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2. Czar – Absolute Monarch or ruler of Russia
Proletariat – lowest class in a society, referring mostly to industrial workers
Bourgeoisie – the middle class
Bolsheviks – Communist majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party
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3. Romanov – Czarist royal family who ruled Russia for 3 centuries
Totalitarianism – Absolute unlimited power by a ruler and control over every phase of life
Soviet – elected councils formed during the Revolution

4. Only true autocracy left in Europe
No representative political institutions for the people
Nicholas II became Tsar in 1884
Marxist ideas become popular
Wanted a government for the working classes.
Believed in a an economic system in which the government controls all business
Against capitalism
Popular Mensheviks VS Radical Bolsheviks, led by Lenin

5. Russia suffers humiliating defeat in the Russo- Japanese War
Does not get port to sea for trade

6. Thousands of discontented urban workers & poor peasants from countryside peacefully protest
Sought to petition the czar for better working conditions & suffrage
The czar’s guards fired into the crowd
Shooting sparked widespread strikes and uprisings
The Duma (Russian Congress) was allowed more power temporarily
Nichols dissolved the Duma within weeks

7. Czar Nicholas II brings Russia into the Great War.
War revealed the ineptitude and arrogance of the country’s aristocratic elite
Most peasants had very little invested in the War
Poorly supplied troops result in massive casualties

8. Czarina Alexandra ran the government (as an autocrat
Czarina Alexandra ran the government (as an autocrat!) while Nicholas II was at the Eastern Front for the war
She was heavily influenced by Rasputin – a mystical “holy man”
Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to discredit the monarchy

9. Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos
Complete mismanagement of the wartime economy
Alexandra and other high government officials accused of treason
Rasputin assassinated in December of 1916

10. Starts with food riots, strikes, and protests against the war
The Duma declares itself a Provisional Government
Formed SOVIETS – local councils
Czar Nicholas abdicates the throne (steps down)
Lenin and his Bolsheviks return
Poster reads: “Citizens. Give us your weapons”

11. The Cause of the Russian Revolution
Widespread suffering under autocracy—a form of government in which one person, in this case the czar, has absolute power
Weak leadership of Czar Nicholas II—clung to autocracy despite changing times
Poor working conditions, low wages, and hazards of industrialization
New revolutionary movements that believed a worker-run government should replace czarist rule (Marxist Ideas)
Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1905), which led to rising unrest
Bloody Sunday, the massacre of unarmed protestors outside the palace, in 1905
Devastation of World War I—high casualties, economic ruin, widespread hunger
The March Revolution in 1917, in which soldiers who were brought in for crowd control ultimately joined labor activists in calling “Down with the autocracy!”

12. Leading Marxist revolutionary
Committed to class struggle and revolution
Exiled to Siberia for anti- czarist protests
Later fled to Western Europe
Returns to take the lead and implement socialist reforms
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13. Bolshevik Red Guards - Workers take over government offices and arrest the leaders of the Provisional government
All private property of wealthy was abolished and divided among the peasantry
Largest industrial enterprises nationalized

14. Political Police are organized
Revolutionary army created with Leon Trotsky in charge - the “Red Army”
Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party in March of 1918
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated with Germany and Russia leaves WWI
Leon Trotsky pictured

15. Fought between
“Reds” versus “Whites”
“Reds” were the Bolsheviks & Red Army
“Whites” were army officers, bourgeoisie, cossacks, and moderate revolutionaries
Whites received support from England, France, USA, & Japan
Reds ultimately victorious

16. Placed under house arrest during the March Revolution
Czar Nicholas, Alexandra & their 5 children were executed in July 1917

17. Lenin reorganized the country & renames it the Soviet Union in 1922
Implements the ideas of Karl Marx
Issues his New Economic Policy in allowing some capitalist policies
Russian propaganda poster from 1920, showing Lenin sweeping away monarchists and capitalists; the caption reads, "Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth"

18. Stalin was a Bolshevik revolutionary
Appointed general secretary of the party’s Central Committee in 1922
Managed to consolidate power following Lenin’s death in 1924
Viciously eliminated any opposition
Stalin pictured with Lenin

19. Stalin modernized the Soviet Union through “5 Year Plans” of industrialization
His secret police allowed no opposition or freedoms
Ordered the execution of millions
Created a fully communist state