The Russian Revolution Page

Phalgun Deevanapalli, Junior School

The Russian revolution showed how people could transform the country with their ideas for a better future that would benefit the underprivileged and would ensure a legacy that future generations would use to better humanity. Marx's critical theories about society, economics and politics – collectively understood as Marxism – hold that human societies develop through class struggle. In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the rich (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labour power in return for wages. Marx predicted that, like previous socio-economic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its selfdestruction and replacement by a new system known as socialism. There are differences between Marx’s system (also known as Communism) and Socialism:

• A theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs is called communism...

• In communism, people aren’t allowed to own property, whereas in socialism people can own the personal property.

• The main aim of communism is to build a classless society and abolish the capitalism...

•As communism also has a strong affiliation with the political system, in it the management of resources is done by elected people.

As the First World War loomed ominously on the horizons, many sections of the country had reason to be dissatisfied with the existing autocracy. Nicholas II was a deeply conservative ruler and maintained a strict authoritarian system. Individuals and society in general were expected to show self-restraint, devotion to community, deference to the social hierarchy and a sense of duty to the country. Religious faith helped bind all of these tenets together as a source of comfort and reassurance in the face of difficult conditions and as a means of political authority exercised through the clergy. The lower classes are expected to pray to God and hope he will bring through these bad times, thereby as Karl Marx famously said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Opium is an illegal drug which has been known to nullify the senses, this time it is religion which is the powerful drug.

Perhaps more than any other modern monarch, Nicholas II attached his fate and the future of his dynasty to the notion of the ruler as a saintly father to his people. The outbreak of war in

August 1914 initially served to quiet the prevalent social and political protests, focusing hostilities against a common external enemy, but this patriotic unity did not last long. As the war dragged on inconclusively, war weariness gradually took its toll. Although many ordinary Russians joined anti-German demonstrations in the first few weeks of the war, hostility toward the Germans and the desire to defend their land and their lives did not necessarily translate into enthusiasm for the Tsar or the government. Russia's first major battle of the war was a disaster; in the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, over 30,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded and 90,000 captured, while Germany suffered just 12,000 casualties, with minimal captures.

However, Austro-Hungarian forces allied to Germany were driven back deep into the Galicia region by the end of the year. In the autumn of 1915, Nicholas had taken direct command of the army, personally overseeing Russia's main theatre of war and leaving his ambitious but incapable wife Alexandra in charge of the government. Reports of corruption and incompetence in the Imperial government began to emerge, and the Imperial family became widely resented. Tsar Nicholas was blamed for all of these crises, and the little support he had left began to crumble. As discontent grew, the State Duma (which is the lower house of the Federal Assembly, the parliament of the Russian Federation) issued a warning to Nicholas in November 1916, stating that, inevitably, a terrible disaster would grip the country unless a constitutional form of government was put in place. Nicholas ignored these warnings and Russia's Tsarist regime collapsed a few months later during the February Revolution of 1917. One year later, the Tsar and his entire family were executed.

Trotsky was a key figure in the political turmoil in Russia at the time, as he worked with Lenin. He was born on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, Ukraine, then part of Russia. His father was a prosperous Jewish farmer. Trotsky became involved in underground activities as a teenager. He was soon arrested, jailed and exiled to Siberia where he joined the Social Democratic Party. Eventually, he escaped Siberia and spent the majority of the next 15 years abroad, including a spell in London. In 1903, the Social Democrats split. While Lenin assumed leadership of the 'Bolshevik' (majority) faction, Trotsky became a member of the 'Menshevik' (minority) faction and developed his theory of 'permanent revolution'. After the outbreak of revolution in Petrograd in February 1917, he made his way back to Russia. Despite previous disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and played a decisive role in the communist takeover of power in the same year. His first post in the new government was as foreign commissar, where he found himself negotiating peace terms with Germany.

He was then made war commissar and, in this capacity, built up the Red Army which prevailed against the White Russian forces in the civil war. Therefore, Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive. He saw himself as Lenin's heir-apparent, but his intellectual arrogance made him few friends, and his Jewish heritage may also have worked against him. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known by his alias Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of Soviet Russia (similar to prime minister) from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party communist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a communist, he developed a variant of Marxism known as Leninism.

