February Revolution 1917 in Russia - one of the most controversial moments national history. Long time it was perceived as the overthrow of the "hated tsarism", but today it is increasingly called a coup d'état.
foreshadowing
As early as the end of 1916, there were all the prerequisites for a revolution in Russia: a protracted war, a food crisis, the impoverishment of the population, and the unpopularity of the authorities. Protest moods seethed not only at the bottom, but also at the top.
At this time, rumors of treason began to spread intensively, in which Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Rasputin were accused. Both were credited with spying for Germany.
Radical members of the State Duma, officers and representatives of the elites believed that with the elimination of Rasputin it would be possible to defuse the situation in society. But the situation after the murder of the "Tobolsk elder" continued to escalate. Some members of the imperial house stood up in opposition to Nicholas II. Especially sharp attacks in the direction of the king were from the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich (grandson of Nicholas I).
In a letter sent to the emperor, he asks to remove Alexandra Feodorovna from governing the country. Only in this case, in the opinion of the Grand Duke, would the revival of Russia begin and the lost confidence of the subjects would return.
Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko in his memoirs claimed that there were attempts to "eliminate, destroy" the Empress. He names the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna as the initiator of such an idea, who allegedly made such a proposal in one of the private conversations.
Messages about the conspiracy are reported to Nikolai regularly.
“Ah, conspiracy again, I thought so. kind, simple people everyone is worried. I know they love me and our mother Russia and, of course, they don’t want any coup, ”the emperor reacted to the fears of the adjutant wing A. A. Mordvinov.
However, information about the conspiracy is becoming more and more real. On February 13, 1917, Rodzianko informs General V.I. Gurko that, according to his information, “a coup has been prepared” and “the mob will carry it out.”
Start
The reason for the riots in Petrograd was the dismissal of about 1000 workers of the Putilov factory. The strike of workers, which began on February 23 (March 8, according to the new style), coincided with a demonstration of many thousands of women organized by the Russian League for the Equality of Women.
“Bread!”, “Down with war!”, “Down with autocracy!” – these were the demands of the protesters.
An eyewitness to the events, poetess Zinaida Gippius, left an entry in her diary: “Today there are riots. Nobody knows for sure, of course. The general version that began on Vyborgskaya, because of the bread.
On the same day, a number of metropolitan factories stopped their work - Old Parviainen, Aivaz, Rosenkranz, Phoenix, Russian Renault, Erikson. By evening, the workers of the Vyborg and Petrograd sides had gathered on Nevsky Prospekt.
The number of demonstrators on the streets of Petrograd grew at an incredible rate. On February 23, there were 128 thousand people, on February 24 - about 214 thousand, and on February 25 - more than 305 thousand. By this time, the work of 421 enterprises of the city had actually stopped. Such a mass movement of workers attracted other sections of society - artisans, employees, intellectuals and students. For a short time the procession was peaceful. Already on the first day of the strike, clashes between demonstrators and the police and Cossacks were recorded in the city center. The capital's mayor A.P. Balk is forced to report to the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General S.S. Khabalov, that the police are not able to "stop the movement and the gathering of people."
Restoring order in the city was complicated by the fact that the military did not want to use force against the demonstrators. Many Cossacks, if not sympathetic to the workers, then kept neutrality.
As the Bolshevik Vasily Kayurov recalls, one of the Cossack patrols smiled at the demonstrators, and some of them even “winked nicely.”
The revolutionary mood of the workers spread to the soldiers. The fourth company of the reserve battalion of the Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment rebelled. Its soldiers, sent to disperse the demonstration, suddenly opened fire on the police. The rebellion was suppressed by the forces of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, but 20 soldiers with weapons managed to escape.
Events on the streets of Petrograd increasingly turned into an armed confrontation. On Znamennaya Square, the bailiff Krylov, who was trying to crawl into the crowd and tear down the red flag, was brutally killed. The Cossack stabbed him with a saber, and the demonstrators finished him off with shovels.
At the end of the first day of unrest, Rodzianko sends a telegram to the tsar, in which he reports that "in the capital there is anarchy" and "parts of the troops are shooting at each other." But the king does not seem to realize what is happening. “Again, this fat Rodzianko writes all sorts of nonsense to me,” he nonchalantly remarks to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Frederiks.
coup
By the evening of February 27, almost the entire composition of the Petrograd garrison - about 160 thousand people - went over to the side of the rebels. The commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Khabalov, is forced to inform Nicholas II: “I ask you to report to His Imperial Majesty that I could not fulfill the order to restore order in the capital. Most of the units, one after the other, betrayed their duty, refusing to fight against the rebels.
