THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN LESS THAN 700 WORDS

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!

                                                             

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)