# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Russia

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​RUSSIA—THE RUSSIAN FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC, formerly one of the most powerful empires of the world, second only in extent to the British empire. It comprehended most of eastern Europe and all northern Asia, and was bounded N. by the Arctic Ocean; W. by Sweden, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic, Prussia, Austria, and Rumania; S. by the Black Sea, Turkey in Asia, Persia, Afghanistan, the Chinese empire; E. by the Pacific and Bering Strait. The total area was 8,647,657 square miles, and the population in excess of 180,000,000.
The largest towns were St. Petersburg (Petrograd), Moscow, Warsaw, Odessa, Lodz, Riga, Kieff, Kharkoff and Tiflis.
European Russia included the Sea of Azof, the Vistula provinces (former Poland), and Finland; Russia proper was subdivided into 50 provinces; Archangel, Astrakhan, Bessarabia, Courland, Don Cossacks, Ekaterinoslaf, Esthonia, Grodno, Kaluga, Kazan, Kharkoff, Kherson, Kieff, Kostroma, Kovno, Kursk, Livonia, Minsk, Mohilev, Moscow, Nijni-Novgorod, Novgorod, Olonetz, Orel, Orenburg, Penza, Perm, Podolia, Poltava, Pskof, Riazan, S. Petersburg, Samara, Saratoff, Simbirsk, Smolensk, Tambof, Taurida, ​Tchernigoff, Tula, Tver, Ufa, Vilna, Vitebsk, Viatka, Vladimir, Volhynia, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl. Poland formed 10 provinces: Kalisz, Kielce, Lomza, Lublin, Piotrkov, Plock, Radom, Siedlce, Suwalki, and Warsaw. Finland, eight provinces: Abo-Bjorneborg, Kuopio, Nyland, St. Michel, Tavastehus, Uleaborg, Vasa, and Viborg. There were also certain popular divisions of Russia, as Great Russia (in the center), Little Russia (in the S. W.), White Russia (in the N. W.). Asiatic Russia was divided into: Northern Caucasia, Transcaucasia, Transcaspia, Kirghiz Steppes, Turkestan, Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, Amur and Maritime provinces. St. Petersburg and Moscow were the capitals of the empire.
In 1920 the greater part of the former Russian empire, including Siberia, was under the rule of the Bolsheviks. A number of states, however, had evolved and were maintaining themselves on the borders of the old empire. Two of these, Finland and Poland, had been formally recognized and were well established as independent governments. Six others, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Esthonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania had received some degree of recognition from the allied countries, while the Ukraine had been recognized by Poland. As to the condition of Daghestan, Kuban and Terek, little definite was known, although in each of these provinces an independent republic had been set up.
General Description.—European Russia consists almost wholly of immense plains, the Valdai Hills, between St. Petersburg and Moscow, averaging 500 feet and never exceeding 1,200 feet above sea-level, forming the only elevated region of the interior and an important watershed. The mountains of Taurida, lining the S. shores of the Crimea, have a height of about 4,000 feet; the Caucasus, running from the Black Sea to the Caspian, reach the height of 18,500 feet; the Urals, stretching from the Caspian to the Arctic Ocean and separating European from Asiatic Russia, have their greatest height below 7,000 feet. Beyond the Urals are the vast Siberian plains. Russia is watered by numerous rivers, some running a course of thousands of miles. The Petchora, the Mezene, Northern Dwina, and Onega are the principal rivers of European Russia which send their waters to the Arctic Ocean; the Neva, Volkhoff, Svir, Narova, Velikaya, Duna, Niemen, and Vistula belong to the Baltic basin; the Black Sea basin comprises the Pruth, Dniester, Dnieper, and the Don; while the Caspian receives besides other rivers the Volga, the largest of all Russian rivers. Altogether Russia and Poland have 49,000 miles of navigable rivers. Asiatic Russia has also a number of very large rivers, as the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena in Siberia, and the Amur toward the Chinese frontier. This complete river system is of incalculable value to Russia, as by its means internal communication is carried on. Canals connect the navigable rivers, so as to form continuous waterways; there being 500 miles of canals and 717 of canalized rivers. River steam navigation has been much developed of recent years. The lakes are also on a gigantic scale. Lake Ladoga, near Petrograd, is the largest in Europe. Other large lakes in Europe are those of Onega, Peipus, and Ilmen. In Asia there is the Sea of Aral larger than any of those mentioned, followed by Baikal, Balkash, and others. The Caspian Sea now also forms almost a Russian lake. From the extent of the plains and steppes, the swamps, moors, desert wastes, and forests of Russia, the scenery as a whole is very monotonous.
