Essay, Research Paper: Russia

On March 8 of 1917 a severe food shortage cause riots in Petrograd. The crowds demanded food and the step down of Tsar. When the troops were called in to disperse the crowds, they refused to fire their weapons and joined in the rioting. The army generals reported that it would be pointless to send in any more troops, because they would only join in with the other rioters. The frustrated tsar responded by stepping down from power, ending the 300-year-old Romanov With the tsar out of power, a new provisional government took over made up of middle-class Duma representatives. Also rising to power was a rival government called the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies consisting of workers and peasants of socialist and revolutionary groups. Other soviets formed in towns and villages all across the country. All of the soviets worked to push a three-point program which called for an immediate peas, the transfer of land to peasants, and control of factories to workers. But the provisional government stood in conflict with the other smaller governments and the hardships of war hit the country. The provisional government was so busy fighting the war that they neglected the social problems it faced, losing much needed support (Farah, 580). The Bolsheviks in Russia were confused and divided about how to regard the Provisional Government, but most of them, including Stalin, were inclined to accept it for the time being on condition that it work for an end to the war. When Lenin reached Russia in April after his famous "sealed car" trip across Germany, he quickly denounced his Bolshevik colleagues for failing to take a sufficiently revolutionary In August of 1917, while Lenin was in hiding and the party had been basically outlawed by the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks managed to hold their first party congress since 1907 regardless. The most significant part of the debate turned on the he Bolsheviks' hope of seizing power was hardly secret. Bold refusal of the provisional Government was one of their major ideals. Three weeks before the revolt they decided to stage a demonstrative walkout from the advisory assembly. When the walkout was staged, Trotsky denounced the Provisional Government for its alleged counterrevolutionary objectives and called on the people of Russia to support the Bolsheviks On October 10 of 1917, Lenin made the decision to take power. He came secretly to Petrograd to try and disperse any hesitancies the Bolshevik leadership had over his demand for armed revolt. Against the opposition of two of Lenin's long-time lieutenants, Zinovieiv and Kamenev, the Central Committee accepted Lenin's resolution which formally instructed the party organizations to prepare for the seizure of power. Finally, of October 25 the Bolshevik revolution took place to overthrow the provisional government. They did so through the agency of the Military-Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. They forcibly overthrew the provisional government by taking over all of the government buildings, such as the post office, and big corporations, such as the power companies, the shipyard, the telephone company. The endorsement of the coup was secured from the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which was concurrently in session. This was known as the "October Revolution" Through this, control of Russia was shifted to Lenin and the Bolsheviks. In a quick series of decrees, the new "soviet" government instituted a number of sweeping reforms, some long overdue and some quite revolutionary. They ranged from "democratic" reforms, such as the disestablishment of the church and equality for the national minorities, to the recognition of the peasants' land seizures and to openly socialist steps such as the nationalization of banks. The Provisional Government's commitment to the war effort was denounced. Four decrees were put into action. The first four from the Bolshevik Revolutionary Legislation were a decree on peace, a decree on land, a decree on the suppression of hostile newspapers, and a declaration of the rights of the peoples of Russia