Revolution and Civil War in Russia Ch 11 sec 5

I. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism Nicholas 2 was Tsar of Russia at the beginning of World War 1. He was and autocrat; he had total power and used spies and the secret police to maintain his power. The ideas of Karl Marx spread throughout the poor population of Russia, creating hatred for the wealthy land owners and their oppression of the peasants.

I. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism When the war broke out, people joined to fight in a wave of patriotism, but Russia’s industries could not keep up with demand, so that by 1915 Russian soldiers did not have enough weapons, ammunition, and supplies to effectively fight. Tsar Nicholas decided to lead the war effort himself, but he was just as bad of a general than all of his officers.

I. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism Nicolas left his wife in charge of the government, but she had an advisor named Rasputin who really controlled her. He had helped her son with his hemophilia, so she thought he was a miracle worker. People thought Rasputin had too much power, so he was killed in 1916.

I. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism The war was going so badly that in 1917 the tsar was forced to give up the throne. The Russian parliament, called the Duma, ran the government and the war. Radical socialists named Bolsheviks began to push for control of the country, and encouraged the poor to rise up and take control.

II. Lenin and the Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin was a revolutionary that was kicked out of Russia in 1895 for being a threat to the Tsar. He studied the ideas of Karl Marx and adapted them to Russia. He was living in Germany during World War 1, and when the Tsar stepped down Germany helped Lenin sneak back in to Russia to cause a revolution and get Russia out of the war.

II. Lenin and the Bolsheviks Lenin advocated a violent overthrow of the government and then set up a Communist government that would evenly distribute wealth to everyone.

III. The November Revolution The government of the Duma kept fighting the war and did not change society at all. The rich were still rich and had all the power. The poor had no hope and no power. In 1917 troops mutinied, the poor took land away from landowners and drove them off. Then the troops overthrew the Duma government, and the Russian civil war was on.

III. The November Revolution The Bolsheviks took power and negotiated a peace treaty with Germany. They lost a huge portion of territory and the population that lived there, but they were out of the war. The civil war pitted the Reds who were the Bolsheviks and their supporters, and the Whites who were the tsarist supporters and anyone else who hated the Bolsheviks.

III. The November Revolution They fought for 3 years, but the Reds were able to keep power and defeat the Whites. The Reds used brutality and terror to keep control of their followers and their enemies. In order to solidify their power, the Reds killed the Tsar and his entire family so that the Whites would have no one to rally behind.

III. The November Revolution By 1921 the Communists were in control of the country, but the same problems still could not be solved. Power was not with the people, and the Communists used spies and secret police to control the population.

III. The November Revolution The economy had practically collapsed when the government took control of everything and forced peasants to give up all their grain. Lenin allowed some capitalism back in, and the economy recovered a little.

III. The November Revolution But Lenin died in 1924, and a power struggle was set off. The battle boiled down to Trotsky and Stalin. Trotsky had been one of the planners of the revolution, and was a skilled speaker and Communist thinker. Stalin was a politician and was just power hungry. He wanted power at any cost, and was willing to kill anyone who got in his way.

III. The November Revolution Stalin was able to turn everyone against Trotsky, so that he had to flee to Mexico to escape persecution. Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 by Stalin, even though Stalin had complete control of the country by then.

In your notebooks Half page summary of the lecture.