Climate and Soil.—As may be expected from its vastness this empire offers soils and climates of almost every variety. Extreme cold in winter and extreme heat in summer are, however, a general characteristic of Russian climates. As regards soil, large sections of Russia are sandy, barren wastes and vast morasses. The most productive portion is that between the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland, and the Volga, on the N. and E.; Prussia, Austria, etc., on the W.; and the Black Sea on the S. It has, generally speaking, a soft black mold of great depth, mostly on a sandy bottom, easily wrought, and very fertile. The more southern portion of Siberia, as far E. as the river Lena, has, for the most part, a fertile soil, and produces, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, nearly all kinds of grain.
Vegetable Products, Agriculture.—Boundless forests exist, the area of the forest land in Europe being 42 per cent. of the total area. The fir, larch, alder, and birch predominate. In the S. forests are less abundant and the tracts around the Black Sea and the Caspian, and the immense steppes of the S. and E., are almost wholly destitute of wood. Most of the forest land before the World War was under government control. Agriculture is the chief pursuit of the bulk of the population. The chief crops are rye, wheat, barley, oats, hemp, flax, and tobacco.
Zoölogy.—Among wild animals may be mentioned the bear, the wolf, wild hog, elk, and various animals which are hunted for their furs. Wild fowl abound, particularly near the mouths of rivers. In the Arctic Ocean vast ​numbers of seals are taken. The rivers of the Caspian, particularly the Ural and Volga, and the Sea of Azof, are celebrated for their sturgeons. In the same quarters are also important salmon fisheries. In the regions bordering on the Arctic Ocean large herds of reindeer are kept; and in the S., among the Tartars of the Crimea and the inhabitants of the Caucasus, the camel is often seen.
Minerals.—Russia is rich in minerals. The precious metals are chiefly obtained in the Ural and Altai regions. In the Ural, iron beds are also rich and numerous, exceeding all others in productiveness. Copper is most abundant in the government of Perm; lead in the Ural and some parts of Poland; saltpeter in Astrakhan. Of the coal mines those of the Don basin are the principal, those of Kielce ranking second; the mines around Moscow come next. About 60,000 tons of manganese ore were annually extracted in the Ural and the Caucasus. The petroleum wells of Baku on the Caspian before the World War sent their products all over Europe.
Manufactures.—Prior to the accession of Peter the Great, Russia had no manufactories; he started them, and under the more or less fostering care of his successors and Russia's protective policy they steadily grew. Manufactures were in a chaotic state under the Soviet Government and no statistics of production were available. It was well known, however, that nearly 75% of the manufacturing establishments had ceased operations. In 1915, the latest date for which statistics were available, there were 14,056 manufacturing establishments, employing 1,600,860 persons.
