The Russian Revolution

World History / HonorsLibertyville High School

Problems facing Czarist Russia• Industrialization

brought problems– Working conditions– Low wages

• Czar outlawed unions– When workers went

on strike, police arrested them!

• Marxist parties emerged

Russian workers in a factory, c. 1890

Problems facing Czarist Russia• Russian Marxists split

– Mensheviks (“minority”)• the majority of Russian

Marxists • Believed in gradual change,

broad base of popular support

- Bolsheviks (“majority”)• The minority of Russian Marxists• Believed in immediate change to

Russian gov’t, led by professional revolutionaries

Problems: Radicalism• Bolsheviks led by

Vladimir Lenin• Ruthless, brilliant

speaker and organizer

• Fled Russia to avoid imprisonment in early 1900s, to West Europe (Switzerland)

Problems Russo-Japanese War• Russo-Japanese War,

1904-05– Russia, Japan competitors

for colonies in Asia– Russia LOST!!

- Caused unrest, revolt throughout Russia

Problems: Internal Dissent• “Bloody Sunday”: 1/22/05– 200k workers & their families

bring petition to Czar in St. Petersburg, asking for better work conditions

– Troops fire on crowd, killing several hundred

– Strikes, violence throughout nation

– Reform: Creation of Duma (Parliament), but Czar dissolved it after 10 weeks

Problems: WW 1• World War I– Czar Nicholas decided to

attack Austro-Hungary to protect Serbia

– Russia incapable of fighting long war• By mid 1915, over 4

million Russian soldiers dead / wounded

Russians surrender at Tanenberg, 1914

Problems: WW 1• 1915 – Czar took

personal control over military to increase morale– army continued to lose,

die, etc• Blame fell on Czar, not

his generals

Czar Nicholas II in Marshal uniform

March (Not Feb!) 1917 Revolution• March 1917 Revolution

– Strikes broke out – soldiers joined the strikers

– Czar forced to abdicate (give up) throne

– Government established by Duma – “Provisional government”

– Led by Alexander Kerensky, a Menshevik appointed war minister

• Kerensky decided to stay in WWI – cost him support of soldiers, civilians

1917 Russia, Post March Revolution

• War continued to go badly for Russia– Peasants demanded

land– Workers struck– Soldiers mutinied

• Soviets formed – committees of peasants, workers, soldiers

The October Revolution (Bolsheviks)

• April, 1917 – Lenin returned to Russia by GERMANS

• Transported across Germany in a sealed boxcar (don’t infect us!)

October Revolution

• Lenin rallied Bolsheviks– Motto – “Peace, Land &

Bread”– Other important

Bolsheviks• Leon Trotsky• Josef Stalin

Bolshevik Revolution

• Bolshevik Revolution, October 1917 (November in book – using Western Calendar)– Armed soviets attack

Provisional Government forces across Russia

– Arrest leaders of Prov. Gov’t, including Kerensky

Storming of the Winter Palace

October Revolution• Lenin assumed power

– Ordered all land given to peasants

– Ordered all factories given to workers

– Signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germans and pulled out of WW I• Gave away Finland, large areas of

Poland, Estonia, Latvia to Germany• Russians angered by this

• Ordered death of Royal family (L-R: Olga, Marie, Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra, Anastasia, Alexei, Tatiana)

Russian Civil War, 1919-1921• Communists (“Red Army”)

versus everyone opposed to their rule (“White Army”)

• Who were the White Army?– Royalists (supporters of czar)– Communists opposed to

Lenin’s leadership– Supporters of democratic form

of government– Nationalists of Ukraine, other

areas of Russia seeking independence

Russian Civil War, 1919-1922• Foreign involvement – After WWI ended, allies

sent troops, supplies to Whites to try to overthrow Russian Bolshevik government

- USA sent troops, weapons to East of Russia, seized major port Vladivostok- British, French troops fought against Bolsheviks in South of Russia

US troops in Vladivostok

Russian Civil War, 1919-1922

Sites of foreign involvement in Russia, 1919

Canadians in Siberia, 1919

Russian Civil War, 1919-1922

• Reds crushed White Army factions; foreigners retreated– 14 million Russians

died in Civil War– BUT Bolsheviks

showed they could hold onto power