Russian Revolution and Civil War
| Emancipation Edict: Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia on 19 February 1861 (OS).
Tsar Alexander II is assassinated in March 1881 by the radical group known as People’s Will. He is succeeded by Tsar Alexander III who repressed civil rights and freedom of the press with anti-terrorism measures. Tsar Alexander II’s pogroms against the Jews result in a mass emigration of 2.5 million Jews to western Europe and the Americas between 1881 and 1914. The terror caused by anti-Semitic pogroms reached its peak in October 1905. Famine in Russia from 1891 to –1892 kills between 375,000-400,000 people and affects millions more. Tsar Alexander III, dies suddenly on 20 October 1894 (OS) and Nicholas II becomes Tsar Vladimir Lenin is arrested for sedition and exiled to Siberia for three years on 8 December 1895 (OS). Khodynka Tragedy: After Tsar Nicholas II’s coronation on 18 May 1896 (OS), the crowd thought there was a shortage of free souvenir gifts and rushed the stalls. 1,389 people were killed in the stampede. Each person’s gift was a spice-bread, a piece of sausage, sweets and walnuts, a bread roll from the famous Moscow baker Filippov and a commemorative painted enamel mug, all wrapped in a headscarf. The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (SDs, RSDLP aka the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party) forms in 1898 as a socialist political party to unify various revolutionary groups and to oppose the Narodniks revolutionary agrarian populism (later known as the Socialist Revolutionary Party or SRs). The RSDLP believes in the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engelsand that Russia’s revolutionary strength will come from its industrial working class. Differences in political ideology split the ineffectual Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in November 1903. Younger Russians preferred the Bolsheviks because they were committed to a proletariat-based revolution and because they took a stronger stance against the bourgeoisie (the “materialistic” middle-class). 1 2 1903: Grigori Rasputin arrives in Saint Petersburg and develops a reputation as a starets (holy man) with healing and prophetical powers. 1 2 1905 Revolution 1 2 The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party permanently split into factions in 1912, July Crisis of 1914 and outbreak of World War I
Food Shortages: In 1914, Russian officials grossly overestimated Russia’s grain-growing potential and ability to sustain itself during a war effort. Within one year, towns and cities across the empire were suffering from shortages of food, kerosene and textiles. Production problems and diverting and transporting supplies to support war needs caused the shortages for cities and civilians. Food shortages caused discontent and riots throughout World War I, the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. Cities often received much less than they required – sometimes less than 10 to 20% of what they needed. Politically-motivated co-operatives fought high prices, supplied the armed forces with food, cared for soldiers’ families and set up credit partnerships in the countryside. The co-operatives grew without a bureaucratic apparatus of distribution from 208 in 1914 to 608 in 1917 and regularly provided goods to urban and rural populations.1 Food riots over high prices and food scarcity usually occurred at the markets and grew from about 20 in 1915 to 288 in 1916. In 1917, the riots became unstoppable when the police and soldiers joined the rioters. 1 See February Revolution, 9-25 March 1917, State Committee on Food Supply and Shortages in Russia during the Revolution & Civil War. Rasputin’s influence during World War I: Even though Tsarina Alexandra was long-vilified by Russians for her German background, Nicholas left her in charge of domestic affairs when he took command of Russian forces on the front in 1915. Alexandra subsequently dismissed effective ministers and followed Rasputin’s disastrous advice which: Rasputin was assassinated on 30 December 1916 (NS) by a group of conservative noblemen who resented his mysterious influence over Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra. 1 2 27 January 1917 (OS), Alexander Protopopov, an Octobrist and Imperial Russia’s Minister of the Interior, orders the arrest of the leaders of the Central Workers’ Group (precursor to the Petrograd Soviet. They are imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. February Revolution 23 February – 3 March 1917 (OS): 9-25 March 1917, State Committee on Food Supply establishes a state grain monopoly with fixed prices. State officials, merchants, and landowners oversaw the monopoly and imposed requisition levels on the peasantry because they assumed that currency values would remain stable. They were wrong. Currency values fell, peasants clashed with suppliers and food shortages became even worse. By October, there were food lines in most towns and cities. Desperate people who resorted to shoplifting and ransacking to feed their families were attacked by others who were furious that they didn’t have the goods. Food shortages delegitimized the Provisional Government because it used the same food supply policies (rationing, monopolies and requisitions) as the tsar. April Crisis 1 2
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Bolshevik popularity increased because they were the only party that was against Russian involvement in World War I.
