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Revolution

The 20th century also saw a move from monarchy in many European countries – such as Russia, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire – to democracy, caused by an unprecedented series of wars, revolutions and civil wars. The single most important political event of the century was the Russian Revolution.

The following were the most significant revolutions of the 20th century.

The Russian Revolutions (1905, 1917)

The origins of the Russian Revolution arose from the incompatibility between the medieval authority of the tsar and the modern realities of a slowly industrialising nation.

Russian Revolution of 1905

This was an outcome of the humiliation suffered during the Russo-Japanese War, and arose when workers began to protest against the discrepancy between their economic importance and their lack of political rights. Starting with Bloody Sunday on 22 January 1905, when tsarist troops massacred over 100 workers demonstrating in St Petersburg, there were urban revolts, peasant unrest, mutinies and discontent among national minorities throughout the Russian empire.

Tsar Nicholas II, seen by many as a father figure, made some concessions, including allowing a parliament (duma) to meet. Subsequent land reforms reduced some peasant grievances. However, troops brutally suppressed the revolts, and the revolution failed because most of the groups involved had differing objectives. Perhaps the most significant result was that the tsar lost his image of benevolent paternal ruler.

February Revolution

The tensions within Russian society were intensified by the experience of World War I. As commander of an often defeated and soon demoralised army, Nicholas II was unpopular, and was further weakened by the decadent behaviour of his wife and her adviser Grigori Rasputin.

The February Revolution in 1917 began on 8 March (23 February by the old Russian calendar), when workers in the largest Petrograd (St Petersburg) armaments factory went on strike in protest against worsening living conditions. As soldiers and workers all over Russia joined the protest, Nicholas II abdicated on 16 March, and soviets – radical workers' councils – were formed to organise local government.

Politically, they were dominated by revolutionaries, although the militant Bolsheviks were not very influential because many of their leaders, including Lenin, were in exile. In Petrograd, a provisional government was formed, but failed to end the war, which led to further defeats and thousands of desertions from the army.

October Revolution

When Lenin returned to Russia after the February Revolution, he became popular with many soviets because he promised peace, bread and all power to them. On 7 November (25 October by the old Russian calendar), Lenin's colleague Trotsky carried out the first modern revolution.

Lenin – Red visionary: 1917

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He used groups of armed Bolsheviks to seize strategic points around Petrograd, including telegraph offices, newspaper offices, railway stations and government buildings. With minimum force, the Marxist revolutionaries grabbed the instruments of power and began ruling the country.

To continue doing so, the Bolsheviks' Red Army had first to fight a bloody civil war against the White (tsarist) Russians, and could only extend its control over the country through the use of secret police and terror. During the century, the October Revolution became an inspiration for revolutionaries all over the world.

Chinese Revolution (1931-49)

On 10 October 1911, a revolt led by Sun Yat-sen's Guomindang (Young China) overthrew China's Manchu dynasty, which had ruled the country since 1644. After Sun's death in 1925, a bitter battle for succession ended with Chiang Kai-shek's victory in 1928. His Nationalist government was challenged by Mao Zedong, and a Communist soviet was formed in Kiangsi province in 1931.

Nationalist troops soon forced Mao to leave southern China, and in October 1934, 100,000 Communists set out on the epic Long March. This ended a year later when the remaining 30,000 set up a new base in Yanan, Shensi province.

When Japan invaded China in 1937, Mao collaborated with Chiang to resist the enemy until Japan's defeat in August 1945. Then civil war between the Nationalists and Communists began in Manchuria. At first, it seemed that Chiang, with his superior equipment, would win. But Mao decided to concentrate on the countryside and, using guerrilla warfare, lured Chiang's troops there, overstretching his supply lines and disorienting his troops with surprise attacks.

By 1948, Chiang's army was so disorganised that Mao was able successfully to switch to regular warfare, employing units of the People's Liberation Army. Between November 1948 and January 1949, the Communists defeated the Nationalists in the battle of Huai-Hai. Then China's major cities – Beijing, Nanking, Shanghai and Canton – were captured. On 1 October 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing.

The significance of the Chinese Revolution was that it proved that Marxist revolution could be achieved by guerrillas in the countryside and not just by an urban proletariat in industrial cities. It was thus an inspiration to radicals in non-industrial countries.

Cuban Revolution (1956-59)

In the 1940s and early 1950s, the Caribbean island of Cuba was ruled by the despotic and corrupt regime of Fulgencio Batista, who behaved so badly that even his US supporters stopped supplying him arms. Then, on 2 December 1956, the revolutionary Fidel Castro returned from exile in Mexico with a band of 80 followers, including his brother Raul and Che Guevara, arriving secretly in eastern Cuba on the yacht Gramma.

For the next 18 months, Castro led a guerrilla campaign from his base in the Sierra Maestra mountains, harassing Batista's troops and gaining support in the countryside. In March 1958, Castro issued a manifesto that called on all Cubans to make total war on Batista. The insurrection that followed was successful and he entered the capital Havana in triumph on 8 January 1959. At first the United States administration patronised him, but turned hostile when he asked the Soviet Union and China for economic aid.

Because of the image of Castro as a latter-day Garibaldi and Che as a Robin Hood, the Cuban Revolution became an immensely influential event in late 20th-century politics.

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