Russian Revolution

Russian Government Before Revolution

• Monarchy: The Czar (Tsar)

• Until 1905 the Tsar's powers were unlimited.

• No constitution

• No political party system to check the Tsar's power

• A strong secret police which terrorized the people.

Royal BackgroundNicholas II

• Created the first secret police in Russia, brutal leader, response to revolt of army officers in 1825

Czar Alexander II

• Abolition of serfdom• 1867 - he sold Alaska to the United States • Killed by the Revolutionary Group: The People’s

Will

Czar Alexander III

• Industrial Revolution• Harsh against revolutionaries and other liberal

movements.• Desired nationalistic movement – Russian language,

pogroms

Czar Nicholas II (1894)Last Czar of Russia

Harsh and weak ruler Economy was bankrupt:

Russo-Japanese War Entry into WWI became very unpopular.

Czar Nicholas II and Family

Russo-Japanese War (1904)

Dispute over Manchuria with Japan

Shook national confidence in their progress and Czar

Bloody Sunday (1905)

January 22, 1905

• 200,000 workers and families stormed Winter Palace in St. Petersburg – better working conditions

• Guards opened fire and killed or wounded 1,000

Russia and World War I

• Russia declares war on Austria-Hungary

• War becomes unpopular

• Rationing leads to starvation

• Nicholas II leaves St. Petersburg to war front

Czar Nicholas II and his son, Alexander

Rasputin• Empress Alexandra

welcomed Rasputin into court to treat son’s hemophilia

• Czar did not trust• Believed to have

divine healing powers

Rasputin with Admirers

March Revolution (1917)

• 1917- protests spread through St. Petersburg

• Royal palace is taken over

• Czar abdicates throne

• Provisional government (Duma) takes control

• Provisional government unpopular after decision to stay in WWI

October (Bolshevik) Revolution-1917

• Lenin believed:

• Power should be in soviet hands

• Power passed from bourgeois to proletariat

• Modernize country

• Lead by VI Lenin “Peace, Land, and Bread”

• 1918 March The Bolsheviks accept the peace of Brest‑Litovsk, ending WWI with Germany.

Civil War 1919-1920

• 1919 White Armies (royal, pro-democrats, socialists, Menshevik troops)

• Attack the Reds (Bolsheviks) from all directions.

• 1920- Reds defeat Whites despite support for White Army from other countries including U.S.

• 14 million deaths – war, famine flu

Rule of Lenin 1920-1924

• Economic Reforms included the New Economic Plan (NEP)

-moderate mix of capitalism and socialism

• Political Reforms

-Bolshevik party became Communist Party

-Russia becomes the United Soviet Socialist Republics

• Empowered women

• Universal health care/education

1924 – Stalin “Man of Steel”

• Lenin Dies following multiple strokes

• Leon Trotsky vs. Joseph Stalin

• Lenin did not trust Stalin’s ambition, gruff manner

Characteristics of a Totalitarian State

• Dictatorship - Absolute Authority• Dynamic Leader - Vision for the nation• State Control Over All Sectors of Society

• Business, Family Life, Labor, youth groups, housing, religion, education, the arts

• State Control Over the Individual• Obedience• Denies basic liberties

• Organized Violence• Uses force to crush opposition

Stalin’s Totalitarian State

• State Control of the Economy• 5 year plan, collective farms

• Police Terror• Great Purge, crush opposition

• Religious Persecution• Control of the individual

• Propaganda (socialist realism)• Molding peoples minds

• Education• Controlled by the government

Stalin’s 5-Year Plans

• Set impossibly high quotas to increase steel, coal, oil and electricity – most fell short

• Collective farming – 90% of peasants lost land – many sabotaged crops

• Stalin blamed Kulaks – “wealthy” peasant farmers

• Great Famine of 1932-1933

Holodomor 1932-1933

• Ukrainian Genocide – cheap way to starve Ukrainians instead of killing them

• 2.2-7 million died