TOPIC HELP: Russia?

Question

I have to write an essay in a short period of time on Russian Revolution (specifically the february and october revolutions of 1917). I was thinking of having my thesis as "The disastrous aftermath of WWI opened Russia up to the idea of Bolshevism and revolution" I know I need to fix it up, but that's the general idea. Any sincere suggestions would be helpful.

For my three points, I need some help. I have one as the war weakened Russia's army/made susceptible to Bolshevik army, wanted to regain prestige/develop into a leading nation, and I'm not sure of a third point. Again any help would be incredibly helpful. I have no background on any Russian history and I'm finding this very overwhelming. If you don't think 10 pages can be written on how WWI led to Russian Revolution, do you know of two other cases? I could then make WWI just a third of the focus on a much wider topic.

My sincere thanks again, I know I'm asking a lot.

Answer 1

I thought this piece form Wikepedia summed it up pretty well. It could be used as your "third point":

Russian Revolution

Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917

Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's conduct of the war grew, despite the success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern Galicia. The success was undermined by the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces to support the victory. Allied and Russian forces were revived only temporarily with Romania's entry into the war on 27 August. German forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in Transylvania and Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on 6 December. Meanwhile, unrest grew in Russia, as the Tsar remained at the front. Empress Alexandra's increasingly incompetent rule drew protests and resulted in the murder of her favourite, Rasputin, at the end of 1916.

In March 1917, demonstrations in St Petersburg culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak Provisional Government which shared power with the Petrograd Soviet socialists. This arrangement led to confusion and chaos both at the front and at home. The army became increasingly ineffective.

The war and the government became more and more unpopular. Discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin. He promised to pull Russia out of the war and was 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 the German terms, but when Germany resumed the war and marched across Ukraine with impunity, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. It took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories, including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. The manpower required for German occupation of former Russian territory may have contributed to the failure of the Spring Offensive, however, and secured relatively little food or other war materiel.

With the Bolsheviks' accession to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Entente no longer existed. The Allied powers led a small-scale invasion of Russia to stop Germany from exploiting Russian resources and, to a lesser extent, to support the Whites in the Russian Civil War. Allied troops landed in Archangel and in Vladivostok.

Answer 2

I'll just give you some bullet points to give you an idea.

-The war helped the communist agitators in the army because as the Russians lost the soldiers became demotivated and questioned for what and for whom they were giving their lives for

-The soldiers wanted to return home because the peasants were seizing the land and the soldiers, many of them coming from rural areas, wanted to join their fellow peasants.

-A rather minor point but still worth mentioning. The badly doing Russian army damaged the reputation of the Tzar, who was supposed to be the father of all Russian people.

By the way, I don't think "the war weakened the Russian army" is a good point, at any rate the army was always more powerful than the Reds of Trotsky. It had to do with 'people' not with bad quality guns or number of soldiers. Besides, you'll have to investigate how weak the Russian army got AS a result of the war and how their weakness became an advantage for the Bolsheviks, something that can be very tedious. If you had decided to investigate the weak sides of the whites during the civil war that would have been a lot more easier, but the Russian army in general, no, I wouldn't suggest that.