Responses and Thoughts: Russian Revolution Part 3

The following writing is a collection of random thoughts and responses to readings on the Russian Revolution, particularly The Origins of the Russian Revolution 1861-1917 (Third Edition) by Alan Wood, Leninism by Neil Harding and short readings written by Orlando Figes.

Peasant's involvement In the Revolution
Barriers of language and understanding kept the peasants from mounting a serious revolutionary threat. The peasant community had many unique ins and outs, some of which included their different feelings toward the Tsar (some were confused, while others were happy that they gained new freedom). While some peasants were either confused or felt strongly one way or another regarding the Tsar, some of them wanted both a democratic republic and a Tsar.
Their lack of real understanding of the political concepts really kept the intelligentsia from being as successful with the peasants as they maybe could have been with other methods.

Class Difference
Classes in Russia started out as more of a social estate or "soslovie" (legal category that defines an person's rights obligations) and became a real focus after the revolution. The Bolsheviks found re classing of society to be an important aspect of the revolution and this led to a rivalry between the two major classes; the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. The class system seems to have evolved over the course of the revolt, from a "soslovie" system to a Bolshevik created class system loosely based on Marxist definitions. This system would later involve a lot of violent class discrimination (especially against the class of wealthy land owning peasants known as kulaks). This extreme discrimination would eventually lead to the Great Purges in the late 1930s under Joseph Stalin. Citizens were made to carry passports within the country to denote their class.
The kulaks were seen in a very negative light under Stalin for their resistance to government regulations and some were even seen directly as enemies of the state and spies.
Lenin and the Bolshevik party had little to do with the social upheavals of the workers and the fact that factories had to transition from military production to peace time production caused chaos and really left workers at odds with one another (skilled workers vs. less skilled workers).

Women In the Revolution
Women took part in almost every aspect of the party, from making speeches and writing newspapers to building bombs and training with the militia. These women could reach new and different audiences and some of them even held leadership positions within the party. The Bolsheviks were much more accepting of women than any other party at the time and women went to them for that reason.

Harding, Neil. Leninism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.

Wood, Alan. The Origins of the Russian Revolution, 1861-1917. New York: Routledge, 2003.