Hi! I'm Shep. I'm 23 and by day, I am a furniture specialist at Pier 1 Imports. By night, I edit road trip books and plan a socialist revolution. I did some time in the military before getting kicked out for physical infirmity. When I grow up, I want to be a game developer or else the president. I am kind of shy about posting stuff, but trying to get better about it. Sometimes I drop out of things when I get really stressed. Please don't hate me. I'm also trying to learn more about the Logics, and How to Be Smart and Calm About Stuff, but what usually ends up happening is I go back to reading about the Russian revolution or take a nap. If you want to know about furniture, the February Revolution, or the Appalachian Trail, I'm your guy!! Let's be friends, okay?
...What's the February Revolution? (I have a sick love of getting people to talk about their interests. hit me. [only not literally])
Okay, so, basically, (this really isn't basic) the February Revolution was the first post-1905/1906 revolution to occur in Russia. It was the one that actually brought about the downfall of the Romanov dynasty and it was also the birthplace of the Provisional Government (which would be in power from 2 March 1917 to 7 May 1917--not a good track record, but then, 1917 was a shit year to be in politics in Russia)! It started with the announcement of rationing (there had been a widespread famine since I think 1915? because the peasants weren't getting paid enough for their cereal grains & cash crops (wheat, sugar beets, etc) and had switched over to subsistence crops (potatoes, rye) and so while the peasants were just ok with this (still getting enough food and producing enough handicrafts/clothes and stuff because of their scaling back of the effort put into their fields) the workers in the industrialized cities & suburbs (but particularly Petrograd) were starving. Women would literally bring their beds to the bread line so they could sleep while they waited--and sometimes they'd wait (in temperatures under -40F) all night only to be told there would be no bread that day! So... the revolution didn't start because of Lenin, or Kerensky, or Lvov, or Trotsky. It was because the tsarist bureaucracy was like, "So... Rationing, yeah?" Everyone was like "No!" and led marches from the Vyborg side of Petrograd (basically the factory side) to Nevsky Prospekt (in front of the Winter Palace). Long story short, the soldiers were pissed because the police were shooting old ladies and children, and they mutinied. The Cassocks were like "Lol, fuck this, I'm outie" and helped arrest policemen. The police were murdered horribly and the Tauride Palace (sort of like... the Congress building?) was overrun by soldiers and a Committee was formed, and also a Soviet (which was like a town council but for EVERYTHING), and Kerensky would literally run from one end of the Tauride Palace to the other, and meanwhile Brusiliov was out in Europe all :? Guys? Guys? I need some help out here. I am trying to take back Poland? Trotsky, Lenin, and Khallentoi weren't even there. And Kerensky wasn't even really involved! Nicholas II abdicated for himself and his son, and Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov abdicated, leaving no Romanovs left to take the throne, and so... The Committee selected eight ministers, chief of whom was Prime Minister Prince Lvov, whose name is pronounced l'woff, which I think is funny. Then they proceeded to suck at everything, which is why the Provincial Government lasted precisely three months. Originally I was reading up on the October Revolution, but it turns out February is where it's at.
i love it when people informally talk about historical events, like they're sharing a story from their weekend. (i also like trying to teach people things in this manner) nice to meet you!
@shibrogane Is there anything else about the February Revolution I should know in order to run circles around my history class tomorrow? It's a complete coincidence but that's what we're covering right now.
AHHH im sorry my computer freaked out :( Other than the fact that it wasn't run by the proletariat at all (it was 95% soldiers and the intelligentsia/bourgeoisie (which for fun russian points you can call the "borzhooi")) I think I pretty much covered it all. Although drunken soldiers mounting machine guns on Rolls-Royces struck me as pretty neat.
So who is your favorite author on the Russian revolution? Have you tried Trotsky's history of it yet?
I've been going through Orlando Figes' work so far (this is a fairly new interest for me oops) but I have Anna Politkovskaya's "A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia" to read about as far as general Russian history goes. The local B&N and the library are pretty poor on any Russian history that isn't, like... Imperial Russia, which I'm notsomuch interested in? Although I'm really excited for my next paycheck because "Nothing is Permitted and Everything is Possible" is on sale 20% off cover price and I'm gonna get it. I must know about the arts scene in modern Russia and how it was influence by the Soviet era. I must.
