The Russian Revolution

1. The Russian Revolution Rise of Communist Russia

2. Discontent and Problems in Russia Background to Revolution

3. Czar Nicholas and Chaos in Russia • Czar Nicholas was a weak, isolated, autocratic ruler more suited to past times. • Spent his entire life surrounded by secret police or serving in the elite corps of the Russian military. • Further isolated by his German-born wife Alexandra. • Russian people were dissatisfied with life under the Czars. • Marxists groups form. • Series of workers strikes and student protests begin in 1899. Minor revolts break out in the countryside. • Russia’s defeat in 1905 at the hands of Japan demoralizes the country.

4. Revolution of 1905 • January 22, 1905. Bloody Sunday. • Russian Orthodox priest leads thousands of people in a peaceful protest to ask for an elected assembly and other government reforms. • They march on the Winter Palace of the Czars in St. Petersburg. • Czar Nicholas’s soldiers open fire on the protestors. Hundreds are killed. • Gave strength to the rebels. • In response, Nicholas does form a Duma but the czar doesn’t give up too much power. The Duma does give a forum for political discussion. • Marxists form a Soviet, a revolutionary council – the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. • Strikes continue. • December 1905 Troops are called out again to put down another uprising.

5. Russia in the Great War • Due to lack of experienced military leaders and technology, Russia was underprepared for WWI. • The Russian army was poorly trained and equipped and suffered terrible losses. They also experienced a massive outbreak of typhus due to lice carrying the bacteria that causes the disease. • Despite having no military experience, Czar Nicholas insisted on commanding the army in the field, leaving his wife to make the important decisions in St. Petersburg. • By 1917 the will to fight had disappeared.

6. Upheaval on the Home Front • Alexandra was overly influenced by her advisor GrigoriRasputin who claimed to be a holy man. • They made unwise decisions and passed over qualified people for key positions further hurting the czar’s chances for gaining any popular support. • Russian people became increasingly upset with the czar and his wife due to military and economic disasters. • Conservatives wanted to save the deteriorating situation and assassinated Rasputin in December 1916. • This was too little, too late to save the monarchy.

7. March Revolution • March, 1917, working-class women led a series of strike in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) over food and coal shortages. The called for a general strike that shut all the factories down. • Alexandra reported to Nicholas calling the demonstrators hooligans. Nicholas ordered out the army. Soldiers refused to shoot the protestors and many joined the revolt. • March 12, 1917, the Duma established a provisional government and requested the Czar to step down. Nicholas abdicates. • Provisional government was headed by Alexander Kerensky. He decided to continue the war which angered the peasants and workers. • Revolutionaries continued to set up soviets in cities throughout Russia. • On March 14, soldiers and sailors were told to ignore orders from their commanders.

8. French diplomat stationed in Petrograd “The state of anarchy is confirmed and extends further and further every day. Petrograd is no longer the only centre; it’s the same everywhere, in Moscow, in Kiev, and confusion and disorder reign.”

9. Time of Anarchy • Provisional government is reorganized 4 times between March and October. • Government is unpopular because it can not address the problems facing the country and will not end the war with Germany. • Independence movements by non-Russian people groups within the Empire contributes to the chaos. • Bolsheviks and their allies continue strikes and uprisings.

10. Bolshevik Leadership Communism and the Rise of Lenin

11. Communism • Society provides equality and economic security for everyone. • Government owns the means of production. • Government plans most economic activities. • Strict rules dominate the Communist Party and all of government. • Government controls all of peoples’ lives. • Collective needs are more important than individual freedoms.

12. Bolsheviks Under Lenin • Began as a small part of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. • Reflected discontent of the people. • 3 Slogans: Peace, Land, Bread. Worker Control of Production. All Power to the Soviets. • Under leadership of Vladimir IlyichUlianov (known to the world as V.I. Lenin), the Bolsheviks became a party dedicated to violent revolution to destroy the capitalist system. • Lenin saw the soviets of soldiers, workers and peasants as ready made instruments of power, thought the Bolsheviks should gain control of them and use these groups to overthrow the provisional government.

13. Bolsheviks Seize Power • By October 1917, Party membership had grown from 50,000 to 240,000 • Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky who was head of the Petrograd Soviet. • Bolshevik forces seized the Winter Palace on Nov 6th and the Kerensky government quickly collapsed with little bloodshed. • Power was technically turned over to the Soviets, but the real power was in the hands of the Council of People’s Commissars, headed by Lenin.

14. Out of the War at Last • Lenin had promised peace, on March 3, 1918 he signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. • Humiliating loss of territory, Russia had to give up control over the Danzig corridor in Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic provinces. • Lenin argued it made no difference because the socialist revolution would spread throughout Europe and make the treaty irrelevant.

15. The Struggle Continues Civil war in Russia

16. Russian Civil War • Many people were opposed to the communist regime, including groups loyal to the czar, liberals and socialists that did not back Lenin and the Bolsheviks. • Allied Powers were very concerned about communist takeover. Sent thousands of troops to Russia in hopes of bringing Russia back into the war. Didn’t fight, but gave aid and materiel to the anti-Communist forces. • White (non-Communist) forces and the Red (Communist) forces fought until 1920. • Russian royal family was killed by the communists who feared the white forces might use them as a rallying point.

17. Red Prevails Triumph of the Communists

18. How They Won • Red Army was a well disciplined fighting force. • Commissar of war Leon Trotsky was a genius. He reinstituted the draft and insisted on rigid discipline. • Disunity among white forces weakened them. • Some wanted to restore the czar. • Others wanted just a more liberal and democratic program. • Communists had zeal and convictions. • Practical power – centralization of power, secret police, appeal to patriotism to expel foreign troops.