The road to revolution

The imperial magnificence, centred on the tsarist autocracy, was in sharp contrast to the other side of St. Petersburg’s development, the growth of its industrial proletariat. During the 19th century there was much industrial growth in the city, accelerated by improvements in communications and extension of trade. Navigation was opened on the Mariinsky (1810) and Tikhvin (1811) canal systems, which replaced an old and inadequate system. In 1813 the first Russian steamship was built in St. Petersburg, and in 1837 the first Russian railway was constructed from the city to the Summer Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Five years later work started on the railway to Moscow, opened to traffic in 1851. A line to Warsaw was built in 1861–62, followed by still others. In particular, the cotton textile and metalworking industries flourished, the former using imported raw materials. By the 1840s more than three-fifths of Russian imports were entering by way of St. Petersburg. In 1885 a channel was dredged to give larger ships access to the port. City growth and industrialization were stimulated by the emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861, which allowed far greater mobility of labour. From 539,400 inhabitants in 1864, the population rose to about 1,500,000 in 1900, largely by migration from rural areas (as late as 1910 only one-third of the population had been born in the city). By 1917 the total had risen to about 2,500,000.

The factory environment in St. Petersburg became a breeding ground for revolution. With the development of metalworking and engineering as the primary industries, there arose a skilled labour force, increasingly alert politically. Moreover, the factory workers, who numbered nearly 250,000 in 1914, tended to be concentrated in plants of far larger size than was usual in Russia; the Putilov (later renamed Kirov) armaments works alone employed about 13,000. It was thus easier for revolutionaries to spread their ideas and for workers’ groups to organize than it was elsewhere in Russia. At the same time, the growth of the city was characterized by a belated and slow development of public transport, making it necessary for workers to live close to their place of work, in conditions of appalling overcrowding (more than 180,000 per square mile in the centre), squalor, and lack of sanitation. Throughout the period before 1917 the city administration was lacking in efficiency and often in funds, and the provision of all public services—even a water supply—was inadequate. Outbreaks of serious epidemics were commonplace.

The first serious revolutionary outbreak in St. Petersburg came on December 14 (December 26, New Style), 1825: the Decembrist insurrection, organized largely by liberal aristocrats and army officers seeking a liberal constitution and an end to serfdom. It was ruthlessly suppressed. During the rest of the 19th century, workers’ revolutionary activity and unrest steadily increased, with ever more frequent strikes and outbreaks of violence. These culminated in the general strike of January 1905, when some 150,000 workers took part. On what became known as Bloody Sunday, January 9 (January 22, New Style), a mass march to the Winter Palace, bearing a petition to the tsar, was met by troops who opened fire; more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The situation developed into revolution, spreading throughout Russia. Although it was again crushed, underground revolutionary activity continued.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought an upsurge of patriotic fervour centred on the tsar. The Germanic form of the city’s name was changed to its Russian version, Petrograd. The military disasters of the war and the worsening economic situation, however, revived and intensified discontent. Transport inefficiencies led to severe shortages of food and other supplies. On February 26 (March 11, New Style), 1917, with a general strike in effect, disorder broke out. The authorities were slow to act and lost all control. The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was formed on February 27 (March 12, New Style). On March 2 (March 15, New Style) the tsar abdicated. A provisional government was set up, eventually under the premiership of Aleksandr Kerensky. On April 3 (April 16, New Style) Vladimir Ilich Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland and set about organizing the overthrow of the provisional government. Demonstrations in July were suppressed, but on October 25 (November 7, New Style) Bolshevik-led workers and sailors stormed the Winter Palace, deposing the provisional government and establishing the Bolshevik Party in power.

The Russian Revolution of 1917, which changed the course of history, was spearheaded by the Petrograd proletariat and the sailors from Kronshtadt. In January 1918 a Constituent Assembly met in Petrograd, but the Bolsheviks, who had won only a minority of seats, dispersed it and consolidated their authority.