RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

SSWH16.D, SSWH17.B

Czar Nicholas II

Became ruler of Russia in 1894.

Believed in absolute rule

Made efforts to bring industrialization to Russia

The Problems of Russian Industrialization

Factories were built quickly and poorly

Wages were extremely low

Working conditions were terrible

Child labor was tragically common

The Seeds of Revolution

The ideas of Karl Marx found there way to Russia, and the workers began to think that they could run their own lives…and their own country.

The idea of a society ruled by the Proletariat “the workers” began to grow.

The Seeds of Revolution

Bloody Sunday (1905) 200,000 workers went to the summer palace in St.

Petersburg to request individual rights, better working conditions, and a national legislature. Troops were ordered to open fire on the crowd. More than 1,000 were killed or injured.

The Seeds of Revolution

World War One (1914-1917) 4 million casualties in the first year of

fighting Severe lack of food and fuel both at home

and on the front lines Trouble for Nicholas II

Czar not able to handle the problems created by World War I effectively.

March, 1917

Striking workers call for the Czar to step down from power.

Troops were called out, and the protestors were fired on. These troops soon turned on their officers and joined the revolutionaries

Czar Nicholas Abdicates – March 17, 1917

“Down with the 10 Capitalist ministers. All power to the Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasant deputies. To the socialist ministers,

we demand that Nicholas II be transferred to the Peter-Paul Fortress.”

Protesters Fired on by Troops

Revolutionaries Split Into Groups

Small core group

Professional revolutionaries

Strict control of the movement

Broad base of revolutionaries

Popular support

A common man’s movement

Bolsheviks Mensheviks

Provisional Government

The Duma (Russian Parliament) formed a provisional government

They intended to continue fighting the Germans

Revolutionaries don’t like this government either, so they began to form Soviets (local councils)

Enter Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Charismatic, gifted, Bolshevik administrator

Exiled in Germany Sent back in a

sealed railroad car

Begins to gain a lot of support with his rallying cry for “Peace, Land, and Bread”

Bolsheviks Come To Power

Bolshevik forces storm the Winter Palace in November, 1917. The provisional government is removed.

Lenin orders the redistribution of land to the peasants of Russia.

In order to establish peace with Germany, the Bolsheviks give up a huge amount of Russian territory. This earns them many enemies.

Russian Civil War

The Bolsheviks formed the Red Army Led by Leon Trotsky

Everyone else grouped together as the White Army: Mensheviks Capitalists Czarists Non-Lenin Socialists

Results of the Russian Civil War

14,000,000 Russians dead because of fighting and famine

Bolsheviks Remained in power Renamed themselves the Communists

Karl Marx’s name for a classless society

1922 – Russia is divided into self governing districts and renamed: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Joseph Stalin Comes to Power

Lenin has a stroke

Trotsky forced into exile

Stalin “Man of Steel” comes to power. His authority becomes absolute.