In the Russian Revolution, the role of Intellectuals, that too of writers was immense. The major literary works like Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and’ Anna Karenina’, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s-1 Poor Folk’, Maxim Gorky’s ‘Mother”, and ‘Children of the sun’, Turgenev’s ‘Fathers and sons’, etc., generated a new sense of awareness among Russians. It made them reflect over questions of human freedom, fate, sufferings and the meaning of life. They began to realise that human beings were not destined to endure the tyranny let loose by a handful of autocrats.

As a result of regular contacts with Germany, many Russian intellectuals were drawn towards Marxism. Prominent among them were Lenin, Kautsky, and Trotsky. The writings of Karl Marx (1818-1882) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) were widely read. Marx’s major works were ‘Communist Manifesto’ (1848) and ‘Das Capital’ (1867). These writings upheld the principles of socialism based on social and economic equality. The call of Karl Marx to the workers was “Workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains of Slavery”, which inspired thousands of young men and women.