Roots of the Revolution• Geography of Russia:

– Huge-hard to control all

– Population/Ethnic groups

– Climate-affects economy

• Food shortages:– Suffered back to back bad

harvests

Affects of WWI

• Russia is soundly being defeated by Germany– Soldiers are deserting

– Not enough guns

• Czar Nicholas II takes personal command– No improvement

• War depletes food supply & other resources

• By 1917 there were 8 million casualties

• Russians lose faith in Czar

The Czarina & Rasputin • With Nicholas II in the

war, his wife the Czarina took over the government

• Let Rasputin influence the government officials– Cured their son’s hemophilia– Was corrupt

• Public & others distrusted him

• Faith in the government deteriorated

February Revolution

• Women marched in Petrograd (capital)– Demonstrating against no

food available & high food prices

• Thousands were marching by the end of the day

• Troops joined the women• Czar forced to give up

throne• Provisional government

set up-led by Kerensky

Lenin Returns

• Lenin returns from exile in Switzerland with German help in a sealed car.

• Leader of the revolutionaries

• Great speaker-spoke about Marx’s ideas-communism

• Called for “Peace, Land, Bread!”– Peace from the war

– Land for the peasants

– Bread for the people

Kerensky vs. Lenin• Kerensky-leader of

Mensheviks– Wanted to reform government

through a elected parliament– Continued war with Germany

• Lenin-leader of Bolsheviks– Only elite revolutionaries

should lead-– Believed that the masses

wanted a strong leader– Wanted to end war– Give power to the Soviets

(workers, councils of men, the proletariat)

October Revolution

• Leon Trotsky-Lenin’s right hand man-– Led the Red Army

(Bolshevik military)– Stormed government offices

in Petrograd– Provisional government was

arrested

• Lenin & the Bolsheviks controlled Russia by force– Renamed themselves the

Communist Party– Took control of all

communication routes (trains, telegraphs)

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is created-USSR

Lenin’s First Actions

• Lenin took Russia out of war-said it served the capitalists– Brest-Litovsk Treaty– Huge loses for Russia– 1/3 of pop. , 1/3 of

agriculture lost- Why agree?– Had to---couldn’t fight

Germany & the civil war at same time

• Created Congress of Soviets-legislative body– All members were

Communists

• Created collective farms– Vast farms where people

shared the work

Lenin’s Men• Leon Trotsky-

– Worked together on Communist ideas

– Controlled the Red Army

• Joseph Stalin– Was a member of the

Communist Party Politburo

– Had connections to all important party members

– Became General Secretary

• Lenin tried to warn all of Stalin

Lenin’s Death & Stalin’s Rise to Power

• 1924-Lenin died• Power struggle btwn

Trotsky & Stalin– Stalin had too many friends

in the government

– Trotsky away when Lenin died

• Stalin becomes head of Russia-1925– Exiles Trotsky

– Has him killed later

• Creates KGB-secret policePurges all enemies-– Kills– Sends to Siberia

• Eliminates Eastern Orthodox Church– Confiscates church land– Destroys some churches

• Created the Pravda– Propaganda Machine– Rewrote history – Claimed he was Lenin’s right hand

man

• Communism in action– Forced people to work farms

& factories together

Stalin’s Russia