1. Russian Revolution
“Peace, Land, and Bread”

2. Introduction

3. Russian Monarchy Alexander III clung to the principles of autocracy.
Censorship codes were enforced to restrict printed material.
Teachers were to write detailed reports on every student.
Other ethnic groups were oppressed to establish a uniform culture.
Alexander made Jews the target of persecution.
Pogroms broke out in many parts of Russia.

4. Nicholas II Became Czar in 1894. Maintained principles of autocracy.
Built up Russian industry through high taxes and foreign investment.
Completed the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1904.
Trade unions were outlawed.
The gap between rich and poor grew.
Click Picture

5. Russian Marxists In 1903, split into two groups.
Mensheviks: Wanted a broad base of popular support.
Bolsheviks: Supported a small number of committed revolutionaries.
Lenin became the major leader of the Bolsheviks.
Lenin fled to Western Europe to avoid arrest by the czarist regime.

6. Bolsheviks

7. Regime ancient or old regime old order
monarchical system of government      legally privileged orders or estates (nobility, clergy)      peasant agriculture (serfdom) and state-regulated markets and industry      (mercantilism)      government bureaucracy reserved largely for the nobility      culture dominated by Catholic Church and courtly life  

8. Marxism
Defined by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto.

9. Crises which led to Revolution
Russo-Japanese War
Bloody Sunday
World War I

10. Russo-Japanese War
Both Russia and Japan competed for the control of Korea and Manchuria.
Russia broke the agreement with Japan and Japan attacked.
In February 1904, Japan defeated Russian troops at Port Arthur, Manchuria.
Further defeats led to revolts on the home front.

11. Bloody Sunday
On January 22, 1905, 200,000 workers and their families petitioned the Czar at his winter palace in St. Petersburg.
The Czar was not present, but his soldiers were. They opened fire on the unarmed crowd and between 500 and 1000 people were killed.
To halt the revolts happening across the country, Nicholas II reluctantly created a Duma October 1905.
The Czar dissolved the Duma in May 1906 because he did not wish to make the change to a constitutional monarchy.

12. World War I
Russia’s weak generals and poorly equipped troops were no match for the German Army.
Russia’s involvement in WWI revealed the Czar’s weaknesses of rule and military leadership.
The war destroyed morale and soldiers mutinied, deserted, or ignored orders.
Food and fuel supplies on the home front were low and people were clamoring for a new leader.

13. Rasputin
A self proclaimed holy man, Rasputin claimed to have magical healing powers.
He gained the trust of Czarina Alexandra by attending the ailments of her sick boy Nicky.
In reward, Czarina allowed Rasputin to make key political decisions while the Czar was at the front lines of WWI.

14. Who Is Rasputin

15. Death of Rasputin

16. The March Revolution
In March 1917, the women textile workers in Petrograd led a city wide strike.
Riots later appeared because of a shortage in bread and fuel.
At first soldiers obey their orders to shoot the rioters but, later sided with the workers.
Crowds shouted “down with autocracy!” and “down with the war!”

17. Czar Steps Down
Czar Nicholas II abdicated his thrown to stop the violence.
A year later the Czar and his family were murdered by the revolutionaries.

18. The End of the Romanov

19. Provisional Government
Leaders of the Duma set up a provisional government.
Its leader was Alexander Kerensky.
His decision to continue fighting the war cost him his support of the soldiers and civilians.
Social revolutionaries, competing for power, formed soviets.
In most cities, soviets had more power than the provisional government.

20. Bolshevik Revolution
Once Lenin returned from exile in Europe he led the Bolsheviks in the take over of the Petrograd soviet.
Lenin rallied the people and gave them the slogan “peace, land, and bread”.
In November 1917, the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd and arrested the provisional government.
The Bolshevik revolution was over in matter of hours.

21. Bolsheviks in Power
Lenin ordered all the farmland distributed among the peasants and control of the factories given to the workers.
In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ended World War I for Russia.
The humiliating terms of the treaty turned some Russians against the Bolsheviks.

22. Russian Civil War
From 1918 to 1920 a civil war raged between the White Army (counterrevolutionaries) and the Red Army (Bolsheviks).
The Red Army was led by Leon Trotsky.
The White Army was aided by the U.S. and other Western nations.
The Bolsheviks eventually destroyed the White Army and proved they could seize power and maintain it.
Approximately 15 million Russians died during the Civil War.

23. Civil War

24. Lenin in Power
After the revolution, Lenin shifted his energy to reviving the Russian economy and restructuring the government.
In March 1921, he launched the New Economic Policy.
Under the NEP, peasants could sell their crops instead of turning them over to the state. Individuals could buy and sell goods for profit.

25. A New Government

26. Political Reforms
Lenin organized Russia into several self-governing republics under one central government.
In 1922, the country was named the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR).
The Bolsheviks renamed their party the Communist Party.
In 1924, the Communists created a constitution based on socialist and democratic principles.
Lenin had created a dictatorship of the Communist Party, not a “dictatorship of the proletariat” as Marx had promoted.

27. Death of Lenin
Lenin had several strokes and spent 18 months as a semi-invalid.
In 1924, Lenin died.
Lenin’s death left a void in the Communist power structure which created a power struggle for control of the party.

28. Lenin