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In 1917 many peasants thought they were going to oust all the big landowners and become individual owners of land themselves. News of the Russian Revolution was highly restricted in Germany in 1918 under a government of Social Democrats who were soon to be her murderers; and especially if one was in prison, as she was. This was documented by one Bolshevik in the Volga region: The muzhiks called [their SR leaders] old men, treating them with external deference, but voting in their own way. Trotsky continues, It is impossible to weigh the influence of the revolutionary workers upon the peasantry. Russia was unprepared to handle the military and economic costs of the war. Tw}SA32g` =b The immediate cause of the first revolution, the February Revolution of 1917 was the collapse of the czarist regime under the gigantic strain of World War I. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 0000004958 00000 n 0000005993 00000 n 2 How were peasants treated during the Russian Revolution? But while the SRs saw this as a bargaining chip to present to the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks saw it as the will of the peasants, taken by direct action, and endorsed it as such. Another group of opportunistic middle-men and retailers also emerged under the NEP. 5. Here we have the background to uneven and combined development: an ancient but still dominant feudal aristocracy was becoming more intertwined with a nascent capitalism. But the Ukraine was the most highly developed, most capitalistic, and most productive of agricultural areas of the former Russian Empire. 76-77; Zherebtsov . But the devil was in the details, and the problems were many. Some also seized the expensive works of art, the fine china, and the luxurious clothes and divided it amongst themselves along with the captured farming equipment. Lenin had called for organized confiscations, with peasant organizations taking over the big estates to work as collectives; and he emphasized the need for the landless workers and poor peasants to form soviets to present their own needs for socialization of the land. 0000018905 00000 n Of all the supposedly revolutionary partiesMensheviks, SRs, etc.the Bolsheviks alone said that the masses should act for themselves in putting forward their own demands. It was continuous, molecular, [and] penetrating everywhere[6]. 134 0 obj It ended grain requisitioning, replacing it with a fixed tax to be paid in kind, and allowed private ownership of small businesses, the return of markets and the sale of surplus goods. 139 0 obj 3. But it was not the sole cause of the Russian Revolutions of 1917. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russian_Peasants%27_uprising_of_19051906&oldid=1047258818, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 29 September 2021, at 21:51. 1. )~i4z 00=)r{l6 $QCFiGWnIo6/S\ .DiNK2j,< 0 Bq The replacement of requisitioning with a fixed tax and free markets gave Russian farmers an incentive to work harder and produce more. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Peasants rose up as well; not all, but enough to make the Tsar pick very carefully for a loyal regiment to shoot down protestors outside the Winter Palace in the Bloody Sunday massacre, killing at least 1,000. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin took power and ended the czarist legacy. In Russia, the peasants were still serfs meaning that they were still in the feudal system with class privileges (Wilde 2nd). For centuries, Russians lived under a feudal system in which peasants were born tethered to the great estates of nobility. The Question is Posed by the Russian Revolution. The question is, why were there two revolutions? Because the NEP allowed elements of capitalism, hardliners in the Communist Party hierarchy viewed it as a retreat towards capitalism or at least an acknowledgement that socialist policies had failed. 7Rosa Luxemburg, The Russian Revolution, in Rosa Luxemburg Speaks, Pathfinder Press, 1970. The combination of the provisional government having no control and a peasant based economy lead to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. The working class took power in alliance with the peasantry, who were the vast majority in the country, and Lenin knew that simply declaring the Bolshevik program as law would not change the reality of what the peasants were doing. However, this little misunderstanding between the fictitious socialism of the Narodniks and the agrarian democratism of the muzhiks would come out in the open only in the future.[5]. Kerensky became leader of the Provisional Government in July. 5 What was life like for a Russian peasant? It does not store any personal data. days the village became a site of plundering and pillage. The NEP ended the policy of grain requisitioning and introduced elements of capitalism and free trade into the Soviet economy. And that alliance, while it would expect the workers to take the lead in making their own revolution, and establishing a workers state, would not depend on the workers substituting themselves for peasant action. All of this is right on the mark. The revolution forced the reactionary Tsar to make concessions, and in October he issued a manifesto granting some civil liberties to prevent the nation from slipping into chaos, trying to 'pacify' the country. Explanation: 1- Tsar Nicholas II and his family lived a life of luxury other's didn't. 2- There was feudalism, the peasants of Russia ( which were the largest in populations) had no say in how the government was run. This did not happen, in the long run, because the Soviet government had no intention of transforming peasants into individual property owners. 