The year 1917 brought two major changes in World War I. First, in its continuing effort to prevent all countries’ ships from transporting food and supplies to Britain, the German navy’s submarines sank several American ships. In response, President Woodrow Wilson asked for a declaration of war against Germany and the Central powers in April. The declaration brought a powerful new army into the war on the side of the Allied powers. The second change was occurring as Congress voted to approve the American president’s request: a revolution had begun to take place in Russia.The monarchy of the Russian tsar had been vulnerable since a revolution against its autocratic power had been attempted and brutally put down in 1905. By 1917, participation in World War I had resulted in disaster for the tsar’s armies and government. The nation’s casualties were much higher than those of any other country, and its economy was in shambles. On March 8, another revolution began when food shortages prompted hundreds of women to riot in the streets of St. Petersburg, the empire’s capital. In the days that followed, the violence spread to other cities and towns. Disheartened soldiers increasingly joined the revolt. In less than two weeks, Tsar Nicholas II had to give up his throne at the urging of the Duma, Russia’s parliament. Members of the Duma then set up a provisional, or temporary, government that shared power with councils of soldiers and workers, called “soviets.”
German authorities saw the upheaval in Russia as a chance to end the war in the east. They knew that Russian Communists known as Bolsheviks had long opposed the war and were eager to make peace. But the tsar had exiled their leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, years earlier. Hopeful that their return would undermine the Russian war effort, the Germans allowed Lenin and other Bolsheviks to return to Russia from exile in Switzerland.
Soon after his arrival in Russia, Lenin called for the overthrow of the provisional government by the soviets. But there was little response to his demand; most people were willing to give the new government a chance. As a result, Lenin was once again forced into exile. Within a few months, however, starving Russians weary of war had become impatient with the slow pace of change under the provisional government. Lenin’s calls for “peace, land [for farm laborers and workers], and bread” now attracted more followers. By October, he was back in Russia, and by November 7, his Bolshevik-led army, the Red Guard, had forced out the provisional government and proclaimed government by the soviets.
Lenin believed that Russia must end its participation in the war so that the nation could focus on building a communist state based on the ideas of Karl Marx, a German philosopher who lived in the mid-1800s. Marx argued that the struggle between workers and property owners would end only when workers as a community owned all land and other resources. The system Marx envisioned was a radical form of socialism; its underlying idea was that the government should take work from each citizen according to his or her ability and give goods and services to each according to his or her need.
Lenin revised many of Marx’s ideas to make them more applicable to Russia. Marx believed that communism would be most successful in an industrialized country with a large worker class, but Russia was not as industrialized as other European countries. Lenin did not believe that Russian workers themselves could bring about a revolution. He thought that the country would instead need a small group of leaders to plan and direct the revolution and then rule the country until the people were ready to lead on their own.