The idea of a “cartel expedition”, which provided for the removal of hotel military units from the front and sending them to rebellious Petrograd, did not continue. All this threatened to spill over into civil war with unpredictable consequences.
Acting in the spirit of revolutionary traditions, the rebels released from prisons not only political prisoners, but also criminals. At first, they easily overcame the resistance of the Kresty guards, and then they took the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The unruly and motley revolutionary masses, not disdaining murders and robberies, plunged the city into chaos.
On February 27, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the soldiers occupied the Tauride Palace. The State Duma found itself in a dual position: on the one hand, according to the decree of the emperor, it should have dissolved itself, but on the other hand, the pressure of the rebels and the virtual anarchy forced them to take some action. A compromise solution was a meeting under the guise of a "private meeting".
As a result, it was decided to form a body of power - the Provisional Committee.
Later, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, P. N. Milyukov, recalled:
“The intervention of the State Duma gave the street and military movement a center, gave it a banner and a slogan, and thereby turned the uprising into a revolution that ended in the overthrow of the old regime and dynasty.”
The revolutionary movement grew more and more. The soldiers capture the Arsenal, the main post office, telegraph, bridges and train stations. Petrograd was completely in the hands of the rebels. A real tragedy broke out in Kronstadt, which was swept by a wave of lynching, resulting in the murder of more than a hundred officers of the Baltic Fleet.
On March 1, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, in a letter implores the emperor "for the sake of saving Russia and the dynasty, put at the head of the government a person whom Russia would trust."
Nicholas declares that by giving rights to others, he deprives himself of the power granted to them by God. The opportunity for a peaceful transformation of the country into a constitutional monarchy had already been lost.
After the abdication of Nicholas II on March 2, a dual power actually developed in the state. Official power was in the hands of the Provisional Government, but the real power belonged to the Petrograd Soviet, which controlled the troops, railways, mail and telegraph.
Colonel Mordvinov, who was on the royal train at the time of his abdication, recalled Nikolai's plans to move to Livadia. “Your Majesty, leave as soon as possible abroad. Under the current conditions, even in the Crimea there is no life,” Mordvinov tried to convince the king. "No way. I would not want to leave Russia, I love her too much, ”Nikolai objected.
Leon Trotsky noted that the February uprising was spontaneous:
“No one planned in advance the ways of a coup, no one from above called for an uprising. The indignation that had accumulated over the years broke out to a large extent unexpectedly for the masses themselves.
However, Milyukov, in his memoirs, insists that the coup was planned shortly after the start of the war and before "the army was supposed to go on the offensive, the results of which would radically stop all hints of discontent and would cause an explosion of patriotism and jubilation in the country." “History will curse the leaders of the so-called proletarians, but it will also curse us who caused the storm,” wrote the former minister.
The British historian Richard Pipes calls the actions of the tsarist government during the February uprising "fatal weakness of will", noting that "the Bolsheviks in such circumstances did not stop before executions."
Although the February Revolution is called "bloodless", it nevertheless claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians. In Petrograd alone, more than 300 people died and 1,200 were injured.
The February revolution began an irreversible process of the collapse of the empire and the decentralization of power, accompanied by the activity of separatist movements.
Independence was demanded by Poland and Finland, they started talking about independence in Siberia, and the Central Rada formed in Kyiv proclaimed "autonomous Ukraine".
The events of February 1917 allowed the Bolsheviks to come out of hiding. Thanks to the amnesty announced by the Provisional Government, dozens of revolutionaries returned from exile and political exile, who were already hatching plans for a new coup d'état.
Plan
Revolution of 1917 in Russia
February Revolution
Politics of the Provisional Government
February to October
October Revolution
The rise of the Bolsheviks to power
II Congress of Soviets
Revolution of 1917 in Russia
Russia's entry into the First World War for some time removed the acuteness of social contradictions. All segments of the population rallied around the government in a single patriotic impulse. The defeat at the front in the fight against Germany, the deterioration in the situation of the people caused by the war, gave rise to mass discontent.
