Russian Revolution

How do you resist oppressive rule- with violent or non-violent

action?

Facts on Russia

Geography • Russian occupied 1/6th of the earth's land

surface • it occupied 1/2 of Europe and 1/3 of Asia • it had frontiers with twelve countries • it was washed by twelve seas from three oceans • Southern Russia is sub-tropical • Northern Russia is within the Arctic Circle: 1/3 of

the land is permanently frozen.

Facts on Russia

• People • total population 1897 - approximately 110

million • three quarters of the population was Slavic • the remaining quarter belonged to 180

different nationalities • 125 languages were spoken • 40 religions were practiced - the main

religion was Orthodox Christianity

Causes

• Autocracy- ruler has unlimited power• Russo-Japanese War- in 1905,

Russians lost a war with Japan• Serfs were not emancipated until

1860’s- life did not get much better for them

• Industrialization- low wages, bad working conditions, child labor.

Autocracy

Czar Nicholas II and Family

Peasant Conditions

Peasants

Peasants

Workers in Moscow

Strikes/Revolutionary Movements

• Poor conditions led to strikes and revolutionary movements

• Bolsheviks- radical Marxists who believed the proletariat- or workers, would overthrow the Czar

• Vladimir Lenin- leader of the Bolsheviks- in hiding until WW1

Vladimir Lenin

Bloody Sunday

• 200,000 workers and their families marched to the Czar’s palace.

• They wanted better working conditions, more freedom, and an elected legislature

• They were led by a priest and had a signed petition

• Over 1,000 wounded and hundreds killed

Cossacks

WW1

• Russia not prepared for War- over 4 million died in 1st year.

• Czar Nicholas moves to war front to rally troops- leaves wife in charge of Russia

• She ignored advisors and listened only to Rasputin- a holy man who put his friends in charge

Rasputin

Rasputin

March Revolution

• Rasputin was murdered by Russian nobility- now the Czar did not have support of Nobles OR common people

• Women in Petrograd led a strike- riots flared up all over the country over shortages of bread and fuel

Petrograd

Bread Line

“Down with the Autocracy! Down with the War!!”

• Soldiers disobeyed orders to shoot citizens

• Czar Nicholas gives up the throne and a temporary government is put in place

• Germans ship Lenin back to Russia by train- hoped Lenin would hurt Russian war effort

Lenin

Bolsheviks Gain Power

• Bolsheviks gain power in Soviets- local councils made up of workers, peasants, soldiers

• Russians pull out of WW1

• Czar and family executed by revolutionaries

• Civil war ends in 1921- Bolsheviks win

Duma Messenger

Revolutionary Comparison

• The Russian revolution was more like the French revolution than the American revolution

• French/Russians wanted to destroy society and replace it with something else- Americans built on English society