the russian revolution. russian imperial flag russian expansion a heterogeneous empire
TRANSCRIPT
The Russian Revolution
Russian Imperial FlagRussian Imperial Flag
Russian ExpansionRussian Expansion
A heterogeneous empire
Nicholas I [r. 1825-1855]Nicholas I [r. 1825-1855]
Autocracy!
Orthodoxy!
Nationalism!
Alexander II [r. 1855-1881]Alexander II [r. 1855-1881]Defeat in Crimean WarStarted reforms & Industrial RevolutionEmancipation of the Russian serfs [1861]Zemstvos formed1864- judicial reformsExpanded Russia’s boundariesStopped Populist Revolts and not People’s Will
Alexander III [r. 1881-1894]Alexander III [r. 1881-1894]
Reactionary…no more reforms!!!!SlavophilRussification heightened Pogroms toward JewsForced migration of Jews‘Iron Fist’ ruleHarassed Catholics and ProtestantsTightened Censorship
Forced Migration of Russia’s Jews
Forced Migration of Russia’s Jews
Nicholas II (1894-1917)
• Last of the Romanovs
• Encouraged industrialization
• Trans Siberian Railroad
• Still mainly an agriculture country
• lots of rural poverty and overpopulation
Growth of Radicalism• Social Democrats- (Mensheviks and
Bolsheviks) Marxist will split into these two groups. Lenin headed the Bolsheviks. Mainly industrial workers.
• Socialist Revolution Party- mainly peasants and workers.
• Union of Liberation- Middle class liberals who wanted a constitutional monarchy
1905 Revolution• After loss to Japan (1904-5), government was seen as
weak by the people• ‘Bloody Sunday’- troops fired into peaceful crowd in St.
Petersburg’s Winter Palace.– Caused demonstrations and strikes throughout Russia
• October Manifesto- 1905- Nicholas tries to stop outbreak, creates a constitution (Fundamental Laws) granting civil rights and creating a Duma & legalized political parties– Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, Octobrist
(m.c. liberals), Cadets (const. demo’s)
Post Revolution• 1906 & 1907 1st and 2nd Duma’s created, but
dissolved by Nicholas
• 1906 Agrarian Reform Act- gave peasants land hoping to create a landowning society who would vote for the conservatives
• Too late…revolution and war will engulf Russia
CAUSES:
• World War I Russia not prepared
• Czar Nicholas II Unpopular & Incompetent (Rasputin influence)
• Hunger, War losses, unemployment
1917
• March 8, Bread March
• March 10: Nicholas orders troops to put down revolt Troops join revolt
• March 15: Nicholas abdicates Provisional Government Takes over
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
• Alexander Kerensky: Continued war out of pride
• Duma: Main governing body
• Petrograd Soviet – For workers to voice grievances – Leadership becomes more radical
• Bolsheviks: Vladimir Lenin Marxist beliefs
OCTOBER REVOLUTION
• November 6-7, 1917
• Bolshevik forces seize Winter Palace and Provisional Government collapses
• Britain, France, Japan and U.S. fear spread of socialism; send troops
CONSOLIDATING POWER
• Lenin ends war: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3, 1918– Bringing peace gains the Bolsheviks the
support of many people
• July 1918 – Czar Nicholas II and family executed by Bolsheviks
• Civil War begins
REDS vs. WHITES (Civil War) • REDS: Communists fighting for single
interest – Power spread due to well-disciplined army (Leon
Trotsky) – United under one cause
• WHITES: Anti-Communist fighting against the communists – Failed due to: disunity – Multiple causes
RESULTS
• Reds retain control by using “The Red Terror”
• Lack of foreign intervention: over 100,000 allied troops in Russia, fail to act
• By 1922, Bolsheviks firmly in power-Soviet Union (USSR) created.
AFTERMATH
• Lenin dies in 1924
• Although Trotsky had been most likely to succeed Lenin, he is outmaneuvered by Josef Stalin
• Trotsky flees into exile (later assassinated)
• Stalin leads USSR through WWII and into Cold War
1. What is the difference in this picture?
2. Why was this done?
3. Who do you think did this?