The Russian Revolution

In the October Revolution of 1917, socialists came to overtake the government of Russia and the fall of the monarchy in February 1917 and the events of October came to be termed the Russian Revolution.

The Russian Empire in 1914

In the year 1914, Russia came to be ruled by Tsar Nicholas II and its empire. The empire in Russia included the current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, also parts of Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The majority of the population belonged to Orthodox Christianity.

Economy and Society

At the beginning of the 20th century, the population in Russia had mostly agriculturalists, who cultivated land for the market and also for sustainability. St. Peterburg and Moscow were some prominent industrial areas and the craftspersons took much of the production, but there existed large factories alongside the craft workshops supervised by the government to ensure minimum wages and also limited hours of work. Workers were divided into social groups based on skills. Despite the divisions, workers stopped working when they came into disagreement with employers about the working conditions.

The church, crown, and nobility owned most of the lands which were cultivated by the peasants and the nobles got their powers as well as positions based on the services to the Tsar. The peasants in Russia wanted the land of the nobles.

Socialism in Russia

The political parties formed and operated in Russia were legal before the year 1914. In 1898, socialists founded the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party concerning the ideas of Marx. Some of the socialists in Russia felt that the Russian peasant’s custom of dividing the lands periodically made for some natural socialists. The socialists came to be active in the countryside and also formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the year 1900 the party struggled for the rights of peasants and demanded land which belonged to nobles be transferred to the peasants and the party came to be divided over the strategy of the organization.

Vladimir Lenin felt that in a repressive society like that of Tsarist Russia, the party should be well disciplined and also control the number as well as the quality of its members and the Mensheviks felt the party should be open for all.

A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution

Russia had been an autocracy and since the beginning of the 20th century, Tsar was not subjected to the Parliament during the Revolution of 1905, Russia along with the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, worked with the peasants as well as the workers for demanding a constitution. For the workers of Russia, bad times started in the year 1904 as the prices of imported goods rose and their wages came to be declined by 20 percent. Workers went on strike and demanded a reduction in the working to eight hours, and an increase in wages as well as improvement in the working conditions.

The procession came to be attacked by the police as well as Cossacks when they reached the Winter Palace and the incident was named Bloody Sunday, which started a series of events that resulted in the 1905 Revolution, during which Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament and after 1905, the committees and the unions came to be worked unofficially, as they came to be declared illegal.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

The First World War broke out in 1914 between two European alliances- The Central Powers (Germany, Austria, and Turkey) and France, Britain, and Russia ( later Italy and Romania). The war became popular and continued, Tsar refused to consult the main parties at Duma. The war was different on both the eastern front and the western front. Between the years 1914 and 1916, the Russian army lost badly in both Germany and Austria. There was damage to food and infrastructure, and by 1916 winter, the people of the city began riots for bread and flour.

Read More: The Russian Revolution

Chapter 2 of History- Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution deals with the emergence of socialism in Europe and how the Russian Revolution came to change society differently and raise certain questions of economic equality and the well-being of the workers as well as the peasants. The other topics which are included in the chapter are the changes that were initiated by the new Soviet government, industrialization, and also mechanization of agriculture and rights of citizens, etc. CBSE Class 9 Chapter 2: Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution is one of the best ways to prepare for the exam.