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The Russian Revolution and the Middle East
Russia had long tried to make itself a major power on par with the west European nations. The major defining moments of European history had simply passed over Russia with little impact. The Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution never took root in Russia. Approaches differed on how to make Russia a great power. Some sought the adoption of western culture while others argued that Russia was already great because of the rule of the tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Slavic heritage of the people. This position was known as Official Nationalism. The tsars tried reform and open societies to get the Russian people behind the government, they tried ruling with an iron fist to force the Russian people to support the government, and none of it worked. Many came to believe that Russia was backwards because of its lack of industrialization, that it could not become a great power until it too had industrialized. When Nicholas II became the tsar in 1894 he embarked upon a program of forced industrialization. The majority of newly built factories during this period were owned by either outside capital or the tsarist government itself. Industrialization in Russia brought with it the same transformations and upheavals as it had in other parts of Europe and the United States: mainly a large laboring class working 11 hour days for low pay in harsh conditions.
Despite industrialization, the vast majority of Russians were peasants who worked the land. Peasants represented 4/5 of the Russian population and they were burdened by high taxes and increasing government export of grain in order to pay off government debts. This left a decreasing amount (and quality) of food for the Russian peasants. This discontent combined with increasing discontent with the rule of the tsars would eventually lead to a series of revolutions and communism.
In 1904 war broke out between Russia and Japan as Russia began increasing its presence in Manchuria and Korea, which Japan had fought a war with China over. Unwilling to let the Russians enjoy the fruits of Japan’s earlier war with China, the Japanese attacked Russia. By 1905 the Japanese had won the war and both sides accepted a negotiated settlement from US President Theodore Roosevelt. The tsar’s army had been disgraced and weakened. Growing discontent combined with defeat in the Russo-Japanese war led to civil unrest that by October 1905 forced Nicholas II to accept the creation of an imperial Duma. The power of this parliament would not last long before Nicholas usurped it with imperial decrees and the problems of food and land shortages and industrial discontent persisted.
Many Russian officials welcomed the outbreak of war in 1914 (actually most Europeans did so as well, seeing in WWI an opportunity for excitement and chance to break the monotony of factory life) as an event that could unit the Russian people behind the tsar. Despite his lack of military training and expertise, Nicholas took direct control of the Russian armies and went to the front, leaving daily operation of the government in the hands of his wife, Alexandra. The Russian war effort in WWI would be a repeat of the same bumbling effort in 1904-05. Russian soldiers were poorly trained and disciplined and poorly equipped (many did not even have their own guns and were forced to pick up guns from fallen comrades or German soldiers). Russian industry was unable to provide the material support required for a strong sustained military effort. Leaving power in Alexandra’s hands was another mistake by Nicholas. She was an authoritarian zealot and had fallen under the influence of Russian Orthodox monk Grigori Rasputin. Alexandra suspended the Duma from September 1915 to November 1916. Russian ministers, hoping to open the door to reforms that could quiet growing domestic unrest, assassinated Rasputin in December 1916 but by this point there was no saving the Russian monarchy.
The early optimism over the war had steadily deteriorated into severe discontent. Russian armies were battered by German troops and casualties were high. Food and fuel had become scarce and prices high. On March 8, 1917 food riots led by women in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) spread to workers as well. Upon hearing news of the riots, Nicholas ordered the riots suppressed and guards were sent into the streets. The inexperienced soldiers quickly found themselves mingling with the demonstrators. The next day the Duma proclaimed the creation of a Provisional Government (PG) and advised Nicholas that he should step down. On the 15th Nicholas agreed and he and his family were placed under house arrest. In the span of one week the March Revolution brought down hundreds of years of tsarist rule but the revolutions were not over.
The PG restored civil liberties, instituted an 8-houre working day, released political prisoners, and called for the election of a constituent assembly based on universal male suffrage. However, it refused to address one of the most pressing issues in Russia: peasant demand for more land. The PG argued that it had no grounds to do so until a legal government had been formed. Challenges to the PG began to be made by councils, known as “Soviets”, that had been organized among workers and soldiers with most of them sharing some measure of socialist leaning.
One such soviet, the Social Democrat party consisted of two sharply divided factions. The Menshiviks (minority) sought to seize power through peaceful, legal means with a gradual introduction of socialism after Russian industrial development matured further. The majority, or Bolsheviks, sought the immediate seizure of power through force and criminal means if necessary with the immediate introduction of socialism. The exiled Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin disagreed with Marx’s theory that socialism could not survive in an under-industrialized society. The PG was unprepared to deal with the soviet challenges. They continued to refuse acting on land reform and insisted on continuing Russian participation in WWI despite its growing unpopularity.
