Russian Revolution

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Russian Revolution
2
Russia was unprepared for the total war of World
War I

• Militarily and technologically
• No competent leaders
• Industry could not produce weapons
• Suffered huge losses 2 million died between
  1914-1915

3

• Czar Nicholas II was increasingly cut off from
  events by his wife, Alexandra
• She had become influenced by Rasputin
• With Nicholas involved in the war, Alexandra made
  many government decisions
• She consulted Rasputin this gave him power in
  government
• People became more and more upset. They
  assassinated Rasputin.

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Rasputin
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• In March 1917, Government began to ration bread
• A series of strikes led by women, started in
  Petrograd
• They demanded peace and bread, down with
  Autocracy
• Nicholas ordered troops to break up crowds by
  shooting if necessary
• Guards eventually joined the crowds too and
  refused to shoot

6

• The Duma, legislative body, asked Nicholas II to
  step down
• He agreed this ended the 300 year dynasty
• A provisional government was put in place
• Alexander Kerensky was in charge and decided to
  carry on the war efforts
• This did not please anyone

7

• A socialist group, the soviets, represented the
  radical interests of lower classes
• The Bolsheviks were a Marxist party called
  Russian social Democrats
• The Bolsheviks came under the leadership of V.I.
  Lenin
• They became a party dedicated to violent
  revolution
• Peace, land, bread summed up the Bolshevik
  program
• Worker control of Production and all Power to
  the Soviets

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• Soviets gained power went from 50,000 to 240,000
• On November 6, 1917 the Bolsheviks seized the
  winter palace
• Lenin gave power to all-Russian congress of
  Soviets however..
• Real power stayed with the council of peoples
  commissars, headed by Lenin
• March 3, 1918 Lenin signed the Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk
• Gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and
  Baltic provinces

9

• Many people were opposed to the Bolshevik or
  Communist regime
• Groups who were loyal to the czar, liberals, and
  anti-Lenin communists
• The Red Army was forced to fight opponents (white
  forces) on many fronts
• Serbia, Ukraine, Baltic regions
• By 1920, major opposition to the Communists had
  been defeated
• Communist regime took over Georgia, Russian
  Armenia, and Azerbaijan
• On July 16, 1918 soviets murder Czar Nicholas and
  his family

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Lenin and the Communists triumph in the Civil War

• Leon Trotsky organized a well-disciplined Red
  Army
• Reinstated the draft
• Soldiers who refused to obey were executed on the
  spot
• White forces were unorganized and did not have a
  common goal
• The Communists had a single-minded sense of
  purpose
• Used a policy of war communism
• Government control of banks, industries, grain
  from peasants, and centralized administration
  under communist party.
• Secret police, checka, began a red terror aimed
  at crushing dissent
• Presence of foreign armies appealed to Russian
  patriotism

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• 1921- Communists were in total control of Russia
• Centralized state dominated by a single party