Russian Society Before the Revolution

Introduction

The Russian Revolution was the landmark event that effectively changed the global scheme of politics. The world witnessed a violent insurgency in Russia that overthrew Tzarist rulers and replaced them with the leftist revolutionary party of the Bolsheviks. The Revolution started in early 1917 and continued till 1923. This insurgency period consisted of two revolutions and a breakout of civil war in Russia. This uprising did not get started one fine morning. It slowly brewed up because of the inefficacy and fraudulent activities of the Tsar’s monarchical government, the increasing amount of frustration among ethnic minorities, peasants, armed forces, and workers, the participation of Russia in World War I, and the poor condition of the Russian economy. All these problems eventually led to a fierce Revolution.

Economic and Social Conditions

Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, the society was divided into the upper classes i.e. royalty, and aristocrats which consisted of only 12.5% of the population, whereas almost 82% population belonged to the peasants and 4% of the working class. As other parts of Europe witnessed a massive Industrial Revolution, Russia was unable to experience that. Thus, Russia’s middle-class population did not grow that much. It consisted of only 1.5% of the population.

This lack of the middle-class population led to the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few. As result, the autocratic rulers dominated the vast population. Most of the landowners belonged to the royalty and nobility. Thus, the rural peasantry and urban working-class people were the worst sufferers of the Tsarist regime. The societal condition in the early 19th century Russia was quite poor in every sphere starting from life expectancy ratio, literacy, schools, roads, hygiene to sanitation.

Industrialization slowly entered Russia in the early 20th century. It brought various changes in the social and political sphere. Still, Russia depended more on agricultural work. Despite being freed from serfdom in 1861 by the earlier Tsar Alexander II, the peasants who worked on the land never became landowners. They were landless and worked in other landowner’s fields. Peasants were given the land to work as the government paid the landowners. As a result, the peasants were forced to pay back this money to the government. Their dissatisfaction knew no bounds. In the early 20th century, the peasants tried to protest against this injustice and asked for land reform as the majority of lands were privately owned. But their demand for communal ownership of land fell on deaf ears.

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Nearly from the end of the 19th century, poverty-ridden, dissatisfied peasants moved from the rural area to cities. They got introduced to industrialized urban culture and cosmopolitan ideologies. Cities got largely overcrowded and workers were paid less. The more industrialization paced up in Russia, the more it was forcing the laborers to work in poor conditions for long hours with low wages. The overcrowded cities could barely arrange any safe and hygienic-sanitary conditions or housing arrangements for the workers.

The angry workers influenced by revolutionary ideas in cities started protesting, organized marches, and went on to strike against these dwindling political and social conditions. They were no longer relying on Tsar’s rule. The newly inspired Proletariats were growing in numbers and changing to more lethal techniques to crush the rulers, specifically after 1905 when the militaries of Tsar Nicholas II killed several protesters in ‘Bloody Sunday’. The Socialist revolutionaries also started advancing the causes of proletariats.

Policy of Russification

Tsar’s policy of ‘Russification’ directed the different ethnicities to give up their culture and language which angered various nationalities. Even the rights of the Russians were limited. They were expected to show their unquestioned loyalty to the authorities and fulfill all their duties. As a result, more and more people were getting dissatisfied with the governance of Tsar Nicholas II who once voted for him with slogans like ‘ One Tsar. One Church. One Russia.’

The First World War I

The First World War in 1914 put fuel to the fire that was already there. Russia agreed to participate in the war which meant greater demand for factory workers to produce war materials. The already angry workers became furious. The general people were also supporting workers as they too were opposing Russia's participation in the war. The workers were forced to join military service and the unskilled peasant joined as workers in factories. By the end of 1916, millions of Russian soldiers were killed in World War I. Russia witnessed a devastating famine in the whole country. Militaries too started revolting because of the lack of war supplies and equipment which aggravated their defeats. More and more people became agitated with the government and wealthy people.

Implications

The government directed the military to kill the protesters but they refused to do that. The revolution got started in February 1917 in and around Petrograd with the Russian army’s rebellion. The army was of opinion that if the Tsar steps down then the situation of Russia would improve. Subsequently, Tsar gave up his power and the Russian Provisional Government came into power which worked for the capitalist interest. The working-class people were dissatisfied with the outcome. Later the working-class people got unified with far-left Bolsheviks and initiated the famous October Revolution followed by the Russian civil wars which finally led to the creation of the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

The Russian Revolution was a remarkable event that left an indelible mark in world history. Starting with the February revolution, it took many turns which led to the October revolution, the Russian civil war, and eventually, the power transferred to the Bolshevik party which established the Soviet Union. The societal situation in Russia before the revolution was volatile.

There were several economic, political and social causes behind the upsurge. The irresponsible, fraudulent, and inadequate governance of the Tsarist rule, Russia’s participation in World War I even when Russia was economically ruined, increasing dissatisfaction of the peasants, workers, militaries, and ethnic minorities, differences of political opinions among different groups- all of these things steered the way to the iconic Russian Revolution of 1917.

FAQs

Q1. What was the condition of Socialist Parties in Russia before the Revolution in 1917?

Ans. The Russian authority banned any type of political party before 1914, still the Socialists were actively working in the rural areas of Russia in the late 19th century. In 1898, the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was established by the Socialists. It believed in Marxist ideologies. Socialist Revolutionary Party was also got established in 1900. They advocated for the rights of peasants. Later there was an argument regarding peasants among the members of the Socialist Democratic Party which eventually got divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. The majority of people went into the Bolshevik party under the leadership of Lenin and advanced the socialist ideas of Marx.

Q2. Why the Duma was built in Russia?

Ans. The authoritarian rule of Nicholas II denied civil rights and democratic representation of the people and refused to propose any reform to alleviate the sufferings of the Russian people. In 1905, when the dissatisfied people went to the streets to protest against the oppression, hundreds of them were killed by Tsar’s army which marked the day as ‘Bloody Sunday’. After facing the people’s strike, Tsar took out the ‘October Manifesto’ where he announced to establish a democratic and elective Parliament which would empower the people. This democratic Parliament was called Duma. Although, as Tsar felt Dumas was not cooperating with him, he dissolved the first two Dumas.

Q3. What was the role of the Church in the Russian Revolution?

Ans. The Orthodox Church of Russia worked as an ally of the Tsar. They reinforced the autocratic authority of the Tsar by declaring in their official doctrine that Tsar was appointed by God. They said that it would be considered an insult if people protested against their “Little Father”. Churches were awarded money for propagating Tsar’s agenda. The illiterate people of Russia blindly followed the Church at that time. But when they found out how hypocritical and corrupt the Church had become, they lost their blind faith in Church.

Q4. What were the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of the People of Russia in 1917?

Ans. In 1917, when the Soviet Union had formed, ‘The Declaration of the Rights of the People of Russia’ was the first document that laid out four principles of their rule. Those are as follows −

• a] Equality and sovereignty which considered the people of the Union as the ultimate authority,

• b] Right to self-determination for other nations,

• c] Removal of any special treatment for any nation or religion,

• d] Right to safeguard one’s culture and growth of the ethnic minority people of Russia.

Q5. What was the Revolutionary Tribunal?

Ans. The Revolutionary Tribunals were set up in times of Russian civil war and the revolution as it was aimed to fight the counter-revolutionaries. It was trying to continue the Revolution uninterruptedly and combat the forces who wanted to sabotage the Revolution. It acted as a supportive institution to give justice to the people of Russia where the Provisional Government of Russia was unable to provide justice.