The Russian Revolution

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A heterogeneous empire

Nicholas I [r. 1825-1855]Nicholas I [r. 1825-1855]

Autocracy!

Orthodoxy!

Nationalism!

Alexander II [r. 1855-1881]Alexander II [r. 1855-1881]Defeat in Crimean WarStarted reforms & Industrial RevolutionEmancipation of the Russian serfs [1861]Zemstvos formed1864- judicial reformsExpanded Russia’s boundariesStopped Populist Revolts and not People’s Will

Alexander III [r. 1881-1894]Alexander III [r. 1881-1894]

Reactionary…no more reforms!!!!SlavophilRussification heightened Pogroms toward JewsForced migration of Jews‘Iron Fist’ ruleHarassed Catholics and ProtestantsTightened Censorship

Forced Migration of Russia’s Jews

Forced Migration of Russia’s Jews

Nicholas II (1894-1917)

• Last of the Romanovs

• Encouraged industrialization

• Trans Siberian Railroad

• Still mainly an agriculture country

• lots of rural poverty and overpopulation

Growth of Radicalism• Social Democrats- (Mensheviks and

Bolsheviks) Marxist will split into these two groups. Lenin headed the Bolsheviks. Mainly industrial workers.

• Socialist Revolution Party- mainly peasants and workers.

• Union of Liberation- Middle class liberals who wanted a constitutional monarchy

1905 Revolution• After loss to Japan (1904-5), government was seen as

weak by the people• ‘Bloody Sunday’- troops fired into peaceful crowd in St.

Petersburg’s Winter Palace.– Caused demonstrations and strikes throughout Russia

• October Manifesto- 1905- Nicholas tries to stop outbreak, creates a constitution (Fundamental Laws) granting civil rights and creating a Duma & legalized political parties– Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, Octobrist

(m.c. liberals), Cadets (const. demo’s)

Post Revolution• 1906 & 1907 1st and 2nd Duma’s created, but

dissolved by Nicholas

• 1906 Agrarian Reform Act- gave peasants land hoping to create a landowning society who would vote for the conservatives

• Too late…revolution and war will engulf Russia

CAUSES:

• World War I Russia not prepared

• Czar Nicholas II Unpopular & Incompetent (Rasputin influence)

• Hunger, War losses, unemployment

1917

• March 8, Bread March

• March 10: Nicholas orders troops to put down revolt Troops join revolt

• March 15: Nicholas abdicates Provisional Government Takes over

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

• Alexander Kerensky: Continued war out of pride

• Duma: Main governing body

• Petrograd Soviet – For workers to voice grievances – Leadership becomes more radical

• Bolsheviks: Vladimir Lenin Marxist beliefs

OCTOBER REVOLUTION

• November 6-7, 1917

• Bolshevik forces seize Winter Palace and Provisional Government collapses

• Britain, France, Japan and U.S. fear spread of socialism; send troops

CONSOLIDATING POWER

• Lenin ends war: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3, 1918– Bringing peace gains the Bolsheviks the

support of many people

• July 1918 – Czar Nicholas II and family executed by Bolsheviks

• Civil War begins

REDS vs. WHITES (Civil War) • REDS: Communists fighting for single

interest – Power spread due to well-disciplined army (Leon

Trotsky) – United under one cause

• WHITES: Anti-Communist fighting against the communists – Failed due to: disunity – Multiple causes

RESULTS

• Reds retain control by using “The Red Terror”

• Lack of foreign intervention: over 100,000 allied troops in Russia, fail to act

• By 1922, Bolsheviks firmly in power-Soviet Union (USSR) created.

AFTERMATH

• Lenin dies in 1924

• Although Trotsky had been most likely to succeed Lenin, he is outmaneuvered by Josef Stalin

• Trotsky flees into exile (later assassinated)

• Stalin leads USSR through WWII and into Cold War

1. What is the difference in this picture?

2. Why was this done?

3. Who do you think did this?