THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 1917

Causes of the Revolution  Autocratic government gave no political outlet to the people  Conservatism & incompetence of Tsar Nicholas II  Embarrassing defeat in Russo-Japanese War ( )  Failure of 1905 Revolution  Stillborn Duma  Growth violent political opposition among factory workers

Causes of the Revolution  WW1 revealed the incompetence of the aristocrats and military  Average soldier had little enthusiasm for the war  Government was unable to properly supply the army or provide decent hospitals  Russia suffered massive casualties leading to high rates of mutiny & desertion

Causes of the Revolution  Tsarina Alexandra was extremely conservative  Guided by “holy man” Rasputin  During the war Alexandra and Rasputin basically ran the government  Scandals involving Rasputin discredited the entire monarchy  Rasputin is assassinated in 1916

March Revolution  Mismanaged wartime economy led to rampant inflation and food shortages  Cities flooded with refugees  March 8-11, 1917: increasingly large demonstrations in Petrograd demanding bread and democracy  Factory workers went on strike and joined  Army was ordered to fire on the crowds but refused

Provisional Government  March 12: Duma established the Provisional Government  March 15: Tsar Nicholas II abdicated  Provisional Government headed by Prince Lvov and Alexander Kerensky  Decided to carry on the war  Favored gradual political and economic reforms and eventual land redistribution  Little actual control of the country

Petrograd Soviet  Soviet: council of workers or workers  Sprang up in army units, factories, villages and major cities  Dominated by socialists and demanded radical change  Petrograd Soviet  Claimed to be the legitimate govt  Urged Russians not to fight, work or pay taxes to the Provisional Government

Vladimir Lenin  Political terrorist  Devoted to Marxism  Helped found Bolshevik Party in 1902  Believed that a revolutionary vanguard must bring about revolution  Dedicated to violent revolution  Exiled to Switzerland before the war  Germany allowed him safe passage to return to Russia in April 1917

Lenin Steps Into the Vacuum  March: PG releases all political prisoners  April: Lenin arrives in Petrograd  Preached a message of  “Peace, Land, Bread”  “All Power to the Soviets”  “Worker Control of Production”  Bolsheviks rapidly recruited workers and soldiers

November Revolution  Workers frustrated with the slow pace of reform  Army tired of fighting  desertions skyrocket  Attempted army coup leads PG to arm the soviets to stop the coup  Bolshevik membership grows 5 x in one year  November 6-7: Bolshevik forces seize the Winter Palace in Petrograd and the PG flees  Bolsheviks quickly move to consolidate control over the civil service, transportation and communications  Army mostly joins the Bolshevik revolution

November 1917 to March 1918  Duma is disbanded and replaced with a Council of People’s Commissars  Private property abolished and divided among peasants  Most factories entrusted to soviets  Political police called the Cheka established  Red Army created under command of Leon Trotsky  Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party  Trotsky signs Treaty of Brest Litovsk to end the war

Civil War  Enemies of the Bolsheviks begin to organize a civil war against the new regime  Opponents of the Bolsheviks are called the “Whites”  Old aristocracy  Liberals  Moderate socialists  8 foreign countries intervene on the side of the Whites including France, Japan, Britain & US  Minorities such as the Ukrainians, Poles, Finns and Georgians also fought against the Reds  Lenin’s forces are called the “Reds”

Civil War  1918  Kolchak invades from Siberia  Balts and Finns attack from the west  Ukrainians attack from the south  Allies invade from the north  Royal family is murdered  1919  Deniken invades from the south  Poles attack from the west  1920  Reds defeat Deniken and retake Ukraine  1921  Reds reconquer Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan

How did the Reds win?  Reds controlled central Russia  Whites were extremely politically divided  Peasants feared that the Whites would take away their land  Trotsky imposed strict military discipline on the Red Army  Cheka terrorized any and all opponents of the regime  Foreign intervention aroused Russian patriotism  Communists made very effective use of propaganda  Communists established firm control over the economy (war communism)

New Economic Policy (NEP)  By 1921 the economy was devastated and Western countries wouldn’t trade with Russia  Forcing peasants to turn over their grain had led to unrest, hoarding and famine  1921: NEP allowed peasants to sell grain in a free market and keep profits  Small businesses could be privately owned  Grain production skyrocketed, prices came down, and famine ended  1922: Russia renamed “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”

Changes to Russian society  Govt tried to end the domination of ________________  Made it easier to _______________  Encouraged all women to get an education and enter the work force  Established free ______________  Legalized ___________________  Govt encouraged educational and recreational clubs  Govt tried to improve _____________  Campaigns to eradicate epidemic diseases  Many doctors were trained and hospitals built  ____________________ rose rapidly Say NO to the oppression and vacuity of household work!

Changes to Russian society  Equal rights were given to all ethnic and __________ groups  Govt promoted ____________  Almost all churches and monasteries were closed and property confiscated  Priests and monks were publically humiliated and/or sent to prison camps  All schools were secularized  _______________________ sporadically prohibited