Born to a moderately prosperous middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced socialist politics following his brother's 1887 execution. He was expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empire's Tsarist government. So, he devoted the following years to a law degree to gain some understanding of political science and to study what he was to be protesting about. He moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior Marxist activist. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition (conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch) and was exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent theorist in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, leading the Bolshevik faction against Julius Martov's Mensheviks. Encouraging insurrection during Russia's failed Revolution of 1905, he later campaigned for the First World War to be transformed into a Europe-wide workers revolution, which as a Marxist, he believed would cause the usurping of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar and established a Provisional Government, he returned to Russia to play a leading role in the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime.

The revolution ultimately led to the establishment of the future Soviet Union as an ideocracy; however, the establishment of such a state came as an ideological confusion, as Marx's ideals of how a socialist state needed to be created were based on the formation being natural and not artificially incited (i.e. by means of revolution). Leon Trotsky said that the goal of socialism in Russia would not be realized without the success of the world revolution. A revolutionary wave caused by the Russian Revolution lasted until 1923, but despite initial hopes for success in the German Revolution of 1918–19, the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, and others like it, no other Marxist movement at the time succeeded in keeping power in its hands.

James Lucas, Middle School

Quarantine has had a huge impact on our daily lives, not just here in England or HABS, but everywhere around the world. I thought it would be interesting to compare my daily routine with some of my friends who live in different countries, so I asked them to give me a brief insight into what a typical quarantine day would look like. From Leo’s productive day in Palo Alto, to Lucy’s action-packed twenty-four hours in Melbourne and Kit’s lockdown in Dubai, all of them have found ways of keeping educated and entertained during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Leo is 13 and lives in Palo Alto, California, with his mum, dad, two younger siblings and a dog. He wakes up and then eats breakfast, usually waffles and fresh fruit, made by his dad as his mum begins work very early. After breakfast, he starts online school on Zoom, like me. However, instead of having individual periods and following his regular timetable like I do, Leo’s school has certain ‘blocks.’ This means that instead of having every lesson every day, they spend a few hours per lesson each day, and have each lesson fewer times per week. Sometimes, Leo will have ‘open blocks’ in his schedule. He will often use this time to go outside, walk his dog, or socialise with his friends from the end of their driveways. Rules there seem less strict; he can exercise more than once a day and chat with friends as long as they keep apart. They can also travel further and for longer to go for walks.

Lunch is made using meal kits, which are delivered to the house. Californians are used to having a lot of food deliveries and this has continued during lockdown. After lunch it is more online school, which finishes a bit earlier over there, at 3pm. Leo will then watch T.V followed by an indoor workout (whilst watching Survivor, his favourite show!) and make dinner with his mum. In the evening, he watches the news, walks the dog or plays a board game and then goes to sleep.

At the weekend, Leo and his siblings have to do chores that their nanny would normally do but she is not allowed to work right now. Their family also goes for bike rides and hiking in the hills. Whilst he is anxious about when he might return to school and misses seeing his friends, he said he feels lucky that he lives near nature and can still be outside.

Lucy is 12 and lives in Melbourne, Australia with her mum, dad and older brother and sister. She is keeping her usual routine in place so is woken up by her alarm at 7:30, just like she would on a normal school day. She then has a shower and hears her parents returning form the shops, as they go early to buy food before queues start. Lucy’s breakfast is a bit different from Leo’s; she will have eggs if they are available and if not she has bread with hummus and tomatoes.

After breakfast, she starts school work in her bedroom. This will involve video calls with her class and after she has been assigned work for the day, she will do it for around 1 hour and 20 mins until her break at 9:55. At 10:15 she returns to her iPad for her next class. It stays like this until 12:55 when she has lunch, which is usually a salad. After that, she goes and sits in the sun for a while until it is time for her final lessons.

When her school day is over mid-afternoon, Lucy plays the piano, goes for a swim in her pool, reads, beats her dad at football in the garden, draws and goes for a run before she is interrupted by a call from one of her friends and they talk until it is time for dinner. For the rest of the evening she reads and chats to her family until she drifts off to sleep.

Kit is aged 10 and lives in a compound in Dubai with his mum, dad, younger sister and cat. Kit’s day is again fairly similar to my other two friends, but in Dubai, the lockdown rules are stricter. His parents need to apply for a permit to go outside in order to buy food, which is only allowed once every three days. The police will then check at the supermarket whether or not they have a permit. They also have to wear gloves or a mask, even in the car.

Kit wakes up at 7:00 and has breakfast, before starting school. He does homeschool on Sunday to Thursday, with his ‘weekend’ on Friday and Saturday. He has Zoom calls and takes pictures of his work to send to his teacher, much like we do at HABS. He works from 8am until 1pm and does a wide range of subjects, including Arabic, Moral Education and Special Projects. His school day is shorter, starting and ending earlier due to the hot climate.

