The Rise of the Proletariat TL:

Arctofire

Banned
Basic Concept and Overview of this Timeline:

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During the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was the first time in history (aside from the Paris Commune) where the ordinary working class people took power directly into their own hands. It was an extraordinary endeavour, which inspired millions across the globe, and it is one of, if not the singular, greatest event in world history due to it's significance and the possibility of a better world it offered.

However, Russia at the time of the Russian Revolution was a very backwards semi feudal country with 80% of it's population peasants. Marx said in the Communist Manifesto that capitalism is a prerequisite for socialism, and had always presumed that the first workers revolution would happen in the advanced capitalist countries with a large and strong proletariat, either France, Germany, or Britain. However this turned out not to be the case for a number of reasons, partly due to Russia's uneven development, it's comparatively weak national capitalist class, and therefore it being the weakest link.

Because of it's uneducated population, it's lack of effective machinery and transportation able to avert famine, and the overwhelming hostility of the other capitalist powers, the Bolshveiks lost support as they were unable to carry out their promises of 'peace, land, bread, and freedom,' due to the ongoing civil war and the scarcity it caused. This meant the revolution degenerated, and power became concentrated in the hands of a few. This was one of the primary reasons why Stalin came to power and the Soviet Union became a totalitarian regime.

But this was almost not the case. After the Great October Socialist Revolution and WW1, there was huge militancy of the working class all across Europe, particularly in Germany and Hungary. In Hungary a short lived Soviet Republic was even created in 1919.

However, the big country all of the Bolshveik's were looking at was Germany. Germany was a powerful, economically developed country, and had a huge socialist tradition. If Germany had turned communist in 1919 and have helped the Russian's in the Russian Civil War, the destruction and devastation of Russia would not have been as severe, and the rise of totalitarianism and Stalinism would have been avoided.

All of the objective conditions for a revolution in Germany existed. In 1918 the Kiel mutiny sparked the German Revolution, which was similar to the February revolution in that it overthrew the Kaiser and created a liberal (boishwar) democracy. The biggest obstacle was the betrayal of the SPD (Social Democratic Party.) The SPD had inspired so much hope in socialists across Europe, but on the outbreak of WW1 the majority of it's deputies in the Reichstag voted for war credits. By the German revolution it had decisively rejected revolution and allied itself with the capitalists. The most notable member of the SPD and the first president of the Weimar Republic was Friedrich Ebert.

There was huge workers opposition to Ebert, manifested in the USPD (Independent Social Democratic Party) which was much more radical, but was unable to decisively break with reformism. The Spartacist League, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht, was a revolutionary organization. But it was so absorbed into the USPD that it failed to be a decisive force during the Spartacist Revolt, and the rising ended in catastrophic failure with over 100 workers being murdered at the hands of the arch reactionary Freikorp paramilitaries.

Luxemburg and Liebnecht were highly competent figures, who had a high amount of respect amongst the German communist movement. One of the biggest issues after their death was that the KPD lacked many experienced leadership and it was uncertain who would take their places. This lead to the split between the Communist Party and the Communist Worker's Party, and the division in the Communist movement, misguided ultra leftist tactics, and lack of leadership is what led to the failure of the Red Rising the following year.

The Kapp Putsch and the response to it was absolutely groundbreaking. Virtually the entire country went on strike against military dictatorship, so that they were completely squandered. Ebert was deeply unpopular, everybody knew how he'd sent out the freikorps to murder revolutionaries. In the aftermath of the coup, the working class had had enough of boishwar government, and could see clearly the incompetency and betrayal of the SPD. The Red Rising in the Ruhr Region was a huge uprising, which had a real chance of being successful, even so much that a militia of 80,000+ men was formed in the height of the struggle. The reason for the failure was the lack of coordinated leadership, and the division in the left. The Communist Worker's Party refused to enter into reformist trade unions, and would not compete in elections, the same was true of the Free German Worker's Union. This led to isolation from the masses, who at this time were very much still supporting the USPD. Tragically, the result was that this time over a thousand striking workers were killed.

