Centenary Of The October Revolution: 1917–2017
Lenin
Nipuli Gajanayake
Collapses in political systems and rises of new political systems have been a significant trend in the Great Russian political history. In such scenarios, “Revolution” marked as a driving mode for those substantial transformations. The series of Russian revolutions dated back to1905 and were aroused against the Russian empire’s imperial rule. However it is important to mention that, the 1905 revolution did not start with the peasantry or the industrial working class but started with the middle class and professional people. The demand for political reform in 1903-4 became a reason to open-up a revolutionary front against the Tsarist rule. Union of Liberation was the forerunner of the revolutionary front and their agenda designed to end the Tsarist autocracy. The agenda included with establishment of constitutional form of government, self-determination for the nationalities of the empire, and bring out economic and social reforms. Although 1905 revolution brought no actual transform to the social, economic, and political setting of Russia, the Revolution of 1905 set the background for the revolutions of 1917.
V.I. Lenin: The revolutionary Legend
Vladimir Lenin a communist revolutionary politician emerged as a notable personality during the Russian revolutionary phase. Lenin had studied law and had taken participation in revolutionary Marxist circles. In 1895, he helped organize Marxist groups in the capital into the “Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class,” The effort had attempted to attract workers to the Marxist ideology. In December 1895, Lenin and the other leaders of the Union were arrested due to revolutionary Marxist ideologies, and it resulted to exile Lenin to Siberia for a term of three years. During his exile Lenin co-founded the newspaper Iskra (‘spark’ that ignites the flame of communism), the newspaper of Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Lenin was an active member at the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) and paid much attention to centralization approach. In 1903 the RSDLP split into two fractions of Bolshevik (Majority) and Mensheviks (Minority). Bolsheviks concerned on centralization and Mensheviks favored to a democratic approach. However, after finishing his exile period in 1900, he went to Western Europe from Siberia and “published a pamphlet entitled What Is to Be Done?. [It] argued that only a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries could bring socialism to Russia”. In 1907 he moved to Finland and then continued to travel throughout Europe. Throughout this journey Lenin participated in many socialist meetings and activities, including the Prague Party Conference of 1912 and the Zimmerwald Conference of 1915.
Lenin’s deep acceptance of Marxism had sharpened the displeasure against the Tsarist rule. This disappointment had spontaneously made Lenin to emerge as an active personality among proletariats, suppressed professionals, intellectuals, and within Communist scholarly circles. “Not only in the scholarly circles of the former Soviet Union but even among many non-Communist scholars, he has been regarded as both the greatest revolutionary leader and revolutionary statesman in history, as well as the greatest revolutionary thinker since Marx.”
Lenin believed in revolution to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing the Communist state under a Socialist rule. A Communist society which characterized by classlessness, statelessness, elimination of labor exploitation and common ownership of the means of production have mainly considered within this Communist state.
Revolutions of 1917: The February Revolution
Russia involved to the first Word War in 1914 with the hope of supporting for its Serbs, French, and British allies against the German Empire. However, the supportive involvement had created a disastrous environment within the Russian Empire and spontaneously made peasant workers’ living condition more worsen. With the Empire’s costly war effort, the situation led to produce social and economic problems at large scale. The economy disordered by the costly war effort, and consequently riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd (today St. Petersburg). Industrial and cultural backwardness of Russia had toppled the living condition for working class people and created a social disaster throughout the Empire. This harsh condition thus led to outbreak the February revolution in 1917. It is important to mention that the revolution started on 8, March 1917 but known as ‘February revolution’ as the Russian Empire used Julian calendar at that time.
