Concise Russian history for a traveler

Soviet and post-Soviet Russia

Lenin, who had been in hiding, appeared on the scene to urge the Bolsheviks to press forward and overthrow the Provisional Government; this they did on the morning of October 26. After the almost bloodless siege, Lenin proclaimed that power had passed to the Soviets. If the October Revolution was accepted as democratic – supported by a majority of the population – then it ceased to be so soon after its institutionalization. This was the result of deliberate manipulation by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. And civil war was inevitable.

The Civil War. The Red Army was formed in February 1918, and Trotsky became its leader. The Reds were opposed by the "Whites", anticommunists led by former imperial officers. There were also the "Greens" and anarchists, who fought the Reds and were strongest in Ukraine. The Allies (Britain, the United States, Italy, and a host of other states) intervened on the White side. The Reds recruited many ex-tsarist officers but also produced many of their own. By mid-1920s the Reds had consolidated their hold on the country.

The Bolsheviks were ruthless in their pursuit of victory. The Cheka, or political police , was formed in December 1917 to protect communist power; it was the forerunner of the notorious KGB. By the end of the Civil War the Cheka had become a powerful force. The Civil War caused the Bolsheviks to adopt a more severe economic policy known as War Communism, characterized chiefly by the expropriation of private business and industry and the forced requisition of grain and other food products from the peasants. Ever-present hunger exacerbated the poor labour relations, and strikes became endemic, especially in Petrograd. The Bolsheviks, however, pressed ahead, using coercion as necessary. Soviet Russia adopted its first constitution in July (June, Old Style) 1918 and fashioned treaties with other republics such as Ukraine. Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were tied to Bolshevik Russia by 1921. Many republics wanted to be independent in order to develop their own brand of national communism, but the comrade Josef Stalin, the Commissar for Nationalities, sought to ensure that Moscow rule prevailed. Forced requisitioning led to peasant revolts, and the Tambov province revolt of 1920 in particular forced Lenin to change his War Communism policy.