The situation was aggravated by the economic crisis that emerged in 1915-1916. Industry, reorganized on a war footing, generally provided for the needs of the front. However, its one-sided development led to the fact that the rear suffered from a shortage of consumer goods. The consequence of this was an increase in prices and an increase in inflation: the purchasing power of the ruble fell to 27 kopecks. Fuel and transport crises developed. The capacity of the railways did not provide military transportation and the uninterrupted delivery of food to the city. The food crisis was especially acute. The peasants, not receiving the necessary industrial goods, refused to supply the products of their economy to the market. In Russia, for the first time, queues for bread appeared. Speculation flourished. The defeat of Russia on the fronts of the First World War dealt a significant blow to the public consciousness. The population is tired of the protracted war. Worker strikes and peasant unrest grew. At the front, fraternization with the enemy and desertion became more frequent. The revolutionary agitators used all the government's blunders to discredit the ruling elites. The Bolsheviks wanted the defeat of the tsarist government and called on the peoples to turn the war from imperialist to civil.
Liberal opposition intensified. The confrontation between the State Duma and the government intensified. The foundation of the June 3rd political system, the cooperation between the bourgeois parties and the autocracy, was crumbling. Speech by N.N. Milyukov on November 4, 1916, with sharp criticism of the policies of the tsar and the ministers, marked the beginning of a "denunciatory" company in the IV State Duma. The "Progressive Bloc" - an inter-parliamentary coalition of the majority of Duma factions - demanded the creation of a government of "people's confidence" responsible to the Duma. However, Nicholas II rejected this proposal.
Nicholas II was losing credibility in society catastrophically because of the "dissputinism", the unceremonious interference of Tsarina Alexander Feodorovna in state affairs and his inept actions as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. By the winter of 1916-1917. all segments of the Russian population realized the inability of the tsarist government to overcome the political and economic crisis.
February Revolution.
In early 1917, interruptions in food supplies intensified in big cities Russia. By mid-February, 90,000 Petrograd workers went on strike because of a shortage of speculation bread and rising prices. On February 18, the workers of the Putilov factory joined them. The administration announced its closure. This was the reason for the beginning of mass demonstrations in the capital.
On February 23 (according to the new style - March 8), workers took to the streets of Petrograd with the slogans "Bread!", "Down with the war!", "Down with the autocracy!" Their political demonstration marked the beginning of the Revolution. On February 25, the strike in Petrograd became general. Demonstrations and rallies did not stop.
On the evening of February 25, Nicholas II, who was in Mogilev, sent the commander of the Petrograd Military District S.S. A telegram to Khabalov with a categorical demand to stop the unrest. Attempts by the authorities to use the troops did not give a positive effect, the soldiers refused to shoot at the people. However, more than 150 people were killed by officers and police on 26 February. In response, the guards of the Pavlovsky regiment, supporting the workers, opened fire on the police.
Chairman of the Duma M.V. Rodzianko warned Nicholas II that the government was paralyzed and "anarchy was in the capital". To prevent the development of the revolution, he insisted on the immediate creation of a new government headed by a statesman who enjoys the confidence of society. However, the king rejected his proposal.
Moreover, he and the Council of Ministers decided to suspend the meeting of the Duma and dissolve it for the holidays. Nicholas II sent troops to suppress the revolution, but a small detachment of General N.I. Ivanov was detained and not allowed into the capital.
On February 27, the mass transition of soldiers to the side of the workers, their capture of the arsenal and the Peter and Paul Fortress marked the victory of the revolution.
The arrests of tsarist ministers and the formation of new authorities began. On the same day in factories and military units, relying on the experience of 1905, when the first bodies of workers' political power were born, elections were held for the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Soldiers' Deputies. An Executive Committee was elected to direct its activities. The Menshevik N.S. became chairman. Chkheidze, his deputy - Socialist-Revolutionary A.F. Kepensky. The Executive Committee took upon itself the maintenance of public order and the supply of food to the population. On February 27, at a meeting of the leaders of the Duma factions, it was decided to form a Provisional Committee of the State Duma headed by M.V. Rodzianko. The task of the committee was "Restoration of state and public order", the creation of a new government. The Provisional Committee took control of all ministries.
On February 28, Nicholas II left Headquarters for Tsarskoye Selo, but was detained on the way by revolutionary troops. He had to turn to Pskov, to the headquarters of the northern front. After consulting with the front commanders, he became convinced that there were no forces to suppress the revolution. On March 2, Nicholas signed the Manifesto on abdication for himself and his son Alexei in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. However, when Duma deputies A.I. Guchkov and V.V. Shulgin brought the text of the Manifesto to Petrograd, it became clear that the people did not want a monarchy. On March 3, Mikhail abdicated the throne, declaring that the Constituent Assembly should decide the fate of the political system in Russia. The 300-year rule of classes and parties is over.