Commerce.—The bulk of Russia's external trade was carried on through the European frontier and the Baltic and Black Sea ports. The chief exports were grain (about one-half of entire exports), flax, linseed and other oleaginous seeds, timber, hemp, wool, butter and eggs, spirits, bristles, and furs, in the order indicated. The chief imports were cotton, wool, tea, machinery, coal and coke, cotton yarn, metal goods, wine, olive oil, raw silk, herrings, textile goods, fruit, coffee, tobacco. The import trade was heaviest with Germany, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium, in the order named. In the export trade Great Britain took the lead, Holland, France, Germany following. The development of the vast natural resources and trade of Russia is prevented by transport difficulties. The magnificent river and canal system is not available for a good part of the year, and railways are comparatively limited. No statistics of commerce are available later than 1916. The Soviet Government endeavored to bring about commercial relations between it and other European countries, as well as the United States, and proposed such an arrangement with Great Britain in March, 1921. The total lack of raw materials essential to manufacturing prevented the exportation of goods of any appreciable value.
Transportation.—There were in 1920 about 36,000 miles of railway in European Russia, and 10,586 in Asiatic Russia. Practically all lines were under the control of the government. Railway operation had become so thoroughly disorganized as to be almost useless. The Soviet Government gave large concessions for railway construction to syndicates in Norway and the United States, but no active work had been undertaken in relation to these at the end of 1920.
Finances.—The financial system suffered entire collapse during the Soviet rule. Issues of paper money had reached colossal figures and these had become of little value. The ruble depreciated until it became almost without value. As a result of this condition prices of commodities had mounted at a terrific rate. The revenue for 1919 was 48,000,000,000 rubles and the expenditure 230,000,000,000 rubles. The total debt amounted to over 32,300,000,000 rubles. The total estimated cost of the war for Russia is about £5,000,000,000.
Army and Navy.—There were no trustworthy figures of the strength of the Soviet army. By the decree of Feb. 1, 1918, the government established a Workers and Peasants Red Army Volunteers and this was brought under the guidance of regular officers of the old Russian army and assumed a fair state of efficiency. The Bolshevist armies were uniformly successful during the second half of 1919. (See History below.) The full strength of the Bolshevist army was estimated at 600,000 men, with a reserve and other forces amounting to another 700,000. These forces were organized into 13 armies, of which 5 are in the eastern front, chiefly in Siberia, 5 in the southern front, and the remaining 3 on the northern and western fronts. The navy figured little in the operations of the Bolshevist Government. Attempts were made by General Denikin in 1919 to organize the Black Sea Fleet, but this failed. The Baltic Sea Fleet fell completely into the hands of the Bolshevist Government and was used entirely for defensive purposes.
Government.—The so-called Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic is nominally governed by a constitution adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Soviet ​Congress in July, 1918. According to the terms of this constitution Russia is a republic of Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasant delegates, and the central and local authority is vested in these Soviets. Private property in land is abolished, all land being common property of the people. The state owns all factories, mines, railways, and other means of production and transport. The highest authority in the state is the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which consists of representatives of town Soviets, on the basis of one delegate for each 25,000 electors, and a provincial council of Soviets on a basis of one delegate for each 125,000 inhabitants. The Congress elects the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, consisting of not more than 200 members, which constitutes a supreme legislative, administrative, and controlling body of the republic. This executive committee also forms a Council of People's Commissioners, for the general administration of the affairs of the republic, consisting of commissariats of foreign affairs, war, navy, interior, justice, labor, social relief, public instruction, posts and telegraphs, nationalities, finance, transportation and communications, agriculture, commercial industry, food supply, state control, a supreme economic council, and public health. The franchise is nominally enjoyed by all citizens over 18 years of age who earn their livelihood by productive labor and by soldiers, sailors, and the Soviet Army and Navy.
Religion.—The Soviet Government disestablished the church and appropriated all its property. All religions, however, may be freely professed in the empire.
Education.—In December, 1917, the Soviet Government secularized all schools and educational institutions. Several new universities were established under the Bolshevist Government. Elementary education is poorly developed.
