1. The Russian Revolution

2. Beginnings of Upheaval
Czar Nicholas II relied on the army and bureaucracy to hold up his regime
Grigory Rasputin began to influence his wife, Alexandra
Rasputin gained her confidence through her son, Alexis, who was a hemophiliac
Alexandra believed Rasputin had extraordinary powers since he could stop her son’s bleeding
Rasputin was assassinated in December 1916
Shot three times, tied up, and thrown into the river
He drowned, but he had managed to untie all of the knots binding him

4. March Revolution
March 1917  working-class women led a series of strikes in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) because the government had begun to ration bread after inflated prices
These women would be forced to wait in line after working 12-hour days in factories
March 8 10,000 women march through the city demanding “peace and bread” and “down with autocracy”
March 10  Strike shut down all factories in the city
Nicholas ordered troops to open fire on the protestors, but many joined in the cause and refused to shoot
The Duma, legislative body, met on March 12 and asked the Czar to step down
March 15  Czar Nicholas II gives up the throne ending 300 year old Romanov dynasty

5. Provisional Government
Aleksandr Kerensky headed the new provisional government
Decided to carry on the war to preserve Russian honor
Made the workers and peasant unhappy
Soviets  councils composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers
Soviet of Petrograd formed in March 1917
Mostly made up of socialists that represented the more radical ideas of the lower class

6. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
Bolsheviks  small faction of a Marxist party called the Russian Social Democracy
Led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin
April 1917  German military leaders shipped Lenin back to Russia hoping to create disorder
Lenin believed that the soviets of soldiers, workers, and peasants were ready-made instruments of power
Bolsheviks promised to redistribute land, an end to the war, transfer factories and industries to committees of workers, and transfer government power to the soviets
“Peace, land, Bread”

7. Bolsheviks Seize Power
Party member had grown from 50,000 to 240,000
Leon Trotsky was the dedicated head of the Petrograd soviet
November 6  Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace, home of the provisional government
Lenin, outwardly, gave power to the Congress of Soviets, but truly he kept the power with the Bolsheviks
Renamed themselves the “communists”
March 3, 1918  Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany
Gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and Baltic provinces

8. Civil War in Russia Many people opposed the new Communist government
Loyalists, liberals, anti-Lenin socialists, Allied forces
Allies sent troops to Russia hoping to bring them back into the war
Gave aid to anti-Communist forces
In Siberia, an anti-Communist, or White, force attacked and advanced almost to the Volga River
Ukrainians also attacked Communist forces
1920  White forces defeated and Ukraine was retaken
Communists gained control of Georgia, Russian Armenia, and Azerbaijan
April 1918  royal family was moved to a small mining town in the Urals and murdered

9. Triumph of the Communists
Red Army was well disciplined because of the organizational strength of Trotsky
Reinstated the draft and insisted on rigid discipline
Disunity of anti-Communist forces led to their ultimate failure
Communists were single-minded in their goals
War communism  government controlled the banks and most industries, seized grain from peasants, and centralized state administration

10. Triumph of the Communists
Communist revolutionary terror
Use of secret police, known as Cheka
With foreign armies on Russian soil, the Communists could appeal to the patriotism of Russians
By 1921, the Communists had complete control of the nation
The state was very hostile to Allied forces since they tried to aid anti-communist forces