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Counterrevolution

Counterrevolution

A counterrevolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part. Monarchists and supporters of the Ancien Régime following the French Revolution were counterrevolutionaries, and so were the monarchies that put down the various Revolutions of 1848. In France before World War I, people who "opposed democratic ideas, parliamentary government, trade-unions, or socialism" were often considered counterrevolutionary by their opponents. The White Army and its supporters who tried to defeat the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution, as well as the German Freikorps who crushed the German revolution of 1919, were also counterrevolutionaries. More recently, the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion into Cuba was conducted by counterrevolutionaries who hoped to overthrow the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro. In the 1980s, the United States sponsored Contra-Revolución rebels fighting to overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua. In fact, the Contras received their name precisely because they were counterrevolutionaries. Some counterrevolutionaries are former revolutionaries who supported the initial overthrow of the former regime, but came to differ with those who ultimately came to power after the revolution. For example, some of the Contras originally fought with the Sandinistas to overthrow Anastasio Somoza, and some of those who oppose Castro also opposed Batista. The word is often used interchangeably with reactionary; however, some reactionaries (like the Nazis and Italian fascists) used the term counterrevolutionary to describe their opponents - even if those opponents were advocates of a Marxist revolution. Similarly, the clerics who took power following the Iranian Revolution would describe all those who opposed them as counterrevolutionary, even though some were Communists. The term, therefore, should be understood in a relative sense politically, rather than as an absolute concept.

References

(1) Liberalism and the Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France (1815-1870), Prof. J. Salwyn Schapiro, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., NY, l949. pg 364. Category:Politics Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Revolutions ja:反革命

Revolution

:This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. For other meanings of the word, see revolution (disambiguation). A revolution is a relatively sudden, and absolutely drastic change (a "complete turn-around"). This may be a change in the social or political institutions over a relatively short period of time, or a major change in its culture or economy. Some revolutions are led by the majority of the populace of a nation, others by a small band of revolutionaries. Compare rebellion.

Social and political revolutions

Political revolutions are often characterised by violence, and vast changes in power structures that can often result in further, institutionalised, violence, as in the Russian and French revolutions (with the "Purges" and "the Terror", respectively). A political revolution is the forcible replacement of one set of rulers with another (as happened in France and Russia), while a social revolution is the fundamental change in the social structure of a society, such as the Protestant Reformation or the Renaissance.However, blurring the line between these two categories, most political revolutions wish to carry out social revolutions, and they have basic philosophical or social underpinnings which drive them. The most common revolutions with such underpinnings in the modern world have been liberal revolutions and communist revolutions. In contrast, a coup d'état often seeks to change nothing more than the current ruler. Some political philosophers regard revolutions as the means of achieving their goals. Most anarchists advocate social revolution as the means of breaking down the structures of government and replacing them with non-hierarchal institutions. With Marxist communists, there is a split between those who supported the Soviet Union and other so-called 'communist states' and those who were/are critical of those states (some even rejecting them as non-communist, see state capitalism), for example trotskyists. Social and political revolutions are often "institutionalized" when the ideas, slogans, and personalities of the revolution continue to play a prominent role in a country's political culture, long after the revolution's end. As mentioned, communist nations regularly institutionalize their revolutions to legitimize the actions of their governments. Some non-communist nations, like the United States, France, or Mexico also have institutionalized revolutions, and continue to celebrate the memory of their revolutionary past through holidays, artwork, songs, and other venues.

Ancient revolutions

- Fall of the Qin Dynasty in China, 206 BCE
- Great Jewish Revolt (66-70) and Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135) against the Roman Empire.
- Popular revolt in late medieval Europe 14th - early 16th century, a series of attempted revolutions against the nobility

Liberal revolutions

(known to Marxists as bourgeois revolutions) :Some of these are Atlantic Revolutions.
- English Revolution – (1642-1653) – Commenced as a civil war between Parliament and King, culminating in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican Protectorate.
- Glorious Revolution – (England in (1688) – Overthrow of King James II and establishment of a Whig-dominated Protestant constitutional monarchy.
- American Revolution – (1774-1783) – Established independence of the 13 colonies from Great Britain, creating the republic of the United States of America
- French Revolution – (1789) – Regarded as one of the most influential of all Revolutions, frequently associated with the rise of the bourgeoisie and the downfall of the aristocracy.
- Irish Rebellion – (1798) – Failed attempt to overthrow British rule in the country.
- Haitian Revolution – (1804) – Successful slave rebellion led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Established Haiti as the first free, black republic.
- July Revolution (1830)
- Belgian Revolution (1830)
- Rebellions of 1837 – (1837-1838) – Failed republican revolutions against British rule in Canada.
- Revolutions of 1848 – (1848) – Wave of failed liberal and republican revolutions that swept Europe.
- Taiping Rebellion – 1851 Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and Manchu domination.
- Indian rebellion of 1857 Also called the War of Independence of 1857 and popularly known in the West as the Sepoy Mutiny, this rebellion was against British imperialism and marks the end of Mughal rule in India.
- Russian Revolution of 1905 – (1905) – Failed bourgeois-liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II
- Mexican Revolution – (1910) – Overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz, seizure of power by Institutional Revolutionary Party.
- Xinhai Revolution – (1911) – Overthrow of ruling Qing Dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China.
- February Revolution – (1917) – Liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II
- German Revolution – (1918) – Overthrow of the Kaiser by a workers' revolution, establishment of the Weimar Republic.