The bourgeoisie, a significant part of the wealthy intelligentsia (about 4 million people) relied on economic power, education, experience in participating in political life and managing state institutions. They sought to prevent the further development of the revolution, stabilize the socio-political situation and strengthen their property. The working class (18 million people) consisted of urban and rural proletarians. They managed to feel their political strength, were predisposed to revolutionary agitation and were ready to defend their rights with weapons. They fought for the introduction of the 8-hour working day, the guarantee of employment, wage increases. Factory committees sprang up spontaneously in the cities. To establish workers' control over production and resolve disputes with entrepreneurs.
The peasantry (30 million people) demanded the destruction of large private land ownership and the transfer of land to those who cultivate it. Local land committees and village assemblies were created in the village, which made decisions on the redistribution of land. Relations between peasants and landlords were extremely tense.
The extreme right (monarchists, Black Hundreds) suffered a complete collapse after the February revolution.
Cadets from the opposition party became the ruling party, initially occupying key positions in the interim government. They stood for the transformation of Russia into a parliamentary republic. In the agrarian question, they still advocated the redemption of the landed estates by the state and the peasants.
The Social Revolutionaries are the most massive party. The revolutionaries proposed turning Russia into a federal republic of free nations.
The Mensheviks, the second largest and most influential party, advocated the creation of a democratic republic.
The Bolsheviks took extreme left positions. In March, the party leadership was ready to cooperate with other social forces. However, after the return of V.I. Lenin from immigration, the April Theses program was adopted.
More years have passed since the events of 1917, and it has long become clear that they did not bring any benefit to our country, but only provoked monstrous upheavals and crimes, however, many citizens of Russia still continue to consider the Bolshevik coup the greatest event both in Russian and world history. Popular blogger Maxim Mirovich expressed his opinion on this matter in LiveJournal:
November 7, 1917, there was October coup, in Soviet mythology proudly referred to as the "Great October Socialist Revolution". This event radically changed the fate of Eastern Europe and made the 20th century (highly hoped for in the 19th) a century of war, political repression, and medieval persecution of people for wrong thoughts. Lenin called tsarist Russia the "Prison of Peoples" - but the one created by the Bolsheviks far surpassed it in this capacity, creating a terrible system Gulag- which, as Varlam Shalamov correctly wrote, corrupted both prisoners and jailers.
Personally, I believe that the October Revolution was a huge tragedy for all peoples - it threw development back two centuries and brought to power great linguist and naturalist, who in his entire life has not understood a simple truth - the development of a country is measured not by the number of factories, but by the number of rights for the population - and this, and not propaganda and not the Gulag, is the key to the stable development of the country and for its normal future.
And in today's post we will talk about the main myths of the so-called "October Revolution" - which were carefully cultivated by the Bolsheviks and in which, unfortunately, a large part of the population still believes.
So, here are the main myths about the 1917 coup:
“The revolution was planned and popular!”
In Soviet mythology, the basics of which were already being hammered into children from a very young age, it was said - as if people, almost from the Stone Age, dreamed of living under Communism, for which from time to time they raised uprisings that were immediately suppressed by the damned capitalists. To support this myth, a corresponding presentation of history was invented, in which various upheavals and riots were turned under one great idea of Communism - the Bolsheviks pulled out various events from the historical context and served them under this sauce.
In fact, the revolution (more precisely, the coup) was a rather random event, and the Bolsheviks also led it quite by accident - in Russia there were many other parties that were opposed to tsarism (Mensheviks, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, Socialist-Revolutionary Centrists) who also wanted change - but all these parties were destroyed or absorbed by a small Bolshevik party after coming to power.
The fact that the Bolsheviks were supported only by a small part of the population - says nationwide boycott of the Soviet government by civil servants what happened in 1917-1918 - people simply did not go to work. The Bolsheviks called this popular boycott "counter-revolutionary sabotage" (again, the Reds got the bad people, yeah), but the fact remains - the people in the bulk were against the Bolsheviks.
After coming to power, the Bolsheviks tried in every possible way to hide the fact that they were actually a small terrorist group that accidentally came to power on a wave of popular protests, for which they began to work children with their propaganda from childhood.
"The revolution was carried out with the people's money!"
