Impact of World War I on Russia• Russia enters war in 1914 very

unprepared• Weak generals, poorly equipped

troops• Loses more than 4 million in the

1st year• While Nicholas II is on the Front,

wife Alexandra is running things with Rasputin

• Soldiers mutiny & desert; food & fuel supplies dwindle, prices wildly inflated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1b6j8U46k

Rasputin & Alexandra

• Czarina Alexandra controls daily operations during WWI

• Under influence of Rasputin

• Thought he could ‘cure’ Alexi’s hemophilia

• Life in St. Petersburg becomes corrupt

• Generates disgust & mistrust

March Revolution• Strikes flare up

everywhere over shortages

• Soldiers refuse orders to shoot the rioters

• Czar Nicholas II forced to abdicate

• Provisional Government created - Kerensky

Provisional Government

First Soviets• Lenin – exiled radical

returns• Underground radicals

emerge to lead revolts• Radicals organize

workers, peasants & soldiers into soviets

• Believed that industrial workers would overthrow the Czar

• After the revolution, the workers would rule: ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’

• Bolsheviks favored revolution by a small number of committed revolutionaries

• Other groups want less radical reform – like the mensheviks and Social Democrats

Bolshevik Revolution

Lenin’s Solution

Lenin in Power

• TREATY OF BREST –LITOVSK

• LAND REFORM

Civil War in Russia

• CHEKA

Chaos in Russia

A German Revolution Too?

• Similar to Russia• Popular uprising from below• Brought down Ancien Régime• Established Liberal Provisional Government• Socialists take control of government• Workers & soldiers create alternative governments

Why is German Case Different?

• Liberals & moderate socialists ally

• They triumph over more radical forces in councils

• German Marxists not as radical as Russian Marxists - more revisionist

German Social Democrats

• Accepted defeat (unlike Kerensky)

• Puts a stop to drop in soldier morale

• Limited by status as defeated aggressor of WW1

Spartacists• Co founders: Karl Liebknecht

& Rosa Luxemburg

• Favored uprisings that would give workers political experience (vs. Russian Marxists)

• Based in councils

• Attempt to seize power crushed by Social Democrats with help of army

• Murdered by army leaders- with support of Social Democrats