1. Russian Revolution Day!
Wait…Ms. Greenberg….300 Years of Autocratic Rule – toppled in 1 CLASS PERIOD??? I’M SORRY – THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. And more importantly – are we supposed to know this for the test?

2. YES. Make the impossible possible.

3. Before we begin…think back to the causes of the French Revolution
Why are people so upset with the royal family?
What economic problems and inequalities exist in French society?
Revolutions often begin for similar reasons. The causes of Russia’s revolution will sound familiar to you. The outcome will be quite different.

4. Another trip down memory lane….
What is communism (aka Marxism)? How does communism see the course of history?

5. The Russian Revolution
1917

6. How do these events lead to the overthrow of the Tsar?
Land of Tsars Video Notes
How do these events lead to the overthrow of the Tsar?
Russo-Japanese War
Lack of connection with average Russians
“Bloody Sunday” Massacre
Dissolving of the Duma
As you watch video clips, take notes about how each of the following contributed to the question above:
Relationship with Rasputin
World War I

7. Impact of World War I on Russia
Russia enters war in 1914 very unprepared
Weak generals, poorly equipped troops
Loses more than 4 million in the 1st year
While Nicholas II is on the Front, wife Alexandra is running things with Rasputin
Soldiers mutiny & desert; food & fuel supplies dwindle, prices wildly inflated

8. March (or February) Revolution
Strikes flare up everywhere over shortages
Soldiers refuse orders to shoot the rioters
Czar Nicholas II forced to abdicate
Provisional Government created
Prices of bread skyrocket
Women play a role in this revolution – they are angry and tired from both working in factories and standing in breadlines. On March 8 (international women’s day) they start marching for “peace and bread.”
Soldiers disobey the orders to disperse and shoot. The Duma takes control of the government.
Within one week the Tsarist regime had fallen.

9. Provisional Government
:photo: Alexander Kerensky (center, white), charter member of the Provisional Government and its head in September-October 1917, arriving in Moscow on or about 12 August 1917.
The provisional government is a liberal government led by the middle class. Their goal was a constitution, parliamentary democracy, universal suffrage, 8 hour work day. They stay in WWI, an unpopular decision
But the power of the working class asserts itself through the authority of “soviets” which are councils of workers throughout the country. They represented more radical interests. Included in these soviets were the Mensheviks (modeled after the German SDP, they were willing to cooperate with a parliamentary government, even if more radical) and the Bolsheviks, who wanted a communist government.

10. Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution
Vladimir Illyich Lenin
Marxist influenced by his brother’s death (from plotting to kill Tsar Alexander III)
Only violent revolution could destroy capitalism
Spent WWI in neutral Switzerland in exile – German government provides Lenin with safe passage back. He arrives back in April and starts to organize.
Rallies the country around Peace, Land and Bread and Bolshevik membership increased three fold. Other slogans: “All power to the Soviets” and “Worker Control of Production”
The Bolsheviks work to gain support of the already existing Soviet councils.
The Provisional government loses popularity throughout that spring and summer. Peasants start to seize land for the themselves.
The Petrograd Soviet (a large Soviet council) issues “Army Order Number 1” asking soldiers to get rid of their officers and replace them with committees. This causes mass chaos in the army and mutinies during WWI.
Not everyone who is against the Provisional Government supports the Bolsheviks, but they do gain a majority and theat helps them overthrow the Provisional Government in the Fall of 1917

11. Bolshevik Revolution and new Government
November 1917 armed workers storm Winter Palace
take over government offices
arrest leaders of provisional government
Lenin turns factory control over to workers and land over the peasants (mostly to gain support for Bolshevik govt)
Treaty of Brest Litovsk pulls Russia out of WWI – much territory is given up to Germany (which Germany later loses again in Treaty of Versailles, creating the Baltic States and Poland)
Bolshevik Govt policies:
Women’s rights and social welfare
Legalized divorce, men and women’s equality, legalized abortion
Women’s bureau within communist party
Many of these reforms (radical for their time) were undone as the Bolsheviks faced opposition and struggle to survive in the Civil War

12. Trotsky edited out of picture

13. Civil War in Russia
Bolsheviks experienced opposition from supporters of the Czar, but also from socialists who didn’t support Bolshevism, social democrats, Mensheviks, etc.
Allied troops were also sent to Russia trying to get them back to fighting WWI
Reds vs. Whites
Also some nationalism from states that hoped for independence: Ukraine etc.
Royal Family murdered during the Civil War
How did the Reds win? Good military strategy under Leon Trotsky. Whites are not united (think 1848)
“war communism” – nationalization of banks and industries, centralization of state authority (not communism in its original intention)
Secret police (Cheka)
15 million people die in Civil War. Ends in 1921
Russia becomes the USSR