But Luxemburg had a commitment to democracy, and understood that in order for a revolution to be successful, one had to secure the support of the whole country, and this is why she rightly pointed out that the 1919 revolt would be a disaster, which it would have been even if they'd taken control of Berlin. If she had given clear leadership to the KPD, they would have followed a unified strategy and been a more attractive force to the working class, taking over from the USPD and would have easily have been able to defeat the Freikorps. Not only that, but a successful Ruhr Rising would have immediately, if coordinated effectively, been met with support in Berlin, and a most (almost all of present day borders) of Germany would have been under Red control.


What would this new world look like, and what would be it's impact on a world scale?

We are now leaving OTL, and reading a popular history book from this alternative world...


The Rise of the Proletariat: A History of the 20th Century

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Introduction:


The 20th century was the most significant century in human history. It harked the dawn of a new era of humanity, an era without class, exploitation, and oppression, but instead cooperation, progress, and concern for humanity. It defined the rest of the 20th century and the struggles and battles that were fought. It created a society where anyone, regardless of background, could have an opportunity to give to their communities and society.

At the start of the 20th century, the vast majority of people were illiterate and had incredibly short lifespans, by the end, global illiteracy had been more a less abolished, and people were living longer, more productive, happier, and healthier lives. At the start of the 20th century, religion still controlled the minds of ordinary people, telling them how to think and what they were allowed to do, whereas at the dawn of the 21st religion had largely died out in Europe, and was in decline elsewhere. People thought scientifically and critically, questioning established norms constantly, and through this, creating ever better ways of doing things, leading to a huge amount of innovation and progress. And this wasn’t a small number of intellectuals from the upper classes, like in days of old, this was people from every class and every background, expanding their horizons and knowledge to strengthen all of humankind. No longer were people subjected to the rule by the few in the interests of the few, but could exercise their will through the rule of democracy.

To understand the history of the 20th century, it is very important to understand all of the forces which were at play

Ever since the agricultural revolution, humankind had been divided into social classes. Before this point, people had been more a less equal, as human society had been primitive, and had not mastered it’s skills to create surplus value above and beyond everyday needs. However, the dawn of farming techniques changed things. For the first time, there was food all year round, and excess produce on top of that. So, in order to move society forward with this new found surplus, to be able to build roads, cities, and empires, there needed to be a group of people who did not work on the land providing sustenance, but could focus their time on other things, such as writing, philosophy, and science. Soon, huge civilizations sprung up, and they were almost always ruled by monarchs and emperors, who lived in excess and luxury off the sweat and labor of the vast majority of the population, who were agricultural laborers or slaves.

Many different types of class society emerged throughout the ages. The Roman Empire build a gigantic civilization which created the cultural framework for modern day Europe through the mass of slave labor. However, without constant expansion and the acquiring of new slaves, it could sustain it’s cultural endeavors, and once it had reached its peak of power, it eventually collapsed under its own weight.

Europe hence went into a long period of decline, and cities were largely abandoned in favor of a return to a more primitive way of life. For the next millennium or so the ruling class consisted of landlords, who leached off of the agricultural labor of the peasant masses, and the catholic church, the one lasting remnant of the empire which maintained control over the land and the minds of the populace. This society was known as feudalism.

However, over time, civilization gradually recovered, towns reemerged, and many wished to break free from the stifling of creativity, reason, and progress that the church had mandated as a means of maintaining their hegemony. They wanted to be able to trade freely, without interference from any institutions. These new class of traders, who sailed across the world trading goods and services, became known as capitalists. However, this brought them into conflict with the feudal lords, absolute monarchs, and the church, that wished to maintain their control, both ideologically and materially. So, the capitalists created their own branch of Christianity, Protestantism, which would be better ideologically suited to their interests.