The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies (16 June – 7 July 1917; NS) was dominated by Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and other pro-government parties. It: Kerensky Offensive, 1917 (aka June, July or Galician Offensive): Russia, led by its Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky, tried to turn the war in its favor by attacking Austria-Hungary on 1 July 1917 (NS). The Russian army was initially successful but it collapsed before the Austrian/German counter-offensive on July 6th. This offensive was very badly timed because: 16-20 July 1917 (NS), July Days: During July Days, soldiers, sailors, and industrial workers held spontaneous, armed demonstrations against the Russian Provisional Government that were more violent than the ones that began the February Revolution. The Provisional Government blamed the Bolsheviks for the increased violence, dispersed their party in a subsequent crackdown and arrested many of their leaders, including Leon Trotsky. Vladimir Lenin escaped to Finland. Aug-Sept 1917 (NS): Kornilov affair: General Kornilov, the most popular general in the Russian army in 1917, attempted to capture Petrograd, force out the Bolsheviks and establish a strictly disciplined right-wing dictatorship. He failed and the victory of the far-left became inevitable. 25-26 October 1917 (OS), Bolshevik Revolution 1 2 3 4 (aka the October Revolution, October Uprising, October Coup or Red October; 7-8 November (NS)): From October 25th to 26th (OS), the Bolshevik Red Guard took control of Petrograd’s government buildings, railway stations and telegraph office. They took full control of the government and transferred all power to the Congress of Soviets. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies created the Council of People’s Commissars (aka Sovnarkom) as its highest governmental body: 7 November 1917: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (aka known as Soviet Russia, Russian Federation or Russia) was created as an independent socialist state and it was one of the four original republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) when it was founded by treaty in December 1922. Ukraine, Belorussia (Belarus), and Transcaucasia (divided into Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia in 1940) were the other three. With more than half of its population and three-quarters of its territory, Russia was and remained the largest republic in the 25 November – 9 December 1917 (NS), Constituent Assembly Elections became the largest single election to that point in history when about 47 million (64%) Russians cast their secret ballots. The election results were surprising: Lenin and the Bolsheviks questioned the legitimacy of the election results and believed the Bolsheviks should retain power because the split in the SR party meant that it did not have a voting majority. The Bolsheviks arrested and replaced some of the Assembly’s newly elected deputies. One of the replacements was Uritsky, a loyal Bolshevik and future leader of the Petrograd CHEKA. Lenin quickly passed a resolution through the Central Committee that demobilized the army and sought an armistice with Germany to get Russia out of World War I. 3 March 2018, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (NS) Russia signed a treaty with the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria) to end its participation in World War I (1914-18). December 1917: All Russians receive 1/4 pound of bread per day. Bread and flour are sold openly for extortionate prices. Early December 1917 (NS): The Sovnarkom creates the CHEKA (aka the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage) to repress all political opposition of the Bolshevik government. The CHEKA was the first Soviet secret-police organization and it arrested, imprisoned, and executed without trial “enemies of the people. These included the bourgeoisie, clergy, libertarians and socialists of Petrograd, anarchists and other leftists. 1 2 3 4 5 January 5 1918 (NS): In the Constituent Assembly’s first meeting in Tauride Palace, they elected Viktor Chernov, a moderate SR leader and staunch opponent of Lenin, as chairman, and replaced the Soviet decrees on peace and land with SR policies. The Bolsheviks grew so frustrated that they walked out. When the SRs returned to Tauride Palace the next day, the Red Guard barricaded the entrances and said the Congress of Soviets had dissolved the assembly. Later that day, Lenin gave a speech and said that the Soviets had “taken all the power and rights into their own hands. The Constituent Assembly is the highest expression of the political ideals of bourgeois society, which are no longer necessary in a socialist state.” Few were surprised at this turn in events or that Russia’s first real attempt at a democratic government was quickly replaced by a Bolshevik dictatorship. Felix Dzerzhinsky (1 2 3), head of the CHEKA (1917-1922) and the GPU/OGPU (1922-1926). 