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Thread: Pre-Revolution Russian History - A Summary

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    Default Pre-Revolution Russian History - A Summary

    Pre-Revolution Russian History - A Summary


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    ^A small photo of a barricade erected by revolutionaries in Moscow, 1905.

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    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ire-en.svg.png

    ^A link to a picture depicting the territory of the Russian Empire at its greatest extent in 1866

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    The Russian Revolution, which occured in early November of 1917 (in the calendar used at the time it occured during October, hence the 'October Revolution'), can be said to be one of, if not the, most significant event of the 20th century. It's consequences would shape the history of the rest of that century. This post attempts to summarize briefly the social, political and economic state of Russia before the revolution, and in so doing paint a clearer picture of why the revolution happened, and why it happened the way it did.




    Russia should not be thought of as a culturally homogeneous country. There are hundreds of different ethnic groups, each with their own culture, and over a dozen regional languages spoken in different parts of the country in addition to Russian itself. In this way Russia is closer to the United States than to most other European countries (it should be noted however that most of 'Russia' is not in fact in Europe). Russia is also a massive country. While many parts are quite sparsely populated, this distance between the major metropolitan areas of the west (St Petersburg and Moscow) and the rest of the country serve to deepen the cultural rifts between 'European' Russia and 'non-European' Russia, and also between the urban and rural parts of the country. These things should be kept in mind going forward.


    The Crimean War of 1853 saw for the first time since Napoleon a war fought in Europe between major European powers. Great Britain and France would come to the aid of the Ottoman Empire in their struggle against Russia. The reason that these western powers intervened in this particular Russo-Ottoman war (of which there had been a number of before) was largely out of fear of the size and influence of the Russian Empire at that time. Simply put, the Russian Empire was massive. The Crimean War, which ended in 1856, did nothing to change this. At its peak in 1866 the Russian Empire stretched from western Poland to the eastern border of Alaska. This massive empire was ruled from the Tsar's palace in the capital of St Petersburg. Unlike most of Europe, at this time Russia was still an absolute monarchy - the word of the Tsar was law, and no government body existed to keep the Tsar's power in check. Regional autonomy was, for the most part, effectively non existant. Regional government structures (in Russia itself these regional political divisions are now called 'Oblasts') were severely crippled by this system of government. The Tsar would make crucial decisions regarding a region from St Petersburg, with no knowledge of the particular situation in the region, and would then send officials from St Petersburg to the region to enforce the decision and oversee its progress. In many cases the demands were simply impossible to meet. Cultural differences amplified this problem. Many of the Cossacks, for instance, have traditionally been loyal to the Imperial Russian crown, but these types of government structure flaws led to the numerous Cossack rebellions in earlier centuries.


    Another way in which Russia lagged behind the rest of Europe was in the continued practice of serfdom, which had been abandoned in most of Europe by the time of the onset of the Enlightenment era, but which continued in Russia until outlawed by Alexander II in 1861, earning him the name 'Alexander the Liberator'. This 'liberation' did little to change the lives of the rural Russian lower classes. The former serfs simply joined the countless other 'free' Russian farmers, who had no land of their own and no realistic way of obtaining it, and so ended up working on large privately owned farms for meagre, often token, amounts of pay. With this being said, a rural 'middle class' of sorts did exist, as many families had their own gardens, sometimes quite large, and many other families had their own small farms, especially in the warmer regions where greater crop diversity was possible.


    While on the topic of economics, we cannot ignore the impact of the industrial revolution. Industrialization made large farms easier to run and manage. It also created a state of squalor in European cities that did not exist before. Lower class men, women and children who worked in these 19th century factories had none of the rights or protections that we take for granted at our work places today. The work was dangerous, and the factories were unhealthy. Health problems among the workers were rampant. Iron and steel factories required large amounts of coal, which created a demand for another type of job - coal mining, easily the most dangerous and unhealthy job of the 19th century. The introduction of the factories in the metropolitan areas would lead to the formation of the dreaded workers unions. These unions would emerge in every country in Europe in the 19th century at different points, and their creation was a natural response to the percieved injustices that lower class workers of this era suffered. Members would meet in secret, and their aims were typically to help one another out and to struggle for better working conditions. Unique to Russia was how these labour unions evolved into anti government forces. I will discuss this in more detail later.


