FireWall
July 9th, 2003, 09:44 PM
The Russian Revolution of October, 1917 was one of the greatest events in history. Unfortunately, there are those who are hostile to it, and spare no effort in slandering the events that took place. I decided to create this thread after having a discussion with an individual who was vomiting underdeveloped, flagrant, vulgar interpretations of specific occurrences, and presenting them as factual developments.
Unless you have a relatively decent understanding of this topic, you may not be able to completely appreciate this discussion. I will try to elaborate my points thoroughly, but I won't dwell on basic concepts. I doubt that this thread will receive significant attention, but that is OK. I'm in the mood to write, and write I shall.
In February of 1917, Tsarist Russia ceased to exist. Tsar Nicholas the Bloody was removed from power in a revolutionary movement, and a Provisional Government was established. Russia had been seething with activity since January. Mass strikes were the norm. The workers demanded that their basic needs be met, and wanted the Tsar to be exiled or executed for his crimes. On February 25, Petrograd was experiencing an enormous general strike. The Tsar ordered that the disorder in the capital end the following day without fail, and on February 26 the shooting began. The soldiers and police were ordered to fire on the demonstrators, but the soldiers fired into the air. Only the police opened fire on the people. Clearly, a large portion of the soldiers were not on the same side as the police, and the soldiers of the Pavlovsk regiment opened fire on them. On paper, the regime had ample forces at its disposal. But in the moment of truth, these forces just melted away.
However, even though Tsarism had been overthrown by the workers' of Petrograd, they were not sufficiently organized to establish a government to replace it. Hastily, a Provisional Government was improvised by a weak class of capitalists, which I will hereafter refer to as the bourgeoisie. This class was weak because Russia was underdeveloped, and tied hand and foot to foreign capital. It was a barbaric land of the wooden plough, composed primarily of peasants, and completely subordinate to imperialism. Unlike those nations, Russia had never gone through a bourgeois revolution. The bourgeoisie was degenerate and underdeveloped; it was reactionary and incapable of carrying out its historical duties.
But even though the new government was under the control of the bourgeoisie, the February revolution was not a bourgeois revolution. The bourgeoisie was only able to establish a Provisional Government because the workers' were not prepared to. However, the workers' were organizing themselves, and created apparatuses called Soviets in order to control the operation of their places of work. The February Revolution was a desperate movement of the working class, which I will hereafter refer to as the proletariat, stricken by hunger, war, and impoverishment. Alan Woods, in Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution describes the process that took place:
"Beneath the surface, the mood of the masses had been slowly changing. Trotsky described this process as the “molecular process of revolution”. It is a process that proceeds so gradually that it is frequently imperceptible, even to revolutionaries, who sometimes draw the wrong conclusions from the appearance of apathy and the absence of surface manifestations of the accumulated frustration, rage and bitterness. It is very similar to the gradual building up of pressure beneath the earth’s surface prior to an earthquake. This process is also invisible to the superficial observer who looks no further than the surface, without taking into account the seething processes that are unfolding in the bowels of the earth. When the eruption takes place, it produces general astonishment."
At this point in my discussion, I could proceed to trace the developments of Russia and the Provisional Government all the way to October, but that would be extremely time consuming, and I will not do so. Basically, the Provisional Government was incapable of satisfying the needs of the people. As I explained above, it was under the control of a very weak class, and in October, the Provisional Government was dissolved and replaced by a government that based itself on the Soviets, which as I explained above were the spontaneous inventions of the people. This is where events begin to be distorted, and I will proceed to identify and respond to these distortions.
The October Revolution was NOT a coup d'etat, and the same author quoted above explains this thoroughly:
"The revolution took place over nine months, during which the Bolshevik Party, using the most democratic means, won over the decisive majority of the workers and poor peasants. The fact that they succeeded so easily in overcoming the resistance of the Kerensky forces can only be explained by this fact. Moreover, as we shall see, there is no way that the Bolsheviks could have held onto power, without the support of the overwhelming majority of society. At every stage, the decisive role was played by the active intervention of the masses. This is what set its stamp on the whole process. The ruling class and its political and military representatives could only grind their teeth, but were powerless to prevent power from slipping from their hands. True, they were involved in constant conspiracies against the Revolution, including the armed uprising of General Kornilov, which aimed at overthrowing Kerensky and instituting a military dictatorship, but all of this foundered on the movement of the masses."
Opponents of Bolshevism also like to raise the question of the Constituent Assembly, which I will take the time to respond to now. They claim that the Bolsheviks dissolved the Constituent Assembly because they were a minority, and proceeded to establish a dictatorship. This is false to the core, and overlooks a number of fundamental points.
The Constituent Assembly was a democratic parliament that was called by the Provisional Government to be held to determine exactly what would replace it. There was a situation of dual power. On one side were the Soviets, and on the other, the Constituent Assembly. It was simply a question of who would completely consolidate power. After the October insurrection when the Provisional Government was dissolved, the Constituent Assembly was not called off immediately, but soon afterward, the Bolsheviks, who lead the insurrection, realized that the Constituent Assembly could only serve as a rallying point for the counter-revolution. It was dissolved by the Bolsheviks because it threatened to undermine the Soviets, which as I explained, were the spontaneous inventions of the people, and far more democratic than any Constituent Assembly could be.
