Russian Revolution of 1917

[Cobra]

For anyone who is willing to help, this is my paper for my World Studies class, 1 of 3 papers...if anyone wishes to read through and give me their 2 cents on it, all help is appreciated

I. Introduction
I believe that the Russian Revolution was a big turning point during the time frame of 1914-1945. Several small sparks ignited the Russian Revolution, and those small sparks blew up, causing one of the greatest Revolutions of all time.

II. Causes of the Revolution

Causes-

A) Marxism- Karl Marx predicted that a revolution would take place. He believed that the workers would eventually overthrow their owners. When I went to www.dictionary.com I typed in Marxism, it gave me the following definition:

The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.

Bourgeoisie and nobles were pretty much the top dogs of society. The working class however, didn’t want it to be that way. Low wages, low respect, and horrendous hunger can drive a man crazy. Imagine hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these men, all angry about the same thing, and starting a revolution.

The workers revolted, and the owners were overthrown. A once capitalist society turned into a socialist, and classless society.

Gavrillo Princip- Princip, a Serbian boy of only 19 years old was such an aggressive nationalist, he took two lives based solely off his hatred for Austria. On June 28th, 1914, Gavrillo Princip, a new member of the Black Hand was sitting, and waiting, for Archduke Francs Ferdinand. The Archduke was there to give a speech on why Austria should be praised throughout Serbia. 7 Members of the Black Hand were then stationed along the motorcade route, 2 chickened out, 1 threw a hand grenade which hit the wrong car, injuring an officer, and Gavrillo Princip fired 2 fatal shots, killing the Archduke and his wife. In result of the shooting, Austria sent Serbia a list of outrageous demands. Serbia did not meet all of the demands, and Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany, who wanted to build a railroad through both Austria and Serbia, allied with Serbia. Russia then allied with Serbia. France then allied with Russia. So the Axis vs. the Allies looked like this:

Germany & Austria vs. Serbia & Russia & France

After Alliances were made, Belgium declared its neutrality.

Germany realized they had a two front war ahead of them. So they developed the Schlieffen Plan. They realized Russia was slow to mobilize, so they developed a plan in which they would attack and defeat France quickly, and move their forces East to defeat Russia before they reached Germany. This plan didn’t work. In order to get to France, Germany had to invade Belgium, so they did. This made Great Britain angry that Germany would invade a neutral country. Great Britain then declared war on Germany.

Not only did Great Britain declaring war on Germany screw up the Schlieffen Plan, but France was a little tougher than Germany took it to be. However, Frances’ toughness did no good, because when Germany went to attack the Russian army, Russia was defeated.

Rasputin- A really mad monk. Rasputin actually was not a monk, however, in the Russian Orthodox Church. “In fact he was amazingly corrupt and fond of worldly pleasures.” (Ellis P.719) Nobody thought he had amazing powers to heal, other than the czarina, Alexandra. Her son, Alexis, suffered from Hemophilia, which is a disease in which even the smallest cut can lead to uncontrollable bleeding. Alexandra believed Rasputin healed her son time after time. His influence over her was incredible, and had reached new heights. If and whenever he wanted to, a new official could be appointed, or fired. If he liked you, you were hired and had a top job, no matter how unqualified you were. Soon enough, members of the czarinas family caught on to Rasputin. On December 29th, 1916, a nephew of the czar named Prince Felix Yussuopov lured Rasputin into his palace. Felix fed him cake, and wine, both of which contained poison. Rasputin however did not die. Felix then ran upstairs to consult his fellow conspirators, and came back with a revolver. Rasputin jumped up and tried to run away, he reached the iron gates, and was shot and then clubbed. He was then picked up, and dumped into the Neva River, where he was found dead later. His death was a happy time for many citizens of Russia, but Alexandra was devastated.


Russian Revolution-
B) The Russian revolution of 1917 industrialized Russia. Many key things happened during this revolution, and I will list them soon enough. In Russia, politics, economy, and the people were all affected, and all were changed. Below I am going to list some key dates in the Russian Revolution, my explanation on why a certain event was key is in bold.

February 1917- after several days of demonstration, Russian troops were ordered to open fire in Petrograd. The Tsar abdicated when he catches wind that Moscow has joined the revolution as well, and an agreement is reached between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government, which was headed by Lvov. This was key because it showed the Russian citizens that the Tsar feared the Russian Revolution, and would run and hide, or give someone their way rather than being overthrown.

June 3rd, 1917- First All-Russia Congress of Workers and Soldiers Soviets opens. I believe this was important because it is just the beginning, and a motivational point to all Russian working class citizens.

July 3rd and 4th, 1917- Workers and soldiers in Petrograd demand that the Soviet takes power. Sporadic fighting results and the Soviet restores order with troops brought back from the front. Trotsky is arrested. Lenin then goes into hiding. A new provisional government is set up with Kerensky at its head. I think this was important for the same reason as the events on June 3rd. It gave the Russian working class a lot of confidence to overthrow their current government.

