20th Century Conflicts Project

One Page Handout with Key Passages

Conflict: World War I

Topic: Russian Revolution

Argument:The Russian Revolution is the most important effect of WWI because it left a country that was a major power in a very critical state. It was also the most important effect because without World War I the revolution wouldn’t even happen. This is because the country took all the supplies and gave them to the army; this left the country in a chaotic and impoverished state.

Key Passages:

  1. Primary Source

“The bourgeois onslaught of the Kornilovites show that we must not wait. We must at all costs, this very evening, this very night, arrest the government, having first disarmed the officer cadets, and so on....It would be an infinite crime on the part of the revolutionaries were they to let the chance slip, knowing that the salvation of the revolution, the offer of peace, the salvation of Petrograd, salvation from famine, the transfer of the land to the peasants depend upon them. The government is tottering. It must be given the death-blow at all costs.”

  • Lenin, Vladimir. "Modern History Sourcebook: Lenin: Call to Power, Oct 24, 1917." FORDHAM.EDU. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <
  1. Secondary Source

“The leaders of the Petrograd Soviet believed that they represented particular classes of the population, not the whole nation. They also believed Russia was not ready for socialism. So they saw their role as limited to pressuring hesitant "bourgeoisie" to rule and to introduce extensive democratic reforms in Russia (the replacement of the monarchy by a republic, guaranteed civil rights, a democratic police and army, abolition of religious and ethnic discrimination, preparation of elections to a constituent assembly, and so on)… A series of political crises—see the chronology below—in the relationship between population and government and between the Provisional government and the soviets (which developed into a nationwide movement with a national leadership, The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets (VTsIK)) undermined the authority of the Provisional Government but also of the moderate socialist leaders of the Soviet. Although the Soviet leadership initially refused to participate in the ‘bourgeois’ Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, a young and popular lawyer and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRP), agreed to join the new cabinet, and became an increasingly central figure in the government, eventually taking leadership of the Provisional Government… Other political groups were trying to undermine him. Heavy military losses were being suffered on the front. The soldiers were dissatisfied, demoralized and had started to defect. (On arrival back in Russia, these soldiers were either imprisoned or sent straight back into the front.) There was enormous discontent with Russia's involvement in the war, and many were calling for an end to it. There were great shortages of food and supplies, which was difficult to remedy because of the wartime economic conditions. The political group that proved most troublesome for Kerensky, and would eventually overthrow him, was the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin. Lenin had been living in exile in neutral Switzerland and, due to democratization of politics after the February Revolution, which legalized formerly banned political parties, he perceived the opportunity for his Marxist revolution.”

  • "Russian Revolution (1917) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <
  1. Secondary Source

“A Russian offensive in July, beaten back decisively by the Germans, provoked an uprising which was put down, a circumstance which temporarily required that Lenin and other Soviet leaders flee into hiding …Russia then faced three years of devastating civil war as the Bolsheviks, the "Reds" defended themselves against several so-called "white" armies. The war was accompanied by foreign intervention by the English, the French, the Japanese, and the United States. In the end, although the Russian economy was disrupted and the Russian people faced a massive famine, the Bolsheviks held power.During the civil war, the radical phase, the Bolsheviks formed a secret police and purged any dissenters from their ranks. Lenin held power with ruthless determination, establishing a one-party dictatorship.”

  • "The Russian Revolution." The Russian Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/russrev
  1. Secondary Source

“Life in Russia after October 25, 1917, changed very little at first. There was no widespread panic among the upper classes, and the people of Petrograd were generally indifferent. Few expected the new government to last for long, and few understood what it would mean if it did. In Moscow, there was a power struggle that lasted for nearly a week.”

  • "SparkNotes: The Russian Revolution (1917–1918): The October Revolution." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <