Mitch Addison,28
The year is 1917, and the world is in the midst of World War 1. On the side of the Triple Entente was the Russian Empire, and it was facing great political turmoil that was going to lead to a revolution. Before the start of World War 1, Russia’s newest Tsar had been appointed. His name was Tsar Nicholas II, and he was the stereotypical autocratic leader, where he believed his power was given to him by God, and it was his duty to maintain said power. The Zemstvos, or local, self-governing assemblies faced an uncompromising Nicholas because of this, meaning little progress was made democratically. Nicholas was also uneducated in how to effectively run the government, and any ministers within it were suspected by Nicholas as wanting to usurp any power he had. This meant that things like the industrial revolution took place later in Russia than the rest of the world, since Nicholas was initially unwilling to listen to his ministers. When the industrial revolution did come, the population more than doubled between 1890-1910 in major Russian cities, leading to food and shelter shortages. This further clashed with the Russo-Japanese war, a war fought over Russia’s desire to expand into Asia, including Japan. The Russians lost the war, leading the citizens of Russia to further distrust the government. Protests inevitably broke out, but they did not start off violently.

The most notable is now known as the Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1905, where a priest named Georgy Apollonovich Gapon and hundreds of other people marched to the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia at the time. Their goal was to make demands for reform within the government, primarily towards workers’ rights and democracy. The guards at the palace, however, opened fire on the protestors, killing and injuring hundreds. More protests and strikes happened all throughout Russia in response. Tsar Nicholas’s response was the formation of the Dumas, or representative assemblies, whose primary purpose was to work towards reform. Nicholas did not go without blame, as the massacre is forever blamed on him, the autocratic ruler. This became known as the Revolution of 1905, where Russia looked more like a constitutional monarchy rather than a pure autocracy, but Nicholas would ultimately retract his promises made in the Revolution of 1905 by ignoring the Duma everytime it went against him.
Around this time, a man named Grigori Rasputin was introduced to Tsar Nicholas and his family. Rasputin had been claimed as a holy man, although he was also known as one to frequently engage in morally corrupt behavior throughout his life. He would remain close to the family until he was summoned to them in 1908. He was called to see if he could do anything to help Nicholas’s son, Aleksey. Aleksey had hemophilia, and he suffered greatly whenever he was bleeding. This was one of those times, and the family thought Rasputin could do something as a holy healer. Rasputin was able to ease Aleksey. Nowadays, people believe that at the time, Rasputin used a form of hypnosis to calm Aleksey while he was bleeding. This led Rasputin to staying with the royal family, as Rasputin stated that the fate of Aleksey and the Romanov dynasty were linked to him. Rasputin would remain a controversial figure throughout the following years, especially during World War 1.

As it is well known, Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia, starting the domino effect that led to World War 1. Russia had just ended an alliance with Germany and recently befriended Serbia, bringing them into the war as well. Germany, allied with Austria-Hungary, declared war as well. France was also in an alliance with Russia, leading to their involvement in the war. Russia would greatly struggle in the war, as they stood no match against the heavily industrialized Germany. Food and supplies were short as well, leading to unarmed men and starving soldiers. Ultimately, Russia would suffer the most casualties out of all of the nations involved in the war. Nicholas felt like he should do something to assist in the war. He left Petrograd, originally St. Petersburg, and went to command the armies on the front line. Tsarina Alexandra was left in charge of domestic affairs while Nicholas was at war. Alexandra was an extremely unpopular figure in Russia, especially since she was of German ancestry. She fired a lot of elected officials, and Rasputin became her advisor, asserting his influence even more. Russian nobles, tired of Rasputin and his influence over the royal family, attempted to poison him on December 30, 1916. Supposedly, he visited one of the noble’s houses, then he consumed the poisonous food and drinks without any problems, leading the nobles to shoot him. He collapsed but was not dead, leading to more shots being fired. Finally, the nobles threw him into an icehole where he allegedly drowned to death. An autopsy was made, however, where it was discovered that Rasputin had been shot to death. Today, many still are not sure how much of the story is true, but either way, Alexandra strengthened her regime until what became known as the February Revolution.

The February Revolution started with many workers taking to the streets of Petrograd, going on strike, and protesting the Tsar’s rule. Local troops were called to stop the protests, and while some opened fire, their will began to falter. The protestors also clashed with the local police, but they would not leave the streets. Ultimately, on March 12, the Duma would form the Provisional Government, and Nicholas was forced to abdicate from the throne. The Provisional Government would continue the war effort, despite the unpopular opinion of continuing it. Food became scarcer, and people began to raid farms and strike for food. Back at the war, the Germans knew they would not be able to win if they continued fighting on two fronts, so they brought someone back after they were exiled from Russia years ago. His name was Vladimir Lenin.