Lenin had been in exile in Switzerland when the March Revolution broke out. He persuaded the German government to allow him passage to Russia when he learned of the abdication of the tsar. Germany agreed, seeing in a Bolshevik uprising a disruption of Russia’s war effort and on April 16 Lenin arrived in Petrograd. After a failed attempt to overthrow the PG in July, which the Bolsheviks disapproved of, Lenin was forced to flee again. The socialist Alexander Kerensky was named leader of the PG in an attempt to gain popular support. To restore order Kerensky was forced to arm and rely on the “Red Guard”, a Bolshevik paramilitary group. His power now relied on the Bolsheviks and he too, despite its unpopularity, vowed to continue Russia’s participation in WWI.
Lenin returned in October and a revolution was organized. Leon Trotsky was instrumental in its success. He persuaded the Petrograd soviet to appoint him commander of a military committee to protect the city. On November 6, 1917 with the support of the Petrograd soviet, soldiers, and the naval cruiser Aurora, Trotsky seized several key positions and with them, control of the capital. The Provisional Government had been toppled. Lenin sought to gain popular support by ending the war and redistributing land. He proclaimed the nationalization and distribution of land. Then, in March 1918, despite internal opposition, Lenin ordered representatives to sign the Brest-Litovsk ceding a huge amount of Russian territory to the Germans and pulling Russia out of WWI.
Bolshevik power would not be secure for a period of years after the November Revolution in 1917. The elections that had been scheduled by the PG took place and the Social Revolutionary Party won twice as many seats as the Bolsheviks. Lenin’s response was to dissolve the constituent assembly after one day of meetings. For a short time after this he ruled through a coalition government with the Social Revolutionaries but when they withdrew their support Lenin initiated single party rule on Russia. The communists faced several challenges in the years immediately after their seizure of power. Several groups, known collectively as the White Army, fought rebellions against the Bolsheviks. Outlying provinces fought for independence and Allied soldiers entered Russia to support the rebels. In July 1918, fearing that western armies would try liberating the tsar and his family, the Bolsheviks executed Nicholas and the rest of the royal family.
The presence of western troops instilled extreme suspicion of the west in the Soviet mind. Lenin contributed to extreme suspicion of the Soviets in the western mind when he established the Communist International, or Commintern. This was supposed to be an international organization of socialist leaders bent on exporting revolution across the globe. The Soviets became convinced that the west was bent on destroying them while the west became convinced the Soviets were bent on global domination.
In 1922 Vladimir Lenin suffered two strokes that forced him to withdraw from his daily duties. In considering a successor he felt Josef Stalin did not know how to use his power correctly and was too rude to succeed him. Lenin urged the party to select a successor who was more diplomatic and polite so the choice came down to Leon Trotsky or Josef Stalin. Trotsky had been instrumental in the revolution and was a brilliant Marxist theorist but his ambitions aroused fear and suspicion among other party leaders. Trotsky supported constant revolution. He believed that the Soviets should actively export communist revolutions until all capitalist societies were converted. Many party leaders realized that Russia lacked the resources to follow such a course and feared it would mean constant warfare. On the other hand Josef Stalin supported building communism up in Russia to the point that it could survive without outside connections. In the end Stalin won the struggle and unleashed a series of purges and rapid industrialization focusing on heavy industry rather than consumer goods and forced collectivization that took many lives. Trotsky went into exile and was assassinated in Mexico in 1940.
Following WWI, the League of Nations, in support of the idea of self-determination, initiated the mandate system. This turned territories under League responsibility over to other nations who were to administer them and prepare them for independence. It was something of a big brother or mentoring program for nations. This system continued to contribute to anti-western sentiment in the Middle East. Britain received mandates in Iraq and Palestine and was still involved in Egypt but was hesitant of withdrawing their influence there. Britain presided over the creation of a constitutional monarchy in Iraq and then declared it an independent nation in 1930 only after agreement had been reached on a government that would cater to British interests. Nominal independence was granted to Egypt as well. Britain’s continued presence stoked the fires of anti-western sentiment in the area.
Protests broke out in Palestine after it was announced that the British had received the mandate there. Britain had issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 that called for the support of creation of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. When Britain received the mandate in Palestine in 1923 they tried to assuage Palestinian and Arab fears over the Balfour Declaration. The British pledged that it would not be implemented in a way damaging to Arabs but restated their support for a Jewish state. During the mandate the Jewish population grew rapidly. In 1919 there were 60,000 Jews living in Palestine and by 1939 there were around 450,000. The population increase combined with the exclusion of Palestinians from employment in newly constructed factories led to outbreaks of violence. Britain attempted to pacify both sides by offering to create two states but the offer was rejected all around. With the horror of the Holocaust still fresh in the minds of the world, the United Nations in 1947 with rare US and Soviet support, created the state of Israel and fulfilled the goal of Zionists going back to Theodore Herzl. |