Question by a_special_chicka: Russian revolution to Stalin?
umm.. well this is a complicated essay question/topic that i don’t really understand and was just wondering if anybody could help me??
this is the topic:
Analyze why two revolutions occurred in Russia, and how this resulted in communism. Include the roles of Nicholas II, Kerensky, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, and why Stalin emerged as a totalitarian dictator.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Spellbound *JPA RIP flackie
You’ll have to write your own piece, here are the basic facts:
The February Revolution was a direct result of Nicholas’s policies. The Russian people were extremely radicalised even before the start of the war. The war saw political agitation in the factories and in the military increase enormously. Nicholas’s failures in the war were seen, because he took personal command of the army, as his personal failings.
The State Duma was emasculated by Nicholas, again pushing even moderates towards the radical political parties. The rapid industrialisation of the country from about 1880 that had really accelerated in the war years saw living conditions and working conditions become truly appalling for millions. And this industrialisation was nearly all state sponsored – textile works for uniforms, Iron and steel works for the railways and armaments works for the military.
The interesting thing about the February Revolution is that it was not guided, there was no overall leader, no overarching ideology and no grand scheme to change the country. The Revolution was a bread riot that spiralled out of control, the Tsar was at the front and he decided to return to Petrograd to solve the revolt, but, by the time he got there no-one, not even his normally fiercely loyal cossack regiments were prepared to support him.
So, in summary – the seeds of the February Revolution were planted in the 1880s with the massive industrialisation, they were watered in 1905 by the failed revolution; but they blossomed because of the war, and Nicholas’s inept handling of military and domestic problems.
The Provisional Government established after February 1917, initially led by Prince Lvov, later by Alexandr Kerenskii, failed to address the reasons for the February Revolution. It did not withdraw from the war, it did not solve the crisis in agriculture and it did not feed the hungry in the cities. Lenin’s party – the Bolsheviks organised in the factories, the army and in the Navy, and became popular because of three things, the attempt by General Kornilov to march on Petrograd and the slogan “Bread, Land and Peace” they also realised that the soviets (councils) which had sprung up across the country, represented real democracy, and that by ensuring that their people were in key positions, they could dominate them, so they began the slogan “All Power to the Soviets”.
Stalin’s role was that of party thug and administrator. He was also, at the time of the October Revolution, the editor of the party newspaper – Pravda. He came to power by using the office of General Secretary to promote people loyal to him, to demote or sack those that were not loyal and by playing factions off against each other – he was a master manipulator. By 1928 / 29 he was in sole charge of the country. (Lenin died in 1924)
See:
The October Revolution – Roy Medvedev.
The Soviet Union 1917 – 1991 by Martin MacCauley
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917february&Year=1917
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917&navi=byYear
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