People.—The population of Russia up to 1914 was increasing faster than that of any other European nation, Great Britain, perhaps, excepted. As regards language (and so far also race) the peoples of Russia were comprised under the two great divisions of Aryans and Mongolians; the former include Slavonians, Germans, and Greeks, the latter the Finnish and Tartar races. The Slavonians formed about 75,000,000 of the population. The Turco-Tartars counted about 10,000,000. The political divisions of the Russian people comprised numerous grades of nobility, which were partly hereditary and partly acquired by military and civil service, especially the former, military rank being most highly prized in Russia. The clergy, both regular and secular, formed a separate privileged order. Previous to the year 1861 the mass of the people were serfs subject to the proprietors of the soil. The Emperors Alexander and Nicholas took some initial steps toward the emancipation of this class; but a bold and complete scheme of emancipation was begun and carried out by Alexander II. in 1861.
Language.—A number of languages and a vast variety of dialects are spoken, but the Russian is the vernacular of at least four-fifths of the inhabitants, the literary and official languages being specifically the “Great Russian,” or that belonging to Central Russia surrounding Moscow. It has an alphabet of 37 letters, a written and printed character of a peculiar form, and a pronunciation which it is hardly possible for any but natives to master.
History.— The origin of the Russian empire is involved in much obscurity, but it is usually regarded as having been founded by Rurik, a Scandinavian (Varangian), about 862, his dominions and those of his immediate successors comprising Novgorod, Kieff, and the surrounding country. Vladimir the Great (960-1015), the Charlemagne of Russia, introduced Christianity and founded several cities and schools. For more than two centuries Russia continued subject to the Tartars, while on its opposite frontier it was exposed to the attacks of the Poles and Teutonic knights, but in 1481 the Tartars were finally expelled under Ivan the Great (1462-1505). Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) did much to extend and consolidate the Russian territory, and in particular began the conquest of Siberia, which was completed in 1699. In 1613 the house of Romanoff, whence the late Czar Nicholas was descended, was raised to the throne, and from this period the empire gained greater strength and consistency. But Russia's real greatness may be said to date from the accession of Peter the Great in 1689, who first secured for the country the attention of the more civilized nations of Europe. From then on the growth of the empire was continuous. The three partitions of Poland took place under Catherine II. in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Russia acquired nearly two-thirds of this once powerful state. By the peace of Kutchuk-Kainarji in 1774, the Turks gave up Azof, part of the Crimea (the other part was taken possession of in 1783), and Kabardah; and by the peace of Jassy in 1792, Oczakov. The peace of Frederickshaven, 1809, robbed Sweden of the whole of Finland, which now passed to Russia; the peace of Bucharest, 1812, took ​Bessarabia from the Turks; that of Tiflis, 1813, deprived the Persians of parts of the Caucasus; and then the Vienna Congress of 1815 gave the remainder of Poland to Russia. The desire to possess further dominions of the Sultan led to a war against Turkey in 1853, in which England, France, and Sardinia also took part in 1854, and which ended in the peace of Paris, 1856. (See Crimean War.) In 1858 Russia acquired, by agreement with China, the sparsely populated but widely extended district of the Amur. A ukase of 1868 annihilated the last remains of the independence of Poland by incorporating it completely in the czardom. On the other hand, Russian America was sold to the United States in 1867.
In 1877 Russia declared war against Turkey, ostensibly to free the Bulgarians from Turkish misrule. The military operations terminated in the following year in favor of Russia, whose forces reached the gates of Constantinople, where, at San Stefano, on March 3, 1878, a treaty was agreed to whereby Turkey would have been practically expelled from the whole European continent. The treaty was radically revised a few months later at Berlin, largely at the instigation of Great Britain and Germany, with the result that Russia was brought to realize that she could not hope to reach her much-desired outlet to the open sea by way of the Balkan Peninsula with the consent of the other Great Powers. It then became a policy of the Imperial Government to seek this outlet in the Far East.