He works at the dining room table and his sister works in the study. When his school is finished he Zooms or Skypes his friends and plays games with them on his iPad. At first, his friend who lives next door would come over and bounce on his trampoline with him, but then that was forbidden as the rules became stricter. So now he practises on his own and has perfected lots of tricks during the lockdown. He also has water fights with his family; it is very hot there already.

Ramadan has also just started. Due to Dubai being a Muslim country, this would usually mean that the school days are even shorter, but it does not affect online school.

It seems that for a lot of children around the world, our daily routines are actually quite similar. We are all receiving remote learning from our schools, although the length of the school day and subjects studied varies. We are all allowed some kind of outside exercise, with California’s rules being more relaxed than in the U.K. Dubai is the strictest of the three, with a permit being required to travel and gloves and masks must be worn at all times. Everyone is still managing to obtain food supplies and talk to their friends via technology.

In many ways, quarantine has not been very enjoyable. I and all my foreign friends are used to doing a lot of sport and we are all really missing playing and watching it. Leo is a very keen tennis player so is missing this the most. My friends in Australia and Dubai are used to going to the beach and being out on boats, which they cannot do at present. All of us are really looking forward to being able to see our friends. Everyone in California seems to be worried about how President Trump is managing the situation, but have faith in their technology companies to solve a lot of the current problems.

However, there are some positives for all of us, such as having a lot more free time from our hectic schedules and being able to learn new skills, even if it is cooking and housework! We are all lucky too, as we have big houses with outdoor space to run around in. It would be a lot more difficult without that.

Sachin Shah, Middle School

The killing of George Floyd has protesters across the globe demanding change, reawakening Black Lives Matter (BLM). The group has fought hard for several years to bring to the worlds consciousness that black lives do matter.

Originating in the US, their key message calls upon the urgent need to tackle police brutality. In 2019, 1098 people were killed by the US police of which 99% didn’t result in criminal charges, whilst black people are 3 times more likely to be killed by the police.

However, the beginnings of BLM was created after the death of teenager Trayvon Martin. In February 2013, George Zimmerman called the Florida police, saying “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something”. To which the dispatcher asked what the colour of his skin was. Despite being told not to follow the man in question, Zimmerman ignored advice and opened gunfire; claiming self-defence. Only after months of public outrage was Zimmerman arrested, however he was later released without charge. This sparked the creation of BLM.

Patrice Cullors, a renowned activist, created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on the 7th March 2013 creating more conversation and support for the movement. The movement gained further popularity when in the summer of 2014, Eric Garners, tragic last words “I can’t breathe” went viral across national media platforms, after being placed in a choke hold by a Police Officer.

Just 2 months later another fatal shooting of an Afro-American. 18-year-old, Michael Brown Jr. was shot by an Officer after allegedly stealing a pack of cigarettes from a corner shop. In outrage, thousands of citizens took to the streets for months, demanding justice. However, once again, no action was taken against the officer. Reverend Al Sharpton, at Brown’s funeral said “Michael Brown Junior will be a defining moment on how this country deals with police.”

After the death of Brown, the BLM movement gained momentum as black people continued to die at the hands of white officers. It was a cycle of killings, protests and no criminal charges, all whilst the first black president and attorney general were in power.

President Obama allowed courts to override police departments accused of civil rights abuses; they put a limit on military grade weapons available for police and introduced ‘Pattern and Practice’ investigations into police departments to understand if they are following all necessary protocols.

After the 2016 US presidential election, the BLM movement had taken a hit. Feeling they weren’t being heard, they planned for a protest in Charlottesville, however, quickly a peaceful protest turned into a fight with ultras from both ends of the sections fighting leaving one person dead and 5 critically injured.

In the following year violent hate crimes were at a 16 year high, with 4,571 committed. Black deaths at the hands of white police continued unabated, however Donald Trump essentially sucked all the life and oxygen out of the movement as these killings barely made the news. Meanwhile in August 2019 African American had a record high 5.4% unemployment.

In 2020, current year, there were many killings which fell under the radar due to the COVID 19 pandemic. However, this was soon to change and BLM grew to global awareness in May. George Floyd was killed after a White officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for eight minutes on a south Minneapolis street. Chauvin ignored the plea of Floyd as he repeatedly croaked in desperation “I Can’t Breathe”.

History is made by our actions and events in the future. What happens next will set out if the world has finally woken up to Black Lives Matter. Will you let them breathe?