During the 17th century, many battles took place between the capitalists and feudalists, and in many cases the feudalists won, such as in the Thirty Years War in France and Germany. However, in other cases, such as Britain and Holland, the rule of absolutism and warlords fell to the rule of capitalism. Power was decided through the rule of markets, and feudal privileges were abolished. In both cases, monarchs eventually returned to restore order, but they were now bound to serve the interests of capital, and to assist in keeping the capitalist’s new hegemony over society.

However, what set the capitalists apart from any other rulers so far, was that of free competition. In order to secure profits and be able to expand their control of trade, they needed to be able to develop faster and more efficient mechanisms constantly, in order to create ever greater surplus value. This led to an enormous advance of engineering, technology, and science. In order to efficiently transfer goods from one area to another, railways and roads were built. Lands once covered in farmland became every more urbanized, as more efficient techniques of harvesting crops were invented, and more and more people moved to towns and cities to be able to mine minerals out of the ground and manufacture goods.This new class became known as the proletariat, urbanized workers who worked for big capitalists to increase profits. For the first time in history, surplus value had increased to the point of abundance, when there was enough to feed every person, and yet still be able to maintain civilization and all of its benefits, such as culture and longer lives. However, despite this, the living standards of the vast majority of the population remained poor.

As the means of production advanced, corporations grew bigger, and capital became more and more concentrated in the hands of the few, having wiped out all competitors. The occupations of workers slowly shifted as technology improved, from manual work to more intellectual. This lead, to the first time in history in countries of advanced capitalist development, of a population in which a majority could access culture through literacy. As the masses grew more educated and became more, they could begin to see the trembling injustices they were subjected to. For the first time, the masses could act not only for their own interests, but for their collective interest.

Karl Marx, a philosopher and sociologist born in Prussia, was the first person to adequately understand the scientific processes towards the development of humankind, known as Historical Materialism. Marx was born shortly after the period of the Enlightenment, a period of great political and social change in the 18th century.

French Revolution of 1789 had been the first time in history where the working class had played a key role and fought for its own interests. Before this point, such as in the English Revolution of 1642 and later 1689, and the American Revolution of 1776, the capitalists had fought for their own interests alone. Despite the increased status of democratic institutions in both cases, this involved strong property qualifications in order to be elected to office. The French Revolution started out much the same way, but there was a difference. Society had developed to the point where the peti boishwar (small capitalists), usually the most radical sections of capitalism, could rely on active working class support. This movement was called the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, and they advocated democracy for all men, regardless of property. The Levellers during the English Revolution had raised similar demands, but because there wasn’t as much of a developed social base of proletarians, they ended up defeated. However, for a short time, the Jacobins were able to gain power, and establish a democratic society based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

However, seeing this as a threat to their interests, the big boishwar removed the Jacobin’s from power, and after much instability, Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. Napoleon ended democracy, and brought back a lot of relics from feudalism, such as the catholic church, heraldry, and declared himself emperor. However, the Napoleonic Wars ended up abolishing feudalism throughout most of Europe. He was eventually defeated however, and reason retreated, and the aristocracy was able to regain some of their old privileges (although the world had changed irreversibly, and they had to make concessions to the capitalists).

Leaving Prussia to write his theories in London, Marx analyzed the causes of the defeat of the French Revolution, and he declared, quite rightly, that it was only the proletariat who could change society. His beliefs were proven right, when the French Revolution (and others throughout Europe) in 1848 virtually repeated the experience of the revolution at the end of the 18th century. In the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, Marx analyzed the nature of capitalism. He understood it’s workings and rise, how it had helped modernize society, but that in doing so, it had created its own gravediggers, the urban working class. He recognized that as capitalism became more and more concentrated in the hands of the few as it developed, it was prone to economic crisis. Economic crisis happened through a phenomenon which would have seemed like madness, the crisis of overproduction. Despite capitalism producing greater and greater goods, the proletariat cannot buy back what it produced, as in that case there would be no surplus value. Capitalism would run out of fresh markets, and after that, they would lose money and the economy would go into crisis.

