Russian Revolution

1
Russian Revolution

• Autocracy to Totalitarianism

2
Upholding Autocracy

• Autocracya single ruler hold unlimited political
  power
• Czar Nicholas I Alexander II had been
  mistreating abusing peasants while social
  inequalities were growing
• Alexander II was assassinated in 1881
• Even though he was enacting some peasant reforms
• Alexander III took his fathers throne and ended
  all reforms to put more power in his hands
• Wanted to strengthen autocracy, orthodoxy, and
  nationalityall power, all Orthodox, all
  speaking Russian

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The Last of the Romanovs
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Upholding Autocracy

• Alexander III works to end rebellions
• Strict censorship
• Secret police watching over schools
• Teachers reporting on student writing
• Political prisoners sent to Siberia
• Nationalist Reforms
• Russian is official language, no Polish
• Persecution of Jews becomes national policy
• Couldnt buy land
• Quotas of Jews at universities
• Pogromsorganized violence against Jews
• Police looted destroyed Jewish homes, stores,
  synogogues

5
Pogroms
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New Czar Resists Change

• Czar Nicholas II takes over in 1894 continues
  autocracy
• Economic Growth
• of factories doubled
• 4th leading producer of steel, but still lagged
  behind Europe
• Trans-Siberian Railwayworlds longest railway
• Connected Euro-Russian to Pacific ports in 1904

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Trans-Siberian Railway
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New Czar Resists Change

• Revolutionary Spirit Grows
• Rapid industrialization created usual problems
• Competing revolutionary movements arise
• Marxist Groups Arise
• Industrial class should overthrow the czar
• Form a dictatorship of proletariat
• Division in groups
• Mensheviks want a democratic revolution
• Bolsheviks want a communist, dictatorial
  revolution
• Bolsheviks
• Supported a small number of committed
  revolutionaries
• Led by Vladimir Lenin, a ruthless leader that was
  hiding in Western Europe from czar

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Bolsheviks
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Ponder This!

• What did the czars do to maintain an autocracy?
• What impact did this policy have on the future
  revolution?
• How did Russias Industrial Revolution contribute
  to the growing tensions in Russia?
• What is a pogrom and why was it used?
• What is the difference between the Bolsheviks and
  Mensheviks?

11
Crisis at Home Abroad

• Russo-Japanese War
• Competing over Korea Manchuria
• Russia kept breaking treaties over use of
  territories
• Japan attacked defeated Russia in 1905
• Revolution of 1905 Bloody Sunday
• 200,000 workers march on Winter Palace carrying a
  petition asking for better working conditions
  more freedoms
• Nicholas wasnt there, but police opened fire
  killing 1000 unarmed protesters
• Strikes violence spread across country
• Nicholas forced to allow a Duma, Russian
  parliament
• He dissolved it shortly after

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Russo-Japanese War
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Bloody Sunday
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Crisis at Home Abroad

• World War I Final Blow
• Nicholas brought Russia into war in 1914
• Weak generals limited supplies allowed easy
  German victories4 million lost in 1 year
• Nicholas went to war front in 1915, leaving
  country to Czarina Alexandra
• She ignored Nicholas advisors and fell under the
  spell of mysterious Rasputin, a magical holy-man
  who was helping Alexis
• Troop morale was dropping with defections
  mutinies
• Supplies ran short on home front w/ rising
  inflation

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Rasputin
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March Revolution--1917

• Women led riots of 200,000 in Petrograd over
  bread and food shortages
• Soldiers initially opened fire, but then turned
  on their commanding officersspreading riots
  nationwide
• Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne,
  ending 300 years of Romanov rule
• Duma set up Provisional Government, headed by
  Alexander Kerensky
• Supported the war, upsetting soldiers citizens
• Peasants wanted land, workers wanted raises
• Competition arose among local soviets of workers,
  peasants, and soldiers
• They gained more influence then Provisional
  Government
• Germans arranged for return of V.I. Lenin in
  April 1917

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March Revolution
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Ponder This!

• Describe the Russian psyche after the
  Russo-Japanese War.
• What was the cause and effect of the Bloody
  Sunday riots?
• Why were Russian people upset with the war effort
  in WWI?
• What was role of Rasputin?
• Why did Russia withdrawal from WWI?
• What was cause effect of March Revolution?

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Bolshevik Revolution

• Bolsheviks gain control of soviets in Petrograd
  other major cities
• All power to the soviets
• Peace, Land, Bread
• Provisional Govt topples
• Nov. 1917, Red Guard (Bolsheviks) stormed winter
  palace in Petrogradfactory workers
• Took over govt offices arrested leaders
• Lasted hours, Kerensky disappeared

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November Revolution
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Bolshevik Revolution

• Bolsheviks in Power
• Lenin orders all farmland distributed among
  peasants
• Workers given control of factories
• Signed Treaty of Brest-Litvosk
• Land give-away in treaty caused anger among
  Russians
• Civil War
• White army rises in opposition to Bolshevik
  reforms w/ help from Allies
• Red army led by Leon Trotsky successfully fights
  back White army and quells all rebellions from
  1918-1920 resulting in 15 million dead

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Leon Trotsky
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Lenin Restores Order

• Economy was in turmoil, trade stagnant,
  industrial production decreasing, skilled labor
  leaving
• New Economic Plan (NEP)
• Put aside state run communism for small-scale
  capitalism
• Allowed profits to begin to circulate through
  country
• Govt controlled rest of essential enterprises
• Major industries, banks, communication
• Encoraged foreign investment

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Lenin Restores Order

• Political Reforms
• Russian contained many nationalities, posing
  threat to nationalism
• Lenin organized Russia into many self-governing
  republics under Soviet central control
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
  was created in 1922, w/ Moscow as capital
• Bolsheviks renamed to Communist Party
• Reality became a dictatorship of party, not
  workers
• By 1928, USSR recovered to pre WWI economic
  standing
• Lenin died in 1924 of a stroke, creating a new
  power struggle

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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
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Ponder This!

• What is a soviet?
• Who are the Bolsheviks?
• Who was the leader of the Bolsheviks?
• Why did the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk upset the
  Russian people?
• Describe the struggle of the Russian Civil War.
• What was Lenins NEP?
• What did Lenin call the new socialist government
  he created?
• The Bolsheviks changed their name to what to
  honor whom?