The Russian Revolution

1917 - 1921

Fall of the Tsar (Czar?)• The __________________________

– Russia’s Congress

• Criticizes the war effort in 1916

• Tsar Nicholas II closes it down

Rasputin

– _____________________________• Mystic monk• Claimed to be able to heal Alexi’s

____________________________________• Influenced royal couple

– Nicholas goes to the front, leaving wife and Rasputin in charge

• December 29, 1916– Relatives invite Rasputin to dinner

Creepy?

While at Dinner

• Relatives poison and shoot Rasputin

– HE DOESN’T DIE

– Throw his body in the Neva River

Problems Continue

• _______________________________

– Where’s my Beef Stroganoff?

• _______________________________

• Military told to fire at protestors

– won’t fire and join protestors

Tsar Steps Aside

• March 15, 1917–Tsar Nicholas II ends the ___________________________

dynasty and steps down• Romanovs had been in power for __________________________

Provisional Government

• Liberals call for elections– Mostly members of the Duma– Saw the need for support from the Petrograd

Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies• Socialistic groups

– ___________________________________________ – moderates

– ___________________________________________ – radicals

• Run by Alexander Kerensky– Member of the Petrograd Soviet

Kerensky

Provisional Government (con’t)

• Does not pull out of __________________________________– Desertion grows, economy drops– Could not make changes that the Soviets

wanted – BIG PROBLEM

Lenin to the rescue

Lenin’s Tomb

Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin)

• Lenin’s Big Brother, Alexander Ilyich, tries to kill Tsar Alexander Romanov (Father of Nicholas II)

– Alexander fails and is sentenced to hanging by the Tsar

• Lenin vows to lead revolution against the Romanovs

• Lenin exiled to prison in Siberia (1895)

– Lenin goes to Germany after his release

• Germany sends Lenin back to Russia after Nicholas abdicates the throne (Why?)– To distract the Tsar from his WWI war efforts

Lenin’s Work

• Promised “Peace, Land, Bread” – Get Russia out of WWI– Peasants would get land– Everyone gets enough to eat

• “ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS”– Soviets (committees) should be the nation’s only

government– No other political parties allowed

Karl Marx

• German philosopher who wrote Communist Manifesto with Englishman Richard Engels– Detailed theory of Historical Materialism

• All history was a fight between the bourgeise (haves) and the proletariat (have nots)

– Proletariat – working peasant class– Bourgeisie – wealthy noble landowner

• Bourgeisie would never willingly give wealth and power to the Proletariat

• Proletariate would have to revolt to overthrow the Bourgeisie• Largely influenced Lenin and Trotsky

The Revolution

• Summer 1917– Gov’t issues warrants

for Bolshevik leaders

• Fall 1917– Bolsheviks control

Petrograd Soviet through elections

• November 1917– Storm communication,

train, and electric hubs– Turn the guns of the

Aurora on the Tsarist palace

– Provisional Government surrnders

What Happened Next

• Elections held– ___________________________________ - 420

seats– ___________________________________ - 225

seats

• ________________________________ dissolve gov’t the next day– Seize power under Lenin

“_______________________________________”• Signs Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany

– Russia gives Baltic provinces, Ukraine, and Poland to Germany

Civil War

• White (Mensheviks)– Opposed Bolsheviks– Could be

• _________________ – want to restore the Romanovs

• __________________ – want a capitalistic democracy

• __________________ – want democracy and state run economy

• Red– Bolsheviks

• Begin to call themselves communist

• Choose red as color of revolution

• Very __________________ politically

• No private ownership• One party system

Mensheviks get help

• Allies want to get rid of Bolsheviks– Bring _____________________________

back into WWI with Germany– Give soldiers and money to Mensheviks

Why the Reds Win

• Leon Trotsky– Reorganized the ___________________________________

• Restored discipline• Fostered loyalty

– Taught soldiers how to read an write• Lack of unity on ______________________________________

– Different groups didn’t trust one another• Lenin used terror

– ________________________________________________ – secret police arrests anyone who is “enemy of the revolution”

• Leon Trotsky– Returns from

________________________

for Russ. Rev.

– Right Hand Man of Lenin

• Lenin was not anti-semitic

– Exiled to Siberia by ______________________

• Escapes, moves to Mexico

• Friends with Frida Kahlo

• Stalin’s assassins kills him with an ice pick

End of the Romanov Dynasty

• July 1918

– ________________________ orders soldiers to kill the Tsar and his family. Why?

• Family was exiled in Siberia

– Told they were going to get a family portrait

– Taken to basement of their home and shot

– Ended 300 year rule

– _________________ – Still Alive?????

The Royal Family

Lenin and Religion

• Lenin sees religion as against the revolution– Places sever restrictions on the Russian

______________________________ Church

Ending the Civil War

• __________________________________control entire country by 1921

• White armies surrender in 1921 due to disorganization, lack of equipment, etc.

• Lenin and the ____________________________ WINS

Next Up

•STALIN!!

Stalin (1879–1953)

• Soviet _____________________ leader, who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of post-World War II Europe.

• Stalin is considered by some to have been the most _____________________and influential political figure of the 20th century.

Map of Russia – former USSR

Stalin Cont…

• Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, as he was originally named—he adopted the pseudonym Stalin, meaning “a man of steel,” only about 1910—was born on Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, now in the _________________________________.

• Both his parents were Georgian peasants. Neither of them spoke Russian, but Stalin was forced to learn it, as the language of instruction.

• When he attended the Gori church school in 1888–94. The best pupil in the school, Soso (his schoolboy nickname) earned a full _____________________________ to the Tbilisi Theological Seminary.

Stalin The Revolutionary• While studying for the priesthood, Stalin read forbidden literature,

including ______________________________ Das Kapital, and soon converted to a new orthodoxy: Russian Marxism. Before graduation he quit the seminary to become a full-time revolutionary.

• Stalin began his career in the Social-Democratic party in 1899 as a propagandist among Tbilisi railroad workers. The police caught up with him in 1902.

• Arrested in Batum, he spent more than a year in prison before being exiled to ________________________, from which he escaped in 1904. This became a familiar pattern.

• Between 1902 and 1913 Stalin was arrested ____________________________________________ times; he was exiled seven times and escaped six times. The government contained him only once; his last exile in 1913 lasted until 1917.

• On his return from Siberia in 1904 Stalin married. His first wife, Yekaterina Svanidze, died in 1910.

• A second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva (1902–32), whom he married in 1919, committed suicide in 1932.

• Their daughter, ___________________________Alliluyeva (born Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina in 1926, in Moscow; married name Lana Peters), defected to the West years later, in 1967.

– She became a U.S. citizen and wrote several books, including ___________________________(1967), an account of her life as Stalin’s daughter. The HBO movie Stalin is based on this book.

Lenin 1870 -1924• Before his death, Lenin came

to regard the _____________________ in Stalin’s personality and conduct as political liabilities. In his political “testament”

• Lenin doubted whether the party’s general secretary would use his great power with sufficient caution. He also attacked Stalin as being ________________ and called for his removal. Luck and maneuvering enabled Stalin to suppress Lenin’s testament.