The Russian Revolution of 1917

I tried to get all these notes down, but I'm not positive I did so sorry about that! Also I think the section German Brain Warfare is not placed chronologically but hey, what can ya do.

Context

• The Revolution of 1905, the October Manifesto, the Duma
• the appearance of Soviet Political Parties, for example
  • the SRs (Social Revolutionaries/ agricultural peasants)
  • the Kadets (Classical liberals)
  • the Mencheviks (Classical Mild Marxists/ urban proletariat)
  • the Bolsheviks (Revolutionary Marxists/ urban proletariet)
• The Stoylpin Reforms make the mir peasants landowners to try and create a mobile working class.
  • They are hoping that Russia might segue-way into an Industrial Revolution
• Foreign Policy failure
  • In 1914 Russian Foreign Policy embroils them in WW1 (for Serbia?). Across Europe there is wild enthusiasm for war, except in Russia.
    • Russian peasants are land hungry, and disaffected from the Revolution of 1905, which was urban.
    • The Nationalism within Russia is growing, especially in light of Russia's continual failure in foreign policy. The Autocratic government rejected many minorities in the government led suppressions called Pograms, especially against the Jews.
    • The War is greeted enthusiastically by middle and upper classes (the intelligentsia) but quickly fades with autocratic ineptitude.
  • The Zemstvos across Russia organizes food drives and local initiative to improve transportation and food production outside of government auspices.
    • Major cities like Petrograd, see industries form councils to prioritize production, share labor and resources. These are roles that Autocratic Bureaucrats should have carried, but were unable or unwilling to. Bribery and graft were still rampant in Russia.
    • As the war continues, the ineptitude of the Autocracy and the apathy of soldiery make defeat inevitable. Sykes-Picot keeps Russia in the war.
    • The Tsarina/Rasputin fear liberalism and see war as an opportunity to crush the Western influences of France and Great Britain while increasing power of the Czar.
    • The middles classes fear the German-born Tsarina is a secret agent of the Kaiser.
    • Fear of the Liberalism will lead to the disbanding of the 1915, and there after Nicholas II takes personal command of the armies at the front. As the war worsens, discord among the middle class heightens. Socialists in Russia (unlike the Rest of Europe) openly oppose the war.
• The February Revolution
  • A new Duma is elected in 1916, and it is conservative but questions the conduct of war. In February 1917 (which is actually March because of their messed up calendar) bread riots break out in Petrograd.
    • The issue for Russia is internal transportation, since their is poor organization and lots of corruption. The workers' rioting is ordered to be shut down by royal troops; however, the soldiers being to mutiny and begin to form worker and soldier councils called Soviets.
    • The Soviets across Petrograd will send representatives to a larger Petrograd Soviet (PS), which is mainly composed of social revolutionaries and Mencheviks. The Bolsheviks are considered the worst and are the minority.
    • The Duma reacts and demands the advocation of the Tsar, who attempts to reenter Petrograd, but is stopped. Nicholas II abdicates on March 1917 in favor of his brother Constantine. However, he also refuses the throne.
  • Thereafter, governmental power is seized by the Duma, who will form a Provisional Government (PG). The Provisional Government, which is quickly recognized by the Allies but has little popular support, has the power.
    • The Soviets have lots of popular support, but no recognition or power.
    • The next 8 months will see both institutions try to attain balance in their deficiencies. The initial PG is headed by Prince Lvov is mainly made of Kadetsm Conservatives, and 1 Social Revolutionary Alexandar Kenensky
    • The PG fears the PS and seeks to win popular support and foreign support through victory on the battlefield; the PG stays in the war under worsening conditions.
    • The PG has dual goals: 1) they want national UMS elections for a constituent assembly, a written constitution, and a legitimate government and 2) they want to redistribute land to win peasant support. Neither of these initiatives occur, the war continues, and the PG looses power.
    • By May 1917, the PG will launch a new offensive agains the Germans with disastrous effects: the desertions and rioting increase.
• The July Days
  • a reaction to the aristocratic February Revolution and the continued disasters at the front (continued participation in the war). It was supported by German funds.
  • Premature working class Revolution, which was opposed but supported by the Bolsheviks.
  • The revolt is suppressed, and the Bolsheviks are blamed.
