ONE POINT of view was given voice by the Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. How would the Russian Revolution affect this vast empire? Should the nations oppressed by the Tsar have the right to self-determination? These questions were related intimately to the issue of land ownership-and hotly contested in the socialist movement. There were hundreds of laws to restrict the rights of Jews and make them second-class citizens.
In addition, Jews and other ethnic minorities spread throughout 'Great Russia' suffered pogroms and persecution.
WHEN RUSSIA'S Tsar was toppled by the revolution of February 1917, his empire had a population that was 43 percent Russian and 57 percent non-Russian.Ī majority of people-in Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, modern-day Belarus, the Ukraine, Georgia, Turkish Azerbaijan and Central Asia-lived under an occupation by a government whose language and laws were not their own.