In May, 1896, a treaty was made with China permitting the construction of a railroad by Russia through Manchuria, and the Liao-tung ports, Talien-wan and Port Arthur were placed at the disposal of the Russian Government for commercial purposes. These privileges Russia sought constantly to enlarge. To what extent these encroachments on Chinese sovereignty might have extended is not a matter of history, for gradually the pretensions of Russia in the Far East clashed with those of Japan, terminating in the Russo-Japanese War, in 1904, with the result that Russian expansion was effectually checked in this direction.
Meanwhile domestic troubles were assuming a share in shaping the destiny of the Empire. The first popular discontent with the autocracy of the Russian Government manifested itself in the early 70's, shaping itself into that revolutionary movement which was generally known under the name of Nihilism. At first this was merely a disorganized protest against the degraded state of the peasantry on the part of young university students and the sons and daughters of the liberal land-owning class. These youthful enthusiasts began establishing informal schools among the villagers, in which nothing more harmful than reading and writing were taught. Much has been said of the liberality of Alexander II., at that time Czar, who had indeed signed the decree liberating the serfs, in 1861, but the fact remains that his counsellors initiated a very severe policy of repression against these harmless educators of the common peasants. Finally, after one of them, a woman, had been disrobed and subjected to degrading punishment by a Russian chief of police, the Nihilists resorted to terrorism—assassination. One after another the higher officials, known to be in sympathy with the policy of suppression, were picked off by the Nihilists, with the result that this underground warfare, the secret police on the one side, the Nihilists on the other, became more and more acute. Finally, on March 13, 1881, the Czar himself was slain by one of the conspirators, who at the same time sacrificed his own life by being blown up with the same bomb that destroyed the autocrat.
So strenuous became the efforts of the secret police after this event that the Nihilists were practically cleaned out of Russia; the majority were killed, hanged or sent to Siberia, while a small minority escaped into exile abroad, mostly to England, Switzerland and Bulgaria. For the following ten years or more there was comparative quiet in Russia. Gradually, however, shortly before the close of the century, the revolutionary movement began again to manifest itself, this time through the more thoroughly organized Social Democrats and Social Revolutionists, who represented ideas more definite than a mere blind protest against the tyranny of the autocracy. The latter represented largely the same elements which had composed the Nihilists; the sons and daughters of the minor nobility and university students. While all were radicals, imbued with the principles of Socialism, they were more directly concerned with the peasantry, whose lot they sought chiefly to improve and whom they hoped to inspire to revolutionary uprisings.
The Social Democrats represented the Marxian Socialists, who believed that the salvation of society lay in the hands of the industrial workers. Many of their leaders were young Jews who had gone abroad, especially to Switzerland and Germany, to acquire the university education which was denied them by the country of their birth. The government's policy of persecution of the Jews, ​resulting in the heavy emigration of these people to the United States, also tended to throw many thousands of them into the ranks of the Social Democrats, which in turn brought on still more severe measures of repression against them from the government.
The weakness of the government, revealed by its inability to cope with the war situation in Manchuria, in 1905, served as the occasion for the first serious outbreak of revolutionary activities in Russia. Thousands of the Russian soldiers who had been taken prisoners by the Japanese, were exposed to the propaganda of the Socialist agitators in the Japanese prison camps, and when they returned to Russia, after the signing of peace, in August, 1905, they lost no time in joining in the demonstrations of the revolutionists.
In the previous January a large delegation of workers had presented itself before the palace of the Czar, in Petrograd, with a peaceful petition for certain reforms. The authorities made the almost fatal mistake of firing on the delegation, numbering some thousands, headed by a priest, Father Gapon, killing and wounding hundreds. This fateful day was ever afterward known as “Red Sunday.” It formed the starting-point of the real Russian revolutionary movement.
In February the Grand Duke Sergius was assassinated. Many smaller assassinations followed. More important still, strikes of the workers were called, and, in spite of severe repressive measures, tended to blend into one great, general strike. Finally the Czar signed a ukase calling into existence a popular assembly, the Duma, with little more than the right to hold debates, however. Still the strike augmented. In Moscow Leon Trotzsky, one of the Social Democrat leaders, organized the first Council, or Soviet, of Workingmen Delegates (see Council of Workingmen and Soldiers), and this body proceeded to initiate an armed uprising.
