The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (238 page)
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rules committee
Standing committee of the US House of Representatives which sets the timetable of the House, and the conditions under which debate takes place. An influential committee, with members able to determine the speed of passage of legislation.
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Russell , Bertrand
(1872–1970)
English philosopher and political activist. Russell's main philosophical achievements are in the areas of logic and mathematics. Nevertheless, he became the best-known philosopher of his time because of the volume and clarity of his writing, and the vigour and prominence of his political activism.
If anybody could be said to be born to Liberalism, Russell could. His grandfather was Lord John Russell , a former Liberal Prime Minister; and his secular ‘godfather’ (a non-Christian appointed by Russell's non-Christian parents) was John Stuart
Mill
. Many of Russell's political causes (such as support for female suffrage and opposition to the First World War) may be regarded as classically liberal; and so, in a sense, may his leading role in
CND
in the early 1960s and even his fierce opposition to the American involvement in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Russell was not a lifelong pacifist; for a short period after the Second World War he believed that, rather than allow the Soviet Union to acquire nuclear weapons which could lead to a war in which human life was wiped out or almost so, the United States and its allies should be prepared to go to war, atomic war if need be, against the Soviet Union. As Alan Ryan put it in
Bertrand Russell: A Political Life
(1988), ‘Russell was not a pacifist, because he was a consequentialist’. This does not debar him from being viewed as the last Victorian Liberal.
English philosopher and political activist. Russell's main philosophical achievements are in the areas of logic and mathematics. Nevertheless, he became the best-known philosopher of his time because of the volume and clarity of his writing, and the vigour and prominence of his political activism.
If anybody could be said to be born to Liberalism, Russell could. His grandfather was Lord John Russell , a former Liberal Prime Minister; and his secular ‘godfather’ (a non-Christian appointed by Russell's non-Christian parents) was John Stuart
Mill
. Many of Russell's political causes (such as support for female suffrage and opposition to the First World War) may be regarded as classically liberal; and so, in a sense, may his leading role in
CND
in the early 1960s and even his fierce opposition to the American involvement in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Russell was not a lifelong pacifist; for a short period after the Second World War he believed that, rather than allow the Soviet Union to acquire nuclear weapons which could lead to a war in which human life was wiped out or almost so, the United States and its allies should be prepared to go to war, atomic war if need be, against the Soviet Union. As Alan Ryan put it in
Bertrand Russell: A Political Life
(1988), ‘Russell was not a pacifist, because he was a consequentialist’. This does not debar him from being viewed as the last Victorian Liberal.
Russian Revolution
(1917)
(1917)
There were two revolutions in 1917, the one in February which saw the collapse of Tsarism, and the Bolshevik insurrection of October.
With an economy crippled by Russian involvement in the First World War and the Tsar's political authority challenged by all social groups, the system imploded in a series of spontaneous demonstrations between 23 and 27 February (women against high prices, strikers in clashes with troops, desertions from garrison regiments) which culminated in Nicholas II's abdication on 3 March.
The Duma declared itself the Provisional Government which was dominated by Miliukov and the conservative Kadet Party. Simultaneously the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies emerged with a Menshevik/Social Revolutionary majority and there began what came to be known as the period of dual power (although by June, Trotsky was calling it ‘the dual powerlessness’). There was in effect no hegemonic state power—the Provisional Government exercising it theoretically, the Soviet potentially, but with the latter refusing to take it. The Soviet Order Number 1, for example, which established soldiers' soviets, began the dismantling of the hierarchical military structure. When Lenin returned to Russia in April he described the Soviet as having incipient state power but condemned the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries for compromising with the Provisional Government and being frightened of a real revolution. His
April Theses
demanded ‘All Power to the Soviets’ (under a Bolshevik majority) and highlighted peace, bread, and land as the central political issues.
On 18 April, Miliukov committed Russia to honouring its treaties with the Allies and to pursuing the war to a victorious conclusion. Anti-war demonstrations—the April Days—were the first signs of popular disaffection with the Provisional Government. On 1 May, a Coalition Government—including Kadets, Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and led by Alexander Kerensky —emerged. It failed to address urgent economic and political problems (the breakdown of industry, land hunger, and the collapse of Russia's infrastructure) and instead launched the disastrous Galician military offensive in June.
On 10 June a mass demonstration in Petrograd called for the Soviet to confront the Provisional Government although Lenin argued that the workers were not ready for this. There was clear support for the Bolsheviks in Petrograd but they were gaining ground at a much slower pace in the provinces and at the front. A growing number of workers and soldiers were disillusioned with the Soviet's prevarications but they were not yet pro-Bolshevik (and the Bolshevik party was itself divided over strategy).
Military defeat, accelerating inflation and scarcity, and the Provisional Government's desire to remove the Petrograd garrison to the front (away from agitators) provoked the mass mobilizations of the July Days. Again Lenin believed the time premature for a take-over (he described ‘the Days’ as ‘far more than a demonstration and less than a revolution’) but exhorted the Bolsheviks to support the masses because a revolutionary party could not abandon its constituency. In the ensuing repression (itself applauded by the Soviet leadership) the Bolsheviks were forced into hiding and the political climate swung to the right. Kerensky, urged on by the Allies, began discussions with the military High Command. The Social Revolutionaries now dominated the Coalition Government (Kadet ministers having left in July) and the Mensheviks, the Soviet. The latter were belatedly realizing that a counter-revolution would destroy them as well as the Bolsheviks but were not prepared to organize the workers against it. The country was polarized; lockouts and strikes, military plots, land invasions, the self-demobilization of soldiers, the creation of no-go areas by Red Guards. As the influence of the Bolsheviks grew, that of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries declined (the latter party now split with the Left Social Revolutionaries working with the Bolsheviks).
