The centennial of the February revolution is being marked in Russia without the usual pomp. No high profile movie, television or drama premieres or large scale international conferences. After it became clear that Vladimir Putin’s idea to use the date as a way to achieve national reconciliation wouldn’t work (considering that the communists, monarchists, and supporters of the current regime entertain polarized views on the matter), those “upstairs” decided to distance themselves from the whole affair. Interestingly, most Russian media have failed to mention the fact that the February revolution took place in Petrograd and in the Russian empire’s provinces, that it gained special momentum in Ukraine.
During the First World War, following the revolution, Ukraine, unlike Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states, failed to defend its [national] independence. Meanwhile, a totalitarian dictatorial communist regime reigned supreme in Russia. Could democracy have won in 1917? The February revolution is usually portrayed as a short-lived triumph of democracy in Russia. It is true, on the one hand. After overthrowing tsarist autocracy, the freedoms of expression and assembly, including rallies and unions, were proclaimed. In this respect, Russia was perhaps the most liberated of all the warring countries. On the other hand, the State Duma never resumed work. The reason is that its membership at the time, dominated by Octobrists [members of a conservative-liberal Russian political party whose program of moderate constitutionalism called for the fulfillment of the emperor Nicholas II’s October Manifesto] and rightists, was more rightist than its ad hoc committee that formed the Provisional Government. It had become an anachronism in revolutionary Russia. As a result, the legislative branch was actually ineffective during the revolution and the government took over, issuing legislative decrees.
The Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Soviets [councils] tried to act as legislative bodies, but they also wanted executive powers, and in many cases they made the Provisional Government act as told. However, any member of the Soviet could be recalled by the electorate, any time, and replaced. This ran counter to the democratic principles, because each member of the Soviet could fall prey to the changing moods of the masses. The judiciary branch had practically vanished; no one left to catch criminals and bring them to justice, not in the urban areas anyway. The police and gendarmerie were abolished during the February revolution. The new authorities declared the institution of the “people’s militia,” but nothing was done before the October revolution to uphold law and order. There was nothing anyone could do about the armed soldiers and sailors who were moving behind the rear lines in hordes. Each time the Provisional Government tried to establish law and order in a certain area, regular troops had to be deployed, but their morale was shaky, so this practice could not be used on a large scale. The grim result came quickly. Army and Navy officers started being killed, with peasants raiding landlord estates. May 1917 statistics read 152 such estates raided and burned down; June statistics read 112; July statistics, 387; August reports, 440, and September statistics read 958.
In February, political prisoners and a large number of hardened criminals were released from jail. The crime rate was sky high and there was no one to combat it. Small wonder that city residents took a dim view of the victory of a democratic revolution.
The Constituent Assembly was expected to establish a true democracy. For the first time in Russian history, it was elected in a true democratic manner, on the basis of universal, direct, equal and secret ballot. The trouble was that its first session was called to order after the Bolsheviks had seized power and the new Russian parliament could work for exactly one day.
Did Russia’s democracy stand a chance in 1917? Theoretically it did, but practically it didn’t. Had the Provisional Government been able to quickly solve two main issues – war and land – Russia would’ve stood a real chance of establishing a strong and long democracy. Making peace and agrarian reform overnight – even within a month – was impossible. They could, however, inform the Central Powers that they wanted to make a truce, also about the main principles and time frame of the land reform.
There was no way they could keep waging the war and carry out the agrarian reform at the same time. On learning about the distribution of landlord and kulak property, most peasants wearing Russian military uniform would desert and run home, fearing they’d miss their piece of the pie. In that case, the [Russian] front would certainly come tumbling down.
Had Russia succeeded in establishing democracy in 1917, it would have most likely evolved as a federation. Even so, a federation wouldn’t be likely to last long in conditions of democracy. The Russian empire would fall apart the way the Soviet empire did after the collapse of communism in August 1991.
A democracy scenario in 1917 was impossible to perform, considering that none of the parties, whose deputies were members of the Provisional Government, supported the putting of an end to the war. All wanted to fight to win the war, but ended up seeing democracy die in Russia. Russia’s largest Socialist Revolutionary Party demonstrated its complete political impotence by following the Constitutional Democrats’ suit, supporting the postponement of the Constitutional Assembly’s convocation. As a result of an inner rift, they failed to produce a leader popular with the masses and capable of rallying the party in the struggle for power.
The Socialist Revolutionary Party actually ceased to exist after Alexander Kolchak’s coup [in Siberia] in late 1918. Many SRP leftists joined the Communist Party, most others just stepped down or supported separate anti-Bolshevik governments, on a private basis or as members of local organizations, considering that their political party no longer existed. In Ukraine, the leftist SR’s supported the Bolsheviks while the rightist Parteigenossen supported the Ukrainian National Republic. As an independent political entity, the Socialist Revolutionaries remained ephemeral, as did the Mensheviks and Constitutional Democrats. They vanished from the political stage and this manifested the Bolsheviks’ victory over democracy.
Boris Sokolov is a Moscow-based professor
