1. Soviet Russia Under Lenin

2. Time Line
1917 The March Revolution leads to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II The Provisional Government is established Soviets are elected in Petrograd and other Russian cities The Bolsheviks take power in the November Revolution.
1918 The Soviet government dissolves the constituent assembly.

3. Time Line
1918 The Soviet government signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
The Reds defeat the Whites in the Russian Civil War.

5. The March Revolution
National Collapse
End of the Tsarist Regime

6. The March Revolution National Collapse
WWI a devastating experience for Russia.
Industrial inability to sustain a major war effort.
Empress Alexandra ran the government when Nicholas took control of the army.
Grigori Rasputin.

7. The March Revolution End of the Tsarist Regime
Early 1917, strikes and demonstrations swept Petrograd.
War weariness. Shortages. Runaway inflation. Distrust of government.
Nicholas II dissolved the Duma.
Nicholas ordered troops to suppress demonstrations.
3/15/17, Tsar Nicholas abdicated.

8. The Provisional Government
Duma committee reorganized itself as Russia’s Provisional Government.
Alexander Kerensky the only socialist to serve in the liberal-dominated government.
Promised reforms.
Announced plans for election of a constituent assembly to draft a constitution for a democratic republic.

9. The Provisional Government
Creation of Soviets
Bolshevik Program
Policies of Provisional Government

10. The Provisional Government
Creation of Soviets
Socialist leaders in Petrograd call on workers, soldiers, and sailors to elect the Soviet Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
Although socialist, soviet gave tacit support to Provisional Government.
Similar soviets in other cities.

11. The Provisional Government
Bolshevik Program
4/1917, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the radical Marxist Bolsheviks, returned to Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.
April Theses: proletarian socialist revolution.
“Peace, Land, and Bread”

12. The Provisional Government
Policies of Provisional Government
Not prepared to authorize confiscation of land, nor seize food to meet the needs of the cities.
Wanted to continue the war vs Central Powers.
7/1917, collapse of the Russian offensive against the Austrians.

13. The July Days
Spontaneous revolt against the unpopular Provisional Government.
Bolsheviks supported the revolt even though they thought it premature.
Late July, Kerensky took control of the government.

14. The Kornilov Affair
9/1917, General L. G. Kornilov, commander of the Russian army, attempted a coup and military dictatorship.
Provisional Government, with help from Bolshevik-led Petrograd Soviet, put down the threat.
Provisional Government further weakened.

15. The November Revolution
Late October, 1917, Lenin and followers begin plans to overthrow Provisional Government.
11/6-7, Red Guards seized strategic locations in the city.
11/7, Lenin announced a new regime, the Council of People’s Commissars.
Leaders: Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin.
Bolsheviks took control in other cities and towns.

16. Lenin
Youth and Early Career
Leader of the Bolsheviks

17. Lenin Youth and Early Career Born Vladimir llyich Ulianov.
Oldest brother, Alexander, involved in conspiracy to assassinate Tsar Alexander III.
Brother executed in 1887.
Self-taught lawyer. More interested in Marxism than the law.
Arrested and imprisoned in Siberia for radical activities.
1900, went into exile.

18. Lenin Leader of the Bolsheviks
1898, a group of Russian Marxists established the Social Democratic Party.
Lenin and radical Bolsheviks split from more moderate Mensheviks.

19. Early Measures of the Bolshevik Regime
Bolsheviks called on peasants to seize land and workers to take control of factories.
Reform Laws
The Constituent Assembly
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

20. Early Measures of the Bolshevik Regime
Reform Laws
Attempted to destroy Russian Orthodox Church.
Replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.
Simplified the Cyrillic alphabet.
Titles of nobility abolished.

21. Early Measures of the Bolshevik Regime
The Constituent Assembly
Elections held in late November, 1917.
Bolsheviks disappointed in results.
1/1918, assembly met in Petrograd.
Bolsheviks dissolved the assembly after 1 session.
Cheka.
Bolshevik dictatorship.

22. Early Measures of the Bolshevik Regime
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 3/1918
Negotiated between Lenin’s government and Germany.
Russia accepted harsh German terms.
Gave up Finland, Russian Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine.
Believed they’d get all back as revolution spread.
Treaty was nullified after Germany’s defeat by the Allies.

23. The Civil War Reds vs Whites Allied Intervention
Soviet Territorial Losses

24. The Civil War Reds vs Whites
Bolsheviks (Communists) had certain advantages.
Controlled heart of the country and industry.
Lines of communication and supply were short.
Leon Trotsky created an effective fighting force, the Red Army.

25. The Civil War Whites (anti-Communist forces) lacked coordination.
Fears that if victorious, return to old regime.

26. The Civil War
7/1918, Communists executed the former tsar and his family.
French, British, and American troops intervened on behalf of the Whites, but to little effect.
Bolsheviks resented Western invasions of Russia.
, gradually the Reds defeated the major White commanders.

27. The Civil War Soviet Territorial Losses 1920, Poland invaded Russia.
3/1921, Treaty of Riga:
Poland annexed western Belorussia and the western Ukraine.

28. War Communism
Nationalization of major industries, banks, and insurance companies.
Private trade prohibited.
Food requisitioned from peasants in order to feed the cities.
Supreme Economic Council supervised operations of the Russian economy.
Deeper economic chaos.
Production declined. Transportation and communication systems collapsed.
Shortages of food and fuel.