1. The Last Tsar: Events leading up to the Russian Revolution

2. How does social unrest lead to changes in government?
1905 Revolution in Russia
How does social unrest lead to changes in government?

4. Tsar Nicholas II
Last ruling tsar of Russia. His family, the Romanovs, had ruled Russia since Nicholas was married to Alexandra, and they had five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei. Was not a strong ruler. Allowed ministers deal with political affairs. Thought all Russians loved their “little father.”

5. Social Climate in Russia
Russia finally started to industrialize in the late 1800s
-Government officials and business leaders were in favor of this
-Nobles and Peasants were not happy –feared change
-Social Ills:
-Peasants moved to cities to find jobs in factories
-Faced low pay and dangerous conditions
-Lived in slums where poverty and disease were pervasive

6. Public Dissent Middle Class Liberals—want a democratic government
Will give them rights
To break the power held by nobles
National Minorities
want independence from Russia
People from nations taken over by Russia, such as Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania
Peasants
Land reform
Better working conditions
Russo-Japanese War (1904):
The tsar had been warned to not get into this war—very costly because of long distance
Resulted in humiliating defeat
Increased public dissent in all classes of people.

7. The Last Straw Russo-Japanese War (1904)
-Tsar felt entering this war would boost Russian morale; his advisors, family, and Russian citizens felt differently
-Took place in the far eastern end of Russia
-very costly to transport troops and supplies to war front
-Humiliating defeat

8. March to the Winter Palace
Led by Father Gapon
Peaceful March to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
Felt that if the tsar saw their problems he would surely do something to help.
Created a petition that described their hardships and asked for:
The creations of a constitution
Right to form workers unions
Better working conditions

9. The government had been informed of this march and had sent to tsar away. When the marchers arrived, they were met with armed guards who opened fire, killing hundreds of workers. Resulted in the 1905 Revolution.
Bloody Sunday

10. 1905 Revolution Strikes across Russia
Workers took over local governments
Peasants revolted in countryside
October 20-30th set off 10 days of strikes that completely halted normal Russian daily life.
Resulted in the October Manifesto
Protected freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and petition
Created a Duma, or congress, that would pass laws

11. Russia in the War 1914 Russia joins the war against Germany
Russia suffered huge losses on the war front
Did not have a good transportation system to bring supplies to war front
Ran out of rifles
Started to draft peasants to fight because of huge death toll
Nicholas spends majority of war at the front, leaving his wife, Alexandra, in charge.

12. Scandal at the Court
Grigori Rasputin, a self proclaimed holy man miraculously saved Alexei, the heir to the throne, when his medicine failed him, and he almost bled to death.
Became a close confidante to the tsarina and was given authority in Russia while the tsar was away
Created many scandals in Petrograd
Favored corrupt members of the royal court
Rumors were spread about him and the tsarina

13.
Rasputin Song
Rasputin
After seeing how evil he was, members of the Duma (Congress) plotted to kill Rasputin
Why won’t he die?!
First attempt: food poisoned with enough cyanide to kill 5 grown men.
Second attempt: shot 4 times
Third attempt: beaten with clubs
Fourth attempt: chained up and thrown in river

14. Finally…
Rasputin’s official cause of death was drowning, but he did not go down without a struggle. It appears that he broke out of his chains and was clawing at the ice before he finally drowned.

15. 1917 February Revolution Also known as the march revolution
Why?
Wartime shortages cause many to go hungry.
Disasters on the war front.
Starts with women who are fed up with the regime, they take to the streets shouting, “BREAD!” Others people soon join.
Troops refuse to fire on protestors.
Even members of the Duma join the protests, shouting, “down with the monarchy!”
Result: Tsar Nicholas II abdicates.

16. Provisional Government versus Petrograd Soviet
restore order to Russia
see Russia through the war
Petrograd Soviet (council)
looked to for leadership by workers and soldiers
Held the real power in Russia
Alexander Kerensky
Dominated provisional government
Member of Petrograd Soviet
Mistake: Kept Russia in war  alienated himself from both Russian people, soldiers, and Petrograd Soviet

17. Revolutionary socialists plotted their own course by setting up soviets, or councils of workers and soldiers.
At first, the soviets worked democratically within the government. Before long, the Bolsheviks (a radical socialist group), took charge.
The leader of the Bolsheviks was a determined revolutionary named Vladimir Lenin.

18. Lenin Creator of the Bolshevik party
Exiled in 1898 after forming Russia’s first Marxist party
Helped back into country by Germans in an attempt to weaken Russia in the war
Charismatic speaker— promised the people “peace, land, and bread”
Under this slogan, he won many supporters to the Bolshevik party
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19. Lenin & Marxist Ideas
Lenin adapted Marxists ideas to Russian conditions.
Marx had predicted that the industrial working class would rise spontaneously to overthrow capitalism.
Lenin called for an elite group to lead the revolution and set up a “dictatorship of the proletariat”.
Though this revolutionary party represented a small percentage of socialists, Lenin gave them the name Bolsheviks, meaning “majority”
Lenin believed that only a revolution could bring about needed changes in Russia.

20. 1917 October Revolution
Bolshevik army, the Red Guard, led by Leon Trotsky, stormed the Winter Palace, where the Provisional government was meeting. They gave up without a fight.
Results
Lenin proclaims Russia a socialist state and nationalizes all land
Anti-Bolshevik forces form
Civil War ensues

21. Civil War
Red Guard (Bolsheviks) versus White Army (supporters of the tsar)
To focus on the Civil War, Lenin did a few things…
Signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk—ended war with Germany
Employed War Communism—seized grain and other necessities from workers and farmers to feed troops
Had former tsar and his family killed

22. Civil War
To crush their enemies, the Communists unleashed a reign of terror.
They organized their own secret police, the Cheka.
Ordinary citizens were executed if they were suspected of counterrevolutionary activities.

23. Murder of the Romanovs
Tsar and his family had been placed under arrest by Bolsheviks
When Civil War started, they were seen as a rallying point for the White Army
Were told the Bolsheviks may fire on the house, so they needed to go to the basement/ another account says they were having a portrait made.
Firing squad waiting for them. All were murdered…or were they?

24. The Myth of Anastasia
Not all the bones of the family were found. Alexei and one of the daughters— presumably Anastasia’s—were missing Many women claimed to be Anastasia throughout the years— one in an asylum was particularly convincing. Myth so pervasive in society that movies have been made about her The bodies of the two missing children were found in 2007, making it certain that this myth is just a myth.