Download The Russian Revolution

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
AND IN THE BEGINNING…
Czars ruled Russia for centuries. The Czar and
Czarina were equivalents of Kings and Queens.
The word “czar” comes from “Caesar”.
 Czar Alexander III succeeded his father in 1881. He
continued the principles of autocracy (total power)
 Enforced strict societal rules:

NO questioning authority of the czar
 NO worshipping outside the Russian Orthodox Church
 NO speaking a language other than Russian

COUNTRY OF FEAR
Censorship on
published and written
materials; including
private letters
 Secret police watched
secondary schools and
universities
 Teachers forced to
send detailed reports
on all students
 Political prisoners sent
to Siberia

Oppressed nonRussian national
groups
 Made Russian the
official language of the
empire
 Jews became targets
of persecution
(Pogroms-organized
violence)

“STEEL”-ING THE COUNTRY
Factories, Investments,
Steel
Factories more than
doubled between 1863
and 1900
 To finance industry
buildup, gov’t sought
foreign investments
and raised taxes
 1900: Russia was the
4th ranked country to
produce steel in the
world

Trans-Siberian Railway

Began building in 1891,
completed in 1916
GROWTH OF A MOVEMENT
Increase in industry = poor working conditions, low
wages, child labor, and general discontent
 Government outlawed trade unions; workers
organized strikes
 Birth of the Marxist Revolutionaries

THE MARXISTS

Marxist revolutionaries believed the independent
class of workers would overthrow the czar

The workers would then form a “dictatorship of the
proletariat” (workers would rule the country)

2 groups formed: Mensheviks and Bolsheviks

The Mensheviks were moderate and wanted a broad
base of support for a revolution

Bolsheviks were radical, preferring a small group that
would sacrifice everything for change
V.I. LENIN
Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
 Adopted the name Vladimir Lenin

Educated, engaging, organized, ruthless
 Leader of the Bolshevik party
 Early 1900s, fled Russia to escape arrest by the
czarist regime, remained in contact with the party

RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
Russia and Japan compete for Korea and
Manchuria
 Signed treaties, which Russia broke leading Japan
to attack in February 1904
 Russians suffer loses, morale falls, and unrest
continues in cities

BLOODY SUNDAY

Amidst unrest over working conditions, 20,000
workers storm the czar’s Winter Palace in St.
Petersburg on January 22, 1905

Demanded better working conditions, personal
freedom and elected national legislature. Czar’s
generals fired on the crowd

Outcomes of “Bloody Sunday”
1,000 dead, unrest escalates
 Czar forced to create the Duma

THE DUMA
October 1905 approved the first parliament
 Met in May 1906 with moderate leaders. Wanted
constitutional monarchy
 Czar Nicholas II feared consolidation of powers,
dissolved the Duma after 10 weeks

WWI: THE FINAL BLOW?
Exposed the
weaknesses of czarist
rule and military
leadership
 Within the 1st year of
fighting, more than 4
million killed, wounded
or taken prisoner
 On the home front,
problems and unrest
continue

THE ROMANOVS
Czar Nicholas II takes
power in 1894.
 Nicholas and wife,
Czarina Alexandria have
5 children: daughters
Olga, Tatyana, Maria and
Anastasia; and son Alexei
 In 1915, Nicholas leaves
family and puts Czarina
in charge of government
when he moves to the
war front

RASPUTIN




Grigori Rasputin, a self
described “Holy man”
The Crown Prince, Alexei
suffered from hemophilia and
Rasputin was employed by
the family because he eased
the boy’s suffering
Czarina’s gratefulness
translated to allowing
Rasputin to make political
decisions in her husband’s
absence
In 1916, a group of nobles
murder Rasputin in fear of his
growing influence over the
Czarina
THE MARCH REVOLUTION AND THE END OF
THE CZAR
March, 1917: Petrograd textile workers lead a
citywide strike, riots follow in the wake.
 The “small” protest leads to nation-wide uprising
and forces Czar Nicholas to step down. Bolsheviks
move family into house-arrested exile in the Ural
mountains.
 Leaders of the Duma establish provisional
government, Alexander Kerensky placed in charge

Kept Russian in WWI (loss support of both soldiers and
civilians)
 Peasants demand land, city workers become more
radical, conditions worsen

SOVIETS AND LENIN’S RETURN
Even under the new provisional government, the
power rested heavily in the people of the cities and
towns. “Soviets” were established.
 The Germans, sensing an opportunity to force
Russia to leave WWI, send Lenin back to Russia

Arrives in a sealed railway boxcar in Petrograd in April
1917
 In the fall of 1917, the people rally behind Lenin and his
promise of “Peace, Land and Bread”
 November: armed factory workers (calling themselves
the Red Guard) storm the Winter Palace and arrest the
leaders of the Provisional Government

BOLSHEVIKS IN POWER AND THE END OF THE
ROMANOV DYNASTY
All farmland be distributed to the peasants, control
of factories given to the workers
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed to pull Russia from
WWI



Large territory surrendered causing widespread anger
The Romanov family is murdered by the Red Guard
in the basement of their exile house in the Urals
Many object to the decision to murder family
 Lenin sees it as necessary to eliminate all threats to
power
 Video

THE ANASTASIA MYTH
Following the murders of the
Romanov family, it was
believed by many that not all
members were killedspecifically the youngest
daughter, Anastasia
 2 years after the deaths, a
woman claimed to be the
young duchess
 In the 1990s, posthumous
DNA proved the falsity of her
claim

SAME PROBLEMS, DIFFERENT DAY-CIVIL WAR
BREAKS OUT

Bolshevik opponents form the White Army

Comprised of multiple beliefs, only unified in their
opposition of Lenin and party

Red Army led by Leon Trotsky

Lasted from 1918-1920
White Army aided by Western Nations
 14 million die during the struggle and the famine that
follows

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
Lenin recognizes that the economy has been
destroyed by war and revolution
 March 1921, sets aside plans for state-controlled
economy, institutes the NEP (New Economic
Policy)

Peasants allowed to sell surplus crops
 Small factories, businesses and farms operated
privately
 Gov’t keeps control of industries, banks, and means of
communication


By 1928, farms and factories produce at pre-WWI
levels
THE END OF LENIN

Lenin dies after a series of
strokes in 1924

The question of whom
would take power loomed

Two men struggled against
each other for control
POWER STRUGGLE
Leon Trotsky

Lenin’s right-hand man
Joseph Stalin

Secretary of the
Communist Party
AND IN THE END…

Joseph Stalin takes power