By this time, Oct. 31, the Government was thoroughly alarmed, and now a decree was passed granting a genuine constitutional government.
Only gradually, however, did the disorders, by this time extending all over the empire, quiet down. The Moscow uprising was terminated only after severe bloody encounters between the police and soldiers and the revolutionists. Finally the elections were held and the Duma assembled in Petrograd. It was allowed to proceed unmolested, until the disorders had more or less ceased, and then, in July, 1906, the Duma was dissolved by an imperial ukase The decree frankly stated that the Duma had attempted to interfere with the fundamental laws of the country, which could only be changed by the will of the Czar, and this could not be tolerated.
Then followed a renewed spurt of activity of the secret revolutionary organizations, and high officials were killed almost daily. A new Duma was called, but the restrictions on suffrage were so arranged that there was little danger of the members again attempting to interfere with the prerogatives of the autocracy. It was a thoroughly subservient body, and so remained until after the outbreak of the World War, in 1914. Meanwhile the war on the revolutionary elements was continued with energy. The discovery that a large number of the chief leaders of the revolutionary organizations were the paid agents of the government, more than the repressive measures, tended to their utter demoralization, and in 1907 reaction was again triumphant in Russia. The leaders who had been compromised had taken refuge abroad, while those who found it possible to remain in Russia turned their attention to the Co-operative Movement, hoping to accomplish by economic action what they could not accomplish by terrorism or political action.
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. It was Russia's policy to oppose and prevent the further expansion of the Austrian Empire at the cost of any of the Southern Slav peoples. Russia, therefore, began an immediate mobilization of her troops, which brought forth a protest from Germany, Austria's ally. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, and the great World War was precipitated. On August 6, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia.
The Russian army had been reorganized on a more efficient basis since the Russo-Japanese War, though perhaps not so extensively as was popularly supposed among the public of the Allied countries. The Russian armies were able to hold their own against the forces of the Central Empires on the Eastern front for two years or more, but at a tremendous cost to the Russian economic structure. Nor would it have been possible for Russia to have accomplished as much as she did had the war not had popular support. Many of the former revolutionary leaders in exile returned to Russia to give their support, though the autocracy was short-sighted enough to have many of them arrested on their arrival.
It was within the inner government circles that the seed of ultimate disintegration germinated. Very soon after the outbreak of the war many of the ​reactionary officials, some of whom were descendants of the Germans, brought to Russia by the Empress Catherine, realized that the defeat of German Imperialism would also be a defeat for Russian autocracy. This group of traitors had the support of the German Czarina. Chief of these “dark forces” was a favorite of the Czarina, a monk by the name of Razputin, who had gained his ascendency over the weak-minded Czar and the Czarina because of his reputed healing powers over the little Czarowitch, who was constitutionally diseased.
Gradually it became generally realized that this inner court circle was working for the defeat of the Russian forces in the field. The Liberal elements in the Duma combined with the radical minority, and began to protest. This bloc gradually gained the support of even the more intelligent reactionaries, including several of the Grand Dukes, who attempted to warn the Czar of the danger from within, though without effect. Late in December, 1916, Razputin was assassinated by a group of those former reactionaries who had now joined the Liberal elements against the dark forces, one of the assassins being the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovitch, and another being A. N. Khvostov, formerly Minister of the Interior. But Razputin's removal was accomplished too late. His intrigues were taken up by Alexander Protopopov, Minister of the Interior, who now set to work determinedly to accomplish the disintegration of the Russian efforts against Germany. This he attempted to do by arousing revolutionary activities among the workers in the war industries, hoping that the blame would be placed on the radical elements. The latter, however, raised a protest, and were easily able to prove their innocence. Protopopov worked to create disorders which would have to be suppressed by the troops, creating a domestic situation which could be the pretext for a separate peace with Germany. One of his chief tactics to bring about the disorders was to withhold shipments of food from the capital.
