Could I Possibly Have Some Help With The Russian Revolution?

I'm writing a story (A Loud Silence) about the Russian Revolution but I feel I don't know enough about it yet. Do you think you could help a writer out and tell me about: Travelling from St. Petersburg to England- how long would it have taken, what would the route be etc... Clothes- what kind of clothes would they have worn? World Affairs- what EXACTLY was going on in 1917? How they would have spoken- (is that a weird question?) What would their vocabulary be like? Conditions on boats and trains to England- My family are upper class so what would the transportation be like? So I would really be grateful if you could answer my questions or just tell me anything you about 1917 in general. Thank you!!! :D

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It would have taken a while, maybe a couple of months. Some of the information in Eva Ibbotson's The Secret Countess is really good. It depends when they left, because the later you left it, the more likely you would be to end up spending a couple of weeks in a refugee camp. If you were upper class you might have been able to bribe your way out of the camp, but even so the conditions on the boats wouldn't have been very good. You would probably have had to walk out of Russia. I don't think they would have spoken very differently, just cut any slang out. In February 1917 there was a revolution in St Petersburg which was brought on by their losses in the War. The Duma, Parliament, took control and formed the Provisional Government, which was filled with a mixture of aristocracy and Socialists who all wanted different things but for the moment it pacified the protesters. However, the Tsar lost support of the army and without it he could not crush the Revolution and so was forced to abdicate and was later shot by Bolsheviks along with the rest of his family. Originally Tsar Nicholas' brother Michael was going to take over, but the Russians wanted a true end to the autocracy (Romanov rule) they had been living under for 300 years. The Duma survived for a few months in dual power, a coalition whereby the Duma officially held power, but the day to day control of the workers was done by the Soviets, small groups much like trade unions in each factory. These were all led by the socialists, especially Bolsheviks. In October 1917 the Bolshevik Party (led by Lenin) overthrew the Provisional Government and established Russia as a socialist state under the control of the Bolsheviks. They seized control of the countryside and cities and set up the Cheka, the Russian Secret Police, to control people.

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In March 1918 they signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany which took them out of the war. After that a civil war broke out between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (anti-Bolshevik groups such as the aristocracy, old war generals, upper class people, landowners etc.) and this continued for a few years, ultimately ending in a Red victory. It's really confusing, I know. The Bolsheviks were socialists, people who wanted to nationalize everything and have power to the people. Their party was split in two, after the February revolution the Bolsheviks wanted another to gain full Bolshevik control of Russia and get rid of the Provisional Government, while the Mensheviks were happy with the way it was, while still being socialist. The Red victory at the end of the civil war leads into communism, and the hard line Bolsheviks end up becoming the Communist party which then rules Russia until 1991 under Lenin, then Stalin, then Kruschev and so on...

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@LikeTotallyPoland I'm studying this in history right now! so I could have given you all the political information, but @intotheneonlights beat me to it! And I would recommend The Secret Countess too.

I fee like I should add though that whilst the February Revolution was more of the popular kind, it wasn't organised by any particular groups, it was just protests and strikes that lead to the Tsar's abdication. It also all took place in St Petersburg (then known as Petrograd). The October Revolution was not a popular revolution and nor was it bloody; the sailors that the Bolsheviks had managed to recruit just marched into the Winter Palace and met no resistence. Fun fact; more people died in the making of a Soviet film about the OctRev than in the actual October Revolution!

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@off_piste @intotheneonlights thank you so much! I'll certainly find the information helpful!

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@off_piste Haha I just revised it... got my GCSEs coming up... woo Russia! That is a fun fact by the way :P

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@LikeTotallyPoland no problem :)

@intotheneonlights ah, good luck! We're still working through the course for AS-Levels. Not sure we're going to finish it in time!

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@off_piste that's unlucky, when are the history modules? Thanks :) I know this sounds really weird (and stalkerish) but I think I might have looked at your profile before because you look quite a lot like one of my friends... anyway all of that weirdness aside, I can't remember how I found it... :/ so before I completely freak you out... I love Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Northanger Abbey too! But this is not the place to spam you with creepiness so I'll just shut up now... :/ @LikeTotallyPoland it's ok, there's loads on it online but it can be quite overwhelming unless you've learnt it!!!!

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So could you also help me out on what jobs would be available in England at that time? Mainly industrial jobs. Thank you!

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@RussiaWillNukeYou Probably mainly the ones on ships, they had some many people working on titanic and when that sank, well regulations changed and things had to be redone, building in general was huge. cars were becoming popular, electricity being improved, and T.V.s (well more of just major motion pictures so black & white films) were starting to be developed. that pretty much all falls under very smart well paid people designing and building.

BTW people seem to have left out where they killed the entire Romanov family, the dog, the physician and i think some maids or butlers (it was like a total of 11 people or something). The bodies of Alexei and one of the girls (normally thought of to be Anastasia) were missing but after the 1990's or somewhere in that time frame, it was deemed through computer reconstruction compared with photos of the girls that she would have been too short and then they believed it was Marie who had escaped. in 2007 2 skeletons were found with shrapnal not far from the murder sight. Both had Romanov DNA.

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@RussiaWillNukeYou I am so sorry, I completely forgot about this whole thing.

Because Britain was still at war in 1917, huge numbers of people and resources were geared towards the manufacture of munitions etc... that was pretty much the main focus of industry at the time. But, you would have still had miners and steelworkers as well. There would also have been people still working in the textile factories and mills, but most of this would also be geared towards producing clothes for the men in the trenches. Bare in mind that the majority of people working in industry would have been women at the time, to be replaced by the men when they came back from war in 1918.

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Im writing a story based on the romanov's downfall, so I might be able to help. There are some super websites out there. Also, the film nicolas and Alexandra is defo worth a watch to get the atmosphere of the time. Plus, it gives a run down on politics and clothes and world affairs.

Here's the link to my story, its not perfect but it might give you some idea as to what they spoke like: Mine starts in 1913-1918 so it is a little earlier than yours, but it shows both the communist and romanov lifestyle at the time. No it ain't perfet, but im working on it!

http://www.wattpad.com/story/1183019-do-svidaniya-petrograd-watty-awards-2012

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