Chapter 444 Opposition between Two Powers

News of the success of the St. Petersburg uprising quickly spread throughout Russia and incited general strikes and demonstrations in more cities. new

In these cities where general strikes and demonstrations took place, it was obvious that the demonstrators were divided into two groups: the working class and the capitalists.

After St. Petersburg comes Moscow, followed by surrounding major cities and important constructions. Moscow's Red Square, the Kremlin, and the Moscow Arsenal were occupied by the uprising team in just a few days. This uprising has spread to the entire Russian and European regions.

Before World War I, Russia was an extremely large country. Its farthest west was the Polish region divided with Germany, and its far east reached the Asian border, and was separated from the United States by the Bering Strait.

Therefore, Russia is a completely transcontinental country, not only occupying a large area of ​​Eastern Europe, but also possessing huge land in North Asia.

Although Russia's land area is very large, the real essence and core of Russia is Eastern Europe.

The scope of influence of this great uprising covered the line from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In addition to the frontline areas, almost half of western Russia was affected. It can also be understood that it directly affected most of Russia.

The two most important cities in Russia are the current capital St. Petersburg and the former capital Moscow.

The part between these two cities is also the essence of Russia in Eastern Europe, and is currently occupied by insurrectionary teams.

On the way to instigating uprisings, workers' alliances and capitalism vigorously encouraged nearby cities to hold general strikes and demonstrations, and took the opportunity to insert their own people into them in order to control these cities where there were general strikes.

Under the premise that there are obvious differences in interests between the capitalist group and the workers' group, who will have more power and the government's initiative in the future will depend on the number of cities they control.

On the 1st, the uprising team instigated a rebellion against the Baltic Fleet, and a considerable part of Russia's military strength was in the hands of the uprising team.

This is not over yet, the frontline soldiers also welcome the uprising. Even frontline soldiers quickly established a soldier committee to supervise the army officers.

A large number of Russian civilians also welcomed this revolution. They needed to overthrow the tsarist system to bring them political liberation, and to divide the land of the landlords to bring them economic liberation.

Under the premise that all Russian civilians do not have enough to eat, as long as the insurgents can distribute food to them, they will unconditionally support these insurgent teams.

It was established on November 1 and accommodated the vast majority of workers' parties, the Bolshevik Party, and the Menshevik Party.

On the day when the Soviet regime was announced, the bourgeoisie found the captured Nicholas II and asked him to sign the appointment letter. New 🅇.🄲🄾🄼

In this letter of appointment, the Cadet Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Nikolay Nikolaevich was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia.

Upon receiving the appointment letter, the bourgeoisie immediately announced the establishment of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and seized power from the Soviets established by the workers' parties.

The Soviet regime had the support of a large number of workers, and the Provisional Committee of the Russian State Duma received support from the old-school aristocrats, including Nicholas II.

For a time, Russia after the victory of the revolution became more chaotic. The two major regimes were running side by side, but their administrative philosophies were opposed to each other.

Nicholas II did not sign the historical declaration of abdication. After all, the old aristocrats and royalists still had considerable power at this time, and the Soviet regime and the bourgeois regime had not yet formally determined their priorities.

Compared with the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which was composed entirely of the bourgeoisie, the Soviet power was more decentralized and included most parties of the working class, the largest of which were the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.

These two political parties also had certain conflicts, and both wanted to gain leadership of the Soviet power.

Unlike the Bolsheviks, who firmly established a republican regime, the Mensheviks pursued a capitulationist line in an attempt to limit the scope of the revolution and believed that the legitimate masters after overthrowing the tsarist system could only be the bourgeoisie.

With the help of the Mensheviks, the State Animation Provisional Committee quickly replaced the Soviet power and gradually took over more power in post-revolutionary Russia.

On the 1st, Russia's first bourgeois provisional government was established. It was a provisional government under a constitutional monarchy, with Nicholas II retaining his status as Tsar but losing all administrative and military powers.

The large landowner Prince Georgi Lvov became Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the first provisional government, and other positions were divided among the major political parties of the bourgeoisie.

But at the same time, not all the rights of the Soviet power were lost. Although a large number of revolutionary areas, including St. Petersburg, were controlled by the Provisional Government, Moscow and surrounding areas remained under the control of the Soviet power.

