The Russian Revolution: Origins and Aftermath

The Russian Revolution is dated to November 1917 (October 1917 on the Russian calendar), when Bolshevik Party forces took over the government offices in Petrograd. However, the problems that led toward revolution had been developing for generations. The revolution’s consequences, too, were far-reaching—the Communist Party, which formed to lead post-revolutionary Russia, remained in power until 1991.

Causes of the Russian Revolution

• Widespread suffering under **autocracy**—a form of government in which one person, in this case the **Czar**, has absolute power.
• Weak leadership of **Czar Nicholas II**, who clung to autocracy despite changing times.
• Poor working conditions, low wages, and hazards of industrialization.
• Emergence of new revolutionary movements advocating for a worker-run government to replace Czarist rule.
• Russian defeat in the **Russo-Japanese War** (1905), which fueled rising unrest.
• **Bloody Sunday**, the massacre of unarmed protestors outside the palace in 1905.
• Devastation of **World War I**, leading to high casualties, economic ruin, and widespread hunger.
• The **March Revolution** in 1917, where soldiers brought in for crowd control ultimately joined labor activists in calling, “Down with the autocracy!”

Consequences of the Russian Revolution

• The government was taken over by the **Bolshevik Party**, led by **V. I. Lenin**, which later became known as the **Communist Party**.
• Farmland was distributed among farmers, and factories were given to workers.
• Banks were nationalized, and a national council was assembled to run the economy.
• Russia pulled out of **World War I**, signing the **Treaty of Brest-Litovsk** and conceding much land to Germany.
• **Czarist rule** ended with the execution of **Nicholas II**, his wife, and five children.
• A devastating **Civil War** between **Bolshevik** ('Red') and anti-Bolshevik ('White') forces swept Russia from 1918 to 1920, resulting in approximately 15 million deaths from conflict and famine.
• The Russian economy was in shambles: industrial production dropped, trade all but ceased, and skilled workers fled the country.
• **Lenin** asserted his control through cruel methods, including the **Gulag**, a vast and brutal network of prison camps for both criminals and political prisoners.