Russian Revolutions of 1917

B

The July Crisis and Kornilov’s Revolt

The first Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd in early June 1917. Most delegates opposed Russia’s continued participation in the war. The congress voted to organize an antiwar demonstration on June 18. In Petrograd on that day more than 300,000 people marched and rallied, calling for an end to the war and for the ejection of the capitalist politicians from the Provisional Government. On July 4 an even more militant protest drew 500,000 soldiers, sailors, and workers. Many of them marched in armed units, calling for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik leaders believed that a confrontation with the government was premature. However, Bolsheviks were swept along in the demonstration and were closely identified with it.

Neither the Congress of Soviets nor a majority of the workers supported the extreme demand that the Provisional Government be overthrown. This lack of support made it easier for antirevolutionary forces to isolate and discredit the Bolsheviks. In the aftermath of the July 4 demonstration, the government and its supporters unleashed a fierce campaign of repression and propaganda against them. Progovernment newspapers denounced Lenin as a German agent. Troops loyal to the government raided and wrecked Bolshevik offices. Many prominent Bolsheviks (including Trotsky) were arrested, and warrants were issued for Lenin and other leaders, who went into hiding. In the midst of this July Crisis, Kerensky assumed dictatorial powers. He appointed as head of the armed forces General Lavr Kornilov, an authoritarian figure who was favored by the upper classes and opponents of the revolution. A staunch Russian patriot, Kornilov appeared to have the ability to reestablish order.

In fact, Kornilov was conspiring with certain aristocrats and military leaders to establish order by suppressing the soviets and replacing the Provisional Government with a military dictatorship. There were efforts to patch together a compromise between Kerensky and Kornilov, but these efforts collapsed. A frightened Kerensky then called on all supporters of the soviets to mobilize against the threatened coup as Kornilov’s troops approached Petrograd in late August. The soviets were given arms. The arrested Bolsheviks were freed to help defend the February Revolution. The Bolsheviks played a prominent and effective role in this effort, and the attempted coup was thwarted. Revolutionary agitators who won over Kornilov’s troops were largely responsible for preventing the coup.

With armed workers and revolutionary troops controlling the streets of the capital, political realities now tilted in a much more revolutionary direction. The Russian workers and peasants saw clearly that the landowners and capitalists and their leading political representatives had actively supported Kornilov. Kerensky was badly compromised because of his earlier overtures to Kornilov. The moderate SR and Menshevik leaders were discredited for supporting Kerensky. The Bolsheviks—who had built an effective political organization and put forward the popular demands of “Peace, Bread, Land” and “All Power to the Soviets”—had greater mass support than ever before.

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V

The October Revolution

In elections held in September 1917, the Bolsheviks won majorities in the soviets in Petrograd, Moscow, and many smaller cities. For the first time, there was support in the soviets for replacing the Provisional Government with rule by the soviets. A second Congress of Soviets was due to convene in late October, and it was clear that the Bolsheviks would control it. In October the Bolsheviks gained an important ally when the majority of the SRs split off to form the Left SRs.

On October 10 the Central Committee, the main leadership body of the Bolshevik party, adopted an urgent proposal by Lenin that the party begin organizing for a seizure of power. The Petrograd soviet, now led by Trotsky, established a Military Revolutionary Committee. The official purpose of that committee was to defend the city from the threat of counterrevolution. In fact, its task was to plan an insurrection that would overthrow the Provisional Government.

On the night of October 24 and 25, 1917, a coordinated effort of workers’ Red Guard units, revolutionary soldiers and sailors, and other activists carried out an almost bloodless coup. This insurrection culminated in the storming of the Winter Palace—where the cabinet of the Provisional Government was meeting—and the arrest of the cabinet members. Only a small percentage of workers were involved in the overthrow of the Provisional Government. However, even opponents of the Bolsheviks at the time (as well as later historians) noted that the great majority of workers supported the seizure of power.

On October 25, while the insurrection was in progress, the second Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd. Of the 850 delegates, the Bolsheviks had 390 and their Left SR allies had 100. The 80 Menshevik delegates and 60 Right SR delegates walked out when the Congress accepted the mantle of power conferred on it by the Bolshevik-led insurrection. Lenin addressed the gathering with the statement, “We shall now proceed to the construction of the socialist order.” He concluded with the prediction that working-class revolutions would spread to other countries and with the cry, “Long live the world socialist revolution!”

VI

The New Government

Initially, soviet rule was implemented through a multiparty system. Bolsheviks, as well as delegates from various Menshevik and SR factions and anarchists and activists not affiliated with any party, had voice and vote in all sessions of soviets. Freedom of press and assembly flourished in the general political life of the country. An executive body of government was established, the Council of People’s Commissars, with Lenin at its head. It was responsible to the Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets, which was elected by the periodic meetings of the Congress of Soviets. The delegates to the Congress, in turn, were elected from various regional and local bodies and could be replaced easily if they failed to satisfy the worker and peasant voters.

