A Beginner's Guide to the Russian Revolution: Part Three

In the third and final part of A Beginner's Guide to the Russian Revolution, we will examine the Bolshevik Revolution itself. During this time, the provisional government would be ousted from power by radical communist forces, which would spur a bloody civil struggle for power based on ideology within Russia. And now, part three of A Beginner's Guide to the Russian Revolution.

We left our survey with Lenin leaving Germany with support and financial backing of the German government, which wanted to use Lenin to help stir chaos in Russia and remove that country from the fight in World War I. They certainly got their wish. Lenin set about recruiting more followers to the cause of communism when he claimed the Bolshevik leadership upon his return. He and his followers filled the streets and the war trenches with pamphlets describing the Bolshevik cause and the crimes of the provisional government and czar. Learning of Lenin's return and the subversive activity of the Bolsheviks, the provisional government of Russia issued warrants for the arrest of leaders of the movement. However, by this point the fighting in Russian cities had swelled to such a level and support cast for the Bolsheviks in such a degree that the flimsy government was largely ineffectual. In November of 1917, the Bolsheviks seize upon the discord and launched a coup d'etat of the Russian provisional government. Even soldiers in the state guard at Petrograd began to side with the Bolsheviks, thus eliminating any chance the government had at turning back the tide. The provisional government stepped down, the legislative assembly was promptly dissolved, and Lenin now had complete control of the government.