You know, there are such very funny statements by all fans of the USSR that they say "Ukraine was invented by the German General Staff" - recently they have even agreed that the Germans also invented the Ukrainian language. Apparently, a German soldier with a gun was assigned to each Ukrainian peasant - so that he would make sure that he spoke exclusively in "invented Ukrainian")
What is most ridiculous is that in these stories the Bolsheviks give out their own phantom pains, since they themselves were largely invented by Germany, and their the coup was carried out with German money. Why did the Germans need it? Everything is simple here - Germany was drawn into a protracted trench war with Russia, and it was necessary to come up with something that would lead Russia out of this war.
So the revolution was invented - the chief of staff of the Eastern Front, General Max Hoffman in his memoirs he wrote: "The decomposition introduced into the Russian army by the revolution (referring to the February Revolution), we naturally sought to strengthen the means of propaganda. In the rear, someone who maintained relations with Russians living in exile in Switzerland, got the idea to use some of these Russians in order to destroy the spirit of the Russian army even faster and poison it with poison."
And here is what German Foreign Minister Brokdorf-Rantzau said: "I believe that, from our point of view, it is preferable to support extremists, as it is this that will most quickly lead to certain results. In all likelihood, in three months, you can count on the fact that disintegration will reach the stage when we can break Russia by military force.
It didn’t end with words - German agents got in touch with a scattered group of Bolsheviks who lived in exile, assembled a “fighting group” of them led by Lenin and sent them to Russia in a sealed wagon in the spring of 1917, allocating several million marks for the organization of the coup.
"The Bolsheviks overthrew the tyranny of the hated tsar!"
Interestingly, I constantly meet this myth on various thematic forums. Pro-Soviet citizens have such a picture of the world in their heads - there was a hated usurper tsar who oppressed and rotted the people in every possible way, did not give him freedom, dragged him into the war of 1914, supported the class division of society, etc., and then came forever the young and talented Lenin overthrew the tsar, opening the way to freedom for the peoples.
In fact, Lenin did not overthrow any "tsar" - he simply led an armed coup. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in February 1917, after which power passed to the Provisional Government and the date for the election of deputies was set.
What would have happened if the Bolsheviks had not intervened with their coup? Most likely, the elections would have taken place, and the former Russian Empire would have turned into a peaceful democratic country, albeit not within its former borders. Private property and normal relations with developed countries would be preserved, and human rights would simply extend to all classes (already former), instead of declaring the "rich and kulaks" to be the culprits of all troubles.
But history took a different path - the Bolsheviks and Lenin seized power in the country, overthrowing the provisional democratic government and imposing the red dictatorship, which for all the years was only engaged in repressions, was looking for more and more new enemies and built the Gulag.
"The working people have received their rights!"
Perhaps this is the most important Soviet myth, from which it grew and on which all the rest was based. Soviet propaganda. Allegedly, in pre-revolutionary times, all peasants and workers lived poorly and poorly, but after 1917 they began to live a new, rich and prosperous life. To prove these statements, some cunning statistical schemes were cited, such as those that showed an increase in the number of gas stoves in houses in comparison with 1913 - this was supposedly supposed to prove the advantages of the Soviet system.
In fact, everything happened exactly the opposite - after 1917, both workers and peasants were greatly affected in their rights - the peasants, in fact, did not have normal passports until the 1970s and they were used as free labor force in heavy agricultural work, and the situation for the workers was no better - a person was actually "tied to the machine" by anti-human slave laws, and all independent trade unions that could stand up for him were destroyed.
Interestingly, in the first post-revolutionary years the situation was somewhat different - there was some rudimentary self-government at the factories, some cells of activists, etc., but in the Stalinist 1930s everything was destroyed. For some reason, almost no one writes about this, but in fact the workers and peasants received not at all what they went out to fight for in 1917. I am sure that if a revolutionary soldier or sailor of 1917 were shown a Stalinist collective farm or a factory from the near future, then he would turn his rifle against the Bolsheviks as against even greater oppressors and slave owners than "tsarism".
“All the republics voluntarily joined the family of peoples!”
One of the important myths of the "October Revolution" is the alleged importance of maintaining the "former borders Russian Empire". Well, almost without Poland and Finland. For what it was necessary - lovers of everything Soviet do not explain, that's all. Moreover, in Soviet mythology it is often said that all the "union republics" entered the USSR absolutely voluntarily - supposedly " royal Russia was a prison of nations, and only in the Soviet Union were all the republics happy in a single people's family.