The new government proclaimed Russia a soviet republic. The regime made a number of far-reaching decisions consistent with revolutionary ideals. It decided to withdraw Russia from World War I and validated the peasants’ seizure and redistribution of land. It also affirmed the right to self-determination of all oppressed nationalities. The new government established policies to advance equal rights for women, to create government control of all banks, and to bring about workers’ control of industry. It moved to provide health care, education, and housing to all as a matter of right. It decreed the separation of church and state, ending privileges of the Russian Orthodox Church, with freedom of worship for believers of all denominations. The regime also decided that members of the government would not have incomes higher than those of common skilled laborers.

The decisions of the Congress of Soviets on peace and land evoked widespread support for the new government, and they were decisive in assuring victory to the Bolsheviks in other cities and in the provinces. In proclaiming the right of self-determination, the Council of People’s Commissars made it clear that it hoped the “toiling masses” of the various nationalities would decide to remain part of Russia.

Among the Bolsheviks, a controversy flared up over whether Mensheviks and Right SRs should be invited to join the Council of People’s Commissars. A majority of Bolsheviks agreed with Lenin and Trotsky that it made little sense to seek a coalition with those who opposed the Soviet government. On the other hand, there was agreement on including Left SRs. The Cadet party was outlawed, and some restrictions on freedom of the press were imposed. Bolshevik leaders argued that these measures were justified by the proliferation of counterrevolutionary activities among those opposed to the new regime. To deal with such activities, the government set up a special police unit, the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Speculation and Sabotage. This unit was known as the Cheka, from the initials of the Russian words for “extraordinary commission.” Initially, however, people generally viewed the new Soviet government as being radically democratic.

Another controversy arose over the Constituent Assembly, for which the Provisional Government had promised to hold elections. This assembly was supposed to oversee the development of a constitution that would establish a new democratic governmental structure for Russia. For months all the revolutionary parties and the soviets had been pressuring the Provisional Government to hold the elections. The Provisional Government had finally made arrangements to hold the elections on November 12, 13, and 14. The Bolshevik Revolution had occurred in the meantime, so there was some confusion over whether and how to hold the elections.

The new Soviet government allowed the elections to be held, despite doubts about how accurately the elections would reflect popular support for the October Revolution. The lists of candidates had been made up before the October split of the SRs into Left SRs and Right SRs. The SRs had the support of the peasants, and more Right SR than Left SR candidates appeared on ballots in rural areas. In the elections the Bolsheviks won overwhelmingly in urban areas and working-class districts, but they failed to win a majority of the peasant votes, which went to the SRs. So when the Constituent Assembly convened on January 5, 1918, it had a majority of delegates who opposed soviet power. On the next day, the Soviet government—with the full and active support not only of the Bolsheviks (who had since renamed themselves Communists), but also Left SRs, anarchists, and some former Mensheviks—declared the Constituent Assembly dissolved. The regime proclaimed that the soviets alone represented the democratic will of the Russian masses.

VII

From Soviet Democracy to Communist Dictatorship

The radical democracy that the Russian revolutions of 1917 represented was overwhelmed by the harsh realities of the next three years. Several factors led to its demise.

Lenin, Trotsky, and other leaders of the October Revolution had anticipated an international wave of revolutions. They believed that such revolutions would grow out of working-class resentment over long-standing exploitation and oppression, heightened by revulsion for the massive slaughter of World War I and inspired by the revolutionary events in Russia. They were sure that these revolutions would bring about the creation of working-class socialist regimes in more industrialized countries and that these new regimes would come to Russia’s aid. A wave of radical mass strikes and uprisings in many countries did take place from 1918 to 1920, but the new Communist parties in these countries were relatively inexperienced. Attempts at socialist revolutions outside of Russia were not successful. Consequently, Soviet Russia found itself isolated in a hostile capitalist world.

The efforts of the Soviet government to pull Russia out of World War I also proved more difficult than anticipated. Representatives of the Soviet government, with Trotsky as the leading negotiator, met with German representatives from December 1917 through January 1918 at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus). They found themselves putting forward their own revolutionary principles against the German negotiators’ threats of further military action and demands for territory and resources. Trotsky hoped that working-class uprisings in Germany and Austria would soon cut the ground out from under his opponents. He therefore played for time, and he ultimately declared that Russia was simply withdrawing from the war regardless of the demands of imperial Germany. At this point, the Germans launched a military offensive that overcame the disintegrated Russian army. Germany quickly captured a broad belt of territory, as well as many prisoners and resources. The German government then put forth even harsher peace terms.

