1. Russian Revolution The Beginning
By, Mr. Serrao

2. Russian Army in World War I: An Eyewitness Account
“Here with us the light has gone out of everything. We are hungry, dressed in rags, and barefooted. The food is very bad, and we have very little bread. The only meal we get is horse-flesh, and that is not fresh. We have got a horse of our own, but have nothing to feed it with, so we are thinking of eating it ourselves. There is no help for us anywhere. It is our fate to be thrown aside and forgotten by the world and to die of cold and hunger.”
A Russian Soldier’s Letter to his Nurse, 1917
Do Now: Why might the treatment of soldiers during World War 1 help to cause the Russian Revolution?

3. World War I & The Russian Revolution
World War I was a disaster for the Russian people and the czarist engine. Russian industry lacked the capacity to arm, equip, and supply the 15 million men who ere sent to war. Factories were few and insufficiently productive, and the railroad network was inadequate. Repeated mobilizations disrupted industrial and agricultural production. The food supply decreased, and the transportation system was disrupted. Soldiers went hungry, frequently lacking shoes, munitions, and even weapons. Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any army in any previous war. All over Russia goods were scarce, prices skyrocketed, and by 1917 famine threatened the larger cities.

4. Czarist Russia - Czar Nicholas II (1894 – 1917)
- Czar = an absolute ruler
- Cruel and unjust
- Executed at end of Russian Revolution

5. Social Problems - Cold and difficult to farm  Hunger & Starvation
- Secret police prevented opposition
- WWI soldiers treated badly, no supplies, women on the frontline etc.

6. Economic Problems
- Over 90% serfs (worked on wealthy landowners property with little if any economic gain from work)
- Rapid industrialization, factories brought problems: poor working conditions, low wages and child Labor
- Workers eventually striked

7. Political Problems Bloody Sunday (Revolution of 1905)
500 to 1,000 unarmed citizens were killed while petitioning at the Czars winter palace
No basic Human Rights
No Freedom of speech / press, or right to a trial
Serfs (90% of population) had no voice in government
Czar ruled with “an iron fist”

8. If you lived in Russia how would you want to change the Country?