THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Term Paper

The year 1917 was an eventful one in Russian and world history. The February Revolution (which took place in February according to the calendar then in use in Russia, but in March according to the calendar in use in the West) ended the Romanov dynasty. The October or Bolshevik Revolution brought V. I. Lenin and his party to power.

The collapse of the Russian Empire in World War I led to the February Revolution. Russia, battered by defeats, was close to economic disintegration early in 1917. Large numbers of people thronged the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) beginning on 23 February. Over the next few days, the crowds grew larger. Eventually the soldiers sent to control the crowds made common cause with them.

A Provisional Government, led by Prince Georgy Lvov, an Octobrist, formed at the end of February. Its most influential members were Alexander Guchkov, minister of war and also an Octobrist, and Paul Miliukov, foreign minister and a Constitutional Democrat (Kadet). At the same time, the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers and Workers appeared. People spoke of “dual power,” the idea that the Soviet represented public opinion and therefore had a great deal of leverage on the Provisional Government.

In the first heady months of freedom, the Provisional Government overestimated the patience of the average Russian and insisted on continuing the war effort. This required postponing vital decisions on the form of government and on land reform. Failure to end Russia’s participation in the war and to resolve vital questions doomed the government.

For several months after the February Revolution, however, the Provisional Government maintained power in Russia. Alexander Kerensky, a moderate socialist, quickly emerged as the most powerful figure in the government, becoming prime minister in the summer of 1917. Kerensky’s main challenger was Lenin. When Lenin returned to Russia from Switzerland in April, he set out in the April Theses a position that marked his party, the Bolsheviks, off from all other political parties in Russia. He called boldly for a peace without annexations or indemnities, land for the peasants, and all power to the Soviets.

By the fall of 1917 Lenin believed conditions were ripe for revolution in Russia. The Central Committee (CC) of the Bolsheviks was reluctant to take action, but Lenin eventually persuaded them to subscribe to the idea of revolution. Leon Trotsky, by then an influential figure in the Petrograd Soviet, made preparations to block any attempts the Provisional Government might make to destroy the revolution. Red Guard units, workers’ militias, and soldiers and sailors in the area overthrew the Provisional Government in October when it appeared it was beginning a counterrevolution. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, then meeting in Petrograd, approved the formation of a government by the Bolsheviks, the only party at that time prepared to take power. The seizure of power was accomplished with relatively little bloodshed, but the civil war that followed would be bloody and cruel. The Soviet Union emerged victorious in 1921 with fateful consequences for world history in the twentieth century.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Investigate the origins of the February Revolution. You may wish to look at long-term factors such as Russia’s participation in World War I and difficulties in supplying the army, or you may prefer to focus on the events of the February Revolution itself.
2. Paul Miliukov, the foreign minister, wanted to achieve the war aims of the tsarist government. To what extent did his efforts to achieve these aims contribute to the end of the first Provisional Government?
3. Lenin returned to Russia from exile in Switzerland courtesy of the German government. Why were the Germans willing to help Lenin return to Russia, and what were his motives in accepting German help and money?
4. For much of 1917, Kerensky seemed to be the man of the hour. Evaluate his performance as prime minister and discuss why he fell from power so quickly and decisively in October.
5. In later years, Josif Stalin presented himself as Lenin’s indispensable right-hand man in the events of 1917. What was his actual role?
6. It was often said that there would not have been an October Revolution without Lenin. Read about Trotsky’s activities in 1917 and determine whether one might say the same about Trotsky.

Research Suggestions

In addition to boldfaced items, look under the entry for “The Revolution of 1905 in Russia” (#2). Search under Nicholas II, Rasputin, Mikhail Rodzianko, Fourth Duma, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, July Days, Josif Stalin, and Winter Palace. SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Browder, R. P., and A. F. Kerensky, eds. The Russian Provisional Government, 1917. 3 vols. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961. An excellent source of documents on 1917.

Reed, John. Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: Viking Press, 1990. First published in 1919. A classic although not always accurate account of 1917.

Steinberg, Mark D., and Vladimir M. Khrustakev, eds. The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. An excellent collection of documents made available after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Sukhanov, Nikolai N. The Russian Revolution, 1917: A Personal Record. 1922. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. A classic memoir of 1917 by a man who seemed to have been nearly everywhere.

Trotsky, Leon. The History of the Russian Revolution. 3 vols. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1932. A fascinating version of the history of the revolution by one of its most prominent actors.

Secondary Sources

Daniels, Robert V. Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.New York: Scribner, 1967. An excellent discussion of the October Revolution.

Deutscher, Isaac. The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921. New York: Oxford University Press. 1954. The first of three volumes on Trotsky by a major Marxist historian. Still probably the best single book on Trotsky.

Elwood, Ralph C. “Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.” The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, vol. 5, pp. 85–93. Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Academic International Press, 1977. A useful brief discussion of the October Revolution.

Ferro, Marc. October 1917: A Social History of the Russian Revolution. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980. A readable and solid history by a leading French historian.

———. The Russian Revolution of February 1917. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Also readable and useful.

Figes, Orlando. A People’s Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution. New York: Viking, 1996. A well-written narrative history. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. An excellent introduction that covers not only 1917 but also the decades of the 1920s and 1930s.

Keep, John L.H. The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization. New York: W. W. Norton, 1976. One of the few books that looks at 1917 outside of Petrograd and Moscow.

Koenker, Diane. Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. One of the best of several studies that look at the working class in 1917.

Pipes, Richard. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1995. An up-to-date and well-informed study. Pipes is very critical of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd. New York: W. W. Norton, 1976. An excellent study of October 1917.

———. Prelude to Revolution: The Petrograd Bolsheviks and the July 1917 Uprising. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968. An important book on an event that usually gets little attention.

Skinner, Frederick W. “February Revolution of 1917.” The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, vol. 11, pp. 67–74. Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Academic International Press, 1979. A fine overview of the February Revolution.

Stockdale, Melissa Kirshke. Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880–1918. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996. A recent political biography of one of the most important figures in the first part of 1917.

Ulam, Adam B. The Bolsheviks: The Intellectual, Personal, and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998 (reissue of the 1965 publication with a new preface). Essentially a biography of Lenin.