Socialist and/or Communist revolutions

- The Revolutionnary Commune of Paris – 1871
- Russian Revolution – (1917) – The most famous and influential modern revolution, culminating in the Bolshevik seizure of power and the establishment of the Soviet Union.
- German Revolution – (1919)) – Failed revolution in Germany led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
- Hungarian revolutions – 1919 and 1949
- Mongolia – 1921
- Spanish Revolution – 1936
- North Korea – 1948
- Chinese Revolution – (1949) – Victory of Communist-led peasant rebellion under Chairman Mao over the ruling Nationalist Party, establishment of People's Republic of China.
- Algerian Revolution – (1954 – 1962) – Revolutionary war of independence against French imperialism.
- North Vietnam – period of 1945-1954
- Cuban Revolution – (1959) – Fidel Castro-led rebellion against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista; victory of revolutionary government of Fidel Castro.
- The Congo – 1964 and 1968
- The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, see [http://home.globalfrontiers.com/Zanzibar/zanzibar_revolution.htm]
- Cultural Revolution – (1966-1976) Maoist led turmoil in People's Republic of China.
- South Yemen – 1967
- France, May 1968 – (1968) – Students' and workers' revolt against the Government of Charles de Gaulle.
- Libya – 1969
- Somalia – 1969
- Benin – 1972
- Ethiopia – 1974
- Carnation Revolution – (1974) in Portugal – Left-wing popular overthrow of right-wing dictatorship.
- Guinea-Bissauan Revolution – 1974
- Cambodia – 1975
- South Vietnam – 1975
- Laos – 1975
- Madagascar – 1975
- Cape Verde – 1975
- Mozambique – 1975
- Angola – 1975
- Afghanistan – 1978
- Grenada – 1979
- Nicaraguan Revolution – (1979) – Popular overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship by progressive/Marxist peasant movement.
- Burkina Faso – 1983
- Bolivarian Revolution – (1998) – Venezuela elects populist Hugo Chávez.

Eastern European anti-Communist revolutions

- Hungarian Revolution – (1956) Workers' and peasants' left-wing revolution against the imposed Communist Party-run state dictatorship, suppressed by Soviet forces.
- Singing Revolution – (1988) Bloodless overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Estonia.
- Romanian Revolution – (1989) Violent overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Romania.
- Velvet Revolution – (1989) Bloodless overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Czechoslovakia.

Islamist revolutions

- Iranian Revolution – (1979) – Popular overthrow of US-backed Shah, culminating in an Islamist cleric-led theocracy.
- Taliban – (1996) – Islamist movement in Afghanistan

Color revolutions

Note that some of these (particularly the rose and orange revolutions) only changed one government with another, and did not modify the political or economic systems of their countries. As such, they are purely political revolutions.
- Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003)
- Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004)
- Cedar Revolution in Lebanon (2005)
- Tulip Revolution or Yellow Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (2005)

Cultural, intellectual, and philosophical revolutions

- Renaissance
- Protestant Reformation
- Scientific revolution
- Sexual revolution
- Quiet Revolution
- Consciousness Revolution

Technological revolutions

(although these revolutions always have an influence on culture)
- Agrarian Revolution
- Digital Revolution
- Neolithic Revolution
- Price revolution
- Industrial Revolution
- Second Industrial Revolution

Monarchist

Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy. Since the mid-19th century, monarchist movements have rarely defended monarchy on the basis of abstract, universal principles applicable to all nations, or even on the grounds that a monarchy would be the best or most practical government for the nation in question. Rather, monarchies have generally been defended on local symbolic grounds that they are a particular nation's link to the past. However, two things should be noted: as monarchists usually come from a pragmatic or empirical tradition (like many conservatives), they often do not have abstract, universal principles in any event (so while such may indeed exist, they are not where most monarchists are likely to be coming from); and, for the same practical reasons, monarchists tend to bring out the argument in terms readily understood by their adversaries or by undecided elements as it would not be practical to "preach to the choir," calling on principles which while possibly true are not accepted as true by their hearers. Hence, post-19th century debates on whether to preserve a monarchy or to adopt a republican form of government have generally been debates over national identity, with the monarch generally serving as a symbol for other issues. For example, in Australia and Ireland, debates over monarchy represent or represented debates whose driving force concerned each nation's relationship with the United Kingdom and the cultural heritage that that represents, as well as other substantive matters. Absolute Monarchism is the preservation of an absolute monarchy where one leader has "absolute" power over his people. No other person has direct authority over government. An example of absolute monarchy is King Louis XIV of France who ruled between 1643 and 1715. In some countries such as France, monarchism and some religion (Catholicism in the case of France) were long entangled ("the alliance of the Throne and the Altar"), and thus republican ideas were often tinged with anti-clericalism. see also: republicanism

Monarchist groups - past and present

worldwide

- Monarchist League (Australia, New Zealand, and most other Commonwealth Realms)
- The Society of United Royalists (see external link below)

others

- Iranian monarchists (Iran)
- Constitutional Monarchy Movement (Iraq)
- Orange Order (Ireland, Australia and Canada)

External links

- [http://www.norepublic.com.au/ Australians for Constitutional Monarchy]
- [http://www.monarchist.org.au/ Australian Monarchist League]
- [http://brighton-in-time.blogspot.com A Blog in Defence Of Traditional Monarchy] (United States)
- [http://www.alleanza-monarchica.com Monarchist Alliance] (Italian)
- [http://www.Monarchisten.org Monarchists in Austria] (2 organizations: "Black-Yellow Forum" and "Black-Yellow Alliance"; black and yellow are the colours of the Habsburg-monarchy in Austria)
- [http://www.monarchy.net monarchy.net] The Monarchist League
- [http://www.royalist.tk The Society of United Royalists] (Worldwide
- [http://www.royaltymonarchy.com Theodore's Royalty and Monarchy Site]
- [http://www.pro-Monarchie.de Tradition und Leben] (= "Tradition and Life", the German monarchists), Germany (website in German and English language)
- [http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/Monarchie_der_Zukunft Yahoo Groups Monarchie der Zukunft] "The Future of the Monarchy" (German) Category:Monarchy

Ancien Régime

Ancien Régime means Old Rule or Old Order in French; in English, the term refers primarily to the social and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. More generally, "Ancien Régime" means any regime which shares the former's defining features: a feudal system under the control of a powerful absolute monarchy supported by the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings and the explicit consent of the established Church, essentially how Europe had been organized since at least the 8th century. The term is from The Age of Enlightenment (first appearing in print in English in 1794) and was originally pejorative in nature. Similar to other sweeping criticisms of the past, such as the consciously disparaging term Dark Ages for what we call the Middle Ages, the concept of Ancien Régime is layered onto the past as an expression of disapproval for the way things were done, and carries an implied approval of a "New Order". No one alive during the Ancien Régime saw themselves as living under an "Old Order". The term was created by Enlightenment era authors to promote a new cause and discredit the existing order, and thus was not, in its origin, a neutral historical descriptor of the past. As defined by the creators of the term, the Ancien Régime developed out of the French monarchy of the Middle Ages, and was swept away centuries later by the French Revolution of 1789. Europe's other anciens régimes had similar origins, but diverse ends: some gradually became constitutional monarchies, others were torn down by wars and revolutions. The analogous term "Antiguo Régimen" is often used in Spanish. However, although Spain was strongly affected by the French Revolution and its aftermath, the break was not as sharp as in France. Power in the Ancien Régime relied on three pillars: the monarchy, the clergy, and the aristocracy. Society was divided into three Estates of the realm: the First Estate, the Roman Catholic clergy; the Second Estate, the nobility; and the Third Estate, the rest of the population.

