Class 9 History


February Revolution

February Revolution is important because it culminated with end of monarchy in Russia. Following are the sequence of events of this revolution.

On 22 February, a lockout took place at a factory on the right bank of the Neva River. On the next day, workers in fifty factories went on strike to show solidarity. Women led the way to strikes in many factories.

The demonstrators crossed from the factory quarters to the centre of the capital, the Nevskii Prospekt. The movement was not being actively organized by any political party. The government imposed a curfew and the demonstrators dispersed by the evening. But they came back on the 24th and 25th. Cavalry and police were called to keep a watch on the demonstrators.

The government suspended the Duma on 25th February. Demonstrators returned in larger number to the streets on the left bank on the 26th February. The Police Headquarters were ransacked on 27th February.

The government once again called out the cavalry to control the situation. But the cavalry refused to fire on the demonstrators. An officer of a regiment was shot at and three other regiments mutinied to join the striking workers.

By the evening of 27th February, soldiers and striking workers gathered to form a soviet or council in the same building as the Duma met. This was the Petrograd Soviet.

A delegation went to see the Tsar on 28th February. The Tsar abdicated on 2nd March, on the advice of the military.

A provisional government was formed by the Soviet Leaders and the Duma leaders. Thus the February Revolution of 1917 brought down the monarchy in Russia.

After February

The Provisional Government took steps towards an elected government. Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed. ‘Soviets’ were set up everywhere, though no common system of election was followed.

Return of Lenin

The Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned from exile in April 1917. He made three demands which were known as ‘April Theses’. He declared an end to the war, transfer of land to the peasants and nationalization of banks. He proposed renaming of the Bolshevik Party as the Communist Party, to indicate its new radical aims.

Most others in the Bolshevik Party thought that the time was not ripe for socialist revolution. They wanted the Provisional Government to continue for some time. But various developments in the subsequent months changed their mindset.

The workers' movement spread through the summer. Trade unions grew in number, in industrial areas. Soldiers' committees were formed in the army. In the month of June, about 500 Soviets sent representatives to an All Russian Congress of Soviets.

The provisional government viewed these developments as erosion in its powers and as growing influence of Bolshevik. The Provisional Government decided to take stern measures. The demonstrations by the Bolsheviks in July 1917 were sternly repressed. Many Bolshevik leaders had to go hiding. Many of them fled as well. The peasants and their Socialist Revolutionary leaders demanded a redistribution of land. The peasants seized land between July and September 1917.