The Russian Revolution and the Major Players 1905-1917

Pre-Revolution

• Russia had been oppressed for centuries by tyrannical czars (Russian Kings)

• Ended with Nicholas II. From the beginning of Nicholas’ reign he failed; – Coronation-- hundreds were killed because of poor

crowd control. – Poor harvest in the late 1890’s led to civil unrest,

Many without enough food or wages. – Wasn’t ready for the Japan-Russo war 1904-05.

Russian Revolutions1905 - 1917

•Revolutions were actually several protests (people revolting) against the Czar over a 12 year span, finally ending with the October Revolution of 1917.

•It ended hundreds of years of oppression from the Czarist Regimes.

•It paved the way for the totalitarian communist governments to exist for the next 70 years and created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)

Background: Causes of Revolution

• Repressive and aristocratic regimes of the Romanov dynasty: Nicholas II

• Severe economic and social crisis in Russia

• Russia in WWI: Unpopular war, many Russians were being killed.

• Corruption in Government

• Numbers of Poor and Rich

Causes Continued

• Revolutionary Middle Class • Nicholas II refused to allow any type of

government reform and refused to let go of total control

• New Ideas of Marxist Communism in Europe

• A new leader of the visionary Revolutionary class named Vladmir Lenin

Due to Russia’s economic problems, the lower classes looked for an answer.

•No social classes!

•Wealth to be shared among more people!

Karl Marx and Communism

• Marxist Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production (farms, factories, etc.)

• Wealth to be shared among the society

Lenin

• Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin

• Supporter of Marx’s ideas of Communism and wanted to overthrow the Czar

• Weak Government paved the way for Lenin to rise to power.

• Lenin appealed to the masses “Peace, Land, Bread ”

• Led group known as the Bolsheviks (Social Democrats) in the revolution.

• First leader of the new communist Russia

• Died of a stroke after only a few years in power

• Leon Trotsky founded “Red Army”, or MRC (military revolutionary council) in 1917.

• MRC was the group that actually removed of the Duma (Russian legislature), completing the Revolution

• Trotsky allowed Lenin to lead in the following years but was an vital member of the communist government.

• Later he would battle for power with Stalin after Lenin’s death.

October Revolution October 25 1917• Trotsky’s “red army” took

over the government in St. Petersburg

• Lenin seized power immediately with Trotsky and Joseph Stalin by his side.

• First 2 acts:

1. End Russian involvement in WWI.

2. Give peasants land. “private ownership shall be abolished forever”.

• Took control of the government after Lenin died of a stroke 1924

• Lenin had actually wanted Trotsky to lead. He distrusted Stalin.

• Stalin was popular with the people. He seemed like a regular guy and spoke in a way that people could understand.

• Stalin’s first policies were  his Five Year Plans and the

Collective Farms.

Joseph Stalin “Man of Steel”

Trotsky Flees the Country

• Stalin fears Trotsky will take his power

• Uses secret police to threaten and attempt to assassinate Trotsky

• Trotsky flees the country and hides in various countries

• Tries to work against Stalin from “outside”

• Eventually moves to Mexico

Five Year Plans:

Modernize the Soviet Union in five years no matter what the cost.

It caused massive shortages and

suffering for all.

Collective Farming: All farmers are forced to give up their

own farms and work and farm in groups. It was a huge failure.

The Secret Police: Terror police whose job it was to kill and eliminate all people thought to

oppose Stalin.

Propaganda: Designed to influence and control peoples

beliefs and information flow. Stalin used it and

when he took over he forced it on people

everywhere.

The U.S.S.R. : 1922, The Union of Soviet Socialists

Republic was formed to unite all Russian people under one government.

Trotsky in Mexico: Leon Trotsky was

hunted down by Stalin’s agents and killed in his hotel room in Mexico

City with an ice pick in 1940.

Joseph Stalin

Leon Trotsky

Karl MarxVladimir Lenin

End of slide show. KEEP YOUR NOTES!

George Orwell

• British Author (Famous for: Animal Farm, 1984)• Admired Marx and to some extent Lenin• Believed in some parts of communist theory, but

not others• Disliked Joseph Stalin• Believed that Stalin and warped ideas of

communism into totalitarianism• Expressed his views through allegorical writing

Eric Blair (George Orwell)

Animal Farm 1945