Since the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 the forces of revolution had been gathering in Russia. The World War brought these to an explosion by the sufferings that it imposed upon the people and by the exposure that it made of the weakness and corruption of the autocratic government. In March, 1917, an outbreak at Petrograd initiated a revolution that in six months ran through nearly as many stages, tending always in a radical direction and leaving the government finally in the control of the Communist or Bolshevik party.
767. Soviets and Bolsheviks.—In the earlier stages of the revolution great influence was exercised by soviets, councils, formed on a democratic basis to represent workers in factories, peasants and soldiers, against the traditional leaders of the old régime. The soviets were features of a world-wide popular movement, which found their counterpart in the shop-councils of England and of the United States. The close of the war left the future of this movement still in doubt, but it appeared to offer a wholesome and welcome change in industrial relations, provided the workers were willing to accept responsibilities corresponding to the powers that they claimed. It is important to an understanding of the Russian revolution to realize that the democratic features of the soviet system were soon abandoned. The Bolsheviks counted less than a million in a population of 120 million; they numbered certainly less than 2 per cent of the adult population. By their boldness and vigor they dominated the situation, and while they maintained the pretence of deferring to the popular will they acted as tyranically and unscrupulously as the autocracy which had preceded them.
768. Difficulties of the Bolsheviks.—The Bolsheviks accepted as gospel the economic doctrines of Karl Marx, the founder of modern socialism, and many enthusiasts for social experiments (“parlor-Bolsheviks”) have expressed regret that they did not have a better field in which to try out these doctrines. Russia was already war-worn to desperation when the revolution took place. Fighting continued, not alone on the external front but now also in civil conflicts which ravaged the face of the country. The states of the Entente found not merely that they had lost an ally, but also that a new enemy to them had arisen, preaching doctrines subversive of the established order and threatening to undermine their power when the struggle with Germany was at its height. They stimulated in Russia opposition to the rule of the Bolsheviks, and sought so far as they were able to seal Bolshevik Russia in isolation lest it profit by the exchange of goods, and spread its doctrines.
769. Failure of Bolshevist communism.—Under the conditions Bolshevism was a disastrous failure. Curiously enough it showed its greatest efficiency in the field of military affairs. In its own particular department, the production and distribution of economic goods, it brought Russia to destitution. Fixed capital inherited from the old order wore out and was not replaced. Railroads and factories ceased to function properly, not only because of depreciation of equipment but also because of a decline in the efficiency of laborers. The yield of agriculture declined so far that a large part of the population was threatened with the starvation that visited whole provinces. Pretensions to forms of social service which other governments did not render were too often found on critical examination to be mere shams; they certainly counted for nothing over against the gross neglect to provide for the elementary needs of the people.
770. Prospects of Russia.—Years after it had begun the Russian revolution was still in process of development, and promised to disturb the life of the people for years to come. By 1921 communism was a recognized failure, but the lines that would be followed in the re-establishment of society on the basis of private property defied prediction. Of this we may be sure, that for decades, perhaps for a generation following the war, Russia will count for little in the history of commerce. Little by little its economic structure will be re-organized. The leaders in the process will be private individuals from other countries, including probably a large proportion of Germans. The process will be slow because it will be retarded by political instability. Russia can hardly be divided into parts; Russia can hardly be governed as a whole. Economic recovery will be a tedious and painful process because it must wait upon the political education of a people who in 1914 had made but the barest beginnings in national self-government.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Territorial losses of Germany in the peace settlement. [Haskins in What really happened, etc., chap. 3; Bowman, chap. 10.]
2. Effect of the blockade on Germany. [A. E. Taylor in American World’s Work, Oct., 1919, 38: 590-600; W. J. Ashley in Quart. Rev., Oct., 1915, 224: 444 ff.]
3. German war finance. [W. S. Ford in Fortnightly Rev., Apr., 1919, 111: 616-624.]
4. The new government in Germany. [W. J. Shepard in Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev., Aug., 1919, 13: 361-378.]