Reminder that the Bolsheviks were also tailing the masses in terms of radical action until Lenin returned from hiding in Finland and browbeat the shit out of the Central Committee to do a fucking coup instead of just writing furious, insistent letters to do it.
It really is one of those exceedingly rare fulcrum moments of history where the world changed because of the actions of one individual. No Lenin, no October, no USSR. Russia probably would have instead experienced a White Terror under a military junta.
EDIT: I do need to clarify that this is by no means intended to devalue the actions of thousands of Russian workers and peasants. They were very much driving events. But they were indecisive, they were standing at the ledge and had cold feet on whether or not to take the leap of faith. The Bolshevik leadership had this far worse than the masses in this regard.
October is THE go-to example of why decisive and clear leadership is absolutely necessary for revolutions to happen and why mere radical spontaneity of the masses is simply not enough on its own. The radical near-anarchy of the post-February environment was largely directionless, just raw radical energy careening through space like a bull in a china shop. Lenin's in-person arrival was twice like a bolt of lightning that jolted the left into decisive action in the right direction - first when he returned from exile at Finland Station and shortly after published the April Theses; second when he returned from hiding in actual Finland and personally yelled at the Bolshevik leaders until they voted to launch a coup in October. If these events had not happened, the history of the world would have been very different.
Reminder that the Bolsheviks were also tailing the masses in terms of radical action until Lenin returned from hiding in Finland and browbeat the shit out of the Central Committee to do a fucking coup instead of just writing furious, insistent letters to do it.
It really is one of those exceedingly rare fulcrum moments of history where the world changed because of the actions of one individual. No Lenin, no October, no USSR. Russia probably would have instead experienced a White Terror under a military junta.
EDIT: I do need to clarify that this is by no means intended to devalue the actions of thousands of Russian workers and peasants. They were very much driving events. But they were indecisive, they were standing at the ledge and had cold feet on whether or not to take the leap of faith. The Bolshevik leadership had this far worse than the masses in this regard.
October is THE go-to example of why decisive and clear leadership is absolutely necessary for revolutions to happen and why mere radical spontaneity of the masses is simply not enough on its own. The radical near-anarchy of the post-February environment was largely directionless, just raw radical energy careening through space like a bull in a china shop. Lenin's in-person arrival was twice like a bolt of lightning that jolted the left into decisive action in the right direction - first when he returned from exile at Finland Station and shortly after published the April Theses; second when he returned from hiding in actual Finland and personally yelled at the Bolshevik leaders until they voted to launch a coup in October. If these events had not happened, the history of the world would have been very different.
Sometimes history needs a push
Makes sense that the alphabet agencies assassinate leftist leaders all the time.