Russian Revolution is an expression that is used to portray a series of events that took place during 1917, in Russia. It was the era when Russia was under Tsar Rule. However, the importance of the Russian Revolution is that it made the path for a new country to be formed identified as the Soviet Union.
In 1905, the Russian Revolution actually started and ended in 1918. The Russians fought against Nicholas II in 1905 and in 1918, it was against the Bolsheviks. In 1999, Orlando Figes published a book on the Russian Revolution. Co-written by Orlando Figes with the Russian historian Boris Kolonitskii, ‘Interpreting the Russian Revolution’ analyses the revolutionary songs, political language, historical ideas and visual symbols that animated the activist crowds of 1917.
There have been numerous causes for the Russian Revolution to start and it as not World War I only. The grounds can be attributed to political and socio-economic instability in the country. During World War I many Russians joined the army and the country was almost vacant and in dreadful conditions. The rural sector of Russia had just about few workers. The working environment became despondent and there was a scarcity in almost everything, including food. As because a lot of people were not working, there was no income either. The people relied on the Tsar for assistance and he was not concerned about the welfare of his own inhabitants. So, the left workers in the nation went on strike and turned down to work further. All through this time the society was gravely affected and joining the World War I for Russia was the most horrible decision. On the inside, the country was going through massive strife. It required its people more than the war. Many citizens in Russia moved to the industrialized areas as the industries looked for workers. Then Tsar Nicholas brought the armed forces under his direct control and things turned bad to inferior.
Orlando Figes sets the war in the circumstance of the Eastern Question, and accentuates the role of religion in the divergence. Figes encloses the war within a longer history of religious conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and southern Russia that continues to this present day. Figes highlights the religious motive of Tsar Nicholas I in his audacious decision to go to war. Figes also exhibits how Britain and France were drawn into the war by well-liked ideas of Russophobia, in the wake of the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 that swept across Europe.
In general, it is always worth remembering that history is only ever written from an individual viewpoint. This particular historian never necessitates the reader to guess the standpoint he personally holds, since this is understandable from early on and, if anything, becomes ever more plainly stated as the work develops. A weakness may be the lack of explanation of the anguish inflicted on the Russian people during the First World War since the divergence is treated in the book as if it were more of an occasion for political posturing rather than the appalling slaughter it became. But, together with other texts, The Russian revolution by Orlando Figes is still, perhaps, a vital reading.
