Russian Revolutions 1905 - 1917

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The Russian
Revolution
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Russian Revolutions1905 - 1917

• Revolutions were actually several protests
  (people revolting) against the Czar over a 12
  year span, culminating with the October
  Revolution of 1917.
• It ended hundreds of years of oppression from the
  Czarist Regimes.
• It paved the way for the totalitarian communist
  regimes to exist for the next 70 years and
  created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic
  (U.S.S.R.)

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Pre-Revolution

• Russia had been oppressed for centuries by
  autocratic czarist regimes.
• Ended with Nicholas II. From the beginning of
  Nicholas reign he failed
• Coronation-- hundreds were killed because of poor
  crowd control.
• Poor harvest in the late 1890s led to civil
  unrest, Many without adequate food or wages.
• Ill-equipped for the Japan-Russo war 1904-05.

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The Royal Family
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Marxism Due to Russias economic
problems, the lower classes looked for an answer.
No classes!
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Bloody Sunday January 5 1905

• A workers protest led by a priest at the Winter
  Palace in St Petersburg turned violent and left
  some 200 people killed when the czars guards
  opened fire on the crowd.
• Led to a general strike in which 400,000 went on
  to strike in the following months, brought
  economy to a halt.
• Small mutinies in the army and navy.
• Result was the October Manifesto and the creation
  of the Duma (Russian Parliament).

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Bloody SundayNewspaper January 9, 1905

• Czar Nicholas II was actually out of town at the
  time and his troops mismanaged the whole protest.

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Bloody Sunday
Jan. 1905, workers in St. Petersburg marched
on the royal palace, the royal guards opened fire
killing hundreds.
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Rasputin Affair

• Grigory Rasputin(Street bumb) manipulated his way
  into the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra.
• Rasputin was a self proclaimed faith healer.
• To find a cure for the son Alexia who suffered
  from hemophilia Nicholas and Alexandra became
  desperate.
• This poor judgement of Nicholas and Alexandra led
  to the disintegration of support among the
  Russian people, especially from upper classes.

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Rasputin goes in for a checkup.
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WWI Problems Russia was
getting beaten by Germany, food was running out,
jobs were few, and the people were mad.
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February Revolution 1917

• 3 main causes for overthrow
• Economic collapse - increase in strikes shut down
  economy,. Sale of Vodka was banned.
• Military collapse --failures in WWI.
• Political collapse- series of errors and growing
  civil unrest finally led to the Czar being
  abdicated.
• The Czar was overthrown on February 26, 1917 and
  forces Nicholas and his family to flee the
  country later to be executed.

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The Duma Russias
parliament or governing body, like a congress.
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Duma ---gt Provisional Government

• Power struggle existed in the political anarchy
  for the next 6 months.
• Lenin and Trotsky both jockeying for power of
  revolutionary groups.
• Alexander Kerensky became the leader of the
  Provisional Government.
• WWI trudged on, Death toll continued to rise.
• Economy still in shambles.
• Peasants still without land.
• Workers were unhappy strikes persisted.
• Appeared as though it was democracy, yet still
  much civil unrest to take hold.

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October Revolution October 25 1917

• In a military coup Trotskys red army staged a
  military take-over of the winter palace in St
  Petersburg thus ending the Provisional
  government.
• Lenin seized power immediately with Trotsky and
  Joseph Stalin by his side.
• First 2 acts
• 1. to end Russian involvement in WWI.
• 2. Give peasants land. private ownership shall
  be abolished forever.

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Lenin

• Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin,.
• Spent time in jail and exile 1895-1917 for
  preaching against the czar and pro Marx (Marxism
  or Communism) and plotting to overthrow the Czar.
• Weak Provisional Government (Duma) paved the way
  for Lenin to rise to power.
• Lenin appealed to the masses Peace, Land, Bread
  

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Lenin Cont.,

• Led group known as the Bolsheviks (Social
  Democrats) in the revolution.
• Person mainly responsible for communism being
  established in Russia
• Red Terror- Lenin was a radical and ruthless
  revolutionary calling for the execution of the
  Czar and his family as well as anyone else
  opposed to the revolution.
• He had a stroke in 1922 and was bed -ridden until
  his death in 1924.