Marx lived before the time of the German Revolution, however he helped build the foundations on which it would succeed so that later generations could pick up from where he started. Playing a major role in the International Workingmen’s Association, an organization which campaigned for workers rights, the redistribution of wealth, and socialism. In doing so, he met with Wilhelm Liebknecht, a founders of one of the most successful workers parties in all of existence, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD.)

However, as he had suspected, the proletariat had risen even without his direction, in the Paris Commune of 1871. This was the first time in history when the proletariat had taken power directly into their own hands, without the interference of any other class. All land and wealth had been declared the common property of all, and the most democratic system of government up until that point had been established, which not only gave all men the right to vote (but not women,) but also to directly influence the running of institutions via immediate recall of delegates if they did not conform to the public will, and all representatives being on a workers wage. The commune was brutally crushed by the capitalists, as it did not spread to the rest of France, but it’s significance was historic, and it would serve as an inspiration for generations to come.
 
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Arctofire

Banned

The Great War:

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Background:


At the start of the 20th century, Europe was divided between great power's, competing over dominance of the world stage.

The most powerful at this stage was the British Empire. Britain was one of the oldest capitalist nations and by far the most industrialised and developed, having undergone major political changes in the 17th century removing the absolutism of monarchs and harkening the capitalist order. A constitutional monarchy with an elected Parliament, concessions had been made to the working class through the various reform acts of the 19th century. As in many other countries, such as France and Germany, working men could now vote and theoretically hold office. In practice however, MP's were only amongst the very rich . The phrase 'the sun never sets on the British Empire' was used to describe it, as almost a third of the entire land area of the world was under British control, and because of time zones, it was always daytime on at least one part of it. It's empire was part of a wider project of colonialism, which all capitalist powers sought to have a part in to expand their markets. Natives of the conquered countries were given very little rights, and they had to work in appalling conditions to make profits for the British capitalists. It's empire included India, Canada, Australia, and huge swathes of the African continent.

However, whilst still the most powerful nation in the world at the time, Britain's world dominance was starting to diminish. Other countries, such as the United States, Germany, and Japan were industrialising rapidly, and threatening Britain's hegemony.

Germany had been many small states since the Napoleonic wars and the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. However, one of the largest states, Prussia, sought to unify all Germanic lands into one state. The leader behind this concept was chancellor Otto Von Bismark, a conservative politician who wanted to create a new German Empire. Fearing the loss of influence, France, led by Napoleon III, attempted to crush the new North German Confederacy (precursor to the German Empire) but was defeated, and led to France's German speaking eastern territories, Alsace & Lorraine, being taken over by Germany.

Germany had a larger population than Britain, and was in many ways much more advanced. However, it did not possess the large Empire that Britain had. Kaiser Wilhelm II, having come to the throne from 1818, repeatedly said that he wanted 'Germany to have her place in the sun.' This resulted in a highly tense atmosphere between the two countries in the early 20th century, as each attempted to outdo each other, particularly in the terms of naval power.

Socialist movements were also gaining momentum across Europe, as suffrage was extended to working class people, many working class parties sprung up out of trade unions, to fight for reforms. However, as increased democratic rights were being granted, many intellectuals began to turn away from the revolutionary theories of Marx, and instead fight to reform capitalism in the interests of workers. Such intellectuals included Eduard Bernstein, a key figure in the SPD, which at this time, was by far the most successful social democratic party in Europe. He believed that capitalism had become more diffuse as of late, and encouraged working class people to attempt to reform it. This culminated into a huge ideological battle, between the revolutionary Marxist wing of the SPD, led by Karl Kautsky and Wilhelm Liebnecht's son, Karl Liebnecht, and reformists such as Bernstein. Time would however show, that reformist politics was not only ineffective, but frequently ended up betraying the working class.

