The French Revolution in Russian Intellectual Life Article

The French Revolution in Russian Intellectual Life - Article Example In 1905, Russia was defeated by Japanese and following the same year there was the peaceful parade of workers in St. Petersburg (later known as Petrograd) was open fired by Tsarist troops. Following the general strike, Tsar created first Russian constitution and the State Duma, an elected parliamentary body. But Nicholas always wanted to retain autocracy. (S?lapentoch, 2008).   During World War I, Russia suffered great losses and had millions of causalities. Nicholas then went to take control of the army himself in 1915, but at that time there were no such trained people nor any supplies of arm left to fight. This World War I period proved to be a great blow to Tsar’s rule. (St. Petersburg life) On 23rd February 1917, the festival of International Women’s Day broke out in a protest in the streets of St. Petersburg (Russian Capital), against the food shortage. Gradually everybody joined the strike including men, students, and all working classes. Even military forces t urned rebellious against Tsar and shot their own military officers when they asked the forces to shot the people in procession on the orders of Nicholas. This is known as the February Revolution. (St. Petersburg life) With so much unrest prevailing finally Nicholas and tried to hand over his powers to his brother Michael but he cannot become leader until he was elected via elections. The Provisional Government was temporarily formed by the members of Duma until the elections held. Also, a Petrograd Soviet Organization came into being by the trade union of workers and soldiers who favored Socialism than democratic reforms. (St. Petersburg life) In 1917, Lenin decided to return to Russian as he got a chance to rule Russia. Lenin was against the Tsar rule and was under arrest during his reign but now he got a chance to lead his party, Bolsheviks. He entered by the permission of German authorities as they have won the war and Russia was under control. Lenin was welcomed by Russians and after getting the control over powers, he immediately condemns the Petrograd Soviet and Provisional Government and tried to introduced Communism. In summers of 1917, Lenin tried to bring another revolution by overthrowing Provisional and Petrograd Government but was not succeeded as Kerensky, one of the important figures of Petrograd and Provisional Government condemns it and troops were arrived in the city suppressing the dissidents and accused Bolsheviks of being in collision with Germans. Lenin escaped to Finland and others were arrested. Lenin didn’t stop and continued his planning. It was not too late when Kerensky had to face political setbacks and somehow he had to contact Bolsheviks for military assistance when he feared Kornilov was aiming for military dictatorship. The Bolsheviks aided him and hence, took the powers by winning majority votes within the Petrograd and Moscow Soviet. At last, Leon Trotsky was elected as the president. In October of 1917, Lenin now fina lly decided to capitalize his party’s popularity by replacing the Provisional Government with Bolsheviks. On 24th October, the troops entered St. Petersburg capturing all major buildings and positions in the city.