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What is Russian revolution?
The fall of monarchy in February 1917 and the events of October are normally called the Russian Revolution. The Tsar Nicholas II was a despotic and autocratic ruler. The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898 by socialists who respected Marx’s ideas. However, because of government policing, it had to operate as an illegal organisation. Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists. So peasants, not workers, would be the main force of the revolution, and Russia could become socialist more quickly than other countries. Socialists formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900. January 9, 1905 became the dress rehearsal for the Revolution of 1917. On this day, thousands of peaceful workers killed and wounded by the troops of the Czar, when they came to present a petition to him. This started disturbance throughout Russia including the army and navy. It prepared the people for revolution. This incident is also known as 'Bloody Sunday'. In Russia, the First World War was initially popular and people rallied around Tsar Nicholas II. As the war continued, support wore thin. The destruction of crops and buildings led to over 3 million refugees in Russia. The situation discredited the government and the Tsar. Soldiers did not wish to fight such a war. The war also had a severe impact on industry.

In February 1917, food shortages were deeply felt in the workers' quarters. Parliamentarians wishing to present elected government opposed to the Tsars desire to dissolve the Duma. On 22nd February, a lock out took place at a factory on the right bank of River Neva. On 23rd February, 1917, workers in fifty factories called a strike in sympathy of the factory workers of the River Neva.  In many factories women led the way to strikes.

As the conflict between the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks grew, Lenin feared the Provisional Government would setup a dictatorship. In September 1917, Lenin started discussions for an uprising against the government. Bolshevik supporters in the army, Soviets and factories were brought together. On 16th October, 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power. A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet under Leon Trotskii to organise the seizure. The date of the event was kept a secret. The uprising began on 24th October. Sensing trouble, Prime Minister Kerenskii had left the city to summon troops which later seized government offices and arrested ministers. In the years that followed, the Bolsheviks became the only party to participate in the elections to the All Russian Congress of Soviets, which became the Parliament of the country.



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