A Look at Karl Marx and the Russian Revolution

 By the mid 1840’s, factories had sprung up all over Europe.  The Industrial Revolution caused people to move to the city looking for a better job.  They did not find what they were looking for.

 Working in a factory was tough work.  Workers worked long hours (14-18 hrs) for little pay in dangerous conditions.  Children usually worked to help the family make ends meat.

 So, if work was so bad, what were your options?  Quit?  Find a better job?  Go on strike?  None of these were good options.

 In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.  They blamed capitalism for the current working conditions.  Why was capitalism to blame?

 Marx believed that all of history was a history of struggle between those that have and those that do not have.  The oppressors and the oppressed stood in opposition to one another.

 The oppressors owned the means of production (land, raw materials, money, etc.) and thus had the power to control the government.

 The oppressed depended on their oppressors for their survival (jobs, money, food, etc.).

 Bourgeoisie: the oppressors  Proletariat: the oppressed  Which group has more people in it?

 Marx theorized that eventually the proletariat would violently overthrow the bourgeoisie.  This revolution would cause a “redistribution of wealth” and produce a classless society.

 Russia entered World War I unready to handle the pressure.  The army lost 6-8 million men in the first 2 years of the war.  Russian industry could not keep up with the demand for war product.

 People around the country began to turn against Czar Nicholas II in early  Factory workers and the army marched for better conditions.

 The Duma, the ruling legislative body in Russia, took the opportunity to seize power.  They established a provisional government and forced Nicholas to abdicate the throne.

 Soviet: a Russian council composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers.  Soviets began to spring up all over; in the army, factory towns, and even rural areas.

 The most important of these Soviets were the Bolsheviks, the Russian Social Democrats.  They were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

 The Bolsheviks were dedicated to violent revolution.  Lenin believed only a violent revolution could destroy the capitalist system.

 Lenin promised the people an end to the war, the redistribution of land to the peasants, giving the factories to the workers, and the transfer of government power to the soviets.

 On November 6, 1917 the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace and overthrew the provisional government.  Russia became the first Communist country in the world.