The Russian Revolution - Essay Example

Why did the revolution occur and what was the result? This is what this paper is going to focus on. The kind of revolution envisaged by Marx and Engels was to be as a result of workers consciousness or bourgeois intelligentsia. In many countries workers started forming trade unions to fight against employers and the government so as to pass labor legislations that improve their conditions. However, for Beeler and Clark the Russian revolution was “a natural and inevitable outcome of development of ideas among revolutionary socialist intelligentsia.

”1 For them, socialist movements such as the trade unions are not enough to get the kind of social democracy needed otherwise the proletariats attempts would fail just like the first revolution that removed tsar from office did not work. The mistake that socialists such as Alexander Kensky made after seizing power in Russia was failure to confiscate large landholdings and give it to peasants who had fought hard to free themselves from exploitation.2 These leaders were not intelligent enough to lead a revolution like Lenin.

In other words, Beeler and Clark would say they lacked revolutionary professionalism thus not revolutionary social democrats. . The food shortage experienced in 1917 due to the war led to violent street demonstrations and an unplanned uprising occurred and in March 12, 1917 the Duma took over leadership and declared a provisional government.3 This government emphasized equality before the law, freedom of religion, speech and assembly as well as the rights of unions to organize and strike but it shared power with Petrograd soviet of workers and soldiers leading to a state of anarchy.

4 The government was also unable to remove Russia from the war thus giving an opportunity to Lenin to wage his campaigns and attract huge masses of people. The provisional government rule was not successful since the leaders lacked leadership skills. For a revolution to be successful it has to be led by professional revolutionaries and not trade unionists or socialist intellectuals. It needs radical revolutionary leaders like Lenin and Trotsky who are always preoccupied with social democratic activities.

Lenin called for “disciplined workers who are controlled by small, dedicated elite of intellectual and professional revolutionaries” as opposed to masses.5 The group was referred as Bolsheviks and though they failed in their first attempt to seize power from the provisional government, the army skills of Trotsky and support of soldiers and workers tired of the war made the second attempt to be successful. The Bolshevik majority declared all power for the soviets and Lenin as head of government thus displacing the provisional government.

6 However, to end the war he had to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litorsk thus ceding Russian territories to central powers. Civil war ensued thereafter but the