Chapter 4: The Fall of Tsarism

1. Chapter 4: The Fall of Tsarism Revolution www.mennosimons.ab.ca/resource/russ_rev.ppt

2. What is a Revolution? • A complete change in the way things are done (Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Russian Revolution) • Sometimes peaceful • Sometimes violent • Russian Revolution = the overthrow of the Tsar’s government and the establishment of Communist Rule

3. Karl Marx Spontaneous revolution of the working class “Let the ruling classes tremble at the prospect of a communist revolution. Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. Proletarians of all lands, unite!” Vladimir Lenin Planned revolution by professional revolutionaries Revolution of all oppressed classes of society Events and Personalities Leading up the 1917 Revolution

4. Bloody Sunday • Unarmed peasants, led by Father Gapon, marched to Winter Palace singing, “God Save the Czar” carrying petition requesting shorter work days, minimum wage, calling of a constituent assembly to create a constitution for Russia. • Palace Guards fired upon crowd killing hundreds, injuring thousands (without orders) • Bond between Czar and his people broken forever

5. Not a strong leader Did not keep promises made to increase personal freedoms (free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom of language) Easily influenced by Rasputin Did not give DUMA (national parliament, much power) Tsar Nicholas II

6. World War I • Russia unprepared for war • Not enough supplies (food, weapons, clothing) • Army poorly organized • Soldiers didn’t understand why they were fighting • Tsar Nicholas II and his ministers provided poor leadership and organization

7. Events of the Revolution February 1917 • Spontaneous uprising of peasants • Protesting shortage of bread: • Industrial strikes • Tramcars (city transit) forceably stopped • Breaking of shop windows • Waving red flags that read, “Down with war!”

8. Revolutionaries Take Over • When revolutionary leaders realized the revolution was actually happening, they tried to organize the events to their benefit. • Leaders of Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Social Revolutionaries all joined together calling a three-day general strike • At least 60,000 soldiers join the revolutionaries • These leaders, together with soldiers set up a Soviet (council) • Take control of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) • Duma disobeys Tsar’s orders to dissolve and form the Provisional Government to run Russia • Tsar Nicholas II steps down in favour of his son, Alexis, with Tsar’s brother acting as regent • Tsar’s brother refuses succession • Romanov line to Russian throne ends • Romanov family placed under house arrest (confined to palace) • Russia now governed by a Provisional Government

9. Provisional Government • Declared all Russian citizens equal • Freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly given to all citizens • Unions and strikes legal • Planned on continuing war • Provisional Government made these promises, but asked people to wait • People tired of waiting and listened more and more to the revolutionaries

10. Alexander Kerensky • Leader of small socialist party became Russia’s Prime Minister in July • Wanted to establish Parliamentary Democracy • Well educated and an excellent speaker, he lacked strong leadership abilities

11. Bolsheviks • Believed that a small group of trained revolutionaries could lead the workers to overthrow the Provisional and establish communism in Russia • Led by Lenin • Tried to attract the people with slogans like, “All Power to the Soviets” and “Bread, Peace, and Land”

12. Bolsheviks • Lenin headed the Bolsheviks, the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Party • The Bolsheviks capitalized on the government’s insistence on continuing the war, its inability to feed the population, and its refusal to undertake land reform • Eventually the Bolsheviks gained control of the Petrograd soviet 1922 poster declaring “Starvation is strangling Russia” ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w416373/102/HIS102Lsn11RussianRevolutionCommunismFascismNationalSocialism.ppt

13. Bolshevik Revolution • By end of September, there was widespread peasant rebellion in Russia • Lenin left Finland in disguise and attended a secret Bolshevik meeting in Petrograd • Bolsheviks held mass meetings with thousands in attendance • Kerensky declares Russia to be in a state of emergency and orders arrest of Trotsky and other Bolshevik leaders

14. Bolsheviks • On Oct 24-25, 1917, the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace and seized control in a virtually bloodless insurrection • The Bolsheviks ended Russia’s involvement in World War I by signing the treaty of Brest-Litorsk with Germany on March 3, 1918 Picture purportedly original, but actually a reenactment, of the Bolshevik storming of the Winter Palace

15. How Did Bolsheviks Win? • Kerensky not a strong leader • Provisional Government disorganized • Other parties not as organized as Bolsheviks • Bolsheviks composed of professional revolutionaries dedicated to their goals and capable of carrying them out

16. What Did Lenin Do Upon Coming to Power? • Immediately proposed an end to War (WWI) (what peasants wanted most was peace) • Proposed the distribution of all land to peasants, landowners would not be paid for land taken from them • Lenin’s proposals adopted

17. After the Revolution • Bolsheviks encountered stiff resistance in some cities • Bolsheviks defeated in Kiev (Ukraine) • Bolshevik power weak in Siberia, Georgia, Armenia, and Central Asia • Strongest in Central Russia and in large cities where many workers lived

18. Ending WWI • Bolsheviks needed peasant support to stay in power • Lenin decided to get Russia out of WWI and send peasant soldiers home • In March of 1918, Lenin signed treaty with Germany accepting German occupation of Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltics, and Finland • Russia lost over one quarter of its farmland and one third of its population, almost all its coal mines, and more than half its industries • Huge loss to Russia’s economy

20. Civil War • Civil war lasted from 1918 to 1921 • Some non-Russian nationalities took up arms to win independence from Russia • Fight by Bolsheviks to establish communism in Russia, which was renamed the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (USSR) in 1918 • Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party

21. Civil War • Britain, France, Japan, and the US all sent troops and supplies to aid the Whites but the Whites were defeated in 1920 • 10 million are estimated to have died in Russia’s civil war 1919 Bolshevik poster showing the three White generals as vicious dogs under the control of the US, France and Britain.  

