Karl Marx |
Karl Marx is desribed as the founder of communism.
As a university student, Karl Marx (1818-1883) joined a movement known as the Young Hegelians, who strongly criticized the political and cultural establishments of the day. He became a journalist, and the radical nature of his writings would eventually get him expelled by the governments of Germany, France and Belgium. In 1848, Marx and fellow German thinker Friedrich Engels published “The communist Manifesto,” which introduced their concept of socialism as a natural result of the conflicts inherent in the capitalist system (which later became the basis of the communist thinking according to Lenin). Marx later moved to London, where he would live for the rest of his life.
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The Russian revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917. In the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state.
The February Revolution (March 1917) was a revolution focused around Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), then capital of Russia. In the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament (the Duma) assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, resulting in Nicholas's abdication. The Soviets (workers' councils), which were led by more radical socialist factions, initially permitted the Provisional Government to rule, but insisted on a prerogative to influence the government and control various militias. The February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War (1914–18), which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny.
Russian Revolution Timeline
1903The Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party meets
At the meeting the people were split into two groups. Some supported Lenin, and others supported a different leader.
1905A revolution breaks out
A revolution broke out in St. Petersburg, but Czar Nicholas quickly put an end to it. The day was called Bloody Sunday.
1908Rasputin is introduced into the aristocracy
Rasputin called himself a holy man and a healer, and he helped heal Czar Nicholas' sick son. Still, Rasputin wasn't a good man, and many in Russia hated him, putting the people at odds with the Czar.
1914WWI begins
World War I began and the following year, Czar Nicholas took command of the Russian Army.
1916Rasputin is killed
The plan to kill Rasputin seemed simple, but it took a lot of work to finally kill him.
February 1917Another revolution begins
The people were unhappy with Czar Nicholas' rule of the country. They began protests and strikes, refusing to do their work.
March 1917Czar Nicholas tries to step down
Nicholas tried to give up his throne and let his brother take over, but his brother refused. Other Russian aristocrats tried to make a temporary government.
July 1917Vladmir Lenin tries to take over
Lenin came out of exile and tried to take over the temporary government, but he was chased back into hiding.
October 1917Lenin succeeds in taking over
Lenin still led the split political party of the Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party, and his party soon moved in and took control of Russia.
1918Russia backs out of WWI
Lenin signed a treaty, taking Russia out of WWI. Later that year he had Czar Nicholas and his family killed.
March 1918The Communist Party is developed
Lenin changed the name of his political party to the Communist Party.
February Revolution
The February Revolution (known as such because of Russia’s use of the Julian calendar until February 1918) began on March 8, 1917 (or February 23 on the Julian calendar), when demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now called St. Petersburg). Supported by huge crowds of striking industrial workers, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets. On March 10, the strike spread among all of Petrograd’s workers, and irate mobs destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet, or council, of workers’ committees, following the model devised during the 1905 revolution.
October Revolution
In the evening of October 25th, Bolshevik Red Guards moved on government positions around the city of Petrograd. They then invaded the Winter Palace, where several government ministers were resident. Within hours, the Provisional Government had been deposed and its members had either fled or been arrested. The armed seizure of power was organised and conducted by the Bolsheviks, acting the name of Russia’s Soviets. But it soon became apparent that the Soviet revolution was actually a Bolshevik revolution; that Lenin and his fellow radicals had no interest in sharing power with Mensheviks or moderates, who they condemned to the “dustbin of history”. The October Revolution was a pivotal event in world history with effects that reverberated through the 20th century. It plunged Russia into years of unrest, civil war, terror and famine.