Menu
Menu
Menu
It goes without saying that every revolution is presented as group thinking, with groups benefiting, entire societies flourishing, and milk and honey available for all.
However, as a child who fought and bled in the 1991 revolution, which resulted in civil war, I realised that revolutions are the product of one man's desire and needs, perhaps a few, but that's all.
I fought for democracy against Communism, yet all I knew was Communism, irony.
The revolution begins slowly and easily in the dark shadows of the night, in basements, and the first acts of disobedience to the government are posters on the streets, slogans, ruined public property, and gradually, people from those loud gatherings begin arming themselves, and Bob's your uncle.
Needless to say, revolutions are far less likely to occur in Western countries than in Eastern Europe, Asia, or Africa, and why? I'll leave the answer up to you.
So let's get into the idea and practice of revolution, and in this essay, we'll explain why the October Revolution isn't what you've been told. This chapter of the Russian revolt began with Russia's enemy during World War I, Germany.
Let me ask you a few easy questions before we begin.
Do you know what a revolution is?
What exactly does "revolution" mean?
What does the Revolution represent?
How does the Revolution come about?
The term Revolution is derived from the Latin word revolution, which means 'a turnabout'.
It's only a twist, do you agree?!
A revolution is the rapid and substantial transformation of a society's state, social, ethnic, or religious structures.
A revolution is defined by the attempted change of political regimes, massive social mobilisation, and efforts to compel change by non-institutionalized techniques such as large demonstrations, marches, strikes, or violence.
Revolutions have occurred throughout history and continue to do so. They differ significantly in terms of tactics, success or failure, lifespan, and underlying ideology.
Revolutions can begin on the periphery, with guerilla warfare or peasant upheavals, or on the inside, with urban uprisings and regime overthrows.
Repression, corruption, and military losses can leave regimes open to revolution.
Revolutionary ideologies and forms of government, such as nationalism, self-determination, republicanism, liberalism, democracy, fascism, and socialism, can spread throughout the world system.
The Revolution can be understood in three ways: psychologically, sociologically, and politically.
According to this paradigm, revolutions occur when two or more groups have the resources to use force to achieve their goals but are unable to reach an agreement inside the traditional decision-making process of a specific political system.
The American, Russian, Chinese, and French revolutions are among the best-known historical revolutions.
Russia, history, and communism: or the Bolsheviks' rise to power.
On November 7, 1917, it was evening, and the hands struck nine o'clock.
The charge was announced with a shot from the cruiser Aurora.
Workers, sailors, and communist revolutionaries went to St. Petersburg's Winter Palace with the goal of deposing the current administration and installing a new one that would represent them.
This marked the beginning of the October Revolution, one of the most major historical events of the twentieth century, which will bring about a slew of changes, most notably political ones, first in Russia and then throughout Europe and the world.
According to historians, the October Revolution saw an abrupt shift of power in Russia.
9th April 1917.
There are thirty-two Russian emigrants at the Zurich station, ready to depart.
They are not the only ones who have arrived; some in the crowd cry at them, "Traitors, thieves, pigs!"
However, people who support them also sing revolutionary songs.
Despite the fact that the disturbance temporarily blocks the tracks, the train continues to go.
The German Emperor Wilhelm II provided this train with the purpose of sparking a revolution in Russia.
Lenin, also known as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, sits in one of the carriages.
He leaves his exile in Switzerland with German support, arriving in Petrograd a week later.
The February Revolution in Russia concluded, and Tsar Nicholas II was ousted.
However, as a result of the prolonged fighting, the civil administration is unstable, the atmosphere is chaotic, people are starving, and they are unhappy.
All of this suggests that a significant upheaval could occur in a few months' time.
"Parvus"
Berlin pays special attention to the travels of famous Russian refugees: "Lenin was able to enter Russia." "He is behaving exactly as we have instructed," the German Army's Supreme Staff wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wilhelm II, a monarch and ardent conservative, appears to be siding with communist Lenin in what appears to be a political quandary.
Germany and Austria-Hungary have been at war with the Russian Empire since 1914, and Berlin's goal is to significantly weaken it.
As a result of Lenin and the Bolsheviks' destabilisation of Russia, Berlin calculated that German military units might be shifted from the Eastern Front to the Western Front during World War I.
The plan was much more effective than expected when revolutionary Russia surrendered a major amount of its territory to Germany in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.
The classic phrase "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" accurately defines the connection between the king and Lenin, but the person who proposed such an alliance is even more intriguing.
Izrail Lazarevič Heljfand, sometimes known as "Parvus" or Maleni, was a lone combatant.
This was a wealthy Russian Jew who had earlier recommended to the German envoy in Constantinople at the end of 1914 that "Russian proletarian fists and Prussian bayonets" join forces.
According to Parvus, Germany and the Russian revolutionaries share the same goals.
Initially suspicious, he later secures a Berlin appointment.
Heljfand first visited Germany in 1891. He was content to live in grandeur and with the fairer sex.
Under several names, he publishes to revolutionary newspapers and contacts with the most notable revolutionaries of the day, including Karl Kautsky, Leon Trotsky, Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg.
However, due of his "non-socialist" lifestyle, his comrades did not have much trust in him.
Heljfand and Trotsky were among the first Russian refugees to return home following "Bloody Sunday" on January 22, 1905, when the Russian Tsar ordered the shooting of protesters in Petersburg, killing over 200 people.
