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The 1917 Russian revolution was one of the most important political events in the history of the world. This paper will examine the causes of the Russian revolution and the actors and events that were involved. This paper will also examine the rise of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power in Russia and the effects of the Russian revolution on an international level.

Prelude to Revolution

During the first half of the nineteenth century much of the west had gone through ,bourgeois revolutions however the Russian traditional serfdom, privileges of nobility and Church, Tsarist autocracy remained untouched by these events. In Russia the agricultural production was poor, grain exports were very low, the manufacturing industry was also slow to develop because of a shortage of labor and technology. In February 1861 the act of liberation which abolished serfdom was enacted. The "freed" peasants now had to buy up tiny, neatly truncated plots of land; however the land which the "freed" peasantry had to rent or buy was valued at about double its real value. By 1900 seventy per cent of the farmers possessed a land area for farming below the minimum needed to support their families. While life was not improved for the peasantry by the 1861 act of liberation, Russia saw a growth in the export sales of Russian grain on the European market by 140 percent over the following fifteen years (1) pg24) By 1881 peasant uprisings became a consistent issue in Russia as well as useless acts of repression such as the exile of the thinker Nikolay Chernyshevsky to Siberia. Chernyshevsky wrote "What Is To Be Done?",the novel was an inspiration to many later Russian revolutionaries. This repression lead to the. first revolutionary movements in Russia by the Narodniki or Populists who were interested in the desperate plight of the peasantry, the common people and the intellectuals without property; and the growing influence of Socialism. secret society formed called "Land and Liberty", which soon split into two parties, the Black Partition", which advocates propaganda in the countryside, and the `People's Will', which promotes terrorism. The "People's Will" resorted to political assassination of individuals. The target for the `People's Will' was the head of the system Tsar Alexander II. On April 14th 1879, a student Soloviev fired five pistol-shots at Alexander II. On December 1st an explosion derailed the Imperial train not far from Moscow. On February 17th 1880, the dining-room

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