Название: The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials
Автор: Gennady Bordyugov
Издательство: Проспект
Жанр: История
isbn: 9785392194995
isbn:
The October Revolution of 1917 was the result of slow and inconsistent actions of the Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky. Of course, he also faced a complicated context of agricultural labor crises and national conflicts. The fact that Russia continued to participate in the World War exacerbated the nationwide crisis. As a consequence, the influence of the radical Left increased in the centre of the country and the influence of the Nationalists in the periphery. The most active party was the Bolshevist Social Democratic Party. The members of the party espoused the ideals of a Socialist Revolution in Russia which they thought would give an impetus for the Worldwide Revolution. The Bolsheviks proclaimed popular slogans: «Peace, to the people», «Land, to the peasants», «Factories, to the labor class». At the end of August – beginning of September, the Bolsheviks gained the majority in the Soviets of Petrograd and Moscow and proceeded to prepare for an armed rebellion, towards the opening of Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. On the night of 24–25 of October (November, 6–7), armed workers, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet stormed the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government. The Congress (the majority of which was built up by the Bolsheviks and left-side socialists-revolutionary) approved the overthrow of the government, passed Decrees on Peace and Land and organized the government, the Council of People’s Commissars headed by Vladimir Lenin.
The oppositional forces loyal to the Provisional Government were soon crushed. Soon the Bolsheviks established predominance in most industrial cities. The main adversary – the Kadet Party was outlawed and the oppositional press was prohibited. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks obtained only 25 % of the popular vote during the Constituent Assembly elections (November, 24 (12)). They dispelled The Constituent Assembly (Petrograd, January, 5 (18)) which refused to accept a number of demands of the Bolsheviks. This led to further splits and divisions in the Russian countryside, exacerbating the Civil War. The Soviet Government was firmly established in European Russia; it nationalized the banks and enterprises and wrapped up a truce with Germany. The Triple Entente countries tried to preclude Russia from disengagement and consolidation of Soviets authority. This is when the intervention of foreign countries started.
How do Revolutions begin? Theoretically, this is a trivial question. While searching for a non-trivial answer, it would be interesting to observe the behavior of the «leaders» on the eve of the revolution. For example, what happened during the Revolution of 1905? After much contemplation, Nicholas II signed the decree «The Outline for a Course of Government Perfection» on the 14 of December, 1904. In order to calm the nation after a number of defeats in the Russo-Japanese War Nicholas II promised to improve peasants life, to expand the rights of Zemstvos (district councils) and City Duma, to abolish press restrictions and to reduce the scope of emergency measures in inflamed regions of the Russian Empire (such as Finland). Nevertheless this document didn’t contain any information about real land reform, political liberties, or a new constitution. Several days before that, on the 9 of January, 1905, the Emperor and his advisors decided that people should be «taught a lesson» and be discouraged from complaining about lawlessness and hardships. It is well known that the rejection of the reforms turned into «Bloody Sunday», Moscow barricades and The Battleship «Potemkin».
Pavel Milyukov, a Liberal political leader and historian, was one of the main figures of the year 1917. He offered a scheme according to which the revolutions become inevitable:
– When the people urgently need a large-scale political or social reform;
– When the government is against peaceful settlement of the problem;
– When the government is no longer able to act by force;
– When the people not only stop fearing the government but also start despising it and laughing at it openly.
What Surprises Contemporaries in during Revolutions? All Russia’s Revolutions prove the famous Napoleonic phrase: «You cannot start or stop a revolution.» Therefore, it is little wonder that it is impossible to separate synthetically a political revolution from a social one. What is most surprising about revolutionary times is the rapid devaluation of democratic ideals, a phenomenon characteristic among both the «leaders» and the «masses.» There are clear reasons for this. For example, in 1917–1918 there were two forms of democracy: an «established» form which was based on Duma traditions and oriented towards European standards, and a soviet form which had never been practiced in history before. These two forms could not find any middle ground; first there was crisis and then they turned to ostensibly outdated systems of rule.
Thus the Soviet «democracy» turned to single-party rule based on military patterns. «Established» democracy, on the other hand, was forced to cooperate with and later comply to «white» generals with pseudo-fascist ambitions. As a result, the country had to choose not between two forms of democracy, but rather between «red» and «white» dictatorships.
But these realities were not well understood by contemporaries who analyzed events using highly emotional language to express their feelings about the revolution: «flood», «windstorm», «maelstrom», «hurricane», «explosion», and «ecstasy». «Purification» and «regeneration» – this is what was expected to be seen after the cataclysm. And even Lev Tolstoy, one of the most vigorous critics of violence, compared the revolution of 1905 with the birth of a new life and admitted that it was beneficial and creates an «abyss of good».
Thus, carried away by revolutionary enthusiasm, few paid any attention to the actions of The Black Hundreds or the appearance of a great number of adventurists – people without any past, with made-up biographies. But as time went on, the «dirty foam» of the revolution and the immorality of its participants moved to the forefront. The well-known Manifesto of the 17 of October, 1905 (which guaranteed Russia the main civil liberties and gave the country the Legislative Duma) evoked the massacres of «patriots» in hundreds of cities in 36 Russian provinces. During one month more than 4,000 people died and about 10,000 people were disabled in the course of The Black Hundreds pogroms. Universities and gymnasiums were under siege. Due to nonfeasance of the authorities and particularly Nicholas II, in many towns a terror set in.
During the months of February and March 1917, the cruel chaos grew: there were corpses of gendarmes with ripped open bellies in Petrograd, the mad chase of officers in Kronstadt, vigilante justice in Yelets. An officer Fyodor Stepun, a future philosopher and sociologist, described Petrograd of 1917:
«I thought that I would find it exasperate, magnificent, filled with revolutionary romantics… My impression was indeed strong but the opposite of what I expected. Petrograd – from the outside to the inside – presented an utter picture of dissoluteness, monotony and platitude. The town looked unusual and was definitely going through rough times. Endless red flags were fluttering in the air, but not as banners and colors of revolution, but, instead, they were hanging down along grey walls as dusty red pieces of cloth. A crowd of grey soldiers wearing shirts and greatcoats was drilling around grand squares and wide streets of the city, a picture obviously contradicting the scale and grandeur of the event. Occasionally, armored cars and trucks full of soldiers and workers passed by with noise: guns atilt, tumbled hair and angry, mad eyes. No, this is not the great idea of the revolution that I had heard about at the front, neither is it the nation desire to justify freedom, but its vile antithesis… This is a drunken joy that «the day is ours,» that we are making merry and not going to have to explain anything to anybody.»
«The source of true folk-spirit of the people» often produced something that didn’t comply with the primary ideas of the revolutionaries. The spontaneous socialism of the opposed contained not only constructive but also destructive principles. Those who had faced it were ready to put testify СКАЧАТЬ