However, Germany and Britain were not the only powers in Europe. Aside from already mentioned France, there was also Austria Hungary, a highly diverse, multi ethnic empire bound together by the rule of one monarch, Franz Joseph I. Naturally, due to the multi national nature of the empire, the rise of European nationalism had increased the risk of national liberation movements fragmenting it.

Other powers included declining states, such as the Russian and Ottoman Empires.

Russia had attempted to develop it's infrastructure and modernise like the rest of Europe, however, this was based on borrowing money from France. As such, its national capitalist class was relatively weak, as it was mostly French corporations that were driving the leavers of development, however, it's proletariat developed rapidly in the central cities of Moscow and St Petersburg (now Leningrad) . It also still had a strong class of aristocrats, who did not want to give up their past privileges. Whilst Alexander II had tried to modernise Russia, such as officially ending serfdom in 1861, such actions ended up increasing resistance to the monarchy due to the increasing size of the proletariat, and greater demands for democratic rights. Alexander II was assassinated by a left wing peasant organisation known as the 'People's Will', being led by middle class intellectuals, and after that point, a huge period of political repression followed from his son, Alexander III.

A huge uprising from the urban proletariat had happened in 1905, after tsar Nicholas II, Alexander III's successor, had entered fire on a peaceful protest calling for increased workers rights, known as Bloody Sunday. This culminated in an uproar across Russian society, and the entire country was brought to a standstill. This was the Revolution of 1905 Partially bending under pressure, the tsar granted limited democratic rights in the form of the State Duma, but viciously attacked proletarian revolutionaries, who were murdered in the thousands, giving him the nickname Bloody Nicholas. The Duma gave the majority of its seats to the upper classes, in a similar fashion to the Reichstag in Imperial Germany, giving the working class even less power than they did in a country like Britain or France.

Russia had many capitalist modernisers who could see the dangers Russia was going to face if it did not reform, such as prime minister Peter Stolypin, who as well as giving the peasants de facto freedom instead of just de jure, and called for universal education and basic workers rights. He was assassinated by the Socialist Revolutionary party, the successor of the People's Will, due to his bloody repression of left wing forces, but the tsar and aristocracy wanted to remove him anyway, as he was trying to modernise Russia too much and was therefore a threat to their interests.

By WW1, Russia was still a backwards agrarian country, with 80% of it's population illiterate peasants. All of these factors were to eventually lead to 1917 Russian Revolution, the great precursor to the German Revolution of 1920.

The Ottoman Empire was known throughout the continent as 'the sick man of Europe.' Being very much still an Islamic feudal country, it's influence had heavily declined throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's eventual collapse was inevitable, but it's leaders tried to delay it for as long as they could.



The Spark:

As we have just discussed, the Great War was at it's core, based on imperialist rivalries between great powers, however, something had to actually light the fuse.

The Balkans (what now consists of Yugoslavia and Albania) had been a highly unstable region. After gaining independence from the Ottomans, many south slavs wanted to unify into their own state to be able to fight of other powers. The principal organisation behind this idea was the Black Hand organization, based in independent Serbia, that advocated Pan-Slavism.

However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was taking advantage of the Ottoman decline, and recently had annexed Bosnia. This made the pan slavs very angry, and so when Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited the Bosnian capitalist Sarajevo, to reassert their control, on June 22 1914, he was assassinated by Gavrillo Princip, a member of the Black Hand. Through the next month, Austria Hungary called on Serbia to extradite Princip and the Black Hand, but they refused. A month later Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia. However a complicated web of alliances meant that this initial dispute evolved into a European conflict. Russia was allied with Serbia, so they declared war on Austria Hungary, Germany was allied with Austria Hungary, so they declared war on Russia, France was allied with Russia, so they declared war on Germany, etcetra.