120 0 obj [4], The army was called to put down the disorder, but the vast majority of the Imperial Russian Army's private soldiers were peasants, and the soldiers' morale was severely impacted by news received from their own villages. As he said at the aforementioned Peasant Congress in May 1917, Let him [the peasant] know that the land he is taking is not his land, nor is it the landowners, but the common property of the people and, Until [the power of the working people is established], the local [peasant] authoritiesshould take over the landed estates and should do so in an organized manner according to the will of the majority.[8], In order to facilitate these aims, Lenin tried to promote the organization of landless and poor peasants, both before and after October, with, unfortunately, little result at first. [2], What followed the uprisings was a wave of 'gentry reaction'. The peasants, being class divided among themselves, could only prompt a new dynasty (as in China), or a new urban petty-bourgeois layer into power. H0@+V\cFj;f`P5 @,L@Ty[& 0,Bgc=g A historians view: Russia's population in 1900 was about 120 million; at least eighty percent were peasants, so they formed a big unhappy majority. Leon Trotzky, a Marxist formatted a council representing the workers. \W g5B`om=,qss/pg-l_NkL[P vf#.fl2` d| The spending left many peasants and urban poor with little to nothing to eat. Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Michael McConnell, Steve Thompson How do you calculate the ideal gas law constant? 0000002020 00000 n Lenin responded by justifying the NEP as a temporary measure. It eased the harsh restrictions of war communism, the Bolshevik economic policy during the Civil War, and allowed the return of markets and petty trade. World War 1 set up and helped create a peasant body that could play a role in the Russian Revolution by allowing peasants to join the army and learn what it was like to be treated as an individual and as an equal. 4- Difficult lives of peasants, little food, hard work for noble men. In a year or two there were incidents of peasants seizing land that had been cut out from the commune, as well as attacks on big landlords, including the burning of mansions. But complaints were heard, both within the Bolshevik Party and from without, about how the Bolsheviks failed to implement the socialist revolution on the land. The general 'mood of rebellion' riding the country quickly spread to the provinces and the countryside. 137 0 obj endobj 3 What created land hunger among the Russian peasants prior to the revolution of 1917? Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. But they dared not show it[4]. Serfdom was abolished in 1861, but its abolition was achieved on terms not always favorable to the peasants and increased revolutionary pressures. These rebellions were remembered by the peasants, but also by the landed gentry and the autocracy. 8Lenin, Speech On the Agrarian Question, to First All Russia Congress of Peasants Deputies, May 22 (June 4th) 1917, Collected Works (CW), vol. Why did the Russian peasants revolt in 1917? [1], Most violence occurred in the so-called 'Central Agricultural Zone', location of the largest estates and the poorest peasants. The peasants, who were obligated to sell bread to the state, answered with "the bread strike": they decided to wait until spring to sell their grain, because in spring the prices were to grow. peasants to have a more significant role in the Great War and the Russian revolution. The NEP disillusioned many young Bolsheviks who were eagerly awaiting the transition to socialism. As early as 1925-26 the regime had sought to reimpose many of the. Forced requisitioning of grain became essential. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents( \n h t t p s : / / s c h o l a r s a r c h i v e . This dismal situation ironically improved somewhat with the resignation of the Left-SRs from the Soviet government after the ratification of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which ended Russias participation in World War I. I say ironically, because under the treaty, the Bolsheviks had to cede the Baltic states to Germany, and they had to recognize the independence of the Ukraine, which quickly came under German influence: not good. After Bloody Sunday in February, large instances of rebellion exploded throughout the country, initiating the 1905 Revolution. In 1905, about one half of all arable land was private (including church and state-owned land), and about half of that was owned by 30,000 great landed gentry. Most importantly, the availability of food in the cities was restored. Genuinely curious, I'm assuming there are much less records of what peasants personally thought (up to the French revolution) than what the nobles/higher classes told the peasants to feel but I'm wondering if you would have swarths of peasants defending the kings and nobles and selling out anyone that dared speak against the king or church? Unlike most of Western Europe, Russia was a backward, primarily agrarian society, in which capitalism had a late start, and still, at the opening of the Twentieth Century, held no political rights under the Tsarist autocracy. endobj And that is the key to understanding the Russian Revolution: it was not a coup it was a coming together of what the masses wanted and needed, and a leadership prepared to facilitate their success. 