The Russian Revolution: From Tsarism to Soviet Rule (1917-1921)

1. The February Revolution: The Fall of Tsarism

1. The revolution began with a large demonstration in St. Petersburg followed by a general strike and riots in the barracks. The groups of demonstrators were composed of soldiers, workers, and peasants.

2. The Tsar abdicated, and a provisional government promised to call elections to make Russia a parliamentary democracy. The government was dominated by the bourgeois parties and didn't withdraw from World War I. It couldn't improve the living conditions of the people, whose discontent grew. The Soviets (groups of workers and soldiers) began to demand the dismissal of the government.

2. The October Revolution: The Bolsheviks Rise to Power

1. Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, returned to Russia from exile with the idea of establishing a government of worker and peasant Soviets and signing a peace treaty with Germany.

2. Once in Russia, he organized the rebels, who, on October 25th, occupied Petrograd, took the Winter Palace, and overthrew the provisional government. The revolution spread quickly to Moscow and other industrial areas.

3. The Constituent Assembly held elections where the Bolsheviks only got 25% of the seats. However, they won the majority in cities and industrial regions, so Lenin dissolved the Assembly and put an end to political pluralism in the new Soviet Russia.

4. The first measures taken by the government of the Bolsheviks and Lenin were:

• To expropriate the land to distribute among the peasants.
• To expropriate the factories, whose control was given to workers' committees.
• To sign peace with Germany.

3. The Civil War

1. In 1918, those who supported Tsarism and those who wanted a liberal regime, meaning a parliamentary system with different political parties and a capitalist economic system, took up arms against the Soviet government.

2. They got help from French, British, Japanese, and US troops and confronted the Red Army, led by Trotsky and the Bolsheviks. The civil war lasted for three years and caused famine and a high number of casualties.

3. In 1921, the Red Army won the war.

4. The civil war hardened the Soviet regime.