  • Trotsky is arrested and Lenin dresses as a woman and flees to Finland. The opportunity to crush the power of the Petrograd Soviet.
• Kornilov Counter revolution
  • Kornilov is in conjunction with Kerensky and the Provisional Government
  • General Kornilov, who is Tsarist, leads loyal troops int Petrograd to destroy the power of the Petrograd Soviet.
  • The remaining Bolshevik leaders are instrumental in stopping Kornilov, and the Provisional Government is complicit.
  • This leads to the rebirth of Bolsheviks and the return of Lenin.
  • After the Kornilov affair the Bolsheviks will gain the majority control inside the Petrograd Soviet.
  • Lenin introduces a 4 point plan in August 1917
    • Immediate peace with the Central Powers
    • An immediate redistribution of gentry lands to peasants without competition
    • All major industries will be placed under the control of factory workers' councils. The war production would continue under worker control.
    • all government power should shift from the Provisional Government to the Soviets, "All power to the Soviets."
• The Actual Russian Revolution
  • Kerensky's reaction to dissolve the Provisional Government is to form a pre Parliament with wide representation. The Unions, Kadets, Conservatives, SRs, and Mencheviks will be invited but these groups have lost popular support, especially inside Petrograd.
  • Pre-Parliament set the date and finally they elect a Constituent Assembly, meanwhile the war continues.
  • Lenin and Bolshevik Central Committee votes with a slim majority to overthrow the Pre Parliament (the Provisional Government).
  • The Bolsheviks are mostly supported by Russian Sailors take over the water, radio, and electrical plants, police stations, and newspapers rather bloodlessly.
  • The Revolutionists are comprised mainly by Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin. Remember these three names!
  • Kerensky tries to rally support, but flees the country to New York City and creates the famous Russian Tea Room. He lives until 1970.
  • Lenin establishes a non government based upon the Council of the People's Commissions.
  • Lenin becomes the Premier, Trotsky is the head of the Foreign Commission and the Commission of Army. Commisson of Nationalities is Josef Stalin.
  • Lenin allows the Constituent assembly election to occur and in meantime concludes the Treaty of Brest Litovsk which gets Russia out of the war.
  • The Constituent Assembly convenes in January 1918 with a SR majority of 21 million, and the Bolsheviks have 9million votes. Lenin sees that the Bolshevik minority is untenable and coerces the Russian sailors to dispense the Constituent Assembly.
  • Lenin claims the non-Bolsheviks are petit bourgeois. Establishes the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (a tight revolutionary elite that leads the ignorant masses down the proper path of Marxism)
  • Immediately, disgrnteled portions of Russia devolve into the Russian Civil War (1918-1921)
• The Russian Civil War
  • the Bolsheviks and the Communists control the core of the Soviet Union by the periphery is inhabited by armies of Pro-czarists, Kadets, SRs, and Mensheviks, and ethnic nationalists who all oppose the Bolsheviks, but will not cooperate with each other.
  • The Red Army of Trostky will be opposed a group collectively known as the "White Russians." Whites will be aided by Allies, who hope to get Russia back in the war. British, French, US, and Japanese all send troops and aid to the Whites.
  • Even the Germans help the whites after the armistice. The Bolsheviks employ the Red Terror against their enemies. They use a secret police force called the CHEKA.
  • Felix Dzheninsky kill hundreds of thousands of bourgeois enemies of state.
  • Trotsky recruits arms and trains a powerful Red Army who reconquer the Regions controlled by the White Russians.
  • In 1920 the Red Army will invade Poland for purposes of neconquest.
• German Brain Warfare
  • The Bolsheviks enter the scene with German help. Germans locate Lenin, Lev Kamenev, Zinoviev and Kruspskaya (Lenin's wife) in Switzerland and put them on a sealed train flush with cash and smuggle them into Petrograd in April 1917, hoping to destabilize Russia drive them out of war.
  • Lenin in teams with Trotsky, Stalin, and Bukarin immediately begin Bolshevik agitation.
  • They issue the April Theses which say that Russia only needs three things: "Peace, Land, and Bread"
    • Get out of the war, redistribute the land (appeals to the peasants), and feed the people (which would supposedly happen if the other two occurred)
  • Simultaneously, the Petrograd Soviet will issue the Special Order #1
    • all troops at the front will elect their officers or dessert
  • Old officers are Tsarist reactionaries and hope that elected officers will better lead soldiers. Special Oder #1 leads to a breakdown in discipline and increase in desertions.