Russian Revolution

If i remember correctly, the revolution wasn't the kind that is often imagined as the entire Russian working population running towards the Winter Palace to overthrow the Romanovs or something like that. Only a small fraction of people caused the revolution and were on its side. The people themselves weren't on the side of Lenin but they also hated the czar so the entire revolution thing seemes to me like a quick-action revolution by a fraction of the population who were either the part of the future Communist party or very few disgruntled employees and soldiers. They just got lucky (lenin and his gang i mean) as there were many other revolutionists and partys who could have taken power, but they just got their leg between the door before others and closed it skilfully. I could even go as far as to say that the large majority of Russia had no idea the revolution was happening or going to happen as they had no support for Uljanov. There were dozens or ultra-socialist "other Lenins" with their own future for Russia and the support of the people was spread around all of them( as socialism was the going fashion among the peasants and workers) so they had no single leader as Lenin is sometimes thought to have been for the Russian proletariat.

This is how i think about it.

May I suggest what should be common knowledge: Never, ever in human history, any revolution was the uprise of the whole population of a given country, nation, social group, town, family. Even the national liberation revolutions of the 19th century were uprisings of a relatively small group of people, who'd win or not the hearts of the people (the "silent majority").

All revolutions in the span of history have been conducted by a relatively small (in comparison to the total population of the given society) group of people, determined enough to put their own personal safety, security and existence at the stake, so they can win a better future for themselves, their relatives, colleagues, children.

It would be disillutional to believe that for instance 100% of the French took the streets to get rid of the Monarchy. Or during the American revolution, only a few of the quite many inhabitants of the British colonies in America revolted, but they determined the faith of their entier nation. Same with the Soviet revolution: only a small fraction of the total population revolted, winned the people's heart (because of the oppressive, authoritarian, unjust nature of the existing regime) and they managed to take the country towards the direction they wished.

So, yes, it was a revolution, genuine and extremely succesful Too bad the "ongoing revolution" went so bad... landing in the hands of ruthless opportunistic psychopaths like Stalin...

The Russian Revolution is tragic because it was turned from a workers revolution into a brutal dictatorship, which Russia continues to fight against today. The Russian revolution could have had as much an impact on world history as the French revolution 150 years before.

But it had. In the short run, at least. It pretty much shaped the world of the 20th century.