Outline: The Russian Revolution Of 1917

Thesis Sentence:

The Russian Revolution was a success due to its adherence of its slogan of “Peace, Bread and Land,” popular for the want of calmness, food, and property, which was fulfilled by the revolution’s leader and head of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin.

Reason #1:

In order to restore peace in Russia, the corrupt tsarist government was overthrown and reforms were made.

Supporting Details:

“On March 12, 1917, by an almost bloodless revolution in the capital, the government was overthrown. The provinces followed suit; the commanders-in-chief of the armies in the field united with the State Duma in calling on Nicholas to abdicate; and the three-hundred-year-old dynasty of the Romanovs quietly disappeared. A Provisional Government was

Lenin’s new government wanted to peacefully take Russia out of World War I, with no imperialism or capitalism involved. Russia had lost about one-third of its population (1.7 million soldiers) from World War I. Lenin, through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, took Russia out of World War I due to the lives and resources the war caused Russia to lose.

“‘Peace’, in Lenin’s usage, meant not only withdrawal from the imperialist war but also recognition that such withdrawal ‘is impossible...without the overthrow of capital’” (Fitzpatrick 51). Lenin wanted to get rid of capitalism and imperialism in Russia because of the unrest he knew it would cause, in order to create and preserve peace in

Lenin, from the working class, wanted to give more power and land to the peasants in accordance to his background and socialist beliefs.

“The revolution and subsequent redistribution of land from noble landowners to peasant smallholders entailed...consequences for agricultural production and food supply. As a result of redistribution, many landless households received a small plot of land” (Davies et al. 8). Lenin, in a socialistic way, redistributed land, which allowed the peasants who’d been landless before to own property.

“...what became known as the New Economic Policy (NEP) had emerged from the ruins of civil war. The central feature of the NEP was the right of individual peasants to sell their products freely, locally, or nationally, to private traders, direct to other individuals, or to state agencies. Trade was resumed on a national scale, with most retail trade in private ownership” (Davies et al. 8). Lenin’s New Economic Policy, released in 1921, gave more rights to the peasants than they had before when it came to economics and trade.