However, the nominal Soviet power was still attached to the rule of the Provisional Government, but the Provisional Government had no real power over the Moscow region.

The Russian revolution attracted attention from all over the world, especially the Allied Powers group headed by Germany.

For Germany, the revolution in Russia was great news. Trapped in civil strife, the Russians certainly did not have the strength to continue the war.

Not only was it an opportunity for Germany to get rid of multi-front operations, it was also a good opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack against the British and French forces on the Western Front.

As for Britain and France, they currently do not have enough power to interfere in the Russian revolution. Besides, the current revolution in Russia has not affected the monarchy, but has established a constitutional monarchy similar to the United Kingdom, which is not unacceptable. new

If the Russians overthrow the monarchy and hang Nicholas II as they did in the French Revolution in history, they will definitely be liquidated by Britain, France and other monarchies after the war.

The European royal family can allow European monarchs to lose their rights, but they will not sit back and watch European monarchs be executed by revolutionaries.

Because no one can guarantee whether a revolution will occur in their country. If the arbitrary execution of monarchs is tolerated, perhaps this step will happen to other European monarchies in the future.

He was also always paying attention to the situation in Russia. After learning that the provisional government had taken control of most of the power, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.

At least the situation in Russia has not collapsed to the point where it is completely out of control. Although the Provisional Government is a capitalist state, it is still a constitutional monarchy, and the opposition to the monarchy is not serious.

If the Soviet regime takes power, the ideas conveyed by such a republic to neighboring countries are terrible and can have a huge impact on monarchies.

After the provisional government was established, both the Allied Powers and the Entente Powers immediately started negotiations with the new Russian government.

The Allies wanted Russia to continue the war, even if it was just to contain some of Germany's forces on the Eastern Front.

The Allies wanted Russia to withdraw from the war so that it could free up its hands to deal with the British and French forces on the Western Front.

The good news is that the establishment of the Russian Provisional Government was relatively moderate, and the basis for the establishment of the Provisional Government also came from Nicholas II's letter of appointment.

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Coupled with the fact that the Bolshevik and Soviet regimes who really wanted to overthrow the monarchy had retreated to Moscow, the Provisional Government and the vicinity of St. Petersburg were under royalist control.

Although the current Nicholas II has been deprived of a lot of rights on the surface, he still has a certain status.

On the 1st, Britain, France, Russia, Australia, and Italy held a meeting of the Allied Powers in St. Petersburg. On the one hand, they discussed the Allied Powers' next combat plan, and on the other hand, they tried their best to win over Russia to stay in the war.

For this reason, Britain and France agreed to a low-interest loan of up to 5 billion rubles to the new Russian government regardless of the cost, and promised to deliver enough food and winter supplies to Russia to help the Russian government tide over the difficulties.

During the Allied Powers Conference, Britain, France, and Australia continuously reaffirmed the relationship between the four major Allied Powers at that time, and personally promised not to reduce Russia's contribution and distribution of benefits after the war in the slightest.

Russia is still an important part of the Entente and one of the four major powers of the Entente.

Obviously, the conditions offered by the Allied Powers satisfied the Russian government. Low-interest loans of up to 5 billion rubles, as well as large amounts of food and emergency supplies, are enough for the new Russian government to tide over this crisis while winning over the people.

The distribution of benefits after the war promised by the Allied Powers was enough for these bourgeoisie and big landowners to obtain sufficient benefits after the war.

After a two-day meeting, the new Russian government and the Allied Powers reached an agreement that they would not withdraw from the war for the time being, but they would not initiate a large-scale campaign.

Russia will take defensive measures on the front line and try to hold back as many German troops as possible for Britain and France.

At the same time, the loans promised by Britain and France must be disbursed in a timely manner, and various aid materials must not be lacking.

Because a considerable part of the reason why the people launched the uprising was their disgust for this war, in order to satisfy the majority of civilians, the new Russian government decided to distribute some emergency supplies free of charge to all civilians in St. Petersburg and surrounding areas.

This part of the supplies includes 500 kilograms of grain per household, 200 kilograms of coal, a pair of warm clothes for each person, and some medicines.

