Answer to Question #253887 in History for Daniel

Question

1.    How did Russian people experience WWI, both as soldiers and at the home front?

2.    Explain the process that resulted in the overthrow of the Russian monarchy (the tsars) and how Lenin and the Bolsheviks ended up gaining power.

3.    Who does Lenin think will lead a future revolution and how will the revolution be organized?

Answer 1

1.     Despite modest improvements during the previous decade, the Russian army was ill-equipped to undertake a large war in 1914, and neither the political nor military leadership met the requisite standards. Despite this, the army fought valiantly, and both soldiers and subordinate leaders shown exceptional qualities. The Russian invasion of East Prussia in August 1914 was repulsed at Tannenberg by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, but it forced the Germans to send reinforcements from the Western Front, saving France and paving the way for the Marne triumph. The Russian soldiers suffered tremendous losses in the wars of 1915 and 1916, and at times did not even have enough riffles. The Russian people did not show much enthusiasm for the conflict. Even in the organizing of medical supplies or weapons for the soldiers, the government could not overcome its customary suspicion of any public initiative. A majority of the center and moderate right created a Progressive group in the Fourth Duma, proposing the formation of a national coalition government "capable of gaining the confidence of the public" and a reform program that could be implemented even during a war. On September 16, 1915, the emperor rejected the motion and prorogued the Duma. The emperor had decided to take command of the forces in the field eleven days before. As a result, the empress was in command in Petrograd (as the capital had been renamed at the start of the war, replacing its former German-sounding name).

2.     Lenin began scheming the destabilization of the Provisional Government. In a bloodless coup d'état on November 7 and 8, 1917, Red Guards stormed Provisional Government premises. The Bolsheviks took control of the government and declared Soviet rule, making Lenin the first communist leader in the world. He returned to Russia after the 1917 February Revolution deposed the Tsar and installed a Provisional Government, and played a key part in the October Revolution, which saw the Bolsheviks overthrow the new state. As a result of Russia's withdrawal from the war, Germany was able to shift its forces to the western front.

3.     The interim administration was a "bourgeois dictatorship," according to Lenin. In a "dictatorship of the proletariat," he pushed for direct rule by workers and peasants. He secretly formed the Red Guards, a volunteer paramilitary organization made up of manufacturing workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors. The Decrees appeared to be in line with the popular Bolshevik slogan "Peace, Land, and Bread," which was adopted by the people during the July Days revolt of workers and military forces in July 1917.