Leon Trotsky, born November 7th, 1879 in Ukraine under his given name Lev Davidovich Bronstein. The name change occurred after he had been exiled to Siberia in 1898 for being one of the founding members of the South Russia Worker’s Union, an early Russian Marxist party. He remained in exile in Siberia from … Continue reading Leon Trotsky →
Month: February 2018
The Soldiers’ Revolution
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•When the Russian Empire entered World War I in August of 1914, the Tsarist regime viewed it as a chance to renew patriotic fervor and confidence in the government. Since the institution of a weak constitutional order after the 1905 Russian Revolution, the Russian autocracy existed in a constant state of peril. A victory against … Continue reading The Soldiers’ Revolution
April of Discontent
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•It would seem intuitive perhaps, that the revolution which led to the establishment of Communism in Russia happened with a bang, not a whimper. But when Lenin in his April Theses called for “all power to the soviets” there was no great conflagration–the Red Guards seized key government buildings and infrastructure, Kerensky fled, and the … Continue reading April of Discontent →
Order No. 1
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•Russia has always had a massive army. It currently has about 1,000,000 active members with another 2.5 million in reserve. Back during the February Revolution, however, it was even bigger. The Imperial Russian Army was roughly seven and a half million strong in 1917, most of whom were peasants. This huge organization underwent massive changes … Continue reading Order No. 1
The March of the Red Guard
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•The formation of the Red Guard was critical part of the success and preservation of the new soviet government. The idea of a standing army however was very contradictory to the views of Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks, who viewed a standing an army as the feature of a “bourgeois” state. They soon realized However …
The Rise of a New Culture
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•One of the most fascinating things about history is how it affects the culture and customs of the generations of that time and the generations to come. The Revolutions of 1917 in Russia embarked on a cultural transformation that affected millions of people throughout Eastern Europe and Northern Asia and still affects them to this …
Out of the War and into the Revolution
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•Following over 3 years of war with over 1.5 million military deaths belonging to the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia formally removed itself from World War I on March 3, 1918 with the Treaty of Bresk-Litovsk (Centre-robert-schuman). The preparations for the Treaty of Bresk-Litovsk began in December, 1917 with an armistice in the then German-occupied … Continue reading Out of the War and into the Revolution
Kornilov’s Attempted Coup Backfired Worse Than He Ever Could Have Imagined
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•The majority of Kornilov’s grievance with the provisional government rested around their inability or unwillingness to take decisive action against the Bolshevik, which makes it especially ironic that his attempted coup was one of thing things that led to them taking power. The attempted coup was instrumental in providing support and sympathy for the Bolsheviks, …
Continue reading “Kornilov’s Attempted Coup Backfired Worse Than He Ever Could Have Imagined”
Food Fight!
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•Universal suffering was the hallmark of trench warfare during World War I. As millions died from the innovations in warfare and technology, a more subtle affliction plagued the overwhelmingly peasant population of Russia: food shortage. While the roaring machine guns needed only to be fed yet more bullets to the carnage it produced, the millions …
2nd stop: Alexander Palace
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•I decide to make my next stop the Alexander Palace, the last home of the last czar, Nicholas II and his family, to better understand some of the problems surrounding the February and October revolutions of 1917. I decided to get on a plane from Zindan to Saint Petersburg. While waiting for my connecting flight, I watch Anastasia […]