In the first week of March, 1917, he had so far succeeded that the people began demonstrations in the streets against the government. The police and the troops were ordered to fire on the demonstrators. The troops, however, refused to do so, and then openly joined the uprising. Thus Protopopov's plan was completely upset. The Duma thereupon repudiated the government and proclaimed a new Provisional Government, which a few days later forced the Czar to abdicate. The radical elements at the same time organized the Council, or Soviet, of Workingmen's Delegates, which shared with the Duma in the establishment of the Revolutionary Government. Prince George Lvov, and Paul Miliukov, both Liberals, were made, respectively, Premier and Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government, on March 15, 1917. On March 22 the United States formally recognized the Revolutionary Government of Russia,
The Provisional Government first declared Russia a republic, under a constitutional government, and announced itself as determined to continue the war against the Central Empires to a victorious conclusion. On May 13, 1917, the cabinet of the Revolutionary Government was reconstructed, and Alexander Kerensky, a Socialist, and previously Minister of Justice, became Premier and War Minister.
Kerensky attempted to reorganize the shattered Russian military forces and in the following July attempted an offensive against the Germans and Austrians. For a week this attempt seemed likely to succeed, then suddenly crumpled, because of the refusal of a large proportion of the troops to fight. The Russian peasants composing the Russian armies were exceedingly war weary and, moreover, under the encouragement of certain elements in the Council of Workingmen (and soldiers') Delegates, had begun to question the aims of the war.
It was this tendency in the minds of the soldiers which gave the ultra-Marxian Socialists, the extreme left of the Social Democrats, their opportunity, Under the leadership of Nikolai Lenin, leader of this faction of the extreme left, known as the Bolsheviki, an intensive propaganda was carried on among the soldiers for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the establishment, in its place, of a Socialist Government which should be represented solely by the Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, better known as the Soviet. The Bolsheviki might not have succeeded in their plans, had it not been that in September General Kornilov, Commander-in-Chief, attempted to overthrow the Kerensky Government and proclaim a military dictatorship in its stead. Fear of a return of Czarism threw the rank and file of the army over to the Bolsheviki, and on Nov. 7, 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown in Petrograd and the Soviet was proclaimed the supreme authority, with Lenin as Premier and Leon Trotzsky Minister of Foreign Affairs, Steps were at once taken to secure peace with Germany, at first a general peace, then, the Allies having refused to respond, a separate peace. On Dec. ​15, 1917, the Bolsheviki Government came to an agreement with Germany and her allies for an armistice. Immediately after peace negotiations were instituted at Brest-Litovsk. These lasted until Feb. 10, 1918, when the Russian delegates withdrew, refusing to accept the German terms, because the German Government refused to withdraw its forces from the Baltic provinces and allow their people to decide by plebiscites what form of government they desired. The Germans immediately, after the expiration of the armistice period, on Feb. 18, began an advance eastward into Russia, and the Soviet Government of Russia was forced to plead for a renewal of negotiations. This the Germans agreed to only after they had advanced a considerable distance, and then the Soviet was forced to accept terms extremely severe, including not only German occupation of the Ukraine and the Baltic provinces, but a heavy indemnity. Peace on these terms was finally declared, on March 3, 1918.