Trotsky’s failure at the peace talks led to another crisis that undermined soviet democracy. After a fierce debate, Lenin persuaded a Communist Party majority in the government to accept the harsh peace terms. The Left SRs strongly opposed any agreement to the German demands, which included Russia’s giving up the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and Ukraine. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3, 1918, and the Left SRs angrily walked out of the government and began organizing against both the peace settlement and the Communists. The Left SRs had a far better understanding of realities among the peasants than did the Communists. Their departure from the government opened the way for serious (sometimes even criminal) misjudgments by the government in dealing with the rural population. In particular, efforts to secure grain from the countryside in order to relieve bread shortages in the cities resulted in violent conflicts that undermined support for the Communist regime.

At the same time, members of other left-wing groups also began organizing against the government, in some cases through armed violence. The Cadets and forces that wanted to restore the tsarist regime prepared for civil war. Some of these elements were working with foreign governments, including those of Britain, France, and the United States. These and other nations imposed a devastating economic blockade on Russia to strangle the Soviet government. They also gave substantial material support to counterrevolutionary armies (and even sent some of their own troops) to help overthrow the Soviet regime. During this civil war, the Communists were often called Reds (from the traditional color of left-wing banners) and the counterrevolutionaries were known as Whites. See also Russian Civil War.

In this situation of civil war and foreign invasion, the Communists had to build an effective military force as rapidly as possible to defend the new regime. Trotsky was given the responsibility of organizing a Red Army and leading it to victory. The hard-fought victories were heroic but costly and brutalizing. The Cheka was given expanded powers to deal with internal enemies (actual and potential) of the revolution. The death penalty, initially abolished by the Soviet regime, was reestablished. Increasing restrictions were placed on freedom of the press and other civil liberties. Opposition parties were banned, allowed to operate again, and banned again at various points. In 1918 there were assassination attempts against Lenin and other Communists, combined with even more substantial forms of violence organized by opponents of the regime. In response, the Cheka organized the countermeasure of a massive Red Terror, a campaign in which suspected opponents of the revolution were arrested and often executed. Although the peasantry had become hostile to the Communists, they supported them, fearing that a victory by the Whites would result in a return to the monarchy. Poorly organized and without widespread support, the Whites were defeated by the Red Army in 1920.

A

Growth of Bureaucracy

In this same period the Communists carried out a shift in economic policy that was to cause lasting problems. Threats of economic sabotage by capitalist factory owners who were hostile to the regime led the government to take over more and more of the economy—much more rapidly than originally intended. Ordinary workers were put in charge of factories, and their inexperience as managers resulted in economic difficulties. The government’s expansion into the economy also generated the growth of bureaucracy. A bureaucracy involves a hierarchy of administrators, managers, clerks, and others who are supposed to coordinate and control complex political, social, or economic activities. Often, a bureaucracy becomes an extremely impersonal and relatively inefficient structure, notorious for its arbitrary power and unnecessarily complicated procedures. Some historians believe that as the Soviet bureaucracy grew larger and more cumbersome, what was left of political democracy and economic efficiency degenerated. This bureaucratic degeneration added to the severe strains of the civil war and the foreign economic blockade. These added strains, in turn, resulted in a devastating breakdown of much of Russia’s industry.

The once vibrant working-class movement that had spearheaded the revolution evaporated. Many experienced activists went into the new Soviet government or into the Red Army, and many others perished through war and disease. In the disintegrating economy, many workers left the factories and even the cities. This reduction in the numbers of workers, together with government efforts to maintain order, resulted in the decline of the factory committees and a substantial loss of independence on the part of the trade unions. With the evaporation of multiparty politics, the soviets became a reflection and finally a rubber stamp of the only political grouping that was allowed to function, the Communists. While claiming to defend the interests of the workers and peasants, the new government increasingly found itself quelling peasant rebellions and workers’ strikes, many of which were instigated by Mensheviks and SRs. Especially dramatic was the violent repression in 1921 of an uprising by sailors calling for the restoration of soviet democracy at the Kronshtadt naval base (previously a Bolshevik stronghold) outside of Petrograd (see Kronshtadt Rebellion).

Most Communists maintained a high degree of idealism. Many had hopes of a return to soviet democracy that would be facilitated by the spread of socialist revolutions to other countries. (The newly formed Communist International, established in 1919, was designed to help coordinate efforts for such revolutions.) But a sizable layer of Communist Party members was growing used to a Communist monopoly of power and to authoritarian methods. There were an increasing number of careerists, caring little for the ideals of socialism and the principles of working-class democracy, who joined the new Communist regime because it represented an avenue for personal advancement. Even among those motivated by higher ideals, there was a fear that if the Communists relaxed their grip on political power, the forces of counterrevolution would seek to drown Soviet Russia in blood.

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