The Failure of the Russian February Revolution and its Comparison to the American Revolution

The provisional government was formed after the government of Tsar Nicholas II failed. It was considered a temporary government that achieved little in terms of policy reform. Many Russians, already sick of the Tsars policies, were also dissatisfied with the provisional government because of the same reasons. One big aspect that crippled the provisional government was its desire to continue its involvement in World War 1. With more losses on the front, many Russians looked up to Vladimir Lenin as a savior, because he advocated an end to the war, even though they were on unforgiving terms.

While the provisional government was the governing power of Russia, they did not have the support base of workers that the Bolsheviks had. The peasants, who were fighting on the front, viewed the Soviets much more favorably than the provisional government. They saw that the provisional government would not end the war, and viewed them as just a continuation of the Tsars policies. While the provisional government's desire to win the war only made things worse on the home front, this is where the Soviets shined. They spread their message of equal rights for all workers, and the end to imperialist wars. The same hate that brought down the autocratic government of the Tsar also led to the downfall of the autocratic provisional government.

The similarities between our revolution would be that both revolutions were fought with the idea of liberty. While in the American Revolution it was against the tyranny of the English empire imposing taxes without representation, in Russia, it was Soviets against the might of the autocrat policies. They both had fundamental ideas that drove them to start a revolution. In America, it was freedom, liberty, much like the French revolution, while in the Soviet Union it was the idea of socialism. In the United States, America had a greater backing from the international community, whereas the Soviets had an opposition during its Civil War, although it’s interesting to note that the provisional government had the backing of many important nations like America and France.

While the world needed the Russian revolution to happen. It was the least developed nation in Europe at the time and would have continued to be if no revolution would have happened. The Russian people were sick and tired of the autocratic ruling in Russia while the workers were starving and being sent to an unpopular war. We can see that most of the basic principles of the revolution were based on the fact that the common people of Russia wanted to advance in terms of rights and liberty that many other countries of the world enjoyed at that time.

If the Provisional Government withstood the Bolshevik influences, Russia would continue to be lead by rich leaders that were influenced by the monarchy. Russia would have been defeated in World War One but would have ended up gaining territories when Germany would have been defeated much earlier in 1917, and in 1945, without a strong leadership, it is possible that they would have been defeated after Poland.