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Roots of the Revolution• Geography of Russia:
– Huge-hard to control all
– Population/Ethnic groups
– Climate-affects economy
• Food shortages:– Suffered back to back bad
harvests
Affects of WWI
• Russia is soundly being defeated by Germany– Soldiers are deserting
– Not enough guns
• Czar Nicholas II takes personal command– No improvement
• War depletes food supply & other resources
• By 1917 there were 8 million casualties
• Russians lose faith in Czar
The Czarina & Rasputin • With Nicholas II in the
war, his wife the Czarina took over the government
• Let Rasputin influence the government officials– Cured their son’s hemophilia– Was corrupt
• Public & others distrusted him
• Faith in the government deteriorated
February Revolution
• Women marched in Petrograd (capital)– Demonstrating against no
food available & high food prices
• Thousands were marching by the end of the day
• Troops joined the women• Czar forced to give up
throne• Provisional government
set up-led by Kerensky
Lenin Returns
• Lenin returns from exile in Switzerland with German help in a sealed car.
• Leader of the revolutionaries
• Great speaker-spoke about Marx’s ideas-communism
• Called for “Peace, Land, Bread!”– Peace from the war
– Land for the peasants
– Bread for the people
Kerensky vs. Lenin• Kerensky-leader of
Mensheviks– Wanted to reform government
through a elected parliament– Continued war with Germany
• Lenin-leader of Bolsheviks– Only elite revolutionaries
should lead-– Believed that the masses
wanted a strong leader– Wanted to end war– Give power to the Soviets
(workers, councils of men, the proletariat)
October Revolution
• Leon Trotsky-Lenin’s right hand man-– Led the Red Army
(Bolshevik military)– Stormed government offices
in Petrograd– Provisional government was
arrested
• Lenin & the Bolsheviks controlled Russia by force– Renamed themselves the
Communist Party– Took control of all
communication routes (trains, telegraphs)
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is created-USSR
Lenin’s First Actions
• Lenin took Russia out of war-said it served the capitalists– Brest-Litovsk Treaty– Huge loses for Russia– 1/3 of pop. , 1/3 of
agriculture lost- Why agree?– Had to---couldn’t fight
Germany & the civil war at same time
• Created Congress of Soviets-legislative body– All members were
Communists
• Created collective farms– Vast farms where people
shared the work
Lenin’s Men• Leon Trotsky-
– Worked together on Communist ideas
– Controlled the Red Army
• Joseph Stalin– Was a member of the
Communist Party Politburo
– Had connections to all important party members
– Became General Secretary
• Lenin tried to warn all of Stalin
Lenin’s Death & Stalin’s Rise to Power
• 1924-Lenin died• Power struggle btwn
Trotsky & Stalin– Stalin had too many friends
in the government
– Trotsky away when Lenin died
• Stalin becomes head of Russia-1925– Exiles Trotsky
– Has him killed later
• Creates KGB-secret policePurges all enemies-– Kills– Sends to Siberia
• Eliminates Eastern Orthodox Church– Confiscates church land– Destroys some churches
• Created the Pravda– Propaganda Machine– Rewrote history – Claimed he was Lenin’s right hand
man
• Communism in action– Forced people to work farms
& factories together
Stalin’s Russia