The Bolsheviks and the Tragedy of the October Revolution Essay

The Bolsheviks and the Tragedy of the October changeThe majority of the mickle are with us. The majority of the working and oppressed people all oer the world are with us. Ours is the cause of justice. Our victory is assured.1October was a unadulterated coup dtat, the capture of governmental power by a crushed minority, carried out-without mass engagement.2The October Revolution was perhaps the most momentous instance of the twentieth century. It led to the creation of the Soviet Union, the first avowedly communist nation in history, which was to become a global superpower, an inspiration to many, an fair game of the hatred of many more. Possibly more important was the role the retentiveness of the October Revolution played in the mythology of the Soviet Union throughout its constitutional existence. Along with the doctrine of Marxism-Leninism and the Communist Party edifice, the legacy of October was one of the pillars upon which the Soviet Union supported itself and justif ied its form and existence. Whatever legitimacy the Soviet regime could once claim, in its own eyes and in that of the right(prenominal) world, claims Martin Malia, depended - on the socialist reality of October.3In the Soviet Union, the October Revolution was officially viewed as the ultimate endorsement of the Communist Party and Marxism-Leninism by the people of Russia. The toiling masses, achieving class-consciousness in the turmoil of the revolutionary cauldron, placed their new wave at their head and entrusted it with control of the new Union of Soviet collectivised Republics. They then defended it against the attacks of the counterrevolutionaries, and would continue to do so until the worldwide socialist revolution, the mental home of global communism, and th... ...dy, 507.25. Sukhanov, Russian Revolution, 550.26. Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, 64.27. Ibid., 63.28. Robert Daniels, ed. A Documentary History of fabianism (New York Random House, 1984), I, 102.29. Lenin qtd. in Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, 65.30. Ibid., 63.31. Figes, Peoples Tragedy, 506.32. Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, 147.33. Figes, Peoples Tragedy, 464.34. Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams Utopian quite a little and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution, (New York Oxford University Press, 1989), 43.35. Sukhanov, Russian Revolution, 553 - 555.36. Figes, Peoples Tragedy, 519.37. Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, 110.38. Ibid., 113.39. behold Figes, Peoples Tragedy, 590 - 594.40. Daniels, Conscience of the Revolution, 119.41. Ibid., 121.42. Malia, Soviet Tragedy, 103 - 104.