Considered by many historians as one of the main historical events of the 20th century, the Russian revolution, started in 1917, represented the construction of a state and a society considered by many specialists as socialist. The Russian Revolution had several phases that provided important changes in the direction of construction of Russian society.
The Russian Revolution began in February 1917 when the people of St. Petersburg took to the streets against Tsar Nicholas II, asking for improvements in living, working and food conditions, as well as the withdrawal of Russian troops from World War I World.
Due to this popular manifestation and a political situation not favorable to the despotic power of Nicholas II, tsarism had finally, a provisional government being constituted in its place, which would govern the country until the elaboration of a Constitution for the Russia. The provisional government was supported by the Duma, the Russian parliament, which administered the country without, however, being able to meet the demands of the Russian population.
Also in February, the workers of St. Petersburg re-created the soviets. First created in 1905, during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the soviets were the workers' councils, formed only by delegates of working origin, and whose function was to be a political administration body and economic. The soviets were also formed inside the factories, becoming management bodies for the production process.
The simultaneous existence of the Duma and the soviets characterized the situation that was called double power, with the Duma representing the interests of the Russian bourgeoisie and aristocracy, and the Soviets, the interests of the workers.
Some political parties disputed the direction of the revolutionary movement, which expanded between February and October 1917, reaching the entire territory of the Russian Empire. The main parties were on the left of the political scene. Two of them were the result of a split in the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RDSP), which gave rise to the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.
The Mensheviks were generally in favor of the revolution passing initially through a democracy bourgeois representative to stimulate the development of the forces of capitalist production, a necessary stage for the arrival to communism. The main Menshevik leader at that time was Kerensky, who even headed the Provisional Government until October 1917.
The Bolsheviks disagreed with this position, as they supported the seizure of state power by the workers, with the leadership of their own party. The objective was to constitute the dictatorship of the proletariat, which would lead Russian society towards socialism, with the State as the main driving force behind the development of the productive forces.
There was also an important participation of anarchists in the organization of the Russian working masses, mainly linked to the struggle of the factory committees and the constitution of a strong workers and peasants movement in Ukraine, led by Nestor Makhno.
Also on the side of the peasants were the Socialist-Revolutionaries, a political party that represented this social group, which made up the vast majority of the Russian population. The peasants did not wait for actions from the Provisional Government to see their main demand, which was the distribution of land belonging to the nobility and the Orthodox Church, fulfilled. Land occupations grew between February and October, strengthening the struggle for agrarian reform.
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But it was the Bolsheviks who managed to lead the movement, especially after the arrival of Vladimir Ilich Lenin in April 1917. As one of the main Bolshevik leaders, Lenin managed to guide the party towards the seizure of state power, seeking the support of the masses through two expressions of main order: "Peace, bread and land", which aimed to point out the need to withdraw the country from World War I, end the hunger of the population and carry out the reform agrarian; the slogan “all power to the soviets” indicated the need for power to be based on organization created by the workers, understanding the working class as leadership in the construction of the socialism.
In October 1917, the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries decided to seize state power. The main action took place in St. Petersburg after the formation of the Revolutionary Guards by the city's soviet. The main action was the taking of the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government met. From that moment on, the Bolsheviks would build their leadership in the revolution and a new state in Russia.
With the seizure of power, a new stage of the Russian Revolution began, characterized by the civil war, which lasted from 1917 to 1921. The Bolsheviks formed the Red Army, which grew rapidly, and began to face the Army White, formed by generals linked to the Russian aristocracy and bourgeoisie, with the support of the capitalist countries of the Western. Another group that came to face the White Army was the Makhnovitchina, made up of peasants and workers linked to Nestor Makhno.
The civil war was made up of hard fighting and led society to a situation of extreme poverty, with the lack of food and the death of hundreds of thousands of people. To organize the nascent state, the Bolsheviks adopted as a form of political and economic administration what became known as war communism, which consisted in the militarization of work in the cities and the confiscation of agricultural production from the peasants. This situation caused extreme wear with the latter, in addition to the practice of confiscation having encouraged the formation of a clandestine market.
The civil war ended in 1921 with the victory of the Red Army, the elimination of political opposition to the Bolsheviks and the dismantling of Makhno's army. Another symbolic fact of the end of the civil war was the crushing by the Red Army of the revolt of Kronstadt, held in a naval fortress that represented the main focus of the fight against tsarism since 1905. The main demand of the insurgents was the election of free soviets, without the Bolshevik monopoly, in a position similar to that which existed in February 1917. Threatened, the Bolsheviks crushed the revolt, putting an end to the so-called third Russian Revolution - after the the first of February 1917 and the second of October 1917 – and consolidating his power in command of the State. From that moment on, the period of construction of the Soviet State began, marked by economic reconstruction and internal struggles for the power of the party.
By Me. Tales Pinto
