The Russian Revolution - Essay Example

The thirst for equal opportunities that the French Revolution inculcated in people also was one of the major reasons for the development and growth of democratic institutions of power in the world. This was seen in another revolution that took place during the twentieth century, the Russian Revolution that ended the reign of the tsars in Russia and paved the way for governments that would be based on the consent of the people of Russia. The Russian Revolution managed not only to wrest power from the Tsar but also to place it in the hands of the Bolsheviks and not in the hands of any emperor as in the case of the French Revolution when power finally ended up in the hands of Napoleon, who in a sense perverted the goals of the revolution by installing himself as the emperor of France and not upholding the ideals of the French Revolution.

There are several similarities between the Russian and the French Revolutions. Both were very important events in their own times and were important in shaping the future of the world. The Russian revolution not only affirmed the world’s growing faith in democracy and rejection of autocracy but also signaled a willingness to focus on the welfare of the masses of a nation and not on the diplomatic concerns of a country. The unwillingness of the Russian people to be a part of wars was seen in the lack of popular support for the First World War and the dissent that had started to breed in the masses after the setbacks that Russia had to face during the First World War.

This is similar to the French revolution in two ways. The French revolution too had a great impact on the world and its main rival, Britain felt the shockwaves of the revolution throughout the period of the Regency and the Victorian age. The fear of a revolution can be seen in the literature of this period that in some cases valorizes the revolution and in others mocks and satirizes it as an ineffectual tool for social change. The French Revolution with its slogan of “Liberte, egalite, fraternite” (liberty, equality and fraternity) caused people around the world to harbor dreams of a utopia where the lords and the peasants would be able to live as equals and share the produce of the land equally with enough for all.

Like the French Revolution which made not only the French but also people of other countries clamor for freedom from autocracy, the Russian Revolution too made the claims for freedom that countries under the yoke of imperialism had been making for many years. Apart from this, the resentment of the French public was due not only to the misery that they were facing but also due to the recognition that their country had been spending their money unwisely by helping the Americans in their war for independence.

This expenditure was thought of as a waste of money by thy emergent class of the bourgeois who were at the forefront of the revolution. As in the French Revolution, it was a concern for the faltering economy of the country that was one of the major reasons for the Russian Revolution. The emergence of a bourgeois mentality in the people can be considered as a reason for the sudden uprisings that took place during this time even though the Bolsheviks were overtly Marxist in their approach to the topic of governance.

Awareness and concern regarding the manner in which the national revenues were being spent and dealt with, is an indication of the increasing desire for control that the middle classes of both France and Russia felt during their respective