The Russian Revolution

7 Key Events

March Revolution

• March 8th through 15th, 1917, there is rioting in the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) over a lack of food and fuel. (Clip-fall/Tsar)

• The troops who are sent in to break up the riot, end up joining the rioters.

• Note: the March Revolution is not organized by the revolutionary intellectuals but by working people.

Abdication - March 15, 1917

• Sensing that the country is slipping into chaos, the Czar abdicates his throne.

• This ends a 300 year rule by the Romanov family.

Provisional Government EstablishedThe temporary Provisional government is made up of two groups:

– the middle class Duma – and – the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies.

• Which is divided into two groups:– Mensheviks, who believed in eventual change and – more radical Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Alexander Kerensky is the leader of the government; – Prime Minister– Executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet.

(Clip-1917 Rev.-Lenin’s steps)

The Petrograd Soviet demands three things:– Immediate peace with the Germans– Transfer of land to the Peasants– Control of the factories by the workers

• AKA “Land, Peace and Bread”

The Government does not remove Russia from the War. 

November Revolution (Bolshevik Revolution)

• Elections held.• Continuation of the War effort• Worker and Soldier Protests in July• November 7th, 1917 • Bolsheviks take control of the elected government.

(Clip: 1917: Bloodshed begins) • At this point the socialist state plan begins to go into

effect:

There is an end to private ownership of property

Land is distributed among the peasants.

Workers given control of the factories and mines.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• In March, 1918 the Russians sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Surrenders to the Central Powers• Russia loses–Much Western Territory– 1/3 of her population.

Civil War (1918-1921)• Civil war breaks out• Reds (Revolutionaries/Bolsheviks) against the Whites

(Moderates/Mensheviks) for control of the government.

• War Communism is instituted– direct control of Industry– secret police called the Cheka.

• By 1921 the Whites have surrendered. • Lenin leads the Bolsheviks.• The victorious Red Army is led by Leon Trotsky.

Imperial Execution (1918)

• To avoid any change of mind, the revolutionaries execute the royal family

(clip: Tsar’s Family Death)

• Now the country must move forward on reformation.

Which of the following ends Russia’s participation in WWI?

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1. Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

2. The creation of a provisional government

3. Lenin signed a deal with the US to continue a two front war

4. United States joins the war effort

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Who becomes the leader of the Bolsheviks and leads Russia out of the war?

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1. Leon Trotsky

2. Joseph Stalin

3. Vladimir Lenin

4. Otto Von Bismarck

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