In fact, the "communist revolution" took place only in Russia (actually, in the RSFSR), and almost all other republics to the communists had to be taken by force. The BSSR was created in 1919 after the Red Army entered the territory of Belarus and actually destroyed Belarusian People's Republic created by Belarusians in 1918. In Ukraine, the Bolsheviks destroyed the UNR, which arose before the Ukrainian SSR. In Georgia, in 1917, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was created, which concluded an agreement with the RSFSR, legalized Bolshevik organizations, etc. The Red Army invaded there in early 1921 and established Soviet power. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia were captured in 1940,
A myth from the same series as the tales of some "rights" there. In fact, during all the years of the existence of Soviet power, people lived poorly - much worse than people of similar education and profession in developed European countries. This happened for one simple reason - the authorities of the USSR never thought about people living well and richly, they looked at people as a means of achieving another utopian goal or the implementation of another empty project, like Plato's "Pit". People were constantly told that "you have to be patient", that time will pass- and future generations will live very happy. Now the communists talk about how good it was to live then.
Fans like to talk about some kind of "real Union", which, like Buyan Island from a fairy tale, was lost somewhere between 1960 and 1977 - they say, under Brezhnev it was satisfying, then perestroika began, "and everything was ruined." In fact, poverty existed even in those years, just a piece of bad meat on the bone and a can of canned fish could be bought in the store relatively smoothly and without long queues - that's all the achievements of Soviet power.
Afterword
In general, as you can see, the stories of the communists about 1917 are full of all sorts of notions - the revolution was carried out with German money, Lenin did not overthrow any tsar, the peasants and workers did not receive any rights, the USSR itself was not a "friendly family of peoples", but assembled by military means education, and all this in the end did not lead to a rich or happy life.
November 7, 1917 is an unequivocal tragedy for me - I believe that without this coup, Russia would have become modern by about the 1940s developed state with good roads, normal laws, stimulating and protecting creative work, with a normal elected government and good relations with Western countries.
There would be no NKVD, Gulag, millions of victims and tragedies. There would not have been hundreds and thousands of minds who left Russia, and it is very possible that today, after hundreds of years of normal and stable development, Russia would be the country of the world's best hospitals, universities and companies like Apple and Tesla. Well, maybe we need to wait another hundred years for that. I don't lose hope...
Cavalry General A.A. Brusilov
Thus, representatives of the Duma and members of the highest generals were preparing the abdication of Nicholas II even before the start of the revolutionary events.
The security department also knew about the impending conspiracy. General of the Okhrana Spiridovich wrote on February 20:
“Having got to the apartment of one friend, a serious informant who knows everything and everything, who is in contact with political public circles, and with the press and the world of protection, he received, as it were, a synthesis of a general onslaught on the government, on the Supreme Power. They hate the Tsarina, they don't want the Sovereign anymore... The departure of the Sovereign was said to be about the change of an objectionable minister. They talked about the fact that the Tsaritsa and Vyrubova would soon be killed as simply as about some kind of hospital operation. They named officers who were allegedly ready to march, they named some regiments, they talked about the conspiracy of the Grand Dukes (emphasis added by us. - Author), almost everyone called V.K. Mikhail Alexandrovich as the future Regent ... "
Abdication of the king
When the February Revolution took place and an armed crowd swept the streets, the Duma conspirators realized that the tsar must be overthrown immediately. General Brusilov recalled:
“I ... was summoned to a direct wire by [General] Alekseev, who informed me that the Provisional Government that was formed had announced to him that if Nicholas II refused to abdicate the throne, it threatened to interrupt the supply of food and ammunition to the army (we have there were no reserves), so Alekseev asked me and all the commanders-in-chief to telegraph the tsar with a request for renunciation. I answered him that, for my part, I consider this measure necessary and will immediately execute it. Rodzianko also sent me an urgent telegram of the same content ... I replied to Rodzianko that I was fulfilling my duty to the motherland and the tsar to the end, and at the same time I sent a telegram to the tsar in which I asked him to abdicate the throne ... "
1 March at a meeting of members of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma discussed the abdication of the king. Monarchist V. Shulgin later said: “We were at that time incomplete. There were Rodzianko, Milyukov, I—I don't remember the rest... But I remember that neither Kerensky nor Chkheidze [that is, leftists] were present. We were in our circle. And because Guchkov spoke quite freely ... "
And he said the following: “... Apparently, it is no longer possible for the current Sovereign to reign ... The highest command on his behalf is no longer a command: they will not fulfill it ... If this is so, then can we calmly and indifferently wait for the moment when all this revolutionary rabble he will begin to look for a way out himself ... And he will deal with the monarchy ... "
On the night of 2 March Guchkov and Shulgin went together on behalf of the Provisional Committee of the Duma to the headquarters of the army of the Northern Front in Pskov, where Nikolai was.
