To What Extent Did the Great War Cause the Revolution in Russia of 1917?
To what extent did the Great War caused the revolution in Russia of 1917?
First of all there are different opinions how much the Great War had an effect of the revolution in Russia of 1917. The Great War was from 1914 to 1918 and the revolution in Russia (also known as the February and October Revolutions) starts at the 23rd of February and culminates about the 26th of October (after the Julian calendar). In my opinion, the Great War was a basic cause for the revolution in 1917, but I think it was more the last straw that broke the camel’s back regarding the issues that Russia had for centuries.
The whole revolution started with the February Revolution on the women’s day in St. Petersburg at the 23rd of February after the Julian calendar, because women started to leave the factories to demonstrate against food shortages and after a while men joined them. Soon nearly every industry, shop and enterprise went on strike. The tsar of Russia, Nicholas, ordered military forces to intervene, but they were not loyal anymore and many joined the demonstrating people. This caused fights and caused a total chaos in St. Petersburg. This leaded Nicholas to hand over his power to his brother Michael, but Michael did not accept this offer and left Russia. So a provisional government was formed by leading members of the Duma, which means a kind of council, but this power was not really stable. In addition Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, came back to Russia and tries to provoke another revolution to overthrow the provisional government. Because of this troops were adopted to arrest the Bolsheviks, because they were accused to cooperate with Germany, but Lenin escaped to Finland. The results of Lenin’s efforts were seen as the Bolsheviks won the majority votes within the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. After this the October Revolution happened: Lenin wanted to get on the 10th of October the 12 Russian party leaders to make a revolution, so Lenin would be able to
First of all there are different opinions how much the Great War had an effect of the revolution in Russia of 1917. The Great War was from 1914 to 1918 and the revolution in Russia (also known as the February and October Revolutions) starts at the 23rd of February and culminates about the 26th of October (after the Julian calendar). In my opinion, the Great War was a basic cause for the revolution in 1917, but I think it was more the last straw that broke the camel’s back regarding the issues that Russia had for centuries.
The whole revolution started with the February Revolution on the women’s day in St. Petersburg at the 23rd of February after the Julian calendar, because women started to leave the factories to demonstrate against food shortages and after a while men joined them. Soon nearly every industry, shop and enterprise went on strike. The tsar of Russia, Nicholas, ordered military forces to intervene, but they were not loyal anymore and many joined the demonstrating people. This caused fights and caused a total chaos in St. Petersburg. This leaded Nicholas to hand over his power to his brother Michael, but Michael did not accept this offer and left Russia. So a provisional government was formed by leading members of the Duma, which means a kind of council, but this power was not really stable. In addition Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, came back to Russia and tries to provoke another revolution to overthrow the provisional government. Because of this troops were adopted to arrest the Bolsheviks, because they were accused to cooperate with Germany, but Lenin escaped to Finland. The results of Lenin’s efforts were seen as the Bolsheviks won the majority votes within the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. After this the October Revolution happened: Lenin wanted to get on the 10th of October the 12 Russian party leaders to make a revolution, so Lenin would be able to
Bibliography: http://www.johndclare.net/Russ3.htm http://www.st-petersburg-life.com/st-petersburg/1917-russian-revolution http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/timeline/1917.htm http://suite101.com/article/what-were-the-difficulties-of-governing-russia-in-1900-a246477 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/eastern_front_01.shtml