UNIT 24 POLITICAL REVOLUTION:

RUSSIA
Structure
24.1 Introduction
24.2 Prelude to Revolution: Russian Specificities
24.2.1

The Russian Working Class

24.2.2

The Tsarist Autocracy

24.2.3

The Decembrist Uprising

24.2.4

The Russian d t e l ~ i ~ e n t s i a

24.2.5

Populism

24.2.6

Growth of Social Democracy

24.3 The 1905Revolution: A Dress Rehearsal for 1917

24.4 Russia in the Sirst World War
24.5 The October Revolution
24.5.1

Who Were the Bolsheviks

24.5.2

Soviets

24.5.3

Lenin's April Thesis

24.5.4

Worsening Situation

24.5.5

The Kornilov Mutiny

24.5.6

The Bolsheviks Take Power

24.5.7

Early Legislation of the New Regime

24.6 The Legacy of the Russian Revolution

24.7 Summary
24.8 Exercises
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24.1 INTRODUCTION
The previous Unit looked at the French Revolution not just as French or a European
phenomenon,but as a global one. The focus of the Unit was not on the details of the
Revolution but on.how it influenced the politics and society in the post-revolution
period. This Unit on Russian Revolution will go into details ofthe Revol~itionartG dso
on the 19"' century social conditions of Russia that led to it. The Russ;m Revolution
was an unprecedented event in the sense that it was the first re ;elution that was
based on a concrete and explicit theory of revolution. The corn; ' ~ofg the revolution,
though not its details, had been both predicted and anticipa?pc.Anothercrucial aspect
of this Revolution was that it was not projected as a national or a Russian event.
Russian Revolution was visualized as an important step in the coming of the world
socialist revolution. It was for this reason that the Russian Revolution was called, nct
a national revolution but a world revolution, by many scholars. This Unit will examine
a range of factors that prepared the Russian cociety for the revolution. It would then