Socialist ideas and the Russian Revolution

Where socialist ideas came from

The Industrial Revolution made society very unequal. Workers were poor, exploited and had no rights. Capitalists, who owned the factories, enjoyed all the privileges. Some thinkers asked for a society equal in social and economic terms. This idea is socialism. Ideas of equality, free speech and democracy from earlier revolutions helped it grow.

What Karl Marx said

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels gave the most powerful and influential socialist ideas. Marx's major book is Das Kapital (your NIOS lesson spells it Das Capital).
• Marx said the history of all societies is a history of class struggle. He and Engels wrote this in the Communist Manifesto (1848); your NIOS lesson links it with Das Kapital.
• Capitalists try to raise their profits by cutting workers' wages, and this leads to conflict between the classes.
• He predicted that the workers would win, capitalism would end and socialism would come.
• The means of production (land, factories and machines) would then be owned by the state, creating an equal society.

Causes of the Russian Revolution

• An autocratic Tsar: Tsar Nicholas II held total power, and people had no political rights. Even the nobles disliked his ways.
• Misery of workers and peasants: inhuman working conditions, low returns and heavy taxes. Non-Russians in the empire suffered too.
• A backward economy: Russia depended on farming and lagged in industry.
• The First World War: Russia joined for imperial gains but was not ready. Soldiers lacked arms and warm uniforms, and thousands died. Skilled workers were forced into the army.
• Famine and inflation: cities ran short of food, and the government printed millions of rouble notes, so prices shot up.
• New ideas: the writings of Marx and Tolstoy awakened the workers politically.

Course of the revolution

1. 1905
   A first revolution forced the Tsar to allow the Duma, an assembly of representatives of peasants, townspeople and gentry. But rights stayed limited and unrest went on.
2. 1914 to 1917
   War losses, strikes and riots spread. Crowds attacked courts, prisons and offices. Workers formed councils called Soviets.
3. February 1917
   The Tsar was overthrown and a Provisional Government, formed from leaders of the Duma, took over. It failed to meet the people's demands.

   Your NIOS lesson says this government was under the control of the Menshevik party. The Mensheviks backed it and later joined it, but it was led by liberals and moderate socialists.
4. October 1917
   Lenin's Bolshevik party won over the Soviets and overthrew the Provisional Government. This October Revolution was the final stage.
5. After
   Tsarist rule ended and the USSR (Soviet Union) was formed, the world's first socialist state.

Results and importance

• The autocratic rule of the Tsar ended.
• The world got its first socialist government, the first practical test of Marx's ideas.
• Russia soon left the First World War, as peace was a key demand of the people.
• The USSR became a new force in world affairs, creating a new world order.