On that note, I will conclude my post, and hopefully someone will raise a question or two for me to respond to. Unfortunately, I expect that no one will. I realize that my history lesson was quite sketchy, but I didn't want to spend more than an hour on it. If I made any errors, please point them out to me. For those that actually took the time to read this, thank you.
Unless you have a relatively decent understanding of this topic, you may not be able to completely appreciate this discussion. I will try to elaborate my points thoroughly, but I won't dwell on basic concepts. I doubt that this thread will receive significant attention, but that is OK. I'm in the mood to write, and write I shall.
In February of 1917, Tsarist Russia ceased to exist. Tsar Nicholas the Bloody was removed from power in a revolutionary movement, and a Provisional Government was established. Russia had been seething with activity since January. Mass strikes were the norm. The workers demanded that their basic needs be met, and wanted the Tsar to be exiled or executed for his crimes. On February 25, Petrograd was experiencing an enormous general strike. The Tsar ordered that the disorder in the capital end the following day without fail, and on February 26 the shooting began. The soldiers and police were ordered to fire on the demonstrators, but the soldiers fired into the air. Only the police opened fire on the people. Clearly, a large portion of the soldiers were not on the same side as the police, and the soldiers of the Pavlovsk regiment opened fire on them. On paper, the regime had ample forces at its disposal. But in the moment of truth, these forces just melted away.
However, even though Tsarism had been overthrown by the workers' of Petrograd, they were not sufficiently organized to establish a government to replace it. Hastily, a Provisional Government was improvised by a weak class of capitalists, which I will hereafter refer to as the bourgeoisie. This class was weak because Russia was underdeveloped, and tied hand and foot to foreign capital. It was a barbaric land of the wooden plough, composed primarily of peasants, and completely subordinate to imperialism. Unlike those nations, Russia had never gone through a bourgeois revolution. The bourgeoisie was degenerate and underdeveloped; it was reactionary and incapable of carrying out its historical duties.
But even though the new government was under the control of the bourgeoisie, the February revolution was not a bourgeois revolution. The bourgeoisie was only able to establish a Provisional Government because the workers' were not prepared to. However, the workers' were organizing themselves, and created apparatuses called Soviets in order to control the operation of their places of work. The February Revolution was a desperate movement of the working class, which I will hereafter refer to as the proletariat, stricken by hunger, war, and impoverishment. Alan Woods, in Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution describes the process that took place:
"Beneath the surface, the mood of the masses had been slowly changing. Trotsky described this process as the “molecular process of revolution”. It is a process that proceeds so gradually that it is frequently imperceptible, even to revolutionaries, who sometimes draw the wrong conclusions from the appearance of apathy and the absence of surface manifestations of the accumulated frustration, rage and bitterness. It is very similar to the gradual building up of pressure beneath the earth’s surface prior to an earthquake. This process is also invisible to the superficial observer who looks no further than the surface, without taking into account the seething processes that are unfolding in the bowels of the earth. When the eruption takes place, it produces general astonishment."
At this point in my discussion, I could proceed to trace the developments of Russia and the Provisional Government all the way to October, but that would be extremely time consuming, and I will not do so. Basically, the Provisional Government was incapable of satisfying the needs of the people. As I explained above, it was under the control of a very weak class, and in October, the Provisional Government was dissolved and replaced by a government that based itself on the Soviets, which as I explained above were the spontaneous inventions of the people. This is where events begin to be distorted, and I will proceed to identify and respond to these distortions.
The October Revolution was NOT a coup d'etat, and the same author quoted above explains this thoroughly:
"The revolution took place over nine months, during which the Bolshevik Party, using the most democratic means, won over the decisive majority of the workers and poor peasants. The fact that they succeeded so easily in overcoming the resistance of the Kerensky forces can only be explained by this fact. Moreover, as we shall see, there is no way that the Bolsheviks could have held onto power, without the support of the overwhelming majority of society. At every stage, the decisive role was played by the active intervention of the masses. This is what set its stamp on the whole process. The ruling class and its political and military representatives could only grind their teeth, but were powerless to prevent power from slipping from their hands. True, they were involved in constant conspiracies against the Revolution, including the armed uprising of General Kornilov, which aimed at overthrowing Kerensky and instituting a military dictatorship, but all of this foundered on the movement of the masses."
Opponents of Bolshevism also like to raise the question of the Constituent Assembly, which I will take the time to respond to now. They claim that the Bolsheviks dissolved the Constituent Assembly because they were a minority, and proceeded to establish a dictatorship. This is false to the core, and overlooks a number of fundamental points.
The Constituent Assembly was a democratic parliament that was called by the Provisional Government to be held to determine exactly what would replace it. There was a situation of dual power. On one side were the Soviets, and on the other, the Constituent Assembly. It was simply a question of who would completely consolidate power. After the October insurrection when the Provisional Government was dissolved, the Constituent Assembly was not called off immediately, but soon afterward, the Bolsheviks, who lead the insurrection, realized that the Constituent Assembly could only serve as a rallying point for the counter-revolution. It was dissolved by the Bolsheviks because it threatened to undermine the Soviets, which as I explained, were the spontaneous inventions of the people, and far more democratic than any Constituent Assembly could be.
On that note, I will conclude my post, and hopefully someone will raise a question or two for me to respond to. Unfortunately, I expect that no one will. I realize that my history lesson was quite sketchy, but I didn't want to spend more than an hour on it. If I made any errors, please point them out to me. For those that actually took the time to read this, thank you.