Of course, this war was an imperialist war, fought in the interests of gaining an increased piece of the pie in terms of global hegemony, yet it was the working class who were ordered onto the front lines, having to kill other working class people simply because their officers had ordered them to. Alarmingly however, many on the left, including the majority of the SPD's deputies in the Reichstag, supported the war. Even Karl Kautsky, who up until this point had been an outstanding Marxist theoretician, justified the war by saying it was 'defending Germany.' Of course, despite many people claiming that it was a war to abolish reaction, the imperialist powers had absolutely zero interest in the wellbeing of the people, and fought this war purely for economic gain. Only a small amount of figures opposed the war, among them key figures in the German revolution, SPD deputy Karl Liebnecht, and Rosa Luxemburg.


With Germany invading Belgium in order to conquer France, which Britain had an alliance with, Britain entered into the war. The British were able to halt the German advance, but the war ended up in a huge stalemate, with approximately 16 million, mostly working class, people killed during the course of the war. Many young men volunteered to fight in the war in 1914, thinking it would be over by Christmas, but in fact it dragged on and on for four years. Up until 1918, every single glimmer of hope at movement was met with disappointment, as lives wasted and little gained. An example of this would be the Battle of the Somme in 1916, with more than 50,000 British soldiers were killed on the first day, and over a million soldiers were killed overall. It was widely called the war to end all wars, due to the amount of life lost.
 
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Arctofire

Banned
The Russian Revolution: The Great Precursor:

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Russia had lost more soldiers than any other country in the war. In the on the eastern front, fought between Russia and Germany, the death toll of Russian troops was over 2 million. This was partly due to Russia's backwards technology compared to it's main enemy, which meant food and supplies on the front lines were extremely scarce. Not only that, but Tsar Nicholas II had been extremely incompetent during the course of the war, making extremely bad decisions which showed his lack of judgement. This included leaving Russia to go to the front lines, and leaving his wife, a German, in charge with a man named Rasputin, a mysterious man who was thought to have dark mystical powers. This greatly angered the nobility, and on the 30th of December 1916 he was assassinated.

This caused more instability in Russia, and by 1917, all this had meant that the Russian people had finally had enough of the Tsar. On March 1917 (called the February Revolution due to the Orthodox), beginning by striking female textile workers on International Women's Day (8th of March), all of Russia was brought to a standstill, as mass protests and strikes convinced the army and capitalists that the tsar must go. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and Russia became a republic. This is known as the February Revolution, the first stage of the Russian Revolution.

A provisional government was set up. Included in this government was aristocrat Georgy Lvov of the Constitutional Democrats (a conservative capitalist party) but in July he was later replaced with member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Alexander Kerensky. However, the provisional government continued the war, despite the overwhelming majority of public opinion against. In addition, it kept on talking of calling a constituent assembly, but kept delaying it, fearing it would give left wing parties more power. It also did nothing to control rampant inflation caused by food shortages, which in turn were caused by Russia's extremely primitive agricultural technology.

The Bolsheviks:
The Bolsheviks were a revolutionary Marxist organization which were to play a vital role in the success of the October Revolution. Having split from the Mensheviks in 1903, both birthing from the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.) They were led by Vladimir Illich Ulanov, who came to be known as Vladimir Lenin to hide his identity from the authorities. Lenin's brother had been killed by the tsarist authorities for being involved in an assassination plot against Alexander III, giving young Lenin a reason to oppose the state. The Bolshevikk's were an illegal organization, so they had to work in secrecy, having organized revolutionary cells within factories, and a small group of professional revolutionaries. They, along with the Mensheviks, had played a minor but key role in the revolution of 1905, but ultimately were not a decisive force.

Marx had specifically stated in The Communist Manifesto that in order for a successful revolution to occur, capitalism had to be developed first.
As Russia was a backwards agrarian country at the time there were two schools of thoughts which dominated the Russian left on this issue. The first, was that there would first be a boishwar revolution, which the socialists would assist, and a socialist revolution would happen further down the line, this was the point of view which dominated the Menshvieks, such as it's leader Georgy Plekhanov.