Revolutions of 1848

The European Revolutions of 1848, in some countries known as the Spring of Nations or the Year of Revolution, were a series of revolutions triggered by the Revolution of 1848 in France, which erupted in Paris in February and soon spread to the rest of Europe. These European Revolutions were the violent consequences of a variety of changes that had been taking place in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. In politics, both bourgeois reformers and radical politicians were seeking change in their nations' governments. In society, technological change was creating new ways of life for the working classes, a popular press extended political awareness, and new values and ideas such as nationalism and socialism began to spring up. The tinder that lit the fire was a series of economic downturns and crop failures that left the peasants and the poor working classes starving. The result was a wave of revolution sweeping across Europe and raising hopes of liberal reform as far away as Brazil, where the rhetoric surrounding the Praieira revolt took many cues from European events, as did its thorough repression. Only the United Kingdom and Russia were missing: Russia had not yet a real bourgeois or proletarian class to initiate a revolution (and, more to the point, it lacked the communication between various groups of people to form such classes or to form committees to organize revolts). An exception to this was the Kingdom of Poland were uprisings took place 1830-31 and 1863-65. In the United Kingdom, the middle classes had been pacified by general enfranchisement in the Reform Act of 1832, with the consequent agitations, violence, and petitions of the Chartist movement that came to a head with the petition to Parliament of 1848. The repeal of the protectionist agricultural tariffs called the "Corn Laws" in 1846 had defused some proletarian fervor. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, revolution was far from the minds of those in Ireland, struggling and dying through the Potato Famine. The United States remained profoundly isolated, increasingly involved in its own expansion and social ills; there, after a summer of European revolutions, the Free Soil Party in the November presidential election sufficed only to divide Democrats and bring the apolitical slave-holding career soldier General Zachary Taylor into office. Although the revolutions were put down quickly, in their span there was horrific violence on all sides. Tens of thousands were tortured and killed. Although the immediate effects of the revolutions were short-term, there were lasting legacies. Alexis de Tocqueville remarked in his Recollections that "society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror."

External links and references

- Breunig, Charles (1977), The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789 - 1850 (ISBN 0393091430)
- Jones, Peter (1981), The 1848 Revolutions (Seminar Studies in History) (ISBN 0582061067)
- Robertson, Priscilla (1952), Revolutions of 1848: A Social History (ISBN 069100756X)
- [http://www.ohiou.edu/~Chastain/ Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions]
- [http://cscwww.cats.ohiou.edu/~Chastain/ac/civillib.htm Civil Liberties gained by the revolutions] Category:1848 Category:Revolutions als:48er Revolution ja:1848年革命

World War I

, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas.]] World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and the War to End All Wars, was a world conflict lasting from 1914 to 1919, with the fighting lasting until 1918. The label World War I or First World War did not come into general use until after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and until then it was known as the Great War or the World War. The war was fought by the Allied Powers on one side, and the Central Powers on the other. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. By its end, the war had become the second bloodiest conflict in recorded history (behind the Taiping Rebellion), though it was surpassed within a generation by World War II. World War I became infamous for trench warfare; this was especially true of the Western Front. The trenches went from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland in Europe. More than 9 million died on the war's battlefields, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat. Among other notable events, the first large-scale bombing from the air was undertaken and some of the century's first large-scale civilian massacres took place, as one of the aspects of modern efficient, non-chivalrous warfare. In the First World War 5% of casualties were civilian. In the Second World War that was 50%. World War I proved to be the decisive break with the old world order, marking the final demise of absolutist monarchy in Europe. Four empires were shattered: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman, and the Russian. Their four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Romanovs, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell during or after the war. The post-war failure to deal effectively with many of the causes and results of the War would lead to the rise of Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and the outbreak of World War II within a generation. The War was the catalyst for the Bolshevik Russian Revolution, which would inspire later Communist revolutions in countries as diverse as China and Cuba, and would lay the basis for the Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the east, the demise of the Ottoman Empire paved the way for a modern democratic successor state, Turkey. In Central Europe, new states such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were born and Poland was re-created. __TOC__

Causes

Poland of Franz Ferdinand. The murder was the igniting torch of World War I.]] :See also: Causes of World War I and Participants in World War I On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. He was part of a group of fifteen assassins, acting with support from the Black Hand, a secret society founded by pan-Serbian nationalists, with links to the Serbian military. The assassination sparked little initial concern in Europe. The Archduke himself was not popular, least of all in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While there were riots in Sarajevo following the Archduke's death, these were largely aimed at the Serbian minority. Though this assassination has been linked as the direct trigger for World War I, the war's real origins lie further back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers after the defeat of France and formation of the German state under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck in 1871.

Reasons & Responsibilities

- See also: Causes of World War I There are many different hypotheses that try to explain who, or what, is to blame for the outbreak of the First World War. Early explanations, prominent in the 1920s and 1930s, stressed the official version of responsibility as described in the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Trianon, that Germany and its allies were solely responsible for the war. However, as time progressed, scholars began looking toward the rigidity of both German and Russian military planning, each of which stressed the importance of striking first and executing plans quickly. The fact that for many decades the British had been accustomed to colonial wars which were won relatively easily against much weaker adversaries certainly helped build enthusiasm for the Great war. In addition, the fact that no major political force opposed the war meant that those who did not agree with it had little organisational power to build opposition, though small protests continued throughout the war. Another cause of the war was the building of alliances and arms races. An example of the latter is the launch of HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary battleship that rendered all previous ships obsolete as "pre-dreadnoughts", in 1906. This weakened Britain's power as a seafaring nation and sparked a major naval arms race in shipbuilding, particularly between Britain and Germany due to new imperialism. Overall, nations in the Triple Entente became fearful of the Triple Alliance and vice versa. The civilian leaders of the European powers also found themselves facing a wave of nationalist zeal that had been building across Europe for years. This left governments with ever fewer options and little room to manoeuvre as the last weeks of July 1914 slipped away. Frantic diplomatic efforts to mediate the Austrian-Serbian quarrel simply became irrelevant, as the automatic military escalations between Germany and Russia reinforced one another. Furthermore, the problem of communications in 1914 should not be underestimated; all nations still used telegraphy and ambassadors as the main form of communication, resulting in delays from hours to even days. There is probably no single concise or conclusive assessment of the exact cause of the First World War.

