Russia in Revolution 1914–1924

Tsarist Russia and the First World War

In 1914, Russia was an autocracy ruled by Tsar Nicholas II. The country was vast and overwhelmingly rural, with a small industrial working class concentrated in cities like Petrograd. The First World War exposed all of Russia's weaknesses.

Military failures: Russia suffered catastrophic defeats — over 5 million soldiers killed, wounded or captured by 1917. The army was poorly equipped; commanders incompetent. Nicholas II personally took command in 1915, which meant he was personally blamed for every defeat.

The Home Front: The war disrupted the food supply. Bread queues formed in Petrograd in the bitter winter of 1916–17. Workers went on strike; transport broke down. The Tsarina relied on Rasputin for advice about the war and her son's haemophilia — this scandalised the royal court and undermined confidence in the Tsar.

The February Revolution (March 1917)

In February/March 1917 (old Russian calendar = February), strikes and bread riots in Petrograd escalated. Crucially, troops called out to suppress protesters refused to fire on crowds and joined the revolution. The Duma refused to obey Nicholas's order to dissolve; the Tsar lost control. Nicholas abdicated on 2 March 1917.

A Provisional Government took power, committed to continuing the war. Alongside it, workers' and soldiers' councils (Soviets) formed — especially the Petrograd Soviet. This created "dual power": two authorities ruling simultaneously.

The Bolshevik Seizure of Power (October/November 1917)

The Provisional Government's fatal decision was to keep fighting the war. By autumn 1917 it had lost all credibility. Lenin (leader of the Bolsheviks, a Marxist revolutionary party) returned from exile in April 1917, declaring in his April Theses that the Bolsheviks would not support the Provisional Government and calling for peace, land and Soviet power.

The October Revolution: On the night of 24–25 October 1917, the Bolsheviks (led by Trotsky's Military Revolutionary Committee) seized key points in Petrograd — bridges, telegraph offices, railway stations. The Winter Palace was stormed; the Provisional Government arrested. The Bolsheviks declared Soviet power.

Why did the Bolsheviks succeed?

• People exhausted by war; the Provisional Government had failed to deliver peace, land or bread
• Bolshevik slogans: "Peace, Land, Bread!" and "All Power to the Soviets!"
• Trotsky's brilliant organisation of the Military Revolutionary Committee
• Bolshevik control of the Petrograd Soviet
• Weakness and unpopularity of the Provisional Government (especially the Kerensky Offensive July 1917 — a military disaster)

The Civil War (1918–1921)

Following the revolution, Russia descended into civil war. The Reds (Bolsheviks) fought the Whites (diverse anti-Bolshevik forces — monarchists, liberals, SRs, foreign interventionists). Why did the Reds win?

• Unified command; Trotsky built the Red Army through discipline and conscription
• Control of central Russia — railway network, industry, population centres
• Whites were disunited — no shared aim, spread across vast territory, no single leader
• War Communism — grain requisitioned from peasants to feed the army (brutal but effective short-term)
• Red Terror — Cheka (secret police) eliminated opponents

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918): Bolsheviks made a humiliating peace with Germany — lost Finland, Ukraine, Baltic states. Essential to stop the war and consolidate power, but massively unpopular.

Consolidation under Lenin (1921–1924)

War Communism caused famine (5 million died, 1921–22) and economic collapse. The Kronstadt Uprising (March 1921) — a mutiny by sailors who had supported the revolution — shocked Lenin.

New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921): Lenin allowed limited private trade and small businesses; peasants could sell surplus grain. A "strategic retreat" to allow recovery. Industrial output and food production recovered.

Lenin died in January 1924. He left behind a one-party state, Cheka secret police, banned other parties, and a power struggle over his succession between Stalin and Trotsky.