Russian Revolution

Objectives Today we will be able to identify the main causes and phases of the Russian Revolution.

Causes By late 1916, Russia faced rising prices and huge bread and fuel shortages. Tsar Nicholas also lost the support of the people  The Russian people did not trust his German wife, Alexandra, or the peasant healer Grigory Rasputin.

The February (March) Revolution Women were denied bread, which coincided with International Women’s Day protests. These two contingents banded together and created a demonstration 10,000 strong. They called for equal rights for women, a Russian republic and and end to the war. The tsar abdicated when he could not suppress the demonstrations.

The Provisional Government Moderates from the political center and moderate left formed a government.  They sought a free, liberal and democratic Russia. They issued amnesty for political prisoners, codified equality for Jews and Muslims, promised to convene a constituent assembly and pledged to continue the war effort against Germany.

The Petrograd Soviet There was a dual governmental system.  The Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. The Soviet was made up of elected radical local worker and military counsels. They demanded that military officers show respect for common soldiers and sailors and that no military orders were to be issued without approval by the Petrograd Soviet.

Political Amnesty Political prisoners returned to Russia. This included Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the radical Bolsheviks. He published his April Theses. Read and analyze the April Thesis.

The October (November) Revolution Lenin organized a takeover of Petrograd. The Bolshevik party’s Red Guards executed the takeover. They arrested the Provisional Government in the Winter Palace. By the end of November, the Bolsheviks were in control of the largest country in the world.

The Bolsheviks in Power The Treaty of Brest- Litovsk  The Russian-German treaty ending Russia’s involvement in the war.  Gave Germany ¼ of what had been imperial Russia.  German troops occupied the Baltics. The constitution of 1918

The Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Read your section of the constitution. Summarize your section and be prepared to report out to the class. Present your section to the class while the class takes notes on the important aspects of your presentation.

The Civil War Imperial and Provisional Generals raised armies to fight the Bolsheviks. These forces became known as the “whites” because they opposed the “reds” The Allies supplied and supported the white army.  British, American and Canadian forces landed on Russian soil on July 17.  They claimed they were deterring Germany from taking Russian land. Whites and Reds both engaged in terror campaigns. The Reds defeated the Whites in 1920.