Outbreak of war

ambassadors are depicted in green, the Central Powers in red, and neutral countries in yellow.]] Austria–Hungary was created in the "Ausgleich of 1867" after Austria was defeated by Prussia. As agreed in 1867, the Habsburgs were the Emperors of the Austrian Empire. With the formation of the Dual Monarchy, Franz Josef became leader of a nation with sixteen ethnic groups and five major religions speaking no fewer than nine languages. In large measure because of the vast disparities that existed within the Empire, Austrians and Hungarians always viewed growing Slavic nationalism with deep suspicion and concern. Thus the Austro-Hungarian government grew worried with the near-doubling in size of neighbouring Serbia's territory as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Serbia, for its part, made no qualms about the fact that it viewed all of Southern Austria–Hungary as part of a future Great South Slavic Union. This view had also garnered considerable support in Russia. Many in the Austrian leadership, not least Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph, and Conrad von Hötzendorf, worried that Serbian nationalist agitation in the southern provinces of the Empire would lead to further unrest among the Austro-Hungarian Empire's other disparate ethnic groups. The Austro-Hungarian government worried that a nationalist Russia would back Serbia to annex Slavic areas of Austria–Hungary. The feeling was that it was better to destroy Serbia before they were given the opportunity to launch a campaign. After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip and nearly a month of debate the government of Austria–Hungary sent a 10-point ultimatum to Serbia (July 23, 1914) — the so called July Ultimatum — to be unconditionally accepted within 48 hours. The ultimatum was the first of a series of diplomatic events known as the July Crisis which set off a chain reaction and a general war in Europe. The Serbian government agreed to all but one of the demands in the ultimatum, noting that participation in its judicial proceedings by a foreign power would violate its constitution. Austria–Hungary nonetheless broke off diplomatic relations (July 25) and declared war (July 28) through a telegram sent to the Serbian government. The Russian government, which had pledged in 1909 to uphold Serbian independence in return for Serbia's acceptance of the Bosnia annexation, mobilised its military reserves on 30 July following a breakdown in crucial telegram communications between Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas II (the famous "Willy and Nicky" correspondence), who was under pressure by his military staff to prepare for war. Germany demanded (31 July) that Russia stand down its forces, but the Russian government persisted, as demobilization would have made it impossible to re-activate its military schedule in the short term. Germany declared war against Russia on August 1 and, two days later, against the latter's ally France. The outbreak of the conflict is often attributed to the alliances established over the previous decades — Germany-Austria-Italy vs France-Russia; Britain and Serbia being aligned with the latter. In fact, none of the alliances were activated in the initial outbreak, though Russian general mobilization and Germany's declaration of war against France were motivated by fear of the opposing alliance being brought into play. Britain declared war against Germany on August 4. This was ostensibly provoked by Germany's invasion of Belgium on August 4 1914, whose independence Britain had guaranteed to uphold in the Treaty of London of 1839, and which stood astride the planned German route for invasion of Russia's ally France. Unofficially, it was already generally accepted in government that Britain could not remain neutral, since without the co-operation of France and Russia its colonies in Africa and India would be under threat, while German occupation of the French Atlantic ports would be an even larger threat to British trade as a whole.

The spread of war

;1914
- July 23: Austria-Hungary ultimatum to Serbia.
- July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
- July 31: Russia begins mobilization.
- August 1: Germany declares war on Russia.
- August 2: German troops occupy Luxembourg.
- August 3: Germany declares war on France.
- August 4: Germany invades neutral Belgium; the United Kingdom declares war on Germany in response.
- August 6: Montenegro sides with its traditional ally, Serbia, and declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 10: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
- August 12: The United Kingdom and France declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 23: Japan declares war on Germany.
- September: Unity Pact signed by France, Britain, and Russia.
- October 9: Belgium falls to German troops at the Siege of Antwerp.
- October 29: The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
- November 2: Russia declares war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- November 5: France and United Kingdom declare war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- December 25: Christmas Truce in the Trenches. ;1915
- April 25: Gallipoli campaign commences. Turks defeat Allies crushingly.
- April 26: Italy secretly signs the London Pact with the Triple Entente.
- May 23: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- October 14: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia and enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. ;1916
- March 9: Germany declares war on Portugal (see Portugal in the Great War).
- August 27: Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 28: Italy declares war on Germany. ;1917
- January 16: Germany sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing an alliance against the United States.
- April 6: The United States declares war on Germany.
- June 27: Greece enters the war on the side of the Entente.
- July 6: Arab Revolt troops under Lawrence Of Arabia capture Aqaba, a main sea port for the Ottoman Empire.
- August 14: The Republic of China declares war on Germany.
- October 26: Brazil declares war on Germany.
- November 7: The October Revolution takes place in Russia.
- December 7: United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. ;1918
- January 8: President Woodrow Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations.
- 3 March: Russia and the Central Powers sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking Russia's exit from World War I.
- October 30: Mudros/Turkish Armistice signed opening Turkish territory to Entente military operations.
- November 11: Armistice signed, end of World War I. ;1919
- 28 June: Treaty of Versailles, official end to World War I between the Entente and Germany. ;1920
- 4 June: Treaty of Trianon, partition of Austro-Hungarian Empire's Kingdom of Hungary. ;1923
- 24 July: Treaty of Lausanne, peace made with Turkey.
- 29 October: Turkey changes its government to republic.