Here is how the monarchist Shulgin explained to himself that he was going to overthrow the tsar: “I understood very well why I was going. I felt that the abdication would inevitably happen, and I felt that it was impossible to put the Sovereign face to face with Chkheidze ... The abdication must be transferred into the hands of the monarchists and for the sake of saving the monarchy.. That is, the abdication of the emperor was considered the best way out at the time of February, even by monarchists.
The attitude of the Duma members at that time towards the tsar is well characterized by the words of one of the main conspirators, Milyukov, said by him at a meeting of the Duma the next day, March 2: “The old despot, who brought Russia to complete ruin, will voluntarily renounce the throne or be deposed”.
With Nicholas II, by the time Guchkov and Shulgin arrived, the commander of the Northern Front had already spoken about the abdication Ruza. The tsar was shown telegrams from the commanders-in-chief of the fronts with requests to abdicate.
On November 7, the country celebrates the 101st anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The event is old, but important, which played a significant role in the development of Russia and the whole world as a whole. Do people remember what happened on this day 101 years ago?
Storming of the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917. Petrograd. Frame from the film "October". Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Grigory Alexandrov. 1927
With this question, he took to the streets of Vyborg a year ago and tried to find out from passers-by what happened on November 7 (October 25, old style) more than 100 years ago. Someone remembered the confrontation between the "Reds" and the interim government. One person remembered the overthrow of the old regime by the new one. It was not without embarrassment: not everyone was able to give at least an approximate description of the events of a hundred years ago.
On November 7 (October 25, old style), 1917, the armed overthrow of the Provisional Government of Russia took place and the Bolshevik Party came to power, proclaiming the establishment of Soviet power.
Why did the overthrow of power happen?
Protracted First World War(1911 - 1918) became a kind of catalyst for radical revolutionary sentiments in society. Russia in this war was the defending side, and a significant shortage of ammunition, uniforms, military equipment greatly undermined the morale of the army. So, at the beginning of the war, Russia had only 13 cruisers, while Germany and Austria-Hungary had 42. Russia also lagged behind in the number of heavy guns - at the beginning of hostilities there were about 240 of them in the country, and in Germany alone - 2076. Russia was inferior both in aviation and in tanks.
The beginning of the revolution accelerated and national movement which intensified after the February Revolution. After the abdication of Nicholas II, the state was left without an autocrat and leader. The country was actually ruled by two bodies: the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the Provisional Government. The provisional government was unable to solve the pressing issues: workers, agrarian, nationalist.
Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky (1881-1970), Prime Minister of the Provisional Government. Petrograd, August 21, 1917. Source: RIA Novosti Landownership continued to exist . An important issue for the peasantry had not yet been resolved - the common people wanted to acquire ownership of the land and arbitrarily dispose of it. The martial law only delayed consideration of the demands of the peasant population. The provisional government did nothing to implement the agrarian program. The "Reds" promised at the rallies to solve the agrarian problem and give the peasants land. Their slogans "land to the peasants", "factories to the workers" attracted more and more supporters.
As a result, the peasants, who made up the majority of the population of the Russian state, supported the Bolsheviks and refused to trust the Provisional Government. supported revolutionary movement and workers who are tired of living without straightening up under the yoke of the monarchy. The real wages of the working population by the autumn of 1917 fell to 40-50% of the pre-war level.
The provisional government also did nothing to resolve the national question. On the national question, tsarist Russia upheld the slogan "one and indivisible" and pursued a policy of forcible Russification, which was expressed, in particular, in the planting of the Russian language. The nations, in turn, demanded cultural-national autonomy. Due to the multinationality of the country and the rigidity of state policy, the national question becomes the most acute. At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 200 peoples lived on the territory of Russia, speaking 146 languages and dialects. The Bolsheviks proposed the right of nations to self-determination, the abolition of national privileges and restrictions, the free development of national minorities. Therefore, the Provisional Government, which did not pay due attention to national minorities, lost their support.
V.I.Lenin.