Well, they said it couldn’t be done: The Russian Revolution
of 1917 in under 900 words, 900 words being the limit of what would constitute
a good anniversary article for our community magazine. Well, of course it
can’t. It can’t be that short and go into any detail at all, at all. But,
answering the challenge from the wags at the magazine, I came up with the
following piece in under 700 words. Adding more words would have just been
gilding the lily. It may bore you, but it is, I think, a good “nutshell
article,” designed to give you just the basics. Will you remember it? Probably
not, but what the heck!
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| Russia - This map was a good one to pick because it appealed to me on several levels: right size for the blog, nice colors, shows the time zones, shows some of the territory gained over the years, and shows Persia. |
Russia is the largest country on earth, over six million six
hundred square miles, and covers eleven time zones of the twenty-four time
zones. The population is approximately 150 million, roughly half that of the
United States. Its history and statistics are remarkable and impressive.
For over 900 years, since the establishment of the first
cohesive territorial state, the people we now call the Russians, an amalgam or
groups that included the Huns, Vikings and Varangians, Slavs, Khazars from
Turkey, and traders and raiders from places like Greece, have been warring and
acquiring more territory. Many have tried to conquer the Russians, but none
succeeded. Many of those who tried were just absorbed into the populace and
their lands added to the expanse of the conquerors’.
For all of those over 900 years, the general populace, those
not of the ruling or merchant classes, were serfs. It was the social norm for
the times up until serfdom began to decline in the late Middle Ages. The
revolutions that began with the French Revolution were uprisings against the
excesses of the upper classes and the privation of the masses: millions spent
on palaces and playthings, little spent to improve the lives of the lesser
mortals. The Russian Revolution was much the same.
The trigger for revolution was Russia’s engagement in the
Russo-Japanese War that began in 1904. Having to do with rivalry and claims on
both sides, the old adversaries had been belligerents for many years past. Over
much of the same period, the late 1800’s, the Socialist movement had begun in
Russia. There was unrest and uprisings, and in 1881, Tsar Alexander II was
killed by revolutionaries. During the last decades of the nineteenth century,
various reform measures had been introduced in answer to the uprisings, but
none were very effective because few promises were kept. The astounding
monetary losses in the Russo-Japanese War, as Tsar Nicholas II kept on pouring
funds into the losing effort, resulted in further general privation. Again,
there were reforms promised made, and some were kept, but they were too little,
too late, and often revoked. The revolution that had been simmering began to
build up steam.
In those later decades of the eighteenth century, Russia,
its royalty closely related to the European monarchs, entered into mutual aid
alliances with several countries. Though, given the impoverished state of the
country, it should have remained neutral, those alliances obliged Russia to
enter into the First World War. It plunged in with depleted and misappropriated
funds, poor equipment, high casualties, and misguided strategy. It won a battle
or two, and the allies won the war that ended in November 1918, but it was a
loss as far as Russia’s people were concerned.
In late 1917, the losses provided the final momentum for the
Marxists to push toward the major uprising: the October Revolution. The Tsar had
abdicated earlier in the year, and an unsuccessful provisional government was
formed. The Russian Revolution immediately led to the five-year Russian Civil War
begun in November 1917. That war was between the anti-communist White Army, the
monarchists and capitalists who were destined to be completely ousted, and the Red
Army. You’d need a PhD, a score card, and a great deal of time to unravel and
understand the intertwining strands of the Marxist groups, subgroups, and
factions of the era.
For a blink of time in early 2018, Russia was declared a
democratic federal republic. It couldn’t last. In January 1918, the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee was formed. The majority were Bolsheviks, followed
by the Social Revolutionaries. In essence, it was the beginning of the stand of
Marxist-Leninist communism. Were the “serfs” better off then? Are they now?
Skipping over a lot of the dates and details, the Russian
Revolution can be reduced to under
700 words, but this nutshell merely skims the surface. Those who do really have
the time and the interest in this interesting milestone in our world’s history,
can begin on line, looking up The Russian Revolution. That simple search will
lead to all the little tributaries that met in the river that became the Russian
Revolution and flowed on from there for decades after.
(Article word count: 698)