0000000876 00000 n [1] The uprising was mainly caused by the peasants misunderstanding the October Manifesto as a license to seize the countryside from the gentry: despite some rural unrest in the spring of 1905, and more in the summer, the unrest only 'exploded' after October 17. There was also a reported case of a group of peasants breaking apart a grand piano, sharing out the ivory keys. By the mid-1920s,Russias agricultural output had been restored to pre-World War I levels. Workers rose up, went on strike, established workers soviets, and appointed a revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, to lead the St. Petersburg Soviet. 128 0 obj Chapter 7 Delegates came from the zemstvos, or elected local assemblies, established by Tsar Alexander II in 1864, which were dominated by village shop keepers, as well as the co-ops of the more well-off peasants; and a few from the village mir. They planned to dicker with the landlords over reconciling their utopian slogans with bourgeois interests at the Constituent Assembly; but the peasants were not waiting around for this pie in the sky. The other half of all arable landand often the worst landwas in the hands of some 10 million peasant families, mostly in the communes, or small ownership plots. By 1921, this had fallen to less than 50 million tons but four years of the NEP saw it increase to 72.5 million tons. In comparative terms, the NEP was a success. While the Cheka was created in 1917 during the Russian Revolution and could be considered as the rightful heir to the Tsarist Okhrana, American espionage entered the fray with the considerable handicap of the absence of a tradition and experience in the field of espionage. A fake parliament called the Duma was created, and the solution on the land was, essentially, more capitalism. Back in 1913, Russia had produced around 80 million tons of grain. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, an independent republic was declared in Ukraine, and a complex series of vicious conflicts were fought during the Russian civil war, before it became part of . C0tfJ:8y#4?[XUP*Tj~{ID ;glf8b|]\Hb4&+g{G]jC6>*l8CO}1.aIm[R0jBc$>nq>@4flz!j4}8QL"|YJ5Hq!Teg! The abolition of serfdom in 1861 under Alexander II was the immediate result. HKo@stl@U%@i* 1 ^dWDeofgf3~C)`$S[`H\~}(o$pjt}~71!'D ;bU@|qx `(Da1D>l[h'}]f94HpL[B d}W_VZ`y?#^xVU[xl(BJyl69&G40xcn[}$`F"X*x4c&gU9SyEv!JB0iS? Nevertheless, its true that the peasants appropriation of the land for themselves led to trouble for the workers state, in that peasants began to withhold grain to the cities, sparking threat of famine, as Rosa Luxemburg noted. <>stream But then we come to the crux of the matter: Luxemburg says that, A socialist government which has come to power musttake measures which lead in the direction of that fundamental prerequisite for a later socialist reform of agriculture. This, she says, the Bolsheviks did not do by calling for immediate seizure and distribution of the land by the peasants, or, she says, Lenins slogan of go and take the land for yourselves, which simply led to the sudden, chaotic conversion of large landownership into peasant landownership. (emphases in original)[7], What Luxemburg missed here was probably not her fault. 0000033490 00000 n During the Civil War, these activities would have been punishable by death. Writing from prison in 1918, Luxemburg asserted that, the direct seizure of the land by the peasants has in general nothing at all in common with socialist economy. And, she goes on, In the first place, only the nationalization of the large landed estatescan serve as the point of departure for the socialist mode of production on the land. In the second place, she asserts that, one of the prerequisites of this transformation [is] that the separation between rural economy and industryshould be ended in such a way as to bring about a mutual interpenetration and fusion of both.. This soon produced uprisings, including major revolts in the 17th and 18th centuries. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The numbers illustrate the situation. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, the Tsars naval fleet was demolished by the Japanese Empire, which the Tsar had seriously underestimated. The Russian people were unhappy with their country's involvement in World War I for several reasons. \;|u BIG6*b`:D_7 *Y Answered by DeanAtom10143. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(History Commons)/Rect[137.2383 341.2906 217.6191 353.0094]/StructParent 7/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> The formal decree that introduced the NEP was called On the replacement of prodrazvyorstka[grain requisitioning] with prodnalog [a fixed tax]. Underlying the land situation in 1861 was the insinuation of capitalism onto the scene. However, the Bolsheviks commitment to the permanent revolution is fully confirmed by their handling of the peasant question. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. 127 0 obj The Romanov dynasty and decades of Russian Imperial rule came to an end with the violent revolution. In the Menshevik/SR/Stalinist world view, the bourgeois revolution had to come first, while the working class waited for the bourgeoisie to complete a revolution (which it was incapable of completing). If it valued peasants like him enough to share info - it wouldn't be russia. The peasants clung to the SRs at the local level because of their avowed aims, but the SR tops were all about compromising with the bourgeoisie, which was financially interlinked with the landed gentry. Poor peasants resentment of landlords began to extend to rich peasants as well, and objection to land sales mounted.[3]. 0000009578 00000 n This was a period when the Bolsheviks faced rising opposition and rebellion. