The Russian Revolution

Chapter 30

Russia in Turmoil• 1825 – Russian army officers revolted• 1861 – Czar Alexander II “frees” the serfs• 1881 – Alexander II assassinated

– Alexander III returned to full autocracy• 1894 – Nicholas II become Czar (autocratic)• 1904 – 1905 – Russia loses the Russo-

Japanese War• January 22, 1905 – Bloody Sunday

Revolution• 1914 – Russia enters World War I

Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)

First time since the Mongols that a European power lost to an Asian power – huge embarrassment to Russia

Revolution of 1905

“Bloody Sunday”

Fall of the Czar• World War I was a huge burden on Russia

– Heavy losses, little supplies• 1916 – beginning of the end for Czar Nicholas II and

Alexandra– War became more and more unpopular– Influence of Grigori Rasputin

• By March of 1917, the Russian people were rioting against the czar (soldiers began to join them)

• March 15, 1917 – Nicholas II abdicates his throne– Ends 300 years of the Romanov dynasty

Olga, Maria, Nicolas, Alexandra, Anastasia, Alexis, Tatiana

Nicholas II of Russia and

Family

1914 – Russia Enters World War I on the Allied Side

Russian soldiers surrendering to the Germans at the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) Czar Nicholas II left the

government in his wife’s hands in order to lead the Russian troops against Germany

Rasputin

• Rasputin put the monarchy under further suspicion• Had the alleged ability to stop Alexei's bleeding and alleviate his pain• Was corrupt, promiscuous, and made bad policy decisions

• Was assassinated by a group of Russian nobles in 1916

February Revolution • March of 1917: workers

striking and people rioting in Petrograd (St. Petersburg)

• Nicholas tried to dismiss the Duma (legislature), but they refused to obey and Nicholas abdicated

• FYI - Russia uses a slightly different calendar– February Revolution = March in the west– October Revolution = November

The Provisional Government

• Middle-class took over the government• Challenged by socialist groups (Petrograd

Soviets)– Wanted land given to serfs– Wanted factories given to the workers

• Alexander Kerensky main leader during provisional gov’t

• Provisional gov’t did not withdraw from war, angered Russian people

• Germany sends Lenin out of exile in Switzerland – helps him sneak into Russia, he plots to overthrow the government

Lenin• Mensheviks – socialist group that

wanted change through the masses• Bolsheviks – small, radical force

that wanted to bring socialism through force

• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin made plans to lead Bolsheviks into power– Brother was hanged for attempted

assassination of a czar– Exiled in 1895 (Switzerland)– Germans help him return in 1917 to

lead Bolsheviks

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)

Lenin’s chief collaborator: Leon Trotsky

The Bolshevik Revolution

• Provisional gov’t tried to put down Bolsheviks

• Bolsheviks lead coup d’etat in November 1917

• Set-up Communist nation– Ended private ownership of property– Wanted to spread movement around the

world

October Revolution Succeeds

• November 6, Trotsky organizes a putsch that succeeds

• Bolsheviks disband the new legislature in which they were a minority

The Bolsheviks Act Decisively• Nationalized land and turned it over to

peasants• Factory workers put in charge of plants• Banks taken from owners and seized for

state• National debt repudiated• Church property confiscated• Took Russia out of WWI

Civil War• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March, 1918) – Lenin

signs treaty with Germany– Lost a great deal of territory– Nationalist movements in eastern empire (see map of

1918)• Civil War

– Reds – Communists (Lenin and Trotsky)– Whites – wanted to get rid of Communists and re-

enter WWI (supported by allied powers)– Three years of fighting destroys nation

Murder of the Czar and His Family

• On the night of July 16th or 17th, 1918, the last Russian Tsar and all his family, including the gravely ill Alexei, along with several family servants, were executed by firing squad in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg (where they had been imprisoned) by a detachment of Bolsheviks.

• NO ONE SURVIVED!Last known photo of Nicholas II

Russian Civil War: 1918-22“Reds v. Whites”

– Red Army organized by Trotsky; the Bolsheviks

– “Whites” disorganized; strange coalition of Czarists, moderate socialists, and supporters of democracy

– Mainly American and Japanese troops landed to help crush Bolshevism, but just inspired nationalism; The Red Army was victorious, but millions of Russians died due to the civil war

Bolsheviks win the Civil War• The Terror

– Lenin uses “war communism”– 1918 – killed czar and his family– Cheka arrested anyone accused of being an

“enemy of the revolution”– Restricted religion

• By 1921, Lenin had entire country under Communist control– Russia becomes the Soviet Union or the U.S.S.R.– Lenin dies in January, 1924

• Sets off power struggle between Trotsky and Josef Stalin

Lenin’s Tomb

Trotsky vs. Stalin

STALINIST RUSSIATotalitarianism at its finest

Terms to know for Stalinist Russia

Totalitarianism = government that has complete central control over all aspects of public and private life

Indoctrination = creating completely loyal support through education and glorification of leaders Use of propaganda and

censorship Persecution = relocation, special

laws, and violence used against “enemies of the state” Usually blamed ethnic or religious

groups for problems

Stalin becomes a totalitarian leader

Wanted to create a perfect communist state

Police State Great Purge (1934 – 1938): put on trial

anyone (even Bolshevik Revolutionaries) that Stalin thought threatened his power Millions executed or sent to labor camps

(gulags) Estimated 8 – 13 million killed

Propaganda and Censorship Stalin’s government controlled all

media Education and Indoctrination

Controlled from nursery school through universities

Religious Persecution Destroyed churches and synagogues Spread propaganda supporting atheism

Stal

in’s

Spi

es

Stalin’s Gulags

Famine Victims

Work Camps

Stalin’s Command Economy Government made all economic

decisions What was produced, sold, and what

prices Five-Year Plans

Series of plans to increase industrialization in the country

Sacrificed consumer goods for industrial goods Shortages of housing, food, clothing, etc.

Collective Farming Hundreds of family forced to produce

food for the state Those that resisted were eliminated (5

– 10 million died) State farms run like factories, even

larger Production did increase

Collective Farms

Life in Stalinist Russia Production, education, and skills

increased Freedoms and consumer goods

decreased Women gain more education, jobs and

rights Women expected to provide future

citizens Stalin had created a totalitarian state the

made him in complete control