory that machines were the route cause of all problems. They went about destroying the machines but in the end had accepted machines in the changing trend of the societies. Their theories of perfection were true in theory but not in practical application.
ü Soviet: A council in the early political organization of Russian revolution, based on the council of workers formed to seize city government in Petrograd in 1917.