Revolutionary Period, 1917–24

In March (February by the old-style calendar then used in Russia), 1917, strikes, riots, and mutinies broke out in many places. A workers' soviet was set up in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). During March 14–15, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet met with representatives from the Duma and agreed to support a provisional governing committee (later called the provisional government) created by the Duma. On March IS, Nicholas abdicated. He and his family were later arrested and executed.

The provisional government, headed by Prince Lvov, a liberal aristocrat, tried to establish a liberal democratic regime. But on April 16, Lenin arrived in the capital with his own plans for an immediate Bolshevik revolution.

Lenin proclaimed his goals—peace, bread, and land. His slogan was “All power to the Soviets." The government tried to continue the war against the Germans. Alexander Kerensky, minister of war, rallied the army for an offensive, which ended in defeat. In July, 1917, Kerensky became premier. He failed to take decisive measures to halt the rise of the Bolsheviks, and the government declined in power and prestige. On November 7 (October 25), Bolshevik troops led by Leon Trotsky seized government buildings and arrested members of the ministry. A Bolshevik government was quickly established with Lenin as premier and Trotsky as commissar (minister) for foreign affairs. Kerensky fled to London in 1918. (

At first there was little resistance to the Bolshevik takeover. However, the Bolsheviks' radical program and their repression of rival parties soon generated violent opposition. The Bolsheviks lost much “support when they signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, surrendering to Germany. (This treaty was later nullified by the Allied victory over Germany.) Civil war broke out throughout Russia, and the country was in chaos.

The Red (Communist) Army was opposed by various White (non-Communist Russian) armies, and fighting continued for nearly three years. The White armies were aided and supplied by Great Britain and France, who hoped to end Bolshevik rule. Also, various French, British, Japanese, and American military units began occupying parts of Russia in 1918. The Russian Empire started to break apart as various subject peoples, including Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and the Baltic peoples set up their own republics.

The Red Army, under Trotsky (who had become commissar of war), eventually defeated the White armies. The Allied nations, to avoid direct confrontation with Bolshevik troops, withdrew most of their forces in 1919. The Poles invaded Belarus and Ukraine in early 1920, and by October, 1920, the Bolsheviks had to make an unfavorable settlement with them. By 1922, however, Bolshevik rule was extended over most of the former Russian Empire. In that year Japan withdrew its forces from Siberia, becoming the last Allied nation to leave Russian soil.

In 1918 the Bolsheviks adopted a Communist constitution. In 1919 they organized the Communist International to promote Communist revolutions throughout the world. Within Russia the Communists used methods of terror to crush all opposition. The government took over factories, farms, and other means of production and tried to suppress religion.

The government attempted to reorganize society and the economy in an effort to help sustain its forces in the civil war and to build Communism in general. This policy, which came to be called War Communism, was harsh and impractical. Farm and industrial production fell drastically. Millions died of starvation and disease in a famine during 1921–22. In 1921 Lenin announced the New Economic Policy (NEP), which permitted some capitalistic enterprise and private trading. Under NEP production increased rapidly.

In 1922 Russia joined with other Soviet republics that had been formed in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and the Trans-Caucasian region to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1924 a constitution for the USSR was adopted. The USSR, in effect, was an empire, encompassing most of the lands of the former Russian Empire.