The History Of The Russian Revolution
1. What Are The Origins Of The Russian Revolution?
Russia is a very large country whose territory is half in Asia and half in Europe. More than 90% of Russians are peasants, less than 10% are working men. Previously, Russia was ruled under the serf system, which means all land and the peasants were under the control of the landlords. The landlord regarded the serf as an animal; whether to live or die are all under his control and whim. When they needed money, they took peasant slaves as if they were animals for sale. Peasants could not leave one region for another.
It was only in the second half of the 19th century that capitalism flourished in Russia; when they opened many factories and needed workers, they campaigned to abandon serfdom so that the peasants could work for them. In 1861, serfdom was abolished.
The bourgeois capitalists and feudal landlords bear a grudge against each other, and the workers and farmers’ revolution also emerges from this contradiction.
2. What Did The Serfs Do After Their Liberation?
Being free, some of them went to the city to work, and some stayed to work in the fields.
Working long hours for what little wages they could earn, they were now slaves to the capitalists. If they stayed in the countryside, there was little land, the cattle were in short supply, and moreover, they had inferior resources compared to the wealthy landlords. Though people were nominally free, in fact, they have enslaved: workers were miserable, peasants had never known better.
Those with a revolutionary outlook set up a party to unite the peasants but didn’t pay attention to the workers. In 1875, there was a revolutionary party called the ‘Narodniks’. In 1878, there was a new party called the ‘Russian Workers Union’.
But those two parties, with very few members, were persecuted, and their members were arrested by the Government. **** This might translate better as Party of Violence. The Narodniks in particular took the view that the peasantry had to be shown that the Tsar was not invincible. This translation chooses "terrorism" as a better translation (despite a 21st century loaded meaning) as this signals Narodnik policy and practice, as explained in the next section. Later they turned into a terrorist party,**** focussed only on assassinating the king and the officials.
3. What Was The Result Of The Two Parties?
Assassination is risky, and the results are not long-lasting as there will always be another boss to replace the one who is killed. Revolution means uniting the oppressed masses and demolishing the entire oppressive class, not just the assassination of a few kings or government officials by a handful of people. Although the two parties sacrificed many people and assassinated important people from the ruling class because they did not have a revolutionary mass base, they were hounded by the Government until they were wiped out.
In 1883, Georgi Plekhanov established the Emancipation Labour Group. This party was organised to popularise the theories of Karl Marx and to unite the peasantry and the workers in the practice and politics of revolution.
4. How Does The Party Make A Revolution?
This party considered workers to be the base of the revolution, with the assistance of the peasantry.
They worked very secretly.
In Russia, there were too many spies, so the Party agency had to set themselves up abroad (in London).
In 1894, Lenin joined the Party.
In 1898, the Party held a Congress inside Russia; unfortunately, the Government discovered this and arrested many party members. Despite these arrests, the Party’s declaration was spread throughout the nation, so that the revolutionary movement was increasing every day. Those who had not been arrested were extremely secretive in their efforts at propaganda and organisation. Not long after that, the party’s name was changed to the Social Democratic Party, which later changed its name to The Communist Party.
Between 1904–1905, Russia and Japan were at war. Taking advantage of the people’s agitation, the Party made its best effort to mobilize for revolution.
5. How Did The Party Mobilise The People To Its Cause?
a) Before fighting against Japan, the Tsar tricked the capitalists into spending money and cheated them by saying that if they could win, the economy would prosper, and the capitalists would benefit considerably. But after their loss, the capitalists had spent so much money for so little gain that they now resented the Tsar.
b) At the same time, the workers’ resentment of and oppression by the Tsar meant they hated the Tsar more and more.
c) The peasants had hated the Tsar for so long. Forced to enter the army, many died in the war; they paid exorbitantly high taxes, and their hatred of the Tsar became greater and greater.
The three classes had different goals, but their hatred of the Tsar was the same. The Party knew there was broad support for a revolution to overthrow the Tsar.
6. At That Time, How Did The Tsar Respond?
The Tsar knew that the workers were the most enthusiastic for revolution, so he sought to separate capitalists, peasants, and workers from each other. The Tsar appointed a missionary to organise a Labour Union in order to first corrupt the workers and second to detect and arrest those who were for revolution.
On January 9, 1905, the missionary (whose name was Georgy Apollonovich Gapon) brought some of the workers to the Tsar for advice. Because he forgot to tell the Tsar they were coming, and because the Tsar saw a crowd of people and was afraid of violence, the Tsar sent his soldiers out, who shot and killed many of the workers. Gapon escaped abroad. The workers of the provinces heard the news and went on strike, rioted, and began setting up worker congresses.
The revolutionary fight against the Tsar and the Government lasted from January to October. The Tsar, on the one hand, used soldiers against the revolution, and on the other hand, using the pretence of establishing a parliament of people’s representatives for discussion of the country’s affairs.
7. Why Was The Revolution Of 1905 Defeated?
1. While the capitalists wanted to take advantage of the workers to demolish the Tsar, when they saw the spirited workers, they feared that the workers would first fight against the Tsar and then later turn on them. So the capitalists betrayed the workers in favour of the Tsar.
2. The workers and peasants were not united. When the workers rose up, the mass of peasants did not immediately follow them into the fight. So, the workers were defeated. The peasants then rose up against the Tsar, but it was too late as the Tsar was able first to deal with the workers then turn his attention against the peasants.
