Tell us what you have learned.
I have learned to reject all mono-causal explanations. And I have learned that we will probably never know the "Full Truth" about anything, that we will have to content ourselves with possibilities or, at best, probabilities.
As far as the multiple causes of the Russian Revolution are concerned, I would list, in descending order of importance:
1) The ineptitude and the anachronistic character of the Russian monarchy, which became more obvious than ever during the war years (Rasputin, the rumor that the Tsarina was a "German spy", etc.);
3) The impact of the war -- and the war-weariness it provoked;
3) The absence of a developed civil society. (It had been developing on the eve of the war, but the war cut it short.)
I am speaking, of course, of THE Russian Revolution -- the democratic revolution of February, 1917. The October (Bolshevik) Revolution actually began as a coup, and wound up as a civil war.
I would disagree with Steve that you need an ANGRY populace to make a revolution (let alone a coup); but you do need an uncontrollable one. The "democrats" -- Kerensky et al. -- made the (understandable) mistake of insisting on continuing the war "on the side of the democracies" (after all, they had to prove they were not "German spies" like the Tsarina), but at the same time they allowed the relaxation (the disappearance, rather) of discipline in the army, and launched some unfortunate failed offensives. In any event, the army disintegrated -- the peasants just "walked off the job." And the whole country was at loose ends.
(The proletariat, incidentally, played a relatively insignificant role in the revolution.)
The Bolsheviks were able to seize power because they were the only group that was determined to seize it -- and the only group that promised peace.
This, of course, is a tremendous oversimplification. Just trying to hit what I see as some of the major factors.
Another point:
But the history books never say who paid the bill!!
What history books? Your high-school texts?
For years one of the most popular theories, by the way, was the theory that the Germans financed the Bolsheviks. After all, they did provide Lenin with the armored train that ensured his safe passage from his exile in Switzerland through to the Russian border....And, of course, one of the first things the Bolsheviks did after seizing power was to make peace with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk...and hand them over a considerable piece of formerly Russian territory.
Personally, however, I prefer nihil's theories...
jbe |