In September, the Cossack General Kornilov , backed by Kerensky, staged an abortive coup. By this time most soviets had a Bolshevik majority and Trotsky was elected President of the Petrograd Soviet. The Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee now began to prepare for the armed insurrection of 25 October. In Petrograd with the storming of the Winter Palace and the surrender of the Provisional Government it was practically bloodless, but there was protracted fighting in Moscow. On 26 October, Lenin announced the creation of the Soviet government and issued decrees on land and peace, proclaiming ‘We will now proceed to construct the socialist order’.
The Bolsheviks were still a minority party in October (in the November Constituent Assembly elections they obtained 25 per cent as compared to 38 per cent for the Social Revolutionaries) but overwhelming public opinion supported them in the large industrial centres. Petrograd (St Petersburg, Leningrad) was the most significant political and industrial centre. This facilitated mobilization, organization, and a developing revolutionary consciousness. A fundamental problem the Bolsheviks encountered after October 1917 was the uneven development of these elements in other parts of Russia.
October represented the resolution of both the protracted social crisis created under Tsarism and the political impasse of 1917 itself. In a sense, the Bolsheviks were already ‘in power’ before 25 October—state power, which Lenin saw as the central question of every revolution, was there for the taking.
GS
With an economy crippled by Russian involvement in the First World War and the Tsar's political authority challenged by all social groups, the system imploded in a series of spontaneous demonstrations between 23 and 27 February (women against high prices, strikers in clashes with troops, desertions from garrison regiments) which culminated in Nicholas II's abdication on 3 March.
The Duma declared itself the Provisional Government which was dominated by Miliukov and the conservative Kadet Party. Simultaneously the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies emerged with a Menshevik/Social Revolutionary majority and there began what came to be known as the period of dual power (although by June, Trotsky was calling it ‘the dual powerlessness’). There was in effect no hegemonic state power—the Provisional Government exercising it theoretically, the Soviet potentially, but with the latter refusing to take it. The Soviet Order Number 1, for example, which established soldiers' soviets, began the dismantling of the hierarchical military structure. When Lenin returned to Russia in April he described the Soviet as having incipient state power but condemned the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries for compromising with the Provisional Government and being frightened of a real revolution. His
April Theses
demanded ‘All Power to the Soviets’ (under a Bolshevik majority) and highlighted peace, bread, and land as the central political issues.
On 18 April, Miliukov committed Russia to honouring its treaties with the Allies and to pursuing the war to a victorious conclusion. Anti-war demonstrations—the April Days—were the first signs of popular disaffection with the Provisional Government. On 1 May, a Coalition Government—including Kadets, Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and led by Alexander Kerensky —emerged. It failed to address urgent economic and political problems (the breakdown of industry, land hunger, and the collapse of Russia's infrastructure) and instead launched the disastrous Galician military offensive in June.
On 10 June a mass demonstration in Petrograd called for the Soviet to confront the Provisional Government although Lenin argued that the workers were not ready for this. There was clear support for the Bolsheviks in Petrograd but they were gaining ground at a much slower pace in the provinces and at the front. A growing number of workers and soldiers were disillusioned with the Soviet's prevarications but they were not yet pro-Bolshevik (and the Bolshevik party was itself divided over strategy).
Military defeat, accelerating inflation and scarcity, and the Provisional Government's desire to remove the Petrograd garrison to the front (away from agitators) provoked the mass mobilizations of the July Days. Again Lenin believed the time premature for a take-over (he described ‘the Days’ as ‘far more than a demonstration and less than a revolution’) but exhorted the Bolsheviks to support the masses because a revolutionary party could not abandon its constituency. In the ensuing repression (itself applauded by the Soviet leadership) the Bolsheviks were forced into hiding and the political climate swung to the right. Kerensky, urged on by the Allies, began discussions with the military High Command. The Social Revolutionaries now dominated the Coalition Government (Kadet ministers having left in July) and the Mensheviks, the Soviet. The latter were belatedly realizing that a counter-revolution would destroy them as well as the Bolsheviks but were not prepared to organize the workers against it. The country was polarized; lockouts and strikes, military plots, land invasions, the self-demobilization of soldiers, the creation of no-go areas by Red Guards. As the influence of the Bolsheviks grew, that of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries declined (the latter party now split with the Left Social Revolutionaries working with the Bolsheviks).
In September, the Cossack General Kornilov , backed by Kerensky, staged an abortive coup. By this time most soviets had a Bolshevik majority and Trotsky was elected President of the Petrograd Soviet. The Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee now began to prepare for the armed insurrection of 25 October. In Petrograd with the storming of the Winter Palace and the surrender of the Provisional Government it was practically bloodless, but there was protracted fighting in Moscow. On 26 October, Lenin announced the creation of the Soviet government and issued decrees on land and peace, proclaiming ‘We will now proceed to construct the socialist order’.
The Bolsheviks were still a minority party in October (in the November Constituent Assembly elections they obtained 25 per cent as compared to 38 per cent for the Social Revolutionaries) but overwhelming public opinion supported them in the large industrial centres. Petrograd (St Petersburg, Leningrad) was the most significant political and industrial centre. This facilitated mobilization, organization, and a developing revolutionary consciousness. A fundamental problem the Bolsheviks encountered after October 1917 was the uneven development of these elements in other parts of Russia.
October represented the resolution of both the protracted social crisis created under Tsarism and the political impasse of 1917 itself. In a sense, the Bolsheviks were already ‘in power’ before 25 October—state power, which Lenin saw as the central question of every revolution, was there for the taking.
GS
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