Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was the leader of the Bolsheviks. Bolsheviks were able
to get the support of the Soviets because they demanded for immediate and
unconditional peace. They also demanded that all the land should be nationalized and
redistributed to the peasants. Bolsheviks wanted control over prices and
nationalisation of all factories and banks. The Soviets under the Bolshevik
leadership seized power from the Provisional Government in October November 1917.
They immediately took steps to end the war and redistributed land. Russia could not
return to complete peace because a civil war was started. This war was led by White
armies of Russian monarchists and anti- communist soldiers with help from Britain,
France, USA and Japan. They were all defeated by 1920. The Bolsheviks also announced
the end of the Russian empire and permitted the various nations under it to become
independent. However, gradually most of the nations that came under the empire of
the Tsar agreed to join the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) which was set
up by the Soviet government of Russia in 1922.

The October Revolution and the Russian
Countryside: Two Views

1) ‘News of the revolutionary uprising of October
25, 1917, reached the village the following day and
was greeted with enthusiasm; to the peasants it
meant free land and an end to the war. ...The day the
news arrived, the landowner’s house was looted, his
stock farms were “requisitioned” and his vast orchard
was cut down and sold to the peasants for wood; all
his far buildings were torn down and left in ruins
while the land was distributed among the peasants
who were prepared to live the new Soviet life’. From:
Fedor Belov, The History of a Soviet Collective Farm.

2) A member of a landowning family wrote to a
relative about what happened at the estate:

‘The “coup” happened quite painlessly, quietly and
peacefully. …The first days were unbearable.. Mikhail
Mikhailovich [the estate owner] was calm...The girls
also…I must say the chairman behaves correctly and
even politely. We were left two cows and two horses.
The servants tell them all the time not to bother us.
“Let them live. We vouch for their safety and property.
We want them treated as humanely as possible….”

…There are rumours that several villages are trying
to evict the committees and return the estate to
Mikhail Mikhailovich. I don’t know if this will happen,
or if it’s good for us. But we rejoice that there is a
conscience in our people...’

From: Serge Schmemann, Echoes of a Native Land. Two Centuries
of a Russian Village (1997).
  • Read the two views on the revolution in the
    countryside. Imagine yourself to be a
    witness to the events. Write a short account
    from the standpoint of: 1) an owner of an
    estate 2) a small peasant 3) a journalist.


page no:168


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