What Side In The Russian Revolution?

Question

What side would my great grandfather be on in the Russian Revolution during 1912??? I know that he was in it but I forgot what side he was on. He was mostly Polish, with some Russian blood in him and was lower upper class. (He was the bottom of the upper class) Would he be a Bolshevik, a Manshevik, a Tsarist, etc.? He ended up getting kicked out of the country for good. Any ideas on what side he would be on judging from his lifestyle and class?

Answer 1

For a start there was no revolution in 1912 - 1905, February 1917 and October 1917 are the Revolutions in Russia.

I think your Grandfather would have been a Polish Nationalist.  Poland was part of the Russian Empire, and the Poles had long wanted their independence.  They took it in 1918.  So it is possible that he didn't so much get expelled from Russia, but he helped take his country out of the Empire.

http://home.golden.net/~medals/1918-1921...

1912 is still not a revolution - your grandfather may have been exiled in 1912  because of his political beliefs or his political activities.

It is also unlikely that your Polish Grandfather was involved in the 1912 massacre, as it happened in SIberia - in the gold mining areas

http://libcom.org/history/1912-lena-mass...

Answer 2

If you do not know, there is no way to tell.  If he left the country shortly after the Revolution, He was most likely a 'white' which means non-red.  He could have been czarist, or he could have been republican.  If he was Polish with "some Russian" blood, he might have been 'Ukrainian' or Ruthenian and fought for the Hetmanate.  If he emigrated later, after Stalin started his purges, he might have been Red, but a Trotskyite and therefore a counter-revolutionary.

The class-thing you describe does not help as many bourgeois-intelligentsia joined the Reds out of geniune socialist zeal which was common among the non-nobility and even in the lower nobility.

Also what do you mean by the revolution.  In 1912 the Czarist government was still in control.  It did not start until WWI was well under way, so 1912 is not a useful clue unless you can describe where he was, what he was doing, etc.

Wish I could offer more.  Good Luck.

Answer 3

Where was his hometown?

I guessing polish.