The impression now seemed to prevail in the Allied countries that the Soviet Government was not only submissive to Germany, but more than willing to play its game against the Allies. England, France, Japan and, later, the United States, thereupon came to an agreement of intervention in Russia. The ostensible reason given was to rescue the Czecho-Slovak contingents of the Russian Army in Siberia and the Urals, which had turned on the Bolsheviki Red Guards and were fighting their way toward Vladivostok. In August, 1918, Allied troops, and 7,000 United States regulars landed at Vladivostok and began an invasion of Siberia. At the same time an anti-Bolshevik Russian Government was set up in Siberia, at Omsk, constituted of Liberal and radical elements, but later superseded by the dictatorship of Admiral Kolchak, who had previously been in command of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, before it had been taken over by the Bolsheviki. Already, in July, 1918, Allied troops, including Americans, had been landed in northern Russia, on the Murmansk Peninsula, with the object of countering the Germans in Finland. These were now considerably augmented, and an offensive against the Bolsheviki was begun to the southward, but never with any success. Here a provisional government of North Russia was set up, with Nicholas Tchaikovsky, the old Nihilist leader, as Premier, but it never received popular support, and lasted only as long as the foreign occupation.
At the same time General Denikin, a Cossack leader in the S. of Russia, initiated a campaign from the Don region against Moscow. He was plentifully supplied with munitions from the British Government.
On July 5, 1918, the German Ambassador to Moscow, von Mirbach, was assassinated by Social Revolutionists, who were attempting to overthrow the Soviet. Similar attempts were made against high Soviet officials, one against Lenin. The Bolsheviki thereupon began a campaign of suppression which was known as the Red Terror. The Soviet had nationalized practically all industry and the banks, and was attempting to establish a Socialist Republic based on Marxian principles.
The defeat of Germany freed the Soviet Government from its obligations to the German Government and liberated the Ukraine from German control and occupation. Leon Trotzsky had been appointed Bolshevik Minister of War, and he now set to work with remarkable energy to organize an effective Red Army, with notable success. The Soviet forces now turned on their enemies on all fronts, and one after the other defeated them. In June, 1919, the United States decided to withdraw its troops from North Russia, and a few months later the British followed. By the end of the year the Bolsheviki had completely cleaned up what remained of this front. In Siberia the Czecho-Slovaks had shown themselves disgusted with the Kolchak dictatorship, and gradually withdrew. In the fall of 1919 the Soviet forces turned on Kolchak with full force, and before the end of the year he had been completely crushed, the dictator himself being executed. A few months later Denikin, in the S., was routed and compelled to retire, his forces having melted to almost nothing through desertions.
In January, 1920, the Supreme Council in Paris offered to resume trade with Soviet Russia through the Co-operative Movement, which carried on all distribution and a large part of the manufacturing activities which could be undertaken in the country. The Soviet Government immediately nationalized the Co-operative enterprises, and sent a trade delegation to London, to negotiate the reopening of trade relations. In the latter part of 1920 an agreement was reached between the Soviet Government and Great Britain whereby trade was to be resumed early in 1921.
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1920, relations between the Soviet Government and Poland became strained, and the situation suddenly changed into open hostilities when, early in March, 1920, the Poles began an offensive against the ​Russians, succeeding in advancing as far as Kiev, in the Ukraine. Though at first thrown back, the Soviet forces suddenly rallied and initiated a counter-offensive, which turned the tables on the Poles, who all but lost their capital, Warsaw, during the following summer. Taking advantage of the Polish attack, General Baron Wrangel, a lieutenant of Denikin, had organized an army in the Crimea and begun an attack on the Bolsheviki from the south. Hurriedly the Soviet made peace with Poland, in November, 1920, and turned on Wrangel, whose forces were completely defeated in the early part of November, 1920.
By Jan. 1, 1921, the Soviet Government had triumphed over all its enemies from outside, and was faced with the task of demobilization. The situation in the interior of Russia, economically speaking, had sunk into a deplorable state, especially in transportation facilities. The population was suffering severely from short rations. The removal of outside pressure, which had brought all elements of the Russian population to the support of the Soviet Government, was removed, and the latter had now to face counter-revolutionary activities from within.
* Copyright, L. L. Poates Eng. Co., 1921
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THE GREAT BELL MARKET AT THE NIZHNI NOVGOROD FAIR, RUSSIA :
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TRINITY CHURCH IN THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW, RUSSIA :