Opening battles

republic Some of the very first actions of the war occurred far from Europe, in Africa and in the Pacific Ocean. On August 8 1914 a combined French and British Empire force invaded the German protectorate of Togoland. On August 10 German forces based in South-West Africa attacked South Africa. New Zealand occupied German Samoa (30 August 1914) and on September 11 the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of Neu Pommern, which formed part of German New Guinea. Within a few months the Entente forces had accepted the surrender of or driven out German forces in the Pacific. Sporadic and fierce fighting continued in Africa for the remainder of the war. In Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered from miscommunication regarding each army's intentions. Germany had originally guaranteed to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but the interpretations of this idea differed. Austro-Hungarian leaders thought Germany would cover her northern flank against Russia, but Germany had planned for Austria-Hungary to focus the majority of its troops on Russia while Germany dealt with France on the Western Front. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian army to split its troop concentrations from the south in order to meet the Russians in the north. The Serb army, coming up from the south of the country, met the Austrian army at the Battle of Cer on 12 August 1914. The Serbians occupied defensive positions against the Austrians. The first attack came on August 16th, between parts of the 21st Austro–Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting the battle ebbed and flowed, until Stepa Stepanovic rallied the Serbian line. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties as against 16,000 Serbian. This marked the first major Allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia, and it became increasingly likely that Germany would have to maintain forces on two fronts. Germany's plan (named the Schlieffen plan) to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance involved delivering a knock-out blow to the French and then turning to deal with the more slowly mobilized Russian army. Rather than invading eastern France directly, German planners deemed it prudent to attack France from the north. To do so, the German army had to march through Belgium. Germany demanded free passage from the Belgian government, promising to treat Belgium as Germany's firm ally if the Belgians agreed. When Belgium refused, Germany invaded and began marching through Belgium anyway, after first invading and securing Luxembourg. It soon encountered resistance before the forts of the Belgian city of Liège, although the army as a whole continued to make rapid progress into France. Britain sent an army to France (the British Expeditionary Force, or BEF), which advanced into Belgium. Initially the Germans had great successes in the Battle of the Frontiers (14–24 August 1914). However, the delays brought about by the resistance of the Belgian, French and British forces; the unexpectedly rapid mobilization of the Russians; and the overly-ambitious objectives upset the German plans. Russia attacked in East Prussia, diverting German forces intended for the Western Front. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September). This diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from railheads, not allowed for by the German General Staff, and allowed French and British forces to finally halt the German advance on Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) as the Entente forced the Central Powers into fighting a war on two fronts. The German army had fought its way into a good defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself in the months of August and September. Yet staff incompetence and leadership timidity, as Ludendorff had needlessly transferred troops from the right to protect Sedan, cost Germany the chance for an early knockout.

Early stages: from romanticism to the trenches

Sedan, 1917]] The perception of war in 1914 was romanticized by many people, and its declaration was met with great enthusiasm by these people. The common view was that it would be a short war of manoeuvre with a few sharp actions (to "teach the enemy a lesson") and would end with a victorious entry into the enemy capital, then home for a victory parade or two and back to "normal" life. However, many people regarded the coming war with great pessimism and worry. Many military figures, such as Lord Kitchener and Erich Ludendorff, predicted the war would be a long one. Other political leaders, such as Bethmann Hollweg in Germany, were concerned by the potential social consequences of a war. International bond and financial markets entered severe crises in late July and early August reflecting worry about the financial consequences of war. The perceived excitement of war captured the imagination of many in the warring nations. Spurred on by propaganda and nationalist fervor, many eagerly joined the ranks in search of adventure. Few were prepared for what they actually encountered at the front. See also: Recruitment to the British Army during WW I

Trench warfare begins

:Main article: Western Front (World War I) Advances in military technology meant that defensive firepower out-weighed offensive capabilities, making the war particularly murderous, as tactics had failed to keep up. Barbed wire was a significant hindrance to massed infantry advances; artillery, now vastly more lethal than in the 1870s, coupled with machineguns, made crossing open ground a nightmarish prospect. General Staffs of European armies had uniformly ignored the lessons of the U.S. Civil War and were often indifferent to massive loss of life (General Haig's diaries are particularly striking in this respect). After their initial success on the Marne, Entente and German forces began a series of outflanking manoeuvres to try to force the other to retreat, in the so-called Race to the Sea. Britain and France soon found themselves facing entrenched German positions from Lorraine to Belgium's Flemish coast. Britain and France sought to take the offensive while Germany defended occupied territories. One consequence was that German trenches were much better constructed than those of their enemy: Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be 'temporary' before their forces broke through German defences. Some hoped to break the stalemate by utilizing science and technology. In April 1915, the Germans used mustard gas for the first time, opening a four mile wide hole in the Allied lines when French colonial troops retreated before it. This breach was closed by Canadian soldiers at Ypres, earning German respect. Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next four years, though protracted German action at Verdun throughout 1916, and the Entente's failure at the Somme in the summer of 1916 brought the French army to the brink of collapse. Futile attempts at more frontal assaults, at terrible cost to the French poilu (infantry), led to mutinies which threatened the integrity of the front line after the Nivelle Offensive in spring of 1917. News of the Russian Revolution gave a new incentive to socialist sentiments. Red flags were hoisted and the Internationale was sung on several occasions. At the height of the mutiny, 30,000 to 40,000 French soldiers participated. Throughout 1915-17 the British Empire and France suffered many more casualties than Germany, but both sides lost millions of soldiers to injury and disease. Around 800,000 soldiers from the British Empire were on the Western Front at any one time, 1,000 battalions each occupying a sector of the line from Belgium to the Arne and operating a month-long four stage system, unless an offensive was underway. The front contained over 6,000 miles of trenches. Each battalion held its sector for around a week before moving back to support lines and then the reserve lines before a week out-of-line, often in the Poperinge or Amiens areas.

Southern theatres

Entry of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October–November 1914, due to the secret Turko-German Alliance signed on August 2, 1914, threatening Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India and the East via the Suez canal. British Empire action opened another front in the South with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns, though initially the Turks were successful in repelling enemy incursion. In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the disastrous Siege of Kut (1915–16), British Empire forces reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917. Further to the west in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, initial British failures were overcome with Jerusalem being captured in December 1917 and the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under Edmund Allenby going on to break the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Megiddo (September 1918). Russian armies generally had the best of it in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the Turkish armed forces, was a very ambitious man, with a dream to conquer central Asia. He was not a practical soldier. He launched an offensive with 100,000 troops against the Russians in the Caucasus in December of 1914. Insisting on a frontal attack against Russian positions in the mountains in the heart of winter, Enver lost 86% of his force. A new Russian commander on the front in the fall of 1915, Grand Duke Nicholas, brought new vigour. A major offensive in 1916 drove the Turks out of much of present-day Armenia, and tragically provided a context for the deportation and genocide against the Armenian population in eastern Armenia. With control of part of the southern Black Sea coast, Nicholas pushed forward the construction of railway lines to bring up supplies. He was ready for an offensive in the spring of 1917. If it had gone ahead, there was a very good chance that Turkey would have been knocked out of the war in the summer of 1917. But, because of the Russian Revolution, Grand Duke Nicholas was recalled and the Russian armies soon fell apart.