November 12th-14th, 1917- Elections to the Constituent Assembly result in Socialist Revolutionaries being the largest party.

1919- The white armies attack the Bolsheviks from all points, but the red army is finally victorious. This is important because it shows that the Red army is still strong no matter how depleted they are.

1924- Lenin dies. Trotsky is defeated by a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamaenev, and Zinoviev. Though Stalin stays in the background it is he who is the real power as the other two will shortly discover. This is very important in my opinion because it is establishing a new power for Russia, and is the most important part in this revolution.

Overall this revolution ultimately did the following:

Ø Strengthened nationalism throughout Russia.
Ø Overthrew a bad type of government.
Ø Removed a “cancer” out of power.
Ø Strengthened politics, economy and morale.
Ø Industrialized Russia, which helped Russia make themselves a better military, although in my opinion there was no way Russia could have a worse military.


Effects-

“The Russian Revolution of 1917 had many lasting long-term effects on the Russian people and the outside world. Although Communism was faced with stiff opposition throughout the twentieth century, it was still a powerful force. An effect experienced in the time of the harsh Stalin was "collectivization." Collectivization was the process of bringing all farmland under the ruler's control. Collectivization had tremendous effects on the people of Russia because they were forced to work, not for themselves, but for the government. By 1932, 88% of the farmland in Russia was Stalin's. The process was almost complete by 1937. The peasantry was enserfed. Any resistance was crushed right away. The "Whites" tried to resist the "Reds" but were destroyed in the aftermath of the revolution. Even those who were not directly resisting were sometimes disposed of either through execution or GULAG (slave labor camps in Siberia).” -

And this is where I stopped working, im starting up working now...so if anyone has any ideas of effects of the 1917 Revolution let me know

[greenlead]

Here's my opinion. You are hereby warned that I am not an English prof. or any prof. for that matter. I'm not sure what level you are trying to write at, I assumed a pretty high one, at which my suggestions are aimed.

Intended audience? Are you writing to intellectuals with much reading on the book, or are you writing to fellow students, who may or may not have ever heard of the book.

DO NOT ever start a report with "I believe". Some teachers get mad enough that they will tear up a report right then and there. They expect it to be your opinion. Otherwise they would have told you to plaigarize.

Instead of listing in deapth how you obtained the definition of Marxism, simply quote it and list it as a source (ie: dictionary.com). Focus on the point of the paper, not on how to obtain definitions.

Put the definition in quotes.

"Top dogs" should be in quotes.

Numbers in writing should always be written as words (ie: seven, not 7/

France's toughness, not Frances'.

Avoid six-year-old words. (No offense intended to any six-year-olds reading this.) Words such as: "happy", "sad", "good", and "bad" should be replaced with more desciptive words that fit the context. Use a thesaurus, such as the one at "http://www.m-w.com".

Does your professor/ teacher want you to write from a first-person perspective? They probably want you to write from the third person.

"Tsar abdicated...catches": Verb tense aggreement.

"Soviet takes": do you mean "Soviet take"?


"Overall...ultimately": Repetitive, choose one.

I hope I've helped you at least a little bit. It was fun! Good luck!

[hwpd]

or you can as well use the KISS method... That's what I usually use...
Keep It Simple Stupid

(no offences)

[txinvestigator1]

CObra, I read the report and the content was well done. I have no idea of the format you have been instructed to use, so I won't comment there.

I agree with green on most everything else. Try to write a higher reading level.

Take this; "I believe that the Russian Revolution was a big turning point during the time frame of 1914-1945. Several small sparks ignited the Russian Revolution, and those small sparks blew up, causing one of the greatest Revolutions of all time"

to something like this, "The Russian Revolutiuon was a pivotal event during the years 1914 to 1945. There were several events, that in an and of themselves seemed insignificant, that occured together; thereby, triggering one of the largest revolutions in history"

That is just a very rough idea, but you get the picture. Good luck

[greenlead]

Gasp! Someone actually agreed with me???? j/k

[jonesg11]

NOOOOOOOOO!! RP has gone to pot, not english lessons now! I was never taught english grammer in school. The first time I heard about the 8 parts of speech or however many there are, was in college for the english placement test. Do I need to mention that I failed basic english? ;) :D

[Irishbravo]

screw the grammar, work on your history. just off the top of my head you missed the assasination of the previous czar, the narodriyah volneiyah movment, the role of german inteligence in subversive/anticzarsit movments bolsheviks/mensheviks/democrats and socialist revolutionaries. the failure of the okrana etc etc.
also no political theory causes revolutuion, social forces cause popular discontent which is then harnesed by political forces to advance an agenda. the russian revolution ended in the 1920 when the whites where defeated and the troika fell to stalin. once stalin was in power, no more revolution.
more to follow i need some sleep