1917

 Characteristics:  Backward  Limited Industrialization  Strikes common in cities (3500 in 1914 alone!)  Completely ill prepared for WWI  Agricultural productivity plummeted during the war to compensate for industrial needs…starvation.  Alexandra and Rasputin

 Russian troops fleeing battle with the Germans at Galalica

 Joined to promote Nationalism and inspire industrialization.  Sponsored chaos, disunity, non-conformity and slaughter.  Russia outnumbered every army they faced and lost due to leadership and pitiful supplies.

 Tsarina’s advisor…a man famed for intrigue and poor judgment.

 See “The Women Who Started The Russian Revolution”  Similar to France

 March 1917, the Romanov Double Headed Eagle was desecrated.  Red Flag of the revolution hung in its place.  Replacing the Romanov autocracy

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT  Appointed by Duma  Led by Georgi Lvov and Alexander Kerenski SOVIETS  Local councils elected by workers and soldiers.  Most powerful-Petrograd Soviet.

 They had none.  What they did have was starvation, poverty, and devastating conditions.  Those peasants who joined the war for food deserted in droves when it became clear they wouldn’t get much there.

 Women’s group enlisted to show the failing men how to fight…  This plan didn’t go well. 85% casualty rate.

 February to July 1917  Exiled leaders re-emerged  Lenin—a German operative?

 “Majority” even though they were the minority…um, yeah.  Mensheviks-”minority”, even though they were the majority…ok.  Bolsheviks more radical.

 Opposition to the War  Lenin’s April Theses  Promised “Peace, Land, and Bread”  Advocated radical seizures of land

 Massive Demonstrations  Brutal government responses  Bolshevism growing

 July Days  Growing gap between the wants of Kerenski’s government and the power of the Soviets.  A second revolution coming.

 Led by Lenin  Bolsheviks…now the majority.  Lenin disguised after July Days.  A better disguise than Louis XVI

 Revolution achieved with almost no bloodshed…that was to come in the Civil War between the Red and Whites. This claimed approximately 1,000,000 lives.  The Romanov family was executed by the Bolsheviks.

 Substantial territory loss.  A bitter humiliation.  Gone were the Ukraine, Georgia, Finland, and Belarus.