Italian participation

:Main article: Italian Campaign (WWI) Italy had been allied to the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since 1882, but had its own designs against Austrian territory in the Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia, and a secret 1902 understanding with France effectively nullifying its alliance commitments. Italy refused to join Germany and Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the war, because the alliance was defensive, while Austria declared war on Serbia. The Austrian government started negotiations to obtain Italian neutrality in exchange for French territories (Tunisia), but Italy joined the Entente by signing the London Pact in April and declaring war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915; it declared war against Germany fifteen months later. In general, the Italians enjoyed numerical superiority, but were poorly equipped; instead, the Austro-Hungarian defence took advantage of the elevation of their bases in the mostly mountainous terrain, which was anything but suitable for military offensives. For the most part the front remained unchanged during the war, while Austrian Kaiserschützen and Standschützen and Italian Alpini fought bitter close combat battles during summer and tried to survive during winter in the high mountains. Beginning in 1915, the Italians mounted 17 major offensives on the Isonzo front (the part of the border nearest Trieste), all repelled by the Austro-Hungarians, who had the higher ground. The Austro-Hungarians counter-attacked from the Altopiano of Asiago towards Verona and Padua in the spring of 1916 (Strafexpedition), but they also made little progress. In the summer, the Italians took back the initiative, capturing the town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained practically stable for over one year, despite several Italian offensives, again all on the Isonzo front. In the fall of 1917, thanks to the improving situation on the Eastern front, the Austrians received large reinforcements, including German assault troops. On October 26, they launched a crushing offensive that resulted in the victory of Caporetto: the Italian army was routed, but after retreating more than 100km, it was able to reorganize and hold at the Battle of the Piave River. In 1918 the Austrians repeatedly failed to break the Italian line, and, decisively defeated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, surrendered to the Entente powers in November. Throughout the war Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf had a deep hatred for the Italians because he had always perceived them to be the greatest threat to his state. Their betrayal in 1915 enraged him even further. His hatred for Italy blinded him in many ways, and he made many foolish tactical and strategic errors during the campaigns in Italy.

The War in the Balkans

After repelling three Austrian invasions in August-December 1914, Serbia fell to combined German, Austrian and Bulgarian invasion in October 1915. The Serbian army retreated into Albania and Greece. In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and to pressure the Greek government into war against the Central Powers. Unfortunately for the Allies, the pro-allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos fell before the allied expeditionary force even arrived, and the pro-German king, Constantine, prevented official Greek entry into the war for two years, until 1917. Meanwhile, the Salonica Front proved entirely immobile, so that it was joked that Salonica was the largest German prisoner of war camp. Only at the very end of the war, after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been removed and the front had to be held by the Bulgarians alone, were the Entente powers able to make a breakthrough, leading to Bulgaria's signing an armistice on September 29, 1918.

The Eastern Front

1918 :Main article: Eastern Front (World War I) While the Western Front had reached stalemate in the trenches, the war continued in the east. The Russian initial plans for war had called for simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia. Although Russia's initial advance into Galicia was largely successful, they were driven back from East Prussia by the victories of the German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia's less-developed economic and military organization soon proved unequal to the combined might of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. In the spring of 1915 the Russians were driven back in Galicia, and in May the Central Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland's southern fringes, capturing Warsaw on August 5 and forcing the Russians to withdraw from all of Poland, known as the "Great Retreat".

The Russian Revolution

Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's conduct of the war grew despite the success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern Galicia against the Austrians, when Russian success was undermined by the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces in support of the victorious sector commander. Allied fortunes revived only temporarily with Romania's entry into the war on August 27: German forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in Transylvania, and Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on December 6. Meanwhile, internal unrest grew in Russia, as the Tsar remained out of touch at the front, while Empress Alexandra's increasingly incompetent rule drew protests from all segments of Russian political life, resulting in the murder of Alexandra's favourite Rasputin by conservative noblemen at the end of 1916. conservative] In March 1917, demonstrations in St. Petersburg culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak centrist Provisional Government, which shared power with the socialists of the Petrograd Soviet. This division of power led to confusion and chaos, both on the front and at home, and the army became progressively less able to effectively resist Germany. Meanwhile, the war, and the government, became more and more unpopular, and the discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, who were then able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused to agree to the harsh German terms, but when Germany resumed the war and marched with impunity across Ukraine, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories including Finland, the Baltic provinces, Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. After the Russians initially dropped out of the war, Entente led a small-scale invasion of Russia. The invasion was made with intent to punish the Russians for dropping out of World War I and to support the Tsarists in the Russian Revolution. Troops landed in Archangel and in Vladivostok. The Entente forces were initially told they were invading to defend supplies from German troops. In reality, they were defending them from communist Russians. A memorial commemorating the event is located in White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. The force also included a number of Canadians who were based in Vladivostok. The Canadian force contained an artillery unit, but they saw minimal combat.

The Last Half

Troy, Michigan Events of 1917 would prove decisive in ending the war, although their effects would not fully be felt until 1918. The Entente's naval blockade of Germany began to have serious impact on morale and productivity on the German home-front. In response, in February 1917, the German General Staff (OHL) were able to convince Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to declare unrestricted submarine warfare, with the goal of starving Britain out of the war. Tonnage sunk rose above 500,000 tons per month from February until July, peaking at 860,000 tonnes in April. After July, the newly introduced convoy system was extremely effective in neutralizing the U-boat threat. Britain was safe from the threat of starvation. The decisive victory of Germany at the Battle of Caporetto led to the Entente decision at the Rapallo Conference to form the Supreme Allied Council at Versailles to co-ordinate plans and action. Previously British Empire and French armies had operated under separate command systems. In December, the Central Powers signed an Armistice with Russia, thereby releasing troops from the eastern front for use in the west. Ironically, German troop transfers could have been greater if their territorial acquisitions had not been so dramatic. With both German reinforcements and new American troops pouring into the Western Front, the final outcome of the war was to be decided in that front. The Central Powers knew that they could not win a protracted war now that American forces were certain to be arriving in increasing numbers, but held high hopes for a rapid offensive in the West, using their reinforced troops and new infantry tactics. Furthermore, rulers of both the Central Powers and the Entente became more fearful of the threat first raised by Ivan Bloch in 1899, that protracted industrialized war threatened social collapse and revolution throughout Europe. Both sides urgently sought a decisive, rapid victory on the Western Front as they were both fearful of collapse or stalemate.