On the other hand, were those that believed that the capitalist class lacked the initiative and will to overthrow the absolutism of Russia, due to their fear of the proletariat. This was the belief that Lenin held.

The initial reason for the split in 1903 between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was organizational strategy. The Mensheviks wanted to open the organization to become a mass party, but Lenin rejected this, as it would mean the party would be more visible to the authorities. However, over time, the differences grew more ideological, with the Leninists inside the Bolsheviks, and the two stageists in the Mensheviks.

After a long period in obscurity due to repression, and Lenin having been in exile in Switzerland for many years, the Bolshveik's suddenly reappeared on the front line of the revolution. After hearing news of the revolution, Lenin immediately made plans to return to Russia, and the German's provided him the means to do so, hoping he would cause more instability in Russia so they could win the war.
Lenin arrived in Russia at Finland Station in April, he was greeted with great enthusiasm, but Lenin was not a fan of formalities. Here, he formulated his April Theses.

Before this point, the Bolsheviks who had still been in Russia had advocated the party siding with the provisional government, working as a left opposition within it. But Lenin strongly opposed this. He recognised that the Russian boishwar had no interest in a progressive revolution, but rather sided with reaction, to shield itself from the proletariat, similar to the Bonapartist tendencies of the 1789 and 1848 French Revolutions. He therefore advocated that all power should be wrested in the Soviet's (workers councils which had emerged throughout the revolution as workers had occupied their factories,), and that no support should be given to the Provisional Government. Landed estates should be broken up and redistributed to the peasants, the army abolished and replaced with a workers militia, democratically electing on decisions and leadership, and banks and industry should be nationalized so that their profits should go towards the collective interest.

At the time of the February Revolution, the Bolsheviks numbered only around 20,000 members. By the October Revolution, they were nearing 250,000 members.

The October Revolution:

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Like the Paris Commune, workers soviets in Russia worked on the principles of direct democracy. All delegates were on a worker's wage, and subject to immediate recall if they no longer represented the will of the people.

There was mass support for the Bolshevik Programme, especially in the cities amongst the urban proletariat, and in Petrograd and Moscow they were the parties with the most votes. However, not all of Russia moved at the same pace. For example, in July the workers of Petrograd (renamed Leningrad after the revolution) were ready for a revolt against the provisional government, however the rest of Russia wasn't. So Lenin and the Bolsheviks attempted to sway them away from insurrection at the present time. Unfortunately, this culminated in loosing the support of the masses temporarily, with key Bolshevik leaders either going into exile or thrown in prison. At this point, a lot of left Menshevik figures, such as Leon Trotsky, joined the Bolsheviks, and would later play an important role in the revolution.

However, as Kerensky attempted to call on the army to crush the Soviet's, General Lavr Kornilov attempted a military coup against the Provisional Government due to it's indecisive leadership, and to create a military dictatorship. Completely lost as to what to do, Kerensky called on the Soviet's to call a general strike, released political prisoners such as Trotsky, and gave arms to the workers to defend the government. This meant the coup was defeated, but arms were fully in the hands of the workers.

Over the coming two months, the Bolsheviks formed an absolute majority in the Petrograd Soviet, and also throughout the All Russian Congress of Soviets. Lenin argued intensely that the time was right for revolution, and that if it was left later, the movement would be demobilised. The Soviet's voted to support insurrection, in reaction, the Mensheviks and the right wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries walked out.

As brilliantly stated in John Reed's primary account of the revolution: Ten Day That Shook the World, on 7 November, the Soviet's, led by the Military Revolutionary Committee, overthrew the Provisional Government with little resistance.