    The Russian elite in St Petersburg often lived a life of opulence, while the lower class, which made up the majority of the country's population, all too often lived a fairly miserable existence. The economic state of Russia in the late 19th century shares more than a few commonalities with France on the eve of the French revolution. This huge divide between upper and lower class can even be seen in the Russian military of the time. The command structure had numerous problems. While many of the officers were professionals who attended school and studied the writings of men like Alexander Suvorov, numerous other officers had bought or inherited their positions. These officers crippled the efficiency of the Russian military as a whole. They would often sell equipment issued to their units by the government for personal profit. The key advantage of the Russian military over that of its neighbours was its manpower - Russia had a way of always being able to replace men who fell on the front lines. This 'advantage', however, created its own disadvantage - a lack of adequate supplies for the individual soldier. Major logistics problems already existed; corrupt officers made these problems worse. In a far better state were the Cossack divisions. These would often be led by Cossack 'Atamans', or tribal leaders. The men under their command would be from their particular tribe - thus a strong relationship existed between these men and their officers. Rifles were often self provided, and use of supplies was pragmatic, coupled with foraging and looting, so we see a lack of logistical problems with them, and this coupled with their skilled horsemanship made them a great asset to the Imperial Russian military as a whole.


    With all these problems we see a surge of underground political movements emerge in Russia in the late 19th century. The earliest of these were simply democratic in nature; they wanted a democratic Russian republic, or at the very least a government where the lower classes had adequate representation. Repeated persecution, however, created a 'marginalization', resulting in the emergence of more groups that had 'radical' political agendas. Among these were anarchists, militant feminists, socialists, communists, and luddites, to name a few. Communism in particular appealed to many of the factory workers - the works of Marx were, after all, created in response to the horrible conditions of factory labour that Marx had witnessed in his time. An intellectual communist clique emerged in some of the metropolitan areas. These were often university students or professors; Vladimir Lenin was among them. They would translate the writings of Marx to Russian and distribute them to the desperate factory workers. Over time, the 'Bolshevik' communist faction, with strong support amongst the urban (and quite a bit later, rural) working lower classes, and led by men like Lenin and Trotsky, would come to dominate the 'opposition' movement. Other opposition groups were typically either eliminated or merged. The October revolution of 1917 would begin in the same way that the failed revolution of 1905 had - armed groups of civilians, organized into 'factory units' (ie men from factory X would be in 'unit' X, men from factory Y would be in 'unit' Y, etc etc), would seize control of strategically important buildings (factories, police stations, post offices, train stations, etc etc). Their activity was coordinated by the party heads (all of whom were previously part of the 'intellectual clique' mentioned earlier). Although this type of 'street fighting' initially failed in 1917, unlike in 1905 it was followed up by rural insurgency, large scale riots and mass military desertion, all of which led to the collapse of the Imperial system.

    The October revolution was immediately followed by the Russian civil war, which would continue to be fought into the 1920s. As with all revolutions, it was the end result of years of pressure. When change is needed and does not arrive, then for better or for worse people seek different outlets to obtain that which is necessary - this is but one example of this happening in human history. Nonetheless, it is indeed a significant historical event, and although for many of you the things I discussed in this post may already be common knowledge, my hope is that I was at least able to create a more 'solid' image of what life was like for the average Russian in the years leading up to this important event.
    Last edited by Pazu the Kitsune; October 27, 2017 at 10:19 PM.

    "If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,"

    -First lines to the poem "If-" (by Rudyard Kipling)


  2. #2

    Default Re: Pre-Revolution Russian History - A Summary

    I thought to remember I already left a comment here - strange... but then, I do it now!

    As usual, a very good read and well researched. Your historical Background articles make excellent teasers, really, I canīt wait to see the campaign gameplay

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