The Russian Revolution

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The Russian Revolution

• Terms, Names, Events

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What is totalitarianism?

• An absolute single party government
• No individual freedom

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Controls all aspects of individual life through
coercion and repression
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• It sweeps away all legal, social, and political
  traditions
• Sets 1 goal usually industrialization or
  conflict and all of its resources go toward it
• Any dissent is branded as evil and no political
  differences are tolerated

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• Participation in approved public organizations is
  first encouraged and then required
• Old religious and social ties are replaced by
  commitment to the state
• Whole classes of people are singled out for
  extinction (Jews in Germany and Kulaks -the
  wealthiest peasants- in Russia)

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• Police operate without any restraints or
  procedures they are directed by the whim of the
  rulers.
• (For example, Hitler had the right and power
  to amend the German Constitution at will
  recently happened in Pakistan)
• By being unpredictable, they keep a sense of
  terror among the people they dominate.

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Czar Nicholas II
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• Nicholas was the son of Alexander Romanov, a
  giant, intimidating man, and Maria Dagmar,
  Princess of Denmark, a petite woman.
• A weak-willed leader of Russia never wanted to
  be the Czar not physically robust like his
  father and brother couldnt make decisions
• Married Alexandra, grand-daughter of Queen
  Victoria of England

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• She was strong-willed and influenced her husband
  Alexandras sister, Ella, was married to a
  Russian noble, which influenced Alexandras
  choice in marrying a Russian too.
• Russia was a backward country in the early
  1900s.

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• An agrarian economy with most of the land owned
  by the nobility class
• The rest of the civilized world had been born
  into the Industrial Revolution just beginning in
  Russia
• Russia was behind the times

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• The Czar (Tsar) was the same as a king and ruled
  as a dictator
• He permitted the Russian people to form a Duma
  (like our congress) with each city and town
  sending a representative
• Russian people wanted land reform so that
  commoners could own land, and not just the nobles

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• He wouldnt listen to his people and abolished
  the Duma (their congress) thereby eliminating any
  voice the people had in their government
• During WWI he led the Russian army into battle
  against Germany, leaving his wife at home to rule
• Riots broke out in St. Petersburg and other
  cities because people were tired of being poor,
  hungry, and mistreated

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• The Bolshevik party (the workers party) gained
  control in an uprising and captured the royal
  family, sending them to Siberia in 19l8
• They were executed and their bodies were hidden
  (story of Anastasia). Alexandra and Nicholas had
  been married for twenty-three years at the time
  of their deaths

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Tsarina Alexandra Romanov

• Born in Germany in 1872
• Grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England
• When 3 years old her brother, sister, and mother
  died of diseases

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• She fell in love with Nicholas at her sisters
  wedding.
• She learned the Russian language before marrying
  Nicholas.
• They married in 1895 and had five children.
• The first four children were girls Olga,
  Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.

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• Because Alexandra didnt produce a male heir, the
  people hated her.
• When Alexandra produced a fifth child, a boy
  named for his father, it became apparent that he
  was afflicted with hemophilia, a genetic disease
  inherited from Alexandras side of the family .
  This gave those close to the Czar more reason to
  hate Alexandra for producing a defective heir.
  
• Alexeis disease was a state secret and only a
  few knew about it.

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• She worked to help the poor people in Russia and
  headed the Red Cross during WWI.
• The Russian people also hated her because she was
  German, and they thought she was cold and
  indifferent, when she was merely shy.
• They also never understood why she was involved
  with Rasputin.

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Rasputin

• He was born in 1872 in
• Siberia.
• Real name was Grigori
• Efimovich Rasputin

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• He was married, had three children, and was a
  priest
• He was both a mystic and a healer (a startsy).
• Many startsies were rough spoken, uncultivated
  men who dressed in peasant garments and were
  coarse in their habits.

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• Many were immoral, holding orgies, drinking
  heavily, brawling and making public nuisances of
  themselves. Their immorality and vulgar behavior
  was part of their theology of salvation through
  sin, which required them to sin lustily in order
  to attain the maximum salvic effect.
• The startsy were popular among aristocratic
  ladies.

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• Czarist Alexandra favored him because he saved
  her son Alexeis life when the doctors couldnt
  (Alexei was a hemophiliac).
• Rasputin became close to the royal family and
  became part of the social scene of the court.
• During WWI the Czar went to the battle front with
  his troops, leaving Alexandra to rule in his
  absence. People began rumors about the Tsarina
  and Rasputin.

