the russian revolution world history / honors libertyville high school
TRANSCRIPT
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