The Russian Revolution

By Megan Golliher, Bell 6

Honestly, What is This?

Im about 98.76% positive you have absolutely no idea what the Russian Revolution is. So, a little background check wont hurt. At the beginning of the revolution, Russia was ruled dominantly by the Tsar Government. The goal in revolting was to create a more free government; the Tsar Government was primarily an autocracy, the opposite of a democracy. There was one dominant ruler who controlled everything in the Tsar Government. Sort of like a Dictator. If you were a citizen in an autocracy, Im sure you would revolt as well. Anyway, the vast majority of Russians decided to revolt against this selfappointed ruler, and initiated the creation of the Soviet Union. Heres how it went down.

February?

Or March. Honestly were not sure. The Russians recorded it as February, but on the Gregorian Calendar its March. Lets just call it Maruary. Okay, so the first revolt of the Revolution was in that time frame. It was large and spontaneous, and was primarily focused around St. Petersburg. It was extremely chaotic, so in the disorganization the control of the country was assumed by members of the Imperial Parliament or Duma. They formed something known as the Russian Provisional Government. There was a lot of negative feedback surrounding the takeover by the Russian Provisional Government, and it didnt help that it occurred during the military setbacks caused by WW1. In fact, WW1 was such a bad time to have a Revolution, the army caused mutinies and strikes. The Russian Provisional plan didnt work too well.

Octember!

Weve been through this already. October [Russian] + November [Gregorian] = Octember. Case closed. That is when the second revolt occurred. At some point in time during the reign of the Russian Provisional Government, they decided to join forces with the Soviets, led by the Socialists. Now you just knew that was going to backfire. The Soviets joined forces with the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and overthrew the Russian Provisional Government. Unfortunately for the Bolsheviks, there were some people who absolutely did not support their ideals. They formed and anti-Bolshevik party, known as the White Army. Its name was formed primarily as a contrast to the Bolshevik Partys Red Army. This feud led into a Russian Civil War.

Oh Dear.

Like humanity needed another Civil War. But hey, it needed to be done. It was primarily against the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (antiBolsheviks). The Reds were basically communists who wanted to rewrite the Russian World in a drastic freaky change, and the Whites were basically the monarchists, conservatives, liberals, and moderate socialists who didnt really want to change anything too drastically. The Whites were backed up by Great Britain, France, USA, and Japan. We wanted them to win. But alas, they did not. Why do you think Russia is communist? Jeez you should have seen that coming. Anyway, a whole bunch of Russians, despite their social preferences, died. And by a whole bunch I mean millions. Millions. Thats really not good at all.

It Never Really Stops.

People just keep dying dont they? Not just random people, important people. Really important people. So important, they practically have the word important in their name. Imperial. Ring any bells? Well, the entire Imperial Family died. But of course, they had to go on a wholly unpleasant field trip before they died. First, they were put under house arrest in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. Then, for their own safety, they were relocated to Tobolsk in the Urals. This was to protect them from the rising tide of the revolution during the Red Terror. After a few switches in government, they were again moved to Yekaterinburg, a militant Bolshevik stronghold. Then, at 1:30 AM, they were all taken down to the basement and executed.

But It Gets Worse.

And when I say they were all executed, I mean they were all executed. Nicholas, Alexandra, their children, and their servants. Personally, I believe this was entirely unnecessary. Especially the execution of their children and servants. I mean come on. Not to mention the impact the execution had on the rest of the world. The people in Great Britain were absolutely devastated. The entire world was marred. It was just a massive, tragic incident that upset everyone who had some sort of ethnic or political link to the family. Useless hope even rose out of the situation; many people tried to believe that Anastasia, one of the children, was still alive. Many women pretended to be her. All to try to believe they didnt actually massacre the entire family. But they did. And it was a horrifying event for everyone.

Still Nothing Good.

Even after all the suffering and loss Russia went through, absolutely no good came out of it. I mean sure, at least theyre not in an autocracy. But now theyre communist, which in some ways is worse. We people in the USA most definitely have a problem with it. We had a massive and mildly horrifying war-ish thing with them about it (Cold War). It was just a huge negativity on the world. If only the Whites had won. But they didnt, so we need to move on and accept it. At least its over now.