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• High ranking officials in the court that hated
  Alexandra and Rasputin planned to assassinate
  him.
• Poisoned his food at a dinner party
• Shot him outside of the party
• Stabbed him and clubbed him
• Dumped his body into a frozen river
• Cause of death was determined to be
• drowning.
• The Czar and Tsarina were outraged because
  Rasputin was the only person who could save their
  sons life.

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Karl Marx

• German philosopher,
• social scientist, historian,
• and revolutionary, con-
• sidered to be the most
• influential socialist of the
• 19th Century.

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• Sharp contrast between the alienated nature of
  labor under capitalism and a communist society
  where human beings freely participated in
  cooperative production.
• Met Friedrich Engels in Paris and formed a
  life-long friendship
• In 1847 wrote The Communist Manifesto with
  Engels.
• By 1850 revolutions against autocratic
  governments were breaking out throughout Europe.

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Capitalism

• An economic system based on private ownership of
  the means of production and distribution of
  goods.
• GAP factory owner
• GAP
• factory
• workers

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The Bolsheviks

• The Russian political party that followed
• the teachings of Karl Marx.
• Made several attempts to take over Russia
• All rebellions were unsuccessful and rebels
  were executed
• Finally successful on October 24, 1917.
• Eleven million peasants were drafted into
• the Russian army during WWI. Many
• people were unhappy with the Czar because
• the economy was in ruins and people did not
• want to be at war.

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• The Bolshevik party became the
• Communist party in Russia.
• The name of the country was changed from Russia
  to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.
• In the first election the Bolsheviks received
  only 32 of the votes.

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Vladimir Lenin

• His brother was hanged for
  trying to
• assassinate the Czar.
• Joined the Bolshevik Party and
• became its leader
• In 1897 he was exiled to a work
• camp.
• Led the revolution against the
  Czar

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• Lenins slogan was Bread, Land,
• Peace and All Power to the Soviets!
• He signed the peace treaty ending WWI but Russia
  lost the Ukraine and the Baltic region, as well
  as 80 of its iron and 90 of its coal. This
  made the Bolshevik party very unpopular.
• The Bolsheviks had their own military called the
  Red Army. Lenin used his military to repress
  political opponents

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• A civil war broke out in Russia.
• The Bolsheviks, under Lenin, ruled the land and
  placed all industry, businesses, and farms under
  government control.
• In time, every group that opposed the Bolsheviks
  was eliminated. Whole populations of people were
  ruthlessly killed.
• Lenin died of natural causes in 1924.

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Leon Trotsky

• Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein
• Formed the South Russia
• Workers Union
• Exiled to Siberia in 1900
• Took the name Trotsky in 1902

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• Joined Lenin and revolutions prior to 1917
• Captured and sent to Siberia again
• Escaped to London and met Josef Stalin
• Returned to Russia after Bolshevik Revolution and
  joined Lenin
• Founded the Red Army

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• After Lenins death he shared power with Stalin
  but opposed his murderous tactics
• Stayed true to Marxism and fought for true class
  equality
• Popular with the people made Stalin jealous
• Expelled from Communist Party and then from the
  Soviet Union
• Trotskys followers were sent to concentration
  camps and never seen again

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• Relocated to Mexico
• Murdered in Mexico City in 1940 by a Stalin
  assassin with an ice-axe

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Josef Stalin

• Leader of the USSR from
• 1929 until his death
• in 1950
• Changed Communism
• from a revolutionary
• movement to a totalitar-
• ian government

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• Transformed Russia into a leading industrial
  nation
• Ruthlessly cruel and paranoid
• Killed everyone who opposed him, including family
  members
• Reign of terror in Russia under Stalin
• Defeated Hitler along with the Allies in WWII and
  then established Communist governments in Eastern
  Europe

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What is Communism?

• Simply stated everything is owned by everyone
  because the government owns it all!
• The goal was to produce goods and give them to
  people based on need rather than effort.
• Everyone would share everything
• Almost immediately became corrupt!
• Goal was to make the entire world Communist

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Who Are the Proletariat?

• The working class people (factory workers)
• Lived In poverty conditions in cities while
  factory owners grew rich
• Worked for unjustly low wages and poor conditions
  (just like 3rd World countries today sweatshops)
• The class of people that were to benefit from a
  Communist government

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Animal Farm

• A satire about the Russian Revolution and any
  revolution that promises equality but then
  becomes corrupt.
• Satire is a literary work holding up human
  vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
• It is also a fable because the characters are
  animals with human characteristics and there is a
  moral to the story.