The Russian Revolution

How it unfolds…

Social Causes

• Most of Russia’s population was poor peasants

• There was almost no middle class, so most business owners were foreign

• Proletariat (workers) had low wages and poor working conditions

• Reformers like Lenin and the Bolsheviks encouraged Communist Revolution

Political Causes

• Russia was ruled by absolute monarchs called Czars

• Czars limited rights and freedoms; used censorship and secret police to keep order

• Czars were unable to solve Russia’s problems

Economic Causes

• Most Russians were poor• Russia’s industry was mostly owned by

foreign businessmen• General lack of money; economic

stagnation• Food and fuel shortages

Military Causes

• 1904- Russo-Japanese War: Fought over control of land in China. Russia’s loss = 1st time a Western power looses to a non-Western country. People angry and embarrassed

• 1905 Revolution: Palace guards kill unarmed protestors

• 1914-1918: World War I: It’s an expensive blood bath, people demand peace

The March Revolution: 1917

• Begins as a workers strike in Petrograd demanding bread

• Czar Nicholas II orders army to disperse the protestors

• Army refuses to fire on people• Czar Nicholas realizes he is powerless

and resigns• Provisional government established, and

Soviets rule locally

November Revolution

• World War I still going, no problems have been solved.

• Lenin and Bolsheviks promise “Peace, Land, and Bread”

• Bolsheviks overthrow the Provisional Government

• New Communist government established with Lenin in Charge

The Russian Civil War 1918-1921

• Communists (Red Army) fight royalists (White Army)

• Western powers, fearing communism, support the Whites

• Both sides commit atrocities• Lenin uses War Communism: putting all of

the nations economy directly into fighting the war

• Red army wins, but Russia is in ruins

The Soviet Union (USSR)

• After 1921 Lenin rules Russia• New Economic Policy (mixes some

capitalism into the communist economy) helps rebuild the Russian economy

• Lenin creates the Soviet Union, then dies in 1924

• Stalin becomes the new leader of the USSR

Stalin’s Russia

• Stalin wanted to create a truly communist state

• Stalin took the land away and created collectives, government owned farms

• When the peasants resisted, Stalin punished them

Stalin’s Five Year Plans

• Stalin wanted to create a truly communist state

• Stalin took the land away and created collectives, government owned farms

• When the peasants resisted, Stalin punished them

• Millions die

Life in a Totalitarian State

• Stalin ruled as a tyrant, controlling all aspects of his government

• He used secret police to spy on the people• Art and music were controlled and became

propaganda• Dissidents were punished, usually by

being exiled to labor camps in Siberia

Life in a Totalitarian State

Cult of Personality

• Stalin controlled art, music and culture as a way of glorifying himself

• He took over churches and turned them into museums of communism

• He was always portrayed as the savior of the people

• Those who disagreed didn’t last long!

The Great Purge

• Stalin’s Reign of Terror• He tried to get rid of people who posed a

threat• This included kulaks, Jews, intellectuals,

military officers, and so on• By the end, the USSR was weak and

nearly lost WWII to the Germans!

Into the Future…

• Stalin ruled as a ruthless dictator through WWII and into the 1950s

• He allied with the USA and Britain against the Nazis in WWII

• After WWII, the USSR entered into the Cold War with the USA and the other Western democracies