3. The workers were not very experienced, nor well organised. Without the mobilisation of the soldiers, the workers had too few weapons.
8. Did The Defeat In 1905 Set Back The Workers And The Party?
No, it did not. Experiencing that failure, the Party studied again, criticised where and what went wrong, and why they failed. Clearly understanding the defects, then fixing them, is like forging a knife. First, you test the blade to know where it is sharp or where it is blunt; then, you work the blunt side by sharpening it to the point when you know the new knife is good.
After the failure in 1905, the workers understood that:
- they must be well organised;
- they must connect with the peasantry;
- they must mobilize the soldiers; This is an interesting phrase in this piece. He is referring to a new bourgeroisie, united by a community of culture and interests, co-opted against nationalist interests, but this term is very specific to a period of the French colonializing of Vietnam.
- they should not trust the false prophets of the franco-annamite collaboration; and
- knowing that the capitalists and the Tsar are the same, to abolish the Tsar, they must abolish the capitalists.
The failure of the 1905 revolution set the example for the successful revolution in 1917.
9. What Is The History Of The Revolution In 1917?
The revolution of 1917 resulted from the following:
1. During the European war, the British and French imperialists took advantage of the Tsar to fight against Germany. But the Russian Tsar was disorganised, wasteful with money, and many Russian soldiers were killed by the Germans. The imperial powers were angry and thus helped the capitalist class to get rid of the Tsar.
2. The capitalists were angry that the Tsar had relied only upon the aristocratic ruling army as it was useless, losing every battle. Moreover, the capitalists in Russia were mostly aligned with the British and French imperialists. If Russia lost to Germany, then not only would the Russian capital be at risk, but also that of the British and French. It became clear to the British and French imperialists that they would lose if they allowed the Tsar to remain in power. So, the capitalists also wanted to remove the Tsar.
3. Obviously, the working men and the peasants considered the Tsar as their enemy.
4. The political opportunists took advantage of the situation, using the workers and peasants to help the Russian capitalists and British and French imperialism to remove the Tsar. Capitalism and imperialism took advantage of this opportunism in turn.
10. How Did The Opportunists Make It?
Taking advantage of so many soldiers’ deaths, a starving population, mass unemployment, and the government disorganization, the opportunists told the people that the revolution would abolish the Tsar, the land and factories would belong to the peasants, the people would have the right to form the government, and the war would turn to peace.
In February, unexpectedly, the Tsar abdicated, with their authority empowered by the capitalists, the opportunists went back on their words. They ordered the soldiers to continue to fight; the land remained in the hands of the landlords; the factories stayed in the hands of the rich, and the peasants and workers had no say in the Government.
11. Why Didn’t The Communist Party Take Power?
When this revolution evicted the Tsar, the Communist Party was still leading the masses. But at that time, there were few Party members, and it was not the right time, so they did not seize the government.
The revolution was over in February. From February to April, many people still thought that the new government had not yet done anything for the benefit of the people because the government had not had enough time.
In April, Lenin and many comrades from abroad returned. From April to November, the new government gradually showed their true colour as counter-revolutionary. The communist members took part in propagandising to the people the following: ‘You can see that the opportunists are like servants for capitalism and imperialism, no more no less. They did no better than the Tsar. This made everybody resent the new Government. They joined with the peasants, labourers, soldiers, and secret organisations to carry out the Communist revolution’.
When Did The Communist Revolution Succeed?
By the end of October, there were already organisations everywhere; everyone wanted action. But Lenin said: ‘Wait! Wait a few more days for everyone to oppose the Government, then we will act’. On November 5, the Government opened a meeting to enact new laws that had benefits for capitalists but were harmful to peasants and workers. Lenin told the party members that it would be too early to take action on November 6,[ October 24] because the people would not yet know how bad the rules were and would not yet blame the government. On the other hand, November 8 [October 26] would be too late because, by then, the Government would know that the people were resentful, and they would be on guard.
With great anticipation, the Communist Party decided to carry out the revolution on the seventh of November. The workers rushed to lay siege to the Government, and the peasants evicted their landlords. The government sent out soldiers, but the soldiers sided with the workers and returned to fight against the Government.
From that day forward, the Government opportunists withdrew, and the Communist Party seized authority and organised a government of workers, peasants, and soldiers. It distributed land to the tillers, conferred the management of factories upon the workers, no longer forced people to die for capitalism and imperialism, strove to organise a new economy, and practised internationalism.
How Is The Russian Revolution Meaningful To The Vietnamese Revolution?
In the world, at that time, only the Bolshevik revolution in Russia was a successful revolution, and it was thoroughly successful. This means people enjoyed real happiness, real freedom, real equality, not the false freedom and equality that the French imperialists boast about to the Vietnamese people. The Russian revolution had already abolished the Tsar, the capitalists, and the landlords, and also was striving to assist the international workers, peasants, and the oppressed peoples in the colonies to make revolution, to demolish all the imperialists and capitalists in the world.
The Russian revolution teaches us that if the revolution is to be victorious, we must take the masses (workers and peasants) as foundational; we must have a solid party; we must be tenacious; we must be of the same mind, and we must be ready to lay down our lives for our cause. In brief, we must follow Marxism-Leninism.