Russian Revolution and the New Economic Policy

RR- Many things such as WWI caused the Russian Revolution. At the beginning of WWI, Russia was not yet strong enough to defeat Germany, but they dominated the Austro-Hungarians so they were sort of trapped in a middle ground where they didn’t really feel the need for strong militarism. It turns out that they made the wrong decision because their military fell apart in 1916 when they ran out of ammo and were sending unarmed soldiers into battle. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin became very popular among the Russian people and political groups, especially the very strong group called the Bolsheviks which was obedient to him. Lenin was spreading Karl Marx’s “Enlightenment Ideas” which became very popular in Russia and he sparked a Revolution.

His slogan was “peace, bread and land” because he promised immediate peace to all the soviets once he arrived in Petrograd. He also offered them all land, which everyone wanted to go along with enough food for everybody. The Bolsheviks gained much
popularity from the working class and sailors among others because of their known obedience to Lenin. On November 6,1917 they rose up and took over the city, calling their action the “October Revolution”. Their sudden move surprised rival revolutionary groups that believed a “socialist” revolution could happen only after many years of Lenin’s rule. Lenin wasn’t really all that interested in Marx’s ideas as much as he was into power. The Bolsheviks nationalized all the land and forced peasants to hand over everything without any compensation. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk basically took Russia out of WWI and made Russia lose one third of its population and wealth because Poland Finland and all the Baltic States separated and became independent. This predominantly was the socialist revolution in Russia. It was a good concept and seemed great at first to the people, they came together and rose up, but then it also tore then down. It ruined Russia in a way by separating it and worsening its economy.

NEP- Since the end of WWI didn’t bring peace or nearly anything remotely good to Europe, fighting continued in Russia for about three years. Also, in December 1918, Russia broke out in a civil war. The Bolsheviks called themselves the Communists and in 1918 even thought central Russia was held down, all of the surrounding countries rose up against them. It was Russia fighting against the provinces that had broke free during the Bolshevik revolution that were now looking to take them down.

Anyway, Russia had their war and their economy could only take so much war, revolution, revolting and mismanagement so it basically fell apart. By 1921 it was at one sixth of what it was before the Great War. Almost every economic aspect of Russia was obliterated, fuel railroads, factories. They were all bad because of years of war. The New Economic Policy allowed peasants to own land and sell their crops, private merchants to trade, and private workshops to produce good and sell them on the free market. It began a more relaxed era for Russia and everything started coming together. It had a good impact because production and sales went up which brought the economy up. The New Economic Policy did well for the Russian economy.