Entry of the United States

revolution A long stretch of American isolationism (the Monroe Doctrine) left the United States reluctant to involve itself with what was popularly conceived as a European dispute. Early in 1917 Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This, combined with public indignation over the Zimmermann telegram, led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. President Woodrow Wilson requested that the U.S. Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917 (see: Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany on Wikisource). The Senate approved the war resolution 82-6, the House with 373-50. Wilson hoped a separate peace could be achieved with Austria-Hungary; however, when it kept its loyalty to Germany, the US declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. Although the American contribution to the war was important, particularly in terms of the threat posed by increased US presence in Europe, the United States was never formally a member of the Entente, but an "Associated Power". Significant numbers of American troops only arrived in Europe in the summer of 1918. Still, the United States had been in a state of full miltitary-related production, aiding the Entente for quite some time. This was another reason for the decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, as America's declaration of war would only change circumstances once troops began to arrive in Europe in the distant future. However, the United States Army and the National Guard had mobilized in 1916 to pursue the Mexican "bandit" Pancho Villa, aiding the speed of wartime mobilization after April, 6, 1917. The German High Command saw the episode as reconfirming evidence of American military incompetence. The United States Navy was able to send a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, a number of destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and several divisions of submarines to the Azores and Bantry Bay, Ireland to help guard convoys. However, it would be some time before the United States forces would be able to contribute significant manpower to the Western and Italian fronts. The British and French insisted that the United States emphasize sending infantry to reinforce the line. Throughout the war, the American forces were short of their own artillery, aviation, and engineering units. However, General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force commander, resisted breaking up American units and using them as reinforcements for British Empire and French units, as suggested by the Allies. Pershing also maintained the use of frontal assaults, which had been discarded by that time by British Empire and French commanders. As a result the American Expeditionary Force suffered a very high rate of casualties in its operations in the summer and fall of 1918.

German Spring Offensive of 1918

American Expeditionary Force] Ludendorff made plans for a 1918 general offensive along the Western Front, codenamed Operation Michael. The Spring Offensive sought to divide the British Empire and French armies in a series of feints and advances. The German leadership hoped to strike a decisive blow before the United States forces could be deployed. Before the offensives even began, Ludendorff may have made the mistake of leaving the elite Eighth Army in Russia and sending over only a small portion of the forces from the east to aid the offensive in the west. Operation Michael opened on 21 March, 1918 with an attack against British Empire forces, towards the rail junction at Amiens. It was Ludendorff's intention to split the British Empire and French armies at this point. German forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 km. For the first time since 1914, manoeuvre had returned to the battlefield. British and French trenches were defeated using novel infiltration tactics. To this time, attacks had been characterized by long artillery bombardments and continuous-front mass assaults. However, in the Spring Offensive the German Army used artillery briefly and infiltrated small groups of infantry at weak points, attacking command and logistics areas and surrounding points of serious resistance. These isolated positions were then destroyed by more heavily armed infantry. German success relied greatly on this tactic. The front line had now moved to within 120 kilometres of Paris. Three super-heavy Krupp railway guns advanced to fire 183 shells on Paris, causing many Parisians to flee the city. The initial stages of the offensive were so successful that on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. From left: Zinoviev, Bukharin, Trotsky, Lenin, Radek ]] A Bolshevik ("Большеви́к", derived from the Russian word loosely translated as "majority") was a member of the Marxist Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party's Bolshevik faction. The other faction of the RSDLP was known as the Mensheviks, derived from "minority". The split into two factions occurred at the Second Party Congress in 1903. After the split, the Bolshevik party was designated as RSDLP(b) (Russian: РСДРП(б)), where "b" stands for "Bolsheviks". Bolsheviks had an extreme socialist and internationalist outlook, were opponents of the Russian traditional statehood and the Russian Orthodox Church. Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin seized power in Russia in 1917, an event known as the October Revolution.
Shortly after seizing power, the party changed their name to the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1918 and were generally known as the Communist Party after that point. However, it was not until 1952 that the party formally dropped the word "Bolshevik" from its name. (See Congress of the CPSU article for the timeline of name changes.) The word "Bolshevik" is sometimes used as a synonym of Communist. It was often used by right-wingers outside the Soviet Union as a derogatory term for left-wingers, not all of whom were necessarily Communists. The Bolshevik political platform has often been referred to as Bolshevism. Leon Trotsky frequently used the terms "Bolshevism" and "Bolshevist" after his exile from the Soviet Union to differentiate between what he saw as true Leninism and what Stalin was fashioning the party and state into, respectively.