Obviously, this kind of material distribution still satisfies a considerable part of the Russian people, and it also made the new Russian government accepted by the Russian people.

This is actually a conspiracy of the provisional government. After all, there are currently two governments in Russia, and there must be a gap in the attitudes of the people towards the two governments.

This also means that after the provisional government distributes supplies for free, the Soviet regime must immediately promulgate the same policy in order to satisfy the civilians who support the Soviet regime.

After all, everyone supports the revolution so that they can live a good life. If they can't even solve their own food and clothing problems, more people will definitely switch jobs and rebel.

But the problem is that the gap in assets between the Provisional Government and the Soviet regime is huge.

The Provisional Government was composed of small and medium-sized capitalists, large landowners, old aristocrats and other former middle- and high-level people. They controlled a large amount of land and resources in Russia.

As for the Soviet regime, although they also control the prosperous Moscow region, the major political parties that make up the Soviet regime are all composed of ordinary workers, and the capital they hold is not strong.

In addition, the Russian Provisional Government had strong support from the Allied Powers, and the Soviet regime was hostile to almost all European monarchies.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible for the Soviet regime to compete with the Provisional Government in terms of welfare policies.

And those ordinary people are easily affected by these small welfare policies and measures to distribute food. If the Soviet regime does not respond in a certain way, the Provisional Government's advantages will become greater and greater.

At this time, the Germans were obviously unable to provide the generous conditions of the Allied Powers. The Germans were very seriously consumed by the war, and it was naturally impossible for the Germans to use large amounts of funds and resources to support Russia.

This also strengthened the Russians' confidence in continuing the war in disguise. Anyway, there was financial and material support from Britain and France, and Russia only needed to adopt a defensive posture on the front line.

Because the Soviet regime could not provide the same welfare conditions as the provisional government, the voice of the Russian people clearly shifted to the side of the provisional government.

In order not to lose support among the working class and civilians, the Soviet regime could only point to the Provisional Government's unwillingness to withdraw from the war.

Because most Russian people have received practical benefits, their desire to withdraw from the war is not that strong.

In fact, the people were not opposed to this war, but they were opposed to the tsarist regime at that time disregarding the lives of Russian civilians in the country for this war.

If Nicholas II could have distributed supplies to workers and civilians earlier and controlled prices in Russia as much as possible, perhaps this revolution would not have happened.

Unable to produce any real material benefits, the Soviets had no choice but to think of other ways, such as promulgating an eight-hour work system that the working class paid close attention to.

Of course, this is not actually a promulgation. The previous Tsarist Russia also had an eight-hour work system.

But the eight-hour work system in Tsarist Russia was more superficial. Before the war, the average working hours of Russian workers exceeded ten hours, and after the war broke out, it generally exceeded 12 hours.

The Soviet government announced that it would protect the eight-hour work system. The eight-hour work system was strictly implemented in the Moscow region and all requirements for unpaid overtime were eliminated.

If it exceeds eight hours, that's fine. Double overtime pay must be given for the additional working hours, and the total working time per day must not exceed ten hours, and the weekly working time must not exceed sixty hours.

The promulgation of this system has won the favor of many workers. After all, for the collective workers, working hours and wages are the things that workers value most.

In addition to the eight-hour work system, the Soviet regime also established a food distribution system to centrally distribute food, livestock and various materials in the Moscow area to ensure that all civilians can receive certain supplies.

The impact of the war on Russia was huge.

An important reason why the bourgeois provisional government was able to gain final power was that a large number of rural people and the working class were conscripted into the army and sent to the front lines to fight.

Those who stayed behind in St. Petersburg and Moscow were the middle and high-level leaders headed by large and small factory owners and nobles. These people successfully obtained the rights of the revolutionary government.

Precisely because a large number of rural people and workers were requisitioned, Russia's agricultural production was seriously affected.

According to previous statistics from the Russian government, Russia's cultivated land area has decreased by at least 10 million dessiatines, the number of livestock has dropped from 18 million before the war to about 13 million, and total grain income has decreased by about a quarter.

The Soviet regime had to establish a centralized distribution system as a last resort. If resources in the Moscow region were not distributed centrally, there would still be a large number of civilians who would not be able to receive supplies, and they would not firmly support the Soviet regime.

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