Five days that ended an empire

[TexasTowelie]

IN 1917, Russia was a vast empire covering much of modern-day Poland in the west, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the south, and Kazakhstan and Siberia in the east. It had been ruled for centuries by an autocratic monarchy that gave little space to any democratic institutions. While Europe's other empires had all, to one degree or another, rebalanced the relationship between their monarchies and parliaments, granting greater power to institutions which were at least formally democratic, the Russian Tsar retained the status of "supreme autocrat."

In the space of five days in February 100 years ago, all of this changed. The people of Russia removed the Tsar from power, and replaced his rule with not one, but two democratic institutions. In doing so, they set the stage for a dramatic year of revolution.

This year will be marked by countless conferences, articles, books and reminiscences about what remains one of the biggest sources of inspiration, fear and fascination in history. This article, however, will consider its first, dramatic months. How was it that one of Europe's great ruling powers fell from grace so rapidly that they not merely ended a monarchy, but made it possible to usher in an entirely new system of social life?

1. The Stage

To say that Russia had been staunchly autocratic is not to say it lacked a revolutionary tradition. Throughout the 19th century, different varieties of radicals had tried to drag concessions out of the Tsar. The "Decembrist" movement of 1825 had tried to enforce a democratic constitution. National liberation movements, particularly in Poland, had tried to achieve independence from the empire. Later generations of radical liberals had turned to the peasants, going to the countryside to work and live among them. These "Narodniks" (from narod, meaning "people&quot divided into those who aimed to spread propaganda in the countryside, and those, less patient, who advocated political assassination. The chronicler of the revolution Victor Serge notes that:

between 1872 and 1882 there were six attempted assassinations (three of these successful) against high officials, four against police chiefs, four against Tsar Alexander II, nine executions of informers and twenty-four cases of armed resistance to the police. Thirty-one revolutionaries were hanged or shot.

Read more: https://socialistworker.org/2017/03/09/five-days-that-ended-an-empire