22. Civil War • The Bolsheviks and their opponents fought a civil war from 1918 to 1920 • Lenin established Moscow as his capital and initiated the “Red Terror” against the “Whites” • Secret police (the Cheka) killed 200,000 of Lenin’s opponents • In July 1918, the Bolsheviks executed Nicholas II and his family to prevent them from being manipulated by the Whites The Romanov Family

23. End of Romanovs • Taken to Western Siberia • After Bolsheviks took power taken to Ekaterinburg (in Ural Mountains) • Lenin sent telegram authorizing their execution • Taken to cellar at 1:30 a.m. with family doctor and servants • Nicholas and Alexandra fell first under the hail of bullets • Bullets bounced off the daughters, diamonds found in their corsets • Those who survived the bullets were killed by bayonets • Bodies loaded onto truck, stripped of jewels, thrown into a mine • Mine not deep enough to hide them, bodies dumped into a pit in a marshy area • Even the family dog was killed

24. Bolshevik Success • Their enemy was not united • Trotsky created a well-organized and disciplined army increasing the size of the Red Army by conscripting thousands of workers and peasants as well as former Tsarist soldiers • Bolsheviks increased their support among workers and peasants by promising land and a brighter future • Used terror against opponents • In newly conquered areas, Bolsheviks used secret police to destroy all opposition, arresting and executing people on the spot

25. Results of Civil War • Much of Russia in ruins • Cities, land, factories destroyed after almost eight years of fighting • Millions died or fled country • Bolsheviks had mammoth task of rebuilding country

26. War Communism • During the civil war, the Bolsheviks adopted a hasty and unplanned course of nationalization called “war communism” • The Bolshevik government assumed control or ownership of banks, industry, and privately held commercial property • Landed estates and the property of monasteries and churches became national property • Private trade was abolished

27. War Communism • By 1920, industrial production had fallen to 1/10 its prewar level and agricultural output was down 50% • Workers went on strike, demobilized soldiers flooded the workforce, peasants rebelled • Lenin had to do something 1920 Bolshevik poster entitled “The Last Battle” shows a Red Army soldier knocking a capitalist businessman off the world.

28. New Economic Policy • Lenin realized he needed to win back the workers so he radically reversed war communism, implementing the “New Economic Policy” in 1921 • Temporarily restored the market economy and some private enterprise • However, Lenin died in 1924 before the plan could get a decent chance to work • A struggle for power ensued and Joseph Stalin emerged in control in 1928 Lenin’s body on display in Moscow

30. Five Year Plan • Stalin replaced Lenin’s New Economic Plan with his first Five-Year Plan in 1929 • Designed to transform the Soviet Union from a predominantly agricultural country to a leading industrial power • Set targets for increased productivity in all spheres of the economy, especially heavy industry, at the expense of consumer goods • Expropriated privately owned land to create collective or cooperate farm units whose profits were shared by farmers • Even though consumer goods were almost non-existent, full employment in the midst of Global Depression made a centrally planned economy appear a viable alternative

31. The Great Purge • Stalin consolidated power by inciting a civil war within his own party to remove opposition • Between 1935 and 1938 he removed all people suspected of opposition from their positions of authority • By 1939, 8 million Soviet citizens were in labor camps and 3 million were dead Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

32. Soviet Labor Camp in Siberia

33. Possible References: • This PowerPoint • Your textbook • The following websites: • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_revolution • http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture6.html • http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture7.html • http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/EastEurope/OctRev.html • http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/ • http://www.encyclopedia.com/searchpool.asp?target=@DOCTITLE%20Lenin%20%20Vladimir%20Ilyich • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSlenin.htm • en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin • http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml • www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/timeline/1900/1917-b.html • http://www.virtualclassroom.net/tvc/rusrev/sld007.htm • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUScivilwar.htm • www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/classroom/alevel/revol.htm

34. Events of Bolshevik Revolution • Cruiser Aurora listens to Trotskey and disobeys Governments order to go out to sea • Trotsky orders the removal of thousands of guns from the Fortress of Peter and Paul to arm the Red Guards (Bolshevik troops) • Small bands of armed Bolsheviks seize important buildings (rail stations, telegraph exchanges, banks, printing plants, and powerhouses). Most regiments in Petrograd did not get involved. • Trotsky declares Provisional Government overthrown, power now in hands of Soviets • Kerensky escapes in American Embassy car • Bolshevik troops surround Winter Palace and give ultimatum to surrender or be shelled; ministers would not surrender • Cruiser Aurora fires blank shells at Winter Palace to signal beginning of attack • Bolsheviks (composed of soldiers, sailors, and workers) storm Winter Palace • Bolsheviks encounter little resistance, mass confusion but few injuries • Bolsheviks control Government, Lenin was new leader