1. The Russian Revolution
Chapter 27: section 3
The Russian Revolution

2. Overview
Many years of poverty, war, and class struggle ended czarist control
These growing problems came to a crisis during World War I, finally leading to revolution.

3. Russia in World War I
Lack of food, appropriate armaments, and adequate roads to supply army
Ottoman Empire entry also cut supplies
Russian army poorly equipped and trained
Corrupt, inefficient government
Spring 1917: faith in government/czar declined

4. Russia in World War I Duma: legislative body; little power
Peasants remained very poor; strikes and demonstrations broke out in Petrograd
Czar terminates Duma’s demands for government reforms
Soldiers side with demonstrators
March 1917: Czar abdicates throne; family imprisoned - Russian monarchy ends

5. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
Temporary government: The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies
Soviet = “council”
Socialist leaders who believed political equality must be coupled with economic equality

6. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
Radical members wanted peace and land reforms
Provisional government pledged to continue war
Radical Bolsheviks take control by beating moderate Mensheviks
Vladimir Lenin: demanded governing power be turned over to soviets
Slogan: “peace, bread, and land”

7. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
Lenin: follower of Karl Marx
Lenin: trained Russian workers to become a revolutionary force; his version of Marxism formed the basis of communism
November 7, 1917: Bolsheviks overthrow government
Known as the October Revolution based on Russian calendar
1918: renamed the Communist Party and dissolved the constitutional assembly because they had no majority in it
Came to power to appeal to the poor Russian people

8. Peace and Civil War Provisional government had kept Russian in war
Lenin signs peace treaty with Central Power - loses a lot of territory to Germany under terms
Communists faces great opposition regarding political issues

9. Peace and Civil War
1918: civil war; imprisoned czar and family executed in order to prevent any chance of monarchy coming back
3 year war: Red Army (symbolic color of European socialist revolutionaries) against the Whites (right-wing, counter-revolutionary)

10. Peace and Civil War Allies upset about treaty
Fearful that communism would spur revolutions in other countries
Arms, money, and troops given to the Whites

11. Peace and Civil War 1921: Communist victory
Russia renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union