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was an inevitable result of peasant dissatisfaction, poor leadership, an unpopular monarchy, political movements, and war. [1], Despite the large destruction there were only one confirmed account of a landowner being killed, although reports report that 50 non-communal peasants who were particularly disliked were murdered. The SRs had tended to favor individual action by the richer stratum, while the Bolsheviks, whose influence now increased, continued to support poor and landless peasants. 0000001738 00000 n This site is created and maintained by Alpha History. romanovs the russian revolution political revolutions (definition) political revolutions are relatively violent to government which, over period of time, the This signaled that the Bolsheviks had succeeded in splitting the peasantry along class lines, and this was a good thing for a transition to socialism. It contained elements of both socialism and capitalism. Shortages in grain during the war resulted in many of the poorer land workers hoarding what they produced. Primary causes of the Russian Revolution included widespread corruption and inefficiency within the czarist imperial government, growing dissatisfaction among peasants, workers, and soldiers, the monarchy's level of control over the Russian Orthodox Church, and the disintegration of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I . These were oversimplified explanations but there some truth in all of them: serfdom was symptomatic of the underlying difficulties that held Russia back from progress.It was, therefore, a particularly easy target for the intelligentsia, those intellectuals who in their writings argued for the liberalising of Russian society, beginning with the 0000000016 00000 n That future came quickly. Organisations like the United Nobility was formed to protect the gentry's properties, and the provincial zemstvos changed nature from being 'liberal strongholds' to 'bastions of law and order'. Throughout history, peasant revolts had never been capable of leading to a peasant revolutionary state. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. I mean if it communicated clearly without lies or propaganda, it wouldn't be russia. The Industrial Workers Support of Growing the revolution First of all, let us not forget that before the revolution of 1917 there was another one, 1905-1907. %PDF-1.7 % As the Twentieth Century dawned however, the Russian autocracy failed another big test on the international stage. It led to the formation of the Soviet Union later which was the first socialist state of the world. How do you find density in the ideal gas law. These events were not enough for the Tsar to grant the workers better conditions; therefore, the Russians took greater measures to change the empire. 2. Militarily, inadequate supplies, logistics, and weaponry led to heavy losses that the Russians suffered during World War I; this further weakened Russias view of Nicholas II. <>stream . Corruption in the Czar Family: Rasputin 4. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(Masthead Logo Link)/Rect[72.0 648.0 134.5794 707.5]/StructParent 1/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> They condemned all land seizures done arbitrarily by the peasants, and insisted that they wait for the Constituent Assembly. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The weak generals and poorly equipped troops were no match for the German army, leading to heavy losses of Russian soldiers. The Russian Revolution plays a vital role in World history and had a huge impact not only on Russia but also in other regions as well. . The peasants uprising was connected to the 1905 Revolution and the October Manifesto, as the country was gripped by a revolutionary and rebellious atmosphere following Tsar Nicholas II reactionary policies. e d u , \n e l l e n _ a m a t a n g e l o @ b y u . The cost from the American Revolution and the expensive spending from King King Louis XVI left France close to bankruptcy. 5- Tsar put Russia immediately in WW1 (2 million soldiers died in the first years). However most quickly retired from active political involvement. H|Mo@9b)JQq"U2 Those most prone to become involved were young villagers and soldiers returning from the Far East. 125 0 obj During the French revolution, peasants respected nobles and fought for them. The overwhelming majority of its populace were peasants. The redemption payments demanded of the peasants were to be the source of financing of bonds issued to the landlords by the state, so that the loss of ownership of the land could be turned into capital. Lenin staved off criticism from within his own party by declaring that while elements of petty capitalism would return, the Soviet government retained control of industry, mining, heavy manufacture and banking. Under war communism andprodrazvyorstka, the amount of grain requisitioned was decided on-the-spot by unit commanders. Finally, the peasants were also required to make redemption payments for the land they did receive for 49 years, with interest! Publisher: Alpha History In May, a month-long All-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies was held in Petrograd. 0000001160 00000 n 2Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution, Sphere Books Ltd, London, 1967, vol. Answer: Peasants were looting farms and having food riots because the provisional government had not overcome the problem of food supply. Much like Pyotr Stolypins land reforms of 1906-7, the NEP encouraged and increased class divisions by allowing some peasants to enrich themselves. While carrying out the SR program of land to the tiller, rather than the Bolshevik plan for organized takeovers to establish collectivization, the peasants were staking their claim as a petty bourgeois class: they wanted the land. