Chapter - Socialism in Europe and Russian Revolution

The Age of Social Change

• The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way
in which society was structured.

• Not everyone in Europe, however, wanted a complete transformation.

• Some were ‘conservatives’, while others were ‘liberals’ or ‘radicals’.

Who were Conservatives?

• They resisted change.

• After the revolution, they started accepting change provided it was slow and had links
and respected the past.
Who were Liberals?

• They wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.

• They argued for an elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted by a

well trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials. They were not
Democrats.

Who were Radicals?

• They wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a country’s
population.

• They disliked concentration of property in the hands of a few, not the existence of private
property.
Industrial Society and Social Change

• This was the time of economic and social change.

• Men, women and children were pushed into factories for low wages.

• Most of the factory owners were often liberals and radicals and they felt that workers’
efforts must be encouraged.

The Coming of Socialism to Europe

• Socialists were against private property.

• They had different visions of the future.

• Some believed in cooperatives.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels added that industrial society was capitalist.

Support for Socialism

• By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe.

• Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better living
and working conditions.

The Russian Revolution

• In 1914, Nicholas II ruled the Russian empire.

• The Russian Empire included territory around Moscow, current-day Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
Economy and Society during Russian Empire

• About 85 percent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from agriculture.

• The industry was limited in number.

• Workers were divided into groups but they did unite to strike work when they were
dissatisfied.

• Peasants had no respect for nobility, very unlike the French peasant.

• Russian peasants were the only peasant community which pooled their land and their
commune divided it.
Socialism in Russia

• All political parties were illegal in Russia before 1914.

• In 1900, the Russian Socialist Democratic Labour Party was formed.

→ It struggled to give peasants their rights over land that belonged to nobles.

→ As land was divided among peasants periodically and it was felt that peasants and
not workers would be the main source of the revolution.

• But Lenin did not agree with this as he felt that peasants were not one social group.
→ The party was divided into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
→ Lenin led the Bolshevik group.
A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution
• Liberals wanted to end the autocracy of the Tsar.

• They worked towards demanding a constitution during the Revolution of 1905.

Bloody Sunday

• In 1904, prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 percent.

• When four members of the Putilov Iron Works were dismissed, there was a call for
industrial action.

• Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in

working hours and increase in wages.
→ This procession was attacked by the police and Cossacks.
→ Over 100 workers were killed.
→ Strikes took place as a reaction.
→ People demanded a constituent assembly.
• The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.
→ The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and announced the election of a
second Duma.
→ Tsar constituted the third Duma with conservative politicians.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

• In Russia, the first world war was initially very popular but later the support grew thin.

• Anti-German sentiments ran high.

• Russian armies lost badly in Germany and Austria.

• The war also affected the industry.

• There was labour shortage.

• By 1916, railway lines began to break down.

• The small workshops were closed down.

• There was shortage of grain and hence of bread.

The February Revolution in Petrograd

Events

• In the winter of 1917, Petrograd was grim.

→ There was a food shortage in the quarters of workers.
• On 22th February, a lockout took place at a factory.
→ Workers of 50 other factories joined in sympathy.
→ Women also led and participated in the strikes. This came to be called the
International Women’s Day.

• The government imposed a curfew.

• On the 24th and 25th, the government called out the cavalry and police to keep an eye on
them.

• On 25th February, the government suspended the Duma and politicians spoke against
this measure.

• On 27th February, the police headquarters were ransacked.

→ Cavalry was called out again.
→ An officer was shot at the barracks of a regiment and other regiments mutinied,
voting to join the striking workers gathered to form a Soviet or council. This was
the Petrograd Soviet.

A delegation went to meet the Tsar, military commanders advised him to abdicate.

• On 2nd March, the Tsar abdicated.

• Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the country.

Effects

• Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.

• Soviets were set up everywhere.

• In individual areas, factory committees were formed which began questioning the way
industrialists ran their factories.
→ Soldiers' committees were formed in the army.
The provisional government saw its power declining and Bolshevik influence grow.
→ Therefore, it decided to take stern measures against the spreading discontent.

• It resisted attempts by workers to run factories and arrested leaders.

• Peasants and the socialist revolutionary leaders pressed for a redistribution of land.
→ Land committees were formed and peasants seized land between July and
September 1917.

The Revolution of October 1917

Events

• On 16th October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and Bolshevik Party to
agree to a socialist seizure of power.
→ A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet to organise
seizureUprising began on 24th October.
→ Prime Minister Kerenskii left the city to summon troops.
→ Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices and
protect the Winter Palace.

• In response, Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to seize government offices and

arrest the ministers.
→ The 'Aurora' ship shelled the Winter Palace.
→ Other ships took over strategic points.
→ By night the city had been taken over and ministers had surrendered.

• All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd approved the Bolshevik action.

• By December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow - Petrograd area.

Effects

• Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917.

• The land was declared social property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the
nobility.

• Use of old titles was banned.

• New uniforms were designed for the army and officials.

• Russia became a one-party state.

• Trade unions were kept under party control.

The Civil War

• When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up.

• Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the

Bolshevik uprising. → They were supported by French, American, British and
Japanese troops.
→ All these fought a war with the Bolsheviks.

Making a Socialist Society

• The Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised during the civil war.
• Rapid construction and industrialisation started.

• An extended schooling system developed.

Stalin and Collective Farming
Russia was facing a crisis of shortage of food grains. The peasants refused to sell grains at
the prices fixed by the Government, resulting in the shortage of grain supplies in many
cities.
• Stalin took over the leadership of the party after the death of Lenin. He introduced strict
measures. In 1928, the party members visited many villages and raided rich peasants
known as the ‘kulaks.
The party converted small landholdings of many peasants into one collective large farm.
All large, collectivised farms were cultivated by the farmers with the help of tools pooled
together. The profits of the farms were shared among the cultivators.
Many peasants resisted the policy of collectivization. They were severely punished by the
state. Many of them were deported and exiled. Stalin allowed only some independent
cultivations.

Global Influence

• In many countries, communist parties were formed.

• By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had given socialism a
global face and world stature.

• By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a socialist
country had declined.