1. Russian Revolution

2. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism
Russia slow to industrialize
Nobles, priest and autocratic Tsar control gov
*1/22/1905 Bloody Sunday Czar guards fire on peaceful protesters
Tsar Nicholas II used secret police to impose will
Revolutionaries hatched radical plots
Proletariat-growing class of factory and railroad workers, miners, and urban wage earners

3. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism
WWI fueled national pride and united Russians
Strained resources
No rifles
Nicholas went to front line
Tsaria Alexandra left in charge
Relied of advice of Gregory Rasputin

4. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism
Alexandra convinced Rasputin magical
Russian noble kill Rasputin
Food shortages, Marchers chant “bread, Bread”
*Tsar Nicolas II abdicated
New Russian Republic

5. The March Revolution Ends Tsarism
Socialists plot own course
Soviets- councils of workers and soldiers
Bolsheviks- a radical socialist group
They took charge V.I. Lenin

6. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
Lenin read works by *Karl Marx
Spread those ideas
Imprisoned in Siberia
Exiled in Switzerland
Adopted Marxist Ideas
Dictatorship of the proletariat
*Bolshevik - majority
Germany sent Lenin back to Russia to weaken it

7. The November Revolution Brings the Bolsheviks to Power
Russians tired with war
Troops deserting
Peasants seized land
Red Guards- armed factory workers
Attacked provisional government
Overthrew government in a few days
Seized power in other cities

8. The November Revolution Brings the Bolsheviks to Power
Ended private ownership of land
Workers control of factories
Red flag with hammer and sickle symbolize union between workers and peasants
Bolsheviks renamed Communists
*Lenin promised “peace, land and bread”

9. Russia Plunges into Civil War
Lenin sought peace with Germany
Civil war raged for 3 yrs
Reds vs whites
*Whites army made of tsar imperial officers
Reds Communist revolutionaries
Cheka-secret police force
Forced labor camps
Commissars-communist party officials assigned to the army to teach party principles and ensure party loyalty

10. Building the Communist Soviet Union
New gov united much of old Russian empire
Set up democratic socialist constitution
*In reality communist party reigned supreme
Russia becomes the Soviet Union
Changed economic system so small businesses can be privately owned
With NEP standard of living improved

11. Stalin Takes Over Stalin isolates opposition
Stalin agent kills opposition candidate in Mexico
Used ruthless measures to win dictatorial power