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. 126 0 obj endobj Soldiers soon joined in the riots and revolted against their commanders. 0000012230 00000 n Without peasant support, indeed without the peasant uprising to throw off their own chains of oppression, the Russian Revolution never could have survived. English Pages [253] Year 2017. Under the NEP, Russian farmers were once again permitted to buy and sell their surplus goods at markets. H]k0+(eK]R(7G.3~+VJ9y__2B Re@;h?`QnO HcoMDDp6^.,;0~y Y6-2EcHwmslY-a} IF5f/}[5>b3J ;M ,D" PF$)12FZB7czJ9I. Peasants were not highly favored in Lenin's revolutionary process and were often considered revolutionary road-blocks. endobj It played an important role in convincing Governor of Saratov, Stolypin, that a land reform was necessary.[3]. This decree took a step away from feudalism, and at first, peasants were thrilled. 4N. N. Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917, Harper, 1962, vol. 6- Romanovs were hated because of Rasputin. For more information, visit our FAQ page or Terms of Use. 0000003700 00000 n Before 1917, a hereditary nobility led by the tsar ruled the Russian Empire. But the truth she missed is that Lenin tirelessly made clear two things: First, the call for the peasants to seize the land themselves was directed explicitly against the program of the SRs, which called for land nationalization, but instructed the peasants to wait for negotiations with the landlords, or for the bourgeois Constituent Assembly to decide. %%EOF This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 120 29 endobj This allowed the Bolsheviks to overrun Petrograd and take control of the government, leading to major changes in the outcome of the Revolution. jEQny~G'e9 teSh#yqi=XZq7'&wqq ) ;8ts8qC^fo/P_ Serfdom in Russia was slave-like feudalismpeasants were not allowed to leave the land they were born on. For most of 1917 however, the peasants were represented by the SRs, not the Bolsheviks. How does Charle's law relate to breathing? By 1900 around 85 per cent of the Russian people lived in the countryside and earned their living from agriculture. The underlying cause was the backward economic condition of the country, which made it unable to sustain the war effort against powerful . Italian print. endobj That formula included the peasants, and explains the Bolsheviks Land Decree, and its relation to the theory of permanent revolution. 136 0 obj startxref Chapter IV - Four Eyes Were Reading the Passage I was running the head of my pencil-case along the line as I read it, and something caused me to raise my eyes. Visited: 2023-03-04 The great bulk of the Russian people were peasants. endobj endobj <>stream Stalin first worked for the Russian Revolution as a member of the Bolshevik Party, participating in violent attacks on the Tsarist government and committing bank robberies to fund the revolution. The Russian Revolution of 1905 had begun. The NEP alsolifted a ban on agricultural and town markets, allowingpeasants to buy and sell their surplus produce. In 1917, social tensions and an unpopular war against Germany and the Central Powers strained Russian society to the . Peasants remained unhappy that most arable land remained with the nobles. Workers rebellion soon infected the cities, and peasant hostility exploded from month to month. Then, with the start of the Civil War, workers and peasants were called upon to form the Red Army, which they did with little hesitation, further interrupting what little production capacity was left. Russias agricultural production remained stagnant through 1921, the worst year of the Great Famine, but production began to increase significantly in 1922 and beyond. Many older people know that the name of Russia's "communist" government was the Soviet Union, but few know that soviet was Russian for council. The Bolshevik delegation to this assembly was small, but Lenin addressed the congress on May 20th, and he proclaimed a program of land nationalization through organized direct action by the peasants regardless of legality. Twenty-four years later, he seemed just as bewildered as a group of armed thugs, members of the Bolshevik secret police, moved in to assassinate him. zdU8Vs4unsB`l H5c+"'NT\lzU.`?D2S\4udeG{T.FJB3iKpo;4. 1 How did peasants affect the Russian Revolution? HRN0+f hJ`4 4AH"x^g:[89IKuov)sD&@0CW"0(0],Ber"X@H1,/$283J(,/6z,EJ$HJ+,,a{h6]Mw> k? Peasant rebellions dated back as far as the Russian defeat of the Mongols, and the establishment of the Tsar as the ruler of all Rus in 1503. In early October 1917 all of the following were true of the Bolsheviks except Many were still uneasy about going ahead with a coup They held public debates together with members of the provisional government The Bolsheviks' Central Committee met and decided to overthrow the provisional government They used the Smolny Institute as a headquarters 23. One of the main causes of these revolutions was the grinding poverty. Title: The New Economic Policy (NEP) After Bloody Sunday in February, large instances of rebellion exploded throughout the country, initiating the 1905 Revolution. [1] In the violence there was also a much 'culture smashing', and peasants went out to destroy anything that 'smacked of superfluous wealth': setting fire to libraries, smashing antiques and dumping faeces on the expensive oriental carpets all took place.