They both rose to prominence as Workers' Council leaders, but the police apprehended them one after another.
Heljfand is imprisoned in Siberia but escapes and establishes himself as a businessman in Istanbul. He amasses a wealth through business and imports, eventually owning many banks.
As a result of everything, his fellow communists publicly rejected him; Trotsky even wrote a "Obituary to a Living Friend".
However, when war broke out in 1914, "Parvus" was given another opportunity to create "great politics". In February 1915, the German ambassador in Turkey assigned him a post in Berlin.
Without hesitation, the revolutionary established what amounted to a smuggling "business" in Constantinople, or present-day Istanbul. However, his channels were extremely helpful to the revolution.
He arrives at the Berlin Ministry of Foreign Affairs conference well-prepared, with a written "schedule" for the revolution that he eventually fills out nearly completely.
In 23 pages, he discusses Lenin's release to Russia, the weapons and money that will be supplied to the revolutionaries, and the final fall of the Russian government.
Berlin was also pleased; a month later, the Imperial Treasury Office sanctioned two million Reichsmarks "for the support of revolutionary propaganda in Russia".
Heljfand is also politically active; his "business" was difficult to separate from his political goals, thus he deals in everything and anything, including metals, weapons, cognac, caviar, and fabric.
Due to the battle obstructing the road east, smuggling took place in the north, between Finland, a Russian Empire duchy at the time, and Sweden. The border patrol agents were paid off and refused to allow any inspections.
If he was "conveying greetings from Olga" at the border, the revolutionaries in Russia were handed weaponry, dynamite, and propaganda materials.
These "German gifts" sank ships in Arkhangelsk and set the harbour on fire. Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, the German envoy in Copenhagen, directed "Parvus'" actions. He did not hesitate to aid the communists because doing so would weaken the military alliance battling Germany.
On November 7, 1917, a day that will be remembered as the October Revolution, Heljfand's plan reaches its pinnacle.
After the civilian government is deposed, the Soviet Union seizes power, and a few weeks later, Russia declares its decision to abandon the Entente, a military alliance that comprised the British Crown and France.
For Russia, the war had effectively ended. The revolution in Russia headed by German Emperor Wilhelm II cost almost half a billion dollars today.
For a time, Lenin was also attacked since he received financing and support from both war opponents and capitalists.
Although he never denied it, he did say, "I would add that now with Russian money, we will bring about a similar revolution in Germany," before a party meeting.
However, the revolution was not successful.
Russia is led by communists.
Communists - Lenin's Bolsheviks took control and overthrew Alexander Kerensky's interim government.
Because of their engagement in the war, poverty, and the Provisional Government's poor performance, the Bolsheviks took advantage of the populace's and army's displeasure.
In 1903, the Bolsheviks split from the Mensheviks to form a more radical section inside the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party.
They believed in Karl Marx's theories and predicted that the working class would finally overcome the capitalists' economic and political dominance.
The Bolsheviks believed that a truly socialist society based on equality could only be formed if this was accomplished.
They were commanded by Lenin, who, following the February Revolution of 1917, returned to Russia in an armoured German train after a long exile.
He intended for the Bolsheviks to capture control in Petrograd and then replicate the scheme in other locations.
Lenin persuaded the Bolsheviks with his personality and energy, but he required Soviet support to succeed.
Soviets were workers' councils formed in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905, bringing together a diverse range of left-wing political parties, including anarchists and communists.
They were transformed into organised social and state units by the Bolshevik regime.
In his book April Theses, Lenin set out the goals of the Bolshevik revolutionary revolution.
He promised "land, bread, and peace" to the people under the slogan "all power to the Soviets."
To win over the urban populace, he claimed that the Bolsheviks could address the issue of food shortages in cities; yet, this argument was irrelevant to the peasantry, who made up the vast majority of the population.
He secured the peasants' neutrality by handing them land, and he fulfilled the majority of Russians' expectations for the war's end by promising to make peace with Germany.
Lenin returned to Petrograd, determined to seize power shortly.
The Provisional Government had scheduled elections for November, and he was convinced that the Bolsheviks would do poorly.
Trotsky took over the organisation of the Bolshevik coup, while the Military Revolutionary Committee gathered backing from the Petrograd garrison and Kronstadt sailors.
On November 6, Prime Minister Kerensky attempted to limit Bolshevik power by ordering the arrest of its leaders.
Nonetheless, the Military Revolutionary Committee responded.
The Red Guard and Kronstadt sailors occupied critical positions around the city.
On November 7th, they headed to the Provisional Government in the Winter Palace in response to a shot from the cruiser Aurora.
A few officer cadets, Cossacks, and the "female death battalion" were left to defend the castle, but only a handful were willing to fight.
Most armed forces remained in their barracks, doing nothing to prevent the Bolshevik seizure.
Kerensky departed the Winter Palace to seek assistance.
He escaped from Petrograd dressed as a woman to Moscow, where he took the train to Murmansk using documents and a passport provided by a Serbian officer, where he boarded a ship and travelled to England, thereby ending the saga of the provisional government.
Workers and soldiers surrounded the castle overnight, and on November 8, the Red Guard rushed in and arrested several Provisional Government leaders.
The Bolsheviks took power in Russia.
© Mario Bekes. All rights reserved. | ABN 62 757 932 640 | Suite 6, 11 - 13 Brookhollow Avenue Bella Vista NSW 2153