1. The Russian Revolution

2. Autocratic Alexander III
Autocracy: absolutist government where ruler has all power
Anyone who questions authority of czar, worships outside Roman Catholic church, or speaks language other than Russian is labeled dangerous
Alexander III (Sasha)
Censors documents
Secret police
Spying on schools, teachers, students
Political prisoners sent to Siberia
Pogroms (organized violence against Jews)

3. Industrialization of Russia
Number of factories double in 40 years
Foreign investors make Russia 4th largest producer of steel (behind US, Germany, Britain)
Trans-Siberian Railway ( ) is longest worldwide
Industrialization brings discontent
Poor work conditions, low wages, child labor
Marxist followers believe industrial class will overthrow czar
“Dictatorship of the proletariat (workers)”
Two Marxist organizations
Mensheviks want broad base of popular support
Bolsheviks support few revolutionaries to sacrifice all
Led by Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)

4. Sunday, Bloody Sunday Jan. 22, 1905: Bloody Sunday
200,000 workers approach czar’s palace
Petitioning better working conditions, more freedom, elected national legislature
Nicholas II’s army fires on crowd, killing many and wounding 1000
Leads to strikes and violence across Russia
Followed by creation of the Duma (parliament) wanting Russia to become constitutional monarchy
Czar dissolves Duma

6. How World War I ended the Czar
Nicholas II brings Russia into WWI
Russians slaughtered by Germans due to lack of modernization and industrialization
WWI kills/wounds 4 million Russians
Nicholas moves his rule to front lines
Rasputin (healing holy man) takes control of political decisions, opposes reform, gets powerful positions for friends
Russia continues to decline, can’t be fixed by Nicholas

7. The March Revolution Women textile workers revolt in March, 1917
Riots over bread and fuel shortages
Soldiers shoot rioters, later side with them
Riots force Nicholas to abdicate his throne
Nicholas is executed in 1918
Socialist Revolutionaries form local councils consisted of workers, peasants, and soldiers called Soviets
Lenin takes control of Russia by controlling the Soviets

8. Bolshevik Revolution
Bolsheviks storm czarist palace, arrest leaders of Russian government (Red Guard)
Lenin orders all farmland distributed equally, gives power of factories to workers
Bolsheviks give land to Germany, angering peasants
Civil war erupts between Bolshevik Red Army (led by Trotsky) and peasants (White Army)
Kills 14 million Russians

11. Lenin Restores Order New Economic Policy instated (NEP)
Peasants sell surplus crops
Government control of major industries, banks, communications
Allows for recovery of economy
Russia reorganized into small republics under central government to prevent nationalism
Named Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Bolsheviks rename party Communist Party
Party holds all power
Goes on assumption that workers would hold power

12. Man of Steel Lenin has a stroke, needs to be replaced
Leon Trotsky or Joseph Vissarionovich?
Vissarionovich gains power, renames himself Stalin
“Man of Steel”
Lenin is hesitant of Stalin taking over, fears he will abuse his power
Trotsky is exiled, Stalin takes over Communist Party