Russian Revolution

Czars = cruel, oppressive rule (19 th cent)  Social unrest

I. Czars Resist Change Czars = autocrats Czar Alexander III ( ) Imposed strict censorship codes  Written docs.  Secret police  Political prisoners = sent to Siberia  Other groups oppressed  Czar Nicholas II (1894)—last czar

II. Russia Industrializes Factories doubled:  still behind West  Acquired foreign investment & raised taxes  1900: Russia = 4 th largest steel producer Trans-Siberian RR (1891 – 1916)

A. Revolution Grows I.R. = discontent?  Factories = poor working conditions, low wages, child labor  Trade unions outlawed Marxist Revolutionaries

B. Marxism Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels  The Communist Manifesto  Society = warring classes Middle class = “haves” or employers  “bourgeoisie” Poor = “have-nots” or workers  “proletariat”  I.R. enriched wealthy & impoverished the poor  Proletariat would overthrow bourgeoisie

C. Bolsheviks Vladimir I. Lenin  Fled to W. Euro (early 1900s)

II. Crisis at Home = CRISIS

A. Bloody Sunday Jan. 22, 1905:  200,000 workers petitioned czar’s winter palace Wanted change  Soldiers fired on crowd Over 1,000 wounded, several hundred killed  Strikes & violence spread  Nicholas did nothing

B. WWI: Final Blow 1914: Russia & WWI Unprepared—no match for Germans  Over 4 mill. killed in less than 1 yr. 1915: Nicholas moved h.q. to war front  Czarina Alexandra ran govt.  Rasputin made political decisions Murdered by nobles (1916)  Soldiers mutinied, food & fuel was low, inflation

III. The March Revolution March 1917: workers strike in Petrograd  Riots over shortages (bread & fuel)  200,000 workers Down with the autocracy! Down with the war!  Soldiers sided w/workers

A. Czar Steps Down Protest led to March Rev. Nicholas forced to abdicate  He & family executed  Romanov dynasty ended Provisional govt. est.  Cont’d to fight WWI  Unrest spread Socialist revolutionaries  Soviets: local councils of workers, peasants, & soldiers More influence than provisional govt.

B. Lenin Returns Germans supported Lenin’s return to Russia Reached Petrograd (April 1917)

IV. Bolshevik Rev. Bolsheviks took Petrograd soviet All power to the soviets! Peace, Land, and Bread!

Lenin. The new brush that sweeps clean.

The Tsar, the Priest and the Rich Man on the Shoulders of the Labouring People

Capital as the source of all evil. Under the image is a satirical poem by Demjan Bedny. The red text on the left states that damaging the poster or pasting another one over it is a counter-revolutionary crime.

"The workers and the peasants are finishing off the gentry and the barons, but the workers on the home front also have not forgotten about help to the peasant economy. Long live the union of the workers and peasants!"

"Without a saw, axe, or nails you cannot build a home. These tools are made by the worker, and he has to be fed."

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the helm.

A. Provisional Govt. Topples Nov. 1917: workers stormed Winter Palace  “Bolshevik Red Guards”  Took over govt. (provisional govt./the Duma)

B. Bolsheviks in Power Everything collectivized March 1918: signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

C. Political Reforms Nationalism seen as threat Russia organized into several self-governing republics under central govt.  1922: U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) Bolsheviks = “Communist Party”  Communism = classless society  Held ALL power A dictatorship of the Communist Party, NOT dictatorship of the “proletariat”

D. Stalin Becomes Dictator 1922: Lenin suffered stroke  Died 1924 Stalin gained control  “Comrade Stalin…has concentrated enormous power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution.  In power until 1953