The capitalists both in Russia and all over the world were shocked, and everybody had to pick a side, to be with the revolution, or against the revolution. This led to a split in the peasant based Socialist Revolutionaries, where the left, the majority, supported the revolution, and the minority right faction was against the revolution. Numerous troops were sent in by the Kadets (constitutional democrats), Mensheviks, and Right SR's, who attempted to crush the revolution. However, they were unsuccessful.

In January 1918, the constituent assembly elections were finally held. However, the elections did not take into account the recent split in in the SR's, and no left SR's were on the ballot paper. This led to the results being invalid, and the Bolsheviks and left SR's shut it down, instead writing a constitution which was passed through the Soviet's directly. This didn't stop the capitalists as using this as propaganda, saying that the Bolsheviks were against democracy, to try and turn people against the Bolsheviks.

The Bolsheviks changed their name, completely renouncing all ties to the RSDLP; their new name being the Communist Party of Russia. They enacted the most progressive legal code to have ever existed up until that time. Civil marriage was instituted, as well as divorce, homosexuality decriminalized, all banks and industry taken into public ownership, and all soldiers now democratically elected their officers. However, as both Trotsky and Lenin said, socialism was doomed in Russia unless it spread to a more advanced capitalist country.

In order to end the war with Germany, the Treaty of Breast-Litovisk was signed, in which Russia was forced to give up Finland, the Baltics, White Russia, and the Ukraine. The Bolsheviks tried to delay as long as possible the treaty, but eventually they gave in and signed, angering a huge amount of the population.

The capitalist powers gave arms and troops to the counter revolutionary white armies, and British arch capitalist reactionary Winston Churchill famously said 'Bolshevism should be strangled in it's crib!' For they feared that if revolution was successful in Russia, the workers of the world would follow their example, and the capitalists relinquished of their privilege and power. The Czechslovak legions entered into Russia, ordered to murder anybody suspected of being a Bolshevik sympathiser.

In the Ukraine, the white armies were responsible for the worst anti semetic murder in history, killing 100,000 Jews, including innocent women and children. Their excuse for this atrocity was that the Jew's were conspiring to destroy Europe through communism. Despite Jews being over represented in leftist circles, partly because they were so discriminated against in mainstream society and tended to be will educated, there was absolutely no evidence to support this ridiculous notion, as Jews had many different opinions, some being arch capitalists.

Because of the widespread destruction and chaos caused in Russia by the white armies, the Bolsheviks increasingly used authoritarian methods to keep control. Land which was previously given to the peasants was given to the state in order to regulate food production. The invasion meant that they were not able to deliver on their promises, Peace, Bread, Land, and Freedom. Horrific famines flooded the vast nation as peasants fought to keep their land in the chaos of war, resulting in the Left SR's breaking with the Bolsheviks. The idea of a worker's militia was abandoned, as the new socialist government needed to recruit as many soldiers as possible and for it to be as organized as possible. This included forcing former tsarist officers to work for the revolution at gunpoint, providing their expertise and strategy to the Red Army. Trotsky became the head of the Red Army, and was able to mobilise over 1 million troops to fend off the counter revolution.

Many nationalist movements also appeared across Russia, especially in the Ukraine, where from 1918-1921, the Ukrainian Socialist Republic was declared an independent country by boishwar nationalists. However, the Bolsheviks did not want bosishwar nationalists declaring their own independent country against the will of the working class of that country, despite them respecting the right to national self determination. Therefore, they fought against them to create independent socialist states which would truly be democratic and representative.

The Bolsheviks fought hard to defend the revolutionary gains, but if there had not been a revolution in Germany, it would have ceased to be democratic and become an authoritarian regime due to the means that the Bolsheviks used to keep control. Lenin and Trotsky recognized this, saying: 'if a revolution does not happen in Germany, we are doomed!' Luckily, it did happen as they were predicting, and after the German Revolution, Russia was inclined to reduce authoritarian measures and restore true Soviet democracy.
 
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