Russian Revolution

Czars = cruel, oppressive rule (19th cent)Social unrest

I. Czars Resist Change

Czars = autocrats Czar Alexander III (1881-1894) Imposed strict censorship codes

Written docs. Secret police Political prisoners = sent to Siberia Other groups oppressedCzar Nicholas II (1894)—last czar

II. Russia Industrializes

Factories doubled: 1863-1900still behind WestAcquired foreign investment & raised taxes 1900: Russia = 4th largest steel producer

Trans-Siberian RR (1891 – 1916)

A. Revolution Grows

I.R. = discontent? Factories = poor working conditions, low

wages, child labor Trade unions outlawed

Marxist Revolutionaries

B. Marxism

Karl Marx & Friedrich EngelsThe Communist Manifesto Society = warring classes

Middle class = “haves” or employers “bourgeoisie”

Poor = “have-nots” or workers “proletariat”

I.R. enriched wealthy & impoverished the poor Proletariat would overthrow bourgeoisie

C. Bolsheviks

Vladimir I. Lenin Fled to W. Euro (early 1900s)

II. Crisis at Home

1904-1917 = CRISIS

A. Bloody Sunday

Jan. 22, 1905: 200,000 workers petitioned czar’s winter palace

Wanted change

Soldiers fired on crowd Over 1,000 wounded, several hundred killed

Strikes & violence spread Nicholas did nothing

B. WWI: Final Blow

1914: Russia & WWI Unprepared—no match for Germans

Over 4 mill. killed in less than 1 yr. 1915: Nicholas moved h.q. to war front

Czarina Alexandra ran govt. Rasputin made political decisions

Murdered by nobles (1916) Soldiers mutinied, food & fuel was low, inflation

III. The March Revolution

March 1917: workers strike in Petrograd Riots over shortages (bread & fuel) 200,000 workers

Down with the autocracy! Down with the war!

Soldiers sided w/workers

A. Czar Steps Down

Protest led to March Rev. Nicholas forced to abdicate

He & family executed Romanov dynasty ended

Provisional govt. est. Cont’d to fight WWI Unrest spread

Socialist revolutionaries Soviets: local councils of workers, peasants, & soldiers

More influence than provisional govt.

B. Lenin Returns

Germans supported Lenin’s return to Russia Reached Petrograd (April 1917)

IV. Bolshevik Rev.

Bolsheviks took Petrograd soviet All power to the soviets! Peace, Land, and

Bread!

Lenin. The new brush that sweeps clean.

The Tsar, the Priest and the Rich Man on the Shoulders of the Labouring People

Capital as the source of all evil.

Under the image is a satirical poem by Demjan Bedny.

The red text on the left states that damaging the poster or pasting another one over it is a counter-revolutionary crime.

"The workers and the peasants are finishing off the gentry and the barons, but the workers on the home front also have not forgotten about help to the peasant economy. Long livethe union of the workers and peasants!"

"Without a saw, axe, or nails you cannot build a home. These tools are made by the worker, and he has to be fed."

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the helm.

A. Provisional Govt. Topples

Nov. 1917: workers stormed Winter Palace “Bolshevik Red Guards” Took over govt. (provisional govt./the Duma)

B. Bolsheviks in Power

Everything collectivized March 1918: signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

C. Political Reforms

Nationalism seen as threat Russia organized into several self-governing

republics under central govt. 1922: U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

Bolsheviks = “Communist Party” Communism = classless society Held ALL power

A dictatorship of the Communist Party, NOT dictatorship of the “proletariat”

D. Stalin Becomes Dictator

1922: Lenin suffered strokeDied 1924

Stalin gained control“Comrade Stalin…has concentrated

enormous power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution.

In power until 1953