1917 : LENIN RETURNS:
On April 16, 1917, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary
Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take
the reins of the Russian Revolution. One month before, Czar Nicholas
II had been forced from power when Russian army troops joined a
workers' revolt in Petrograd, the Russian capital.
Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov in 1870, Lenin was drawn to the
revolutionary cause after his brother was executed in 1887 for
plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander III. He studied law and took up
practice in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where he associated with
revolutionary Marxist circles. In 1895, he helped organize Marxist
groups in the capital into the "Union for the Struggle for the
Liberation of the Working Class," which attempted to enlist workers to
the Marxist cause. In December 1895, Lenin and the other leaders of
the Union were arrested. Lenin was jailed for a year and then exiled
to Siberia for a term of three years.
After the end of his exile, in 1900, Lenin went to Western Europe,
where he continued his revolutionary activity. It was during this time
that he adopted the pseudonym Lenin. In 1902, he published a pamphlet
titled What Is to Be Done? which argued that only a disciplined party
of professional revolutionaries could bring socialism to Russia. In
1903, he met with other Russian Marxists in London and established the
Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP). However, from the
start there was a split between Lenin's Bolsheviks (Majoritarians),
who advocated militarism, and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians), who
advocated a democratic movement toward socialism. These two groups
increasingly opposed each other within the framework of the RSDWP, and
Lenin made the split official at a 1912 conference of the Bolshevik
Party.
After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Lenin returned
to Russia. The revolution, which consisted mainly of strikes
throughout the Russian empire, came to an end when Nicholas II
promised reforms, including the adoption of a Russian constitution and
the establishment of an elected legislature. However, once order was
restored, the czar nullified most of these reforms, and in 1907 Lenin
was again forced into exile.
Lenin opposed World War I, which began in 1914, as an imperialistic
conflict and called on proletariat soldiers to turn their guns on the
capitalist leaders who sent them down into the murderous trenches. For
Russia, World War I was an unprecedented disaster: Russian casualties
were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war.
Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war
effort, and in March 1917 riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd
over the scarcity of food. Demoralized army troops joined the
strikers, and on March 15 Nicholas II was forced to abdicate, ending
centuries of czarist rule. In the aftermath of the February Revolution
(known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar), power
was shared between the ineffectual Provincial Government and the
soviets, or "councils," of soldiers' and workers' committees.
After the outbreak of the February Revolution, German authorities
allowed Lenin and his lieutenants to cross Germany en route from
Switzerland to Sweden in a sealed railway car. Berlin hoped
(correctly) that the return of the anti-war Socialists to Russia would
undermine the Russian war effort, which was continuing under the
Provincial Government. Lenin called for the overthrow of the
Provincial Government by the soviets, and he was condemned as a
"German agent" by the government's leaders. In July, he was forced to
flee to Finland, but his call for "peace, land, and bread" met with
increasing popular support, and the Bolsheviks won a majority in the
Petrograd soviet. In October, Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd,
and on November 7 the Bolshevik-led Red Guards deposed the Provisional
Government and proclaimed soviet rule.
Lenin became the virtual dictator of the world's first Marxist state.
His government made peace with Germany, nationalized industry, and
distributed land but, beginning in 1918, had to fight a devastating
civil war against czarist forces. In 1920, the czarists were defeated,
and in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was
established. Upon Lenin's death in early 1924, his body was embalmed
and placed in a mausoleum near the Moscow Kremlin. Petrograd was
renamed Leningrad in his honor. After a struggle of succession, fellow
revolutionary Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet
Union.
history.com/tdih.do
1943 : Hallucinogenic effects of LSD discovered
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4924
1947 : Texas City explodes
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4925
1972 : Apollo 16 departs for moon
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4926
#################################
Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take
the reins of the Russian Revolution. One month before, Czar Nicholas
II had been forced from power when Russian army troops joined a
workers' revolt in Petrograd, the Russian capital.
Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov in 1870, Lenin was drawn to the
revolutionary cause after his brother was executed in 1887 for
plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander III. He studied law and took up
practice in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where he associated with
revolutionary Marxist circles. In 1895, he helped organize Marxist
groups in the capital into the "Union for the Struggle for the
Liberation of the Working Class," which attempted to enlist workers to
the Marxist cause. In December 1895, Lenin and the other leaders of
the Union were arrested. Lenin was jailed for a year and then exiled
to Siberia for a term of three years.
After the end of his exile, in 1900, Lenin went to Western Europe,
where he continued his revolutionary activity. It was during this time
that he adopted the pseudonym Lenin. In 1902, he published a pamphlet
titled What Is to Be Done? which argued that only a disciplined party
of professional revolutionaries could bring socialism to Russia. In
1903, he met with other Russian Marxists in London and established the
Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP). However, from the
start there was a split between Lenin's Bolsheviks (Majoritarians),
who advocated militarism, and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians), who
advocated a democratic movement toward socialism. These two groups
increasingly opposed each other within the framework of the RSDWP, and
Lenin made the split official at a 1912 conference of the Bolshevik
Party.
After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Lenin returned
to Russia. The revolution, which consisted mainly of strikes
throughout the Russian empire, came to an end when Nicholas II
promised reforms, including the adoption of a Russian constitution and
the establishment of an elected legislature. However, once order was
restored, the czar nullified most of these reforms, and in 1907 Lenin
was again forced into exile.
Lenin opposed World War I, which began in 1914, as an imperialistic
conflict and called on proletariat soldiers to turn their guns on the
capitalist leaders who sent them down into the murderous trenches. For
Russia, World War I was an unprecedented disaster: Russian casualties
were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war.
Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war
effort, and in March 1917 riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd
over the scarcity of food. Demoralized army troops joined the
strikers, and on March 15 Nicholas II was forced to abdicate, ending
centuries of czarist rule. In the aftermath of the February Revolution
(known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar), power
was shared between the ineffectual Provincial Government and the
soviets, or "councils," of soldiers' and workers' committees.
After the outbreak of the February Revolution, German authorities
allowed Lenin and his lieutenants to cross Germany en route from
Switzerland to Sweden in a sealed railway car. Berlin hoped
(correctly) that the return of the anti-war Socialists to Russia would
undermine the Russian war effort, which was continuing under the
Provincial Government. Lenin called for the overthrow of the
Provincial Government by the soviets, and he was condemned as a
"German agent" by the government's leaders. In July, he was forced to
flee to Finland, but his call for "peace, land, and bread" met with
increasing popular support, and the Bolsheviks won a majority in the
Petrograd soviet. In October, Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd,
and on November 7 the Bolshevik-led Red Guards deposed the Provisional
Government and proclaimed soviet rule.
Lenin became the virtual dictator of the world's first Marxist state.
His government made peace with Germany, nationalized industry, and
distributed land but, beginning in 1918, had to fight a devastating
civil war against czarist forces. In 1920, the czarists were defeated,
and in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was
established. Upon Lenin's death in early 1924, his body was embalmed
and placed in a mausoleum near the Moscow Kremlin. Petrograd was
renamed Leningrad in his honor. After a struggle of succession, fellow
revolutionary Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet
Union.
history.com/tdih.do
1943 : Hallucinogenic effects of LSD discovered
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4924
1947 : Texas City explodes
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4925
1972 : Apollo 16 departs for moon
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4926
#################################
No comments:
Post a Comment