18 January 1918: Constituent Assembly opens 28 January 1918: After significant Bolshevik losses in combat, Leon Trotsky reorganizes the Red Guard into a larger and more effective army that the Sovnarkom names the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army by decree. 1/14 February 1918 (OS/NS): Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar. 3 March 1918, Brest-Litovsk Treaty Leon Trotsky successfully ends Russia’s involvement in World War I but Russia must recognize the independence of Ukraine, Georgia and Finland; give up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary; and cede Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey. Lenin bitterly called the settlement “that abyss of defeat, dismemberment, enslavement and humiliation.” L The Russian Civil War, 1918-1923 (1 2 3) began because many groups opposed Lenin’s Bolsheviks (Reds 1 2 3) and one-party rule. Opposing groups were collectively called the Whites (1 2). Their moderate to conservative leaders had different agendas and largely acted independently of each other. They were: 8 March 1918: Russia became the first communist country in the world when the Bolshevik Party changed its name to the All-Russian Communist Party. In 1925, they changed their name to All-Union Communist Party and then to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the 19th Party Congress in 1952. 11 March 1918: Vladimir Lenin moved Russia’s capital further inland from Petrograd (St. Petersburg) to Moscow on 5 March 1917 and restored the Kremlin as the Soviet Union’s political center. March 1918: Leon Trotsky is appointed People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. 10-13 April 1918: The first major battle between the Red and White Armies is fought at Yekaterinodar; the White Army’s commander is killed in combat. 4-10 July 1918: The All-Russian Socialist Federated Soviets meet and adopt a Soviet Constitution that grants equal rights to men and women, . Mid-July 2018: Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their five children, and four attendants are executed in Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, a city on the Eastern side of the Ural Mountains, in the late night or early morning hours of 16/17 July 1918. Forensic investigation uncovered their remains in a forest near Yekaterinburg in 1991. 13 August 1918: The Red Army decisively wins the Battle of Sviyazhsk. 30 August 1918: An assassination attempt by Fanny Kaplan seriously injures Lenin’s face and shoulder on 5-10 September 1918: The Red Army defeats the White Army (Czechoslovak Legion and the People Army of Komuch), Battle of Kazan. Shortages in Russia
during the Revolution & Civil War
World War I Ends: On 11 November 1918, the Allies defeated Germany and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles annulled the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 1 2 Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was Russia’s internationally recognized head of state from 18 November 1918 to 6 February 1920. He failed to unite the White Movement and boosted Bolshevik morale by refusing to consider autonomy for ethnic minorities or cooperate with non-Bolshevik leftists. When the White Movement fell apart he was detained by French general Maurice Janin and the Czechoslovak Legion in Siberia. In January 1920, they turned him over to the Socialist-Revolutionaries and in February 1920, a CHEKA firing squad executed him in Irkutsk. December 1918-January 1919: France and other Allied nations send troops to Russia to support the White Movement. 1921: Kronstadt Rebellion The Bolsheviks banned the Mensheviks after the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921. 1 December 1922: The Council of People’s Commissars created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union). It was governed by the Communist Party and modelled after the first Sovnarkom. Lenin vs Stalin: Their Showdown Over the Birth October/Bolshevik Revolution, 1917 September 1921 – 16 June 1923: Kronstadt Rebellion The Bolsheviks banned the Mensheviks after the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921. 1 Holodomor: 1932-33 Ukrainian man-made famine under Joseph Stalin kills 3.9 million people. 1 2 3 4 5 The Trotsky Assassination on 21 August 1940 |