1. Impact of World War I on Russia
Russia enters war in 1914 very unprepared
Weak generals, poorly equipped troops
Loses more than 4 million in the 1st year
While Nicholas II is on the Front, wife Alexandra is running things with Rasputin
Soldiers mutiny & desert; food & fuel supplies dwindle, prices wildly inflated

2. Rasputin & Alexandra
Czarina Alexandra controls daily operations during WWI
Under influence of Rasputin
Thought he could ‘cure’ Alexi’s hemophilia
Life in St. Petersburg becomes corrupt
Generates disgust & mistrust

3. March Revolution Strikes flare up everywhere over shortages
Soldiers refuse orders to shoot the rioters
Czar Nicholas II forced to abdicate
Provisional Government created - Kerensky

4. Provisional Government
:photo: Alexander Kerensky (center, white), charter member of the Provisional Government and its head in September-October 1917, arriving in Moscow on or about 12 August 1917.
Duma establishes a temporary government headed by Alexander Kerensky
Kerensky makes a bad decision: stays in WWI
Things go from bad to worse:
workers more radical
peasants demand land
people are starving
Revolutionary councils (Soviets) have more power in many areas than the Provisional Government

5. First Soviets Lenin – exiled radical returns
Underground radicals emerge to lead revolts
Radicals organize workers, peasants & soldiers into soviets
Believed that industrial workers would overthrow the Czar
After the revolution, the workers would rule: ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
Vladimir Illyich Lenin

6. Bolsheviks favored revolution by a small number of committed revolutionaries
Other groups want less radical reform – like the mensheviks and Social Democrats
Menshevik Civil Guard, Georgia, 1918

7. Bolshevik Revolution Lenin returns from exile in April 1917
Lenin & Bolsheviks gain control of Petrograd (St. Petersburg)
Lenin promises “Peace, Land, and Bread”
November 1917 armed workers storm Winter Palace
take over government offices
arrest leaders of provisional government

8. Trotsky edited out of picture

9. Lenin’s Solution Don’t wait for history to happen
You can have a socialist revolution without full-blown capitalism
Peasants are potential revolutionaries & can ally with workers
You need a dedicated elite of full-time revolutionaries & intellections
Vanguard of the Proletariat

10. Lenin in Power TREATY OF BREST –LITOVSK LAND REFORM
This photograph, taken between December 3rd and 15th, 1917, shows the Russian delegation under the leadership of Adolf Joffe (far right). Next to him (from left to right) are Lipski and Trotsky. The fourth person between Joffe and Trotsky has not been identified.
Orders all farmland to be distributed to peasants
Makes private property obsolete
Gives control of factories to workers
Signs a cease-fire with Germany
Signs Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
surrenders large part of territory to Germany

11. Civil War in Russia CHEKA
Unburried bodies of victim of Massacre by Russian Bolshivek in Kiev, Ukraine (1919)
Bolsheviks face enemies at home (White Army)
White Army = many groups united by desire to defeat Bolsheviks
Red Army wins a three-year war, leaves 14 million dead (on top of WWI losses)

12. Chaos in Russia Millions of casualties; billions in debt
By 1921 wages dropped to 1/10th prewar levels
Inflation over 1,000%
Western countries blockade Russia
Factories at a standstill

13. A German Revolution Too?
Similar to Russia
Popular uprising from below
Brought down Ancien Régime
Established Liberal Provisional Government
Socialists take control of government
Workers & soldiers create alternative governments

14. Why is German Case Different?
Liberals & moderate socialists ally
They triumph over more radical forces in councils
German Marxists not as radical as Russian Marxists - more revisionist

15. German Social Democrats
Accepted defeat (unlike Kerensky)
Puts a stop to drop in soldier morale
Limited by status as defeated aggressor of WW1

16. Spartacists Co founders: Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxemburg
Favored uprisings that would give workers political experience (vs. Russian Marxists)
Based in councils
Attempt to seize power crushed by Social Democrats with help of army
Murdered by army leaders- with support of Social Democrats