Lenin had opposed the Tsar since his early life, especially after the government threatened to forcefully retire his father, and hung his brother for conspiring to assassinate Tsar Alexander III. Lenin would later be expelled from university for participating in an illegal student assembly and was banished to his grandfather’s estate. Once Lenin returned, he began to practice law, with his clients mainly being peasants and artisans. This fueled his hatred for the class system. Lenin would also associate himself with Marxist groups, and he was eventually sent abroad to contact Russian exiles. Upon his return, they succeeded in unifying the Marxist groups in the Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class. The Union would print leaflets, support workers’ strikes, and make proclamations on a worker’s behalf. Eventually, members of the Union were arrested, including Lenin, who was exiled to Siberia for three years. Once Lenin finished his term in Siberia, he left the country and began writing for the Iskra, a Marxist newspaper with the goal of unifying Marxists into a Social-Democratic party. It was during this time Lenin would write on his views of Socialism, Marxism, Capitalism, revolutions, and the role of a Socialist party. For instance, Lenin believed that a Socialist party’s goal was to guide the people and to act as vanguards for the working class. Ultimately, his views would cause a split in the Iska. Lenin would find himself in the minority for a short while in the newly named Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party.
Overtime, however, people would begin to align themselves with Lenin, forming a split within the party. Those who sided with Lenin were called Bolsheviks, and those against him were the Mensheviks. The two sides would continuously argue with each other, and there was no hope of reunifying the party, especially since Lenin believed that the Mensheviks would only delay the revolution. During the Revolution of 1905, Lenin was in Switzerland, eventually returning in November. He and the Mensheviks still fought over how revolution should occur, with the Menshevkis desiring a Bourgeois revolution before a Socialist revolution. Lenin argued that the Bourgeoisie was too cowardly to start their own and that the working class was the only driving force of revolution. Lenin was exiled once more, and the repressive regime of the Tsar made it difficult for Lenin to increase Bolshevik membership.
Eventually, Lenin would split the party into two opposing groups, proclaiming the Bolsheviks were the Russian Democratic Socialist Workers’ Party, and the Mensheviks were wanting to separate themselves from the party. Once World War 1 broke out, Lenin reached Switzerland, where he remained until 1917. He was unable to persuade the other Socialists in Switzerland to cause a revolution, and any attempts he made to communicate with his members in Russia were unsuccessful. Lenin would continue to write his views on the war up until March of 1917, where the February Revolution forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Lenin saw this as his opportunity, and the Germans would permit his passage to Sweden, where he would then make his way back to Russia, believing this would relieve them of their second front in the war.

Lenin arrived in Petrograd in April of 1917, just a month after Nicholas abdicated from the throne. In power was the Provisional Government, aided by the Petrograd Soviet, a council of workers that gave power to the Provisional Government once Nicholas had abdicated. There were others that were found across the country, but it was the only one recognized by the revolutionary workers. The Petrograd Soviet was headed by a mixture of Mensheviks and another party called the Socialist Revolutionary, which was primarily composed of peasants. Lenin had argued against the Provisional Government, claiming that the power belonged to the Soviets rather than the Provisional Government. Most Bolsheviks were thoroughly confused by Lenin, while the Socialists thought he had gone insane. It took many weeks before he was able to convince the other Bolsheviks to agree with him. Ultimately, the April Party Conference had decided to withdraw support from the Provisional Government and to focus on getting a majority in the Soviets. Throughout the months leading up to October, the Bolsheviks would remain a minority in the Soviets. The Provisional Government, however, had lost popular support. Russia had grown war weary, and its economy was struggling. The Provisional Government, headed by Alexandr Kerensky, claimed that a freely-elected constituent assembly would decide the political fate of Russia, but it would have to wait after the war. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, however, demanded peace, land, and bread, which was much more appealing to the people than waiting for World War 1 to finish. This led to a Bolshevik majority in the Petrograd Soviet, as well as multiple others throughout major towns and cities.

The Bolshevik victory in the Soviets led Lenin to believe that the party needed to prepare to seize power from the Provisional Government and return it to the Soviets, which the Bolsheviks had a majority in. This move would give the Bolsheviks the power they needed to get their beliefs implemented across the country. Lenin would have to flee into Finland, because he was deemed an agent of Germany sent to Russia. Lenin would attempt to make the party agree with his idea of removing the Provisional Government, but few would side with him. Lenin was again in the party minority. He, at his own risk, would go back into Petrograd, and, after a 10 hour debate, convince a majority of the members to side with an armed takeover.
The Bolsheviks began to train the Red Guards, their personal militia, under the guise that they were protecting the Petrograd Soviet. However, the opposition remained fierce within the Bolshevik party, making the preparations take longer than wanted. Leon Trotsky, a Menshevik turned Bolshevik leader, was chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, and he led the strategic half of the preparations. He urged for an early date for the uprising to be set by the Bolshevik Central Committee and eventually would send letters on November 6 with orders to capture prominent leaders and members of the Provisional Government. On November 7 and 8, the Bolsheviks, leading the Red Guards, removed the Provisional Government from power, meeting little resistance while doing so. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, where the Soviets sent delegates to represent them during the meeting, the Social Revolutionaries that opposed Kerensky and the Provisional Government made up a majority of the delegates at the meeting. Ultimately, full power to the Soviet was accepted, and Lenin was voted chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, the new government of Russia.

Lenin agreed to allow the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries that aligned with Kerensky in the new government, but on his terms. In order to get into the government, they had to accept the Soviet form of government over a Parliamentary one, which they refused. They met at the Constituent Assembly, where it was decided that Sovietism should be rejected; this angered Lenin. He demanded the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly. The Allied powers also refused to recognize the Soviet government, and the Soviets were all alone when they entered peace talks with the Central Powers. Ultimately, the Soviets lost large parts of territory that was not distinctly Russian. These territories were parts of Poland and the Baltic states. Lenin, feeling the people had longed for peace, convinced the Bolshevik Central Committee to agree to the treaty, now known as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This only angered counterrevolutionary forces and the Allies, which were also fueled by Lenin’s refusal to repay loans that Tsar Nicholas and the Provisional Government took during the war. All of this erupted into the Russian Civil War, fought between the White Army, those opposed to Lenin and his government, and the Red Army, those who aligned with it. Ultimately, the Whites would lose the war, cementing the Soviets in power of the Russian government. A struggle for power between Trotsky, Lenin, and Joseph Stalin would follow as the new government went on. This further worsened as Lenin’s health declined greatly, leaving him paralyzed and unable to speak. Eventually, he suffered a stroke that killed him, leaving Trotsky and Stalin as the most likely successors to his position. Stalin emerged victorious, and he eventually exiled Trotsky from the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Trotsky would eventually be assassinated by an agent, believed to have been sent by Stalin in 1940.