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Bolshevik Revolution (Nov. 7, 1917) Lenins
popular support from anti-Czarists let his
people seize gov. buildings and arrest officials,
taking power in Russia.
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Lenins Body Preserved
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Leon Trotsky

• Leon Trotsky founded Red Army, or MRC (military
  revolutionary council) in 1917. This supplied
  the force to the revolution.
• MRC was the group that actually facilitated the
  removal of the Duma thus completing the
  revolution.
• Trotsky allowed Lenin to seize power in the
  following years but was an vital member of the
  communist government.
• Later he would battle for power with Stalin after
  Lenins death.

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The Czar could not be allowed to rule again.
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So, the Bolsheviks took them to the basement of
their palace, where they were prisoners, and shot
them all.
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Civil War 1918-1920

• Reds Vs. Whites
• Reds Bolsheviks (majority)
• Whites Anti-Bolsheviks or people against the
  communist regime. Actually supported by Western
  powers including the U.S.
• Whites were concerned with the creation of the
  Communist elite and return to the old order.
• Civil War was eventually won by Lenins
  Bolsheviks and the red army.
• Communist Govt, seized church lands and
  property.
• NEP (New Economic Policy) allowed peasants to
  grow crop for profit.

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Vs.
Civil War
Reds- The communists Whites -moderate
socialists, Duma supporters and western nations
U.S., England, France and Japan. The reds win.
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Propaganda Designed to influence and
control peoples beliefs and information flow.
The Bolsheviks used it and when they took over
they forced it on people everywhere.
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Propaganda Trains
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Lenins Communist state

• Mass executions used to eliminate opposition to
  the communist state.
• Government assumed full control except for the
  NEP of industry, banks, and foreign trade.
• All political parties were banned, and the
  government controlled all districts within
  Russia.
• Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (U.S.S.R)
• All Church land and property was seized. Church
  schools were closed. State schools taught that
  God did not exist
• Government used censorship to silence any
  unfavorable foreign views. Also used propaganda
  to teach the Marxists philosophy.

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The Secret Police Terror police
whose job it was to kill and eliminate all people
thought to oppose the Communists.
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Poster showing Lenin as the great leader.
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The U.S.S.R. 1922,
The Union of Soviet Socialists Republic was
formed to unite all Russian people under one
government.
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Propaganda cable cars
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Traveling propaganda acting troop mocking the
Czar and Rasputin.
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Religious Persecution
Your heart should be given to Lenin and the Party
not God. God did not exist. Many religious
leaders were imprisoned.
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Two old friends
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Joseph Stalin Lenin dies in 1924 and
Stalin fights for power. Lenin warns Trotsky to
not let him rule. He takes power anyway.
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Joseph Stalin Man of Steel

• Upon Lenins death in 1924 Joseph Stalin assumed
  power over Leon Trotsky. Lenin biggest fear was
  that Stalin and not Trotsky would assume power.
• Stalin was popular with the people and his views
  that it would not take a global communists state
  for communism to succeed in the Soviet Union
• Stalins first policies were his Five Year plans
  and the Collective farms. Appeared to be
  successful from outside but failed, people
  realized that no matter how hard they worked they
  would all benefit the same

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Great Wise Father
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Five Year Plans Modernize the Soviet Union in
five years no matter what the cost. It caused
massive shortages and suffering for all.
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Collective Farming
All farmers are forced to give up their own farms
and work and farm in groups. It was a huge
failure.
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Kulaks
The prosperous farmers of Russia became
Stalins target. Liquidate them as a class he
said. Thousands were shot or sent to work camps.

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The New Economic Policy A policy
of gov. control mixed with private industry to
ease Russia into total gov. economic control
(Communism).
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Gulags The
prison work camps in Siberia that Stalins
enemies were sent. Few ever returned.
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The Great Purge 1935-1939 Stalin killed
off any and all political rivals. All of the
old Communists were eliminated. Thousands
were arrested, tried and executed.
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Trotsky in Mexico Leon Trotsky was
hunted down by Stalins agents and killed in his
hotel room in Mexico City with an ice pick.
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Totalitarianism Total and absolute rule, total
domination of a people. By 1953 estimates are
that Stalin killed 80 million of his own people.
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Centralized Government The
Communists moved the capital from Petrograd to
Moscow, The Kremlin. The leaders were called the
Politburo.
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Stalin Purges

• He proved to be even more ruthless than Lenin
  with his famous purges.
• Between 1934 an 1938 some 8 million people were
  convicted of crimes they possibly could not have
  committed. Many of the convicted were loyal
  party members and 50 were his own officers.
• People were executed or worked to death in labor
  camps.

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Eric Blair, (George Orwell)
Animal Farm 1945