Origins

Stalin At the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, held in Brussels and London in August 1903, Lenin advocated limiting party membership to a small core of professional revolutionaries, leaving sympathizers outside the party, and instituting a system of centralized control known as the democratic centralist model. Julius Martov, until then a close friend and colleague of Lenin's, agreed with him that the core of the party should consist of professional revolutionaries, but argued that party membership should be open to sympathizers, revolutionary workers and other fellow travellers. The two had disagreed on the issue as early as April-May 1903, but it wasn't until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split the party . Although at first the disagreement appeared to be minor and inspired by personal conflicts, i.e. Lenin's insistence on dropping less active editorial board members from Iskra or Martov's support for the Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed, the split quickly grew and became irreconcilable. The two factions were originally known as "hard" (Lenin's supporters) and "soft" (Martov's supporters). Soon, however, the terminology changed to "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks", from the Russian "bolshinstvo" (majority) and "menshenstvo" (minority), based on the fact that Lenin's supporters narrowly defeated Martov's supporters on the question of party membership. Neither Lenin nor Martov had a firm majority throughout the Congress as delegates left or switched sides. At the end, the Congress was evenly split between the two factions. From 1907 on, English language articles sometimes used the term "Maximalist" for "Bolshevik" and "Minimalist" for "Menshevik", which proved confusing since there was also a "Maximalist" faction within the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1904-1906 and then again after 1917. The two factions of the RSDLP attempted to reunify in 1907, and maintained the fiction that they were one party for several more years. The factions permanently broke off relations after the Bolsheviks failed in an attempt to take over the RSDLP in 1912. As a result, they ceased to be a faction in the RSDLP and instead declared themselves an independent party though they retained the name RSDLP (Bolshevik). 1912 The Bolsheviks believed in organizing the party in a strongly centralized hierarchy that sought to overthrow the Tsar and achieve power. Although the Bolsheviks were not completely monolithic, they were characterized by a rigid adherence to the leadership of the central committee, based on the notion of democratic centralism. The Mensheviks favored open party membership and espoused cooperation with the other socialist and some non-socialist groups in Russia. Bolsheviks generally refused to co-operate with liberal or radical parties (which they labeled "bourgeois") or even eventually other socialist organizations, although Lenin sometimes made tactical alliances. Leon Trotsky was initially a Menshevik in 1903 but soon became an independent and was not a member of either faction until 1917. In that year he lined up behind Lenin and became a Bolshevik after the February Revolution, as he came to believe that events were confirming Lenin's analysis. February Revolution, and Kamenev at the 1919 Party Congress.]] The Bolsheviks played a minor role in the 1905 revolution, and were a minority in the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies led by Trotsky. The less significant Moscow soviet, however, was dominated by the Bolsheviks. These soviets became the model for the soviets that were formed in 1917. During the First World War, the Bolsheviks took an internationalist stance that emphasized solidarity between the workers of Russia, Germany, and the rest of the world, and broke with the Second International when its leading parties ended up supporting their own nations in the conflict.

February Revolution

Before the revolution of February, 1917, main Bolsheviks (Zinoviev, Trotsky, Lenin) lived and worked in Western Europe, receiving financial support from the European social democrats. The February 1917 revolution came about when Tsar Nicholas II attempted to dissolve the Duma only to have the body reject the action and declare a provisional government. The Tsar abdicated leaving the provisional government in control. While the Mensheviks and other moderate socialists believed that an industrially backwards country such as Russia could not hope to achieve socialism and that the task of the revolution was therefore to complete the country's transformation to liberal capitalism, the Bolsheviks believed that Russia could be the spark that would lead Europe to a socialist transformation of society and did not attempt to moderate their program. In the winter of 1917, German authorities had helped Bolshevik leaders to move to Russia in sealed trains and offered large financial support, on the premise that strengthening the revolutionary movement would cripple Russia and sabotage the war effort. The Petrograd Bolshevik Party had been under the control of Stalin who supported co-operation with the provisional government. Lenin opposed this line in his April Theses and the Bolsheviks became opponents of the government with slogans of All Power to Soviets and Bread, Peace and Land which attempted to appeal to the urban working class, soldiers, and to Russia's huge peasant population. Some radical Mensheviks, such as Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks at this point. Stalin changed his position and decided to support Lenin's line.

July Days

In early July widespread discontent in Petrograd led to militant demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik leadership opposed this as premature but ended up leading the demonstrations, hoping to prevent any bloodshed. They felt compelled to do this to win the trust of the workers and also in recognition of the fact that many of the Bolshevik rank and file were already organising and supporting the demonstrations. Troops loyal to the Provisional Government suppressed the demonstrations violently. The following crackdown resulted in the Kerensky government ordering the arrest of the Bolshevik leadership on July 19th. Lenin escaped capture, went into hiding, and wrote State and Revolution, which outlined his ideas for a socialist government. The repression against the Bolsheviks ceased when the Kerensky government was threatened by a rebellion led by General Kornilov and offered arms to those who would defend Petrograd against Kornilov. The Bolsheviks enlisted a 25,000 strong militia to defend Petrograd from attack and reached out to Kornilov's troops, urging them not to attack. They stood down and the rebellion fizzled with Kornilov being taken into custody. However, the Bolsheviks did not return their arms and Kerensky succeeded only in strengthening the Bolshevik position. During this period a situation of dual power developed. While the legislature and provisional government were controlled by Kerensky in coalition with the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the workers' and soldiers' soviets were increasingly under the control of the Bolsheviks.

October Revolution

On October 10, the Bolshevik Central Committee established a smaller Politburo to run party affairs due to the increased demands on the party for day-to-day direction. Bubnov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Lenin, Sokolnikov, Stalin and Trotsky were elected to the body which operated for two weeks and dissolved on October 25, 1917, once the Bolsheviks had taken power in the October Revolution. The Central Committee of the Bolsheviks had been debating whether to call for an insurrection. Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Provisional government. Zinoviev and Kamenev were the only members of the Central Committee to disagree. They took the unusual step of making their objections public in the pages of Pravda, an act that very nearly got them expelled from the party for breaching party discipline. When Kerensky moved against the Bolsheviks on October 22 by ordering the arrest of their Military Revolutionary Committee, banning the Bolshevik newspaper and cutting off telephone lines to the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny Institute, Trotsky urged that the Bolsheviks' decision on overthrowing the government be put into action. Lenin concurred and on October 24, orders were issued for the Bolsheviks' Red Guards to occupy key locations in the city and surround the Winter Palace where the Provisional government had its headquarters. The Bolsheviks raised the slogan All power to the soviets meaning that the country should be run by the workers and soldiers councils and not the constituent assembly. On October 26, 1917 the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed power over to a Soviet Council of People's Commissars with Lenin as chairman, Trotsky as commissar of the Red Army and minister of foreign affairs and Bolsheviks taking the other positions of what was the new government of the country. In March 1918, the Seventh Party Congress of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (Bolsheviks) met and, at Lenin's urging, changed the name of the party to the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the name change, however, the party was generally known as the Communist Party with the name Bolshevik referring to the party prior to 1918.

Notes

- See Israel Getzler. Martov: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge University Press, 2003 (first edition 1967), ISBN 0521526027 p.78

External links

- [http://www.marxists.org/history/archive/bobrovskaya/twenty-years/ Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik], by Cecilia Bobrovskaya
- [http://www.marxist.com/bolshevism/ Bolshevism, the Road to Revolution], by Alan Woods
- [http://libcom.org/library/the-bolsheviks-and-workers-control-solidarity-group The Bolsheviks and Workers Control], by