The Russian Revolution I

Part I: The Romanovs

Before the Bolshevik revolution tilted the world on its axis in the early 20th century, the Romanov family reigned in Russia for over 300 years before Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in 1917. Nicholas II succeeded his father, Alexander III, in 1894 at the tender age of twenty-six when his father passed away at the age of forty-nine.

Tsar Nicholas felt unprepared for his duty to run the empire and, as a potential side effect of his lack of experience, struggled to delegate responsibility and power to the Duma (parliament). Instead, Nicholas implemented an autocratic style of governance where he aligned most of his political support with ideas pushed forth by his prime ministers. Nicholas was attempting to modernize Russia at the turn of the century, but ultimately made a few too many poor decisions in foreign policy. Notably, failing to successfully negotiate with Japan, causing the Japanese Navy to launch a surprise attack on a Russian fleet at Port Arthur (China). This ultimately sparked a two-year conflict that would come to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. Already facing opposition from the Russian aristocracy, the young tsar was now wide-open to political attacks from the Russian revolutionists. In 1905, Nicholas elected to negotiate peace following a massacre back home carried out by the Imperial Guard in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The incident resulted in the death of anywhere between 1,000-4,000 unarmed Russian protestors (reports conflict) in an event that is referred to as “Bloody Sunday.” This occurrence was a major catalyst in the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The Revolution in 1905 turned Russia from an unlimited autocracy to a constitutional monarchy, as it was responsible for the formation of the Duma (the parliament that Tsar Nicholas never referred to). The revolution was bloody and brutal—both the resistance and the establishment suffered casualties throughout the year-long affair. Nowadays, the revolution in 1905 is labeled as the “first Russian revolution”—as this would not be the last.

In 1914, about eight or nine years after the first Russian revolution ended, Russia was facing another foreign crisis when the archduke of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated by a member of Young Bosnia—a Serbian revolutionary group. When Austria declared war on Serbia, Tsar Nicholas made the decision to back Serbia and started mobilizing the Russian military. Tsar Nicholas made this decision against the advice of parliament and many of his advisers as concerns of turmoil amongst allies would bubble to the surface. This caused Germany to declare war on Russia as well as France, who Nicholas held close ties with. This escalation kicked off World War I where nearly 2 million Russian soldiers were killed in combat.

Most of Russia was upset over their involvement in the war as it seemed to drag on at the expense Russian infrastructure. Russia was in decline. The entire country was struggling economically, militarily, and politically as a full-on collapse seemed to be approaching. As the result of a second revolution in 1917, Tsar Nicholas abdicated power to his brother, Michael. After discovering that Michael had no desire to inherit the empire, the Romanov dynasty fell in 1917 when it handed power over to the Russian Provisional Government for merely eight months before the Bolshevik take-over.

In November 1917, after yet another revolution, the Bolshevik party overthrew the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky and assumed power over what would be called Soviet Russia, and later the Soviet Union. A whole political party of revolutionary socialists and liberals were now at the top of the Russian government as “representatives of the proletariat” led by a man named Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov—more commonly known as Vladimir Lenin.

In the summer of 1918, just eight months after Lenin and his Bolsheviks assumed power, the entire Romanov family was executed in Yekaterinburg at the Ipatiev House where they were imprisoned. All seven members, including five children, were marched down to the basement in the middle of the night where a firing squad would filter in to carry out the execution: at a shock to Nicholas II. One final step to solidify Lenin’s reign in Soviet Russia. The Romanov dynasty was officially over.