Russian Revolution

IB History
Ms. Perez
Russia spans 11 time zones.
Population: approx. 145 million.
Russia was not very industrialized, this led to
several problems in the economy, mainly among
peasantry and the urban workers.
Most people
in Russia
were
peasants.
Around
85%
Russians lacked proper training, supplies, railroads
Vladimir Lenin:

Promises “Peace,
Land and Bread,”

Leader of
Bolshevik
(Communist)
Revolution
The Last Romanovs
to rule Russia:
Czar Nicholas II and son
Alexei (heir to throne).

Nicholas II was
coronated in 1894, and
overthrown in 1917.
 1898 - Lilies-of-the-
Valley
This egg contains rose
diamonds and pearls.
There are three oval
miniatures of Nicholas II in
military uniform, and the
Grand Duchesses Olga and
Tatiana, his first two children.
Cossack soldiers, traditional guardians of the czars of Russia
 1905 Revolution
• Liberals vs. Social Revolutionaries (SR)
•SD splits into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks
•January 22: Bloody Sunday
• 2 main liberal groups emerge: Union of
Liberation (Kadets) and the Council of Worker’s
Deputies made up of the Mensheviks as the
majority and the Bolsheviks and SDs in the
minority.
• October: Nicholas II agreed to create a Duma
(Parliament), but gives them no power.
 continued
• People went on strike to protest. Nicholas II
dissolves the Duma after 75 days and becomes more
repressive.
• Many political parties organize. Unrest grows.
• A second Duma is elected in 1907 but only lasted 3
months.
• 1907 a third Duma is elected lasting five years.
Why??
Involvement in the Great War leads to many deaths. One
official notes: “Russia is drowning in her own blood.”
Even the Russian army begins to support the Revolution
 Russian Revolutions, 1917
• March: Nicholas II abdicates, a new
provisional government is set up. Leader is
Prince Lvov, who is replaced by Alexander
Kerensky.
• Provisional government makes the mistake
of continuing World War I.
• Germans smuggle Lenin back into Russia.
 Russian Revolutions, 1917
• November: Bolsheviks (Communists) led by Lenin
overthrow the Provisional Government.
• Support of soldiers and sailors to aid the Red Guards
is received. Trotsky leads preparations
• Red Guards fire on the Winter palace and all the
members of the provisional government except for
Kerensky (who fled to US Embassy) were arrested.
• The new Council of People’s Commissars
(Sovnarcom) is set up and led by Lenin.
• This was a coup d’etat and not a genuine revolution.
 Reasons for the Coup’s success
1. Conspiracy theories
a. Westerners: Successful German plot to take Russia out
of the war
b. International Jewish conspiracy: Trotsky, Zinoviev along
with other prominent Bolsheviks were Jews.
2. Bolshevik discipline
a. Everything was discussed in the Central Committee;
much democracy despite Lenin’s extremist wishes.
b. Between February’s Revolution & October, new
members joined the party making it into the mass party,
favored by the Mensheviks.
…continued reasons
3. Various factors:
a. Provisional Government never accepted by the people
b. Provisional Government’s unpopular policies:
postponing the land question; staying in the War.
c. Moderates left the Provisional G., isolating Kerensky
d. Lenin compromised with the masses by supporting the
peasants’ land seizures.
e. Lenin picked the moment of most hostility to Kerensky
f. Leon Trotsky carried out the coup successfully
 The Establishment of the Soviet State
1. Reformation of the Russian economy (socialist)
1. Redistribution of land to peasants with no remuneration
to the landowners.
2. Planned Economy by Supreme Council of the National
Economy.
3. Nationalization of banks and foreign trade
4. Repudiation of all foreign debts
5. Comprehensive social insurance for all.

All these edicts had the purpose of gaining popularity with

the masses and to build a socialist society, however, the
party kept all the decision-making power.
…continued Establishment Soviet St.
2. Bolsheviks did not receive a majority of seats in the
Duma (Parliament). (168 out of 700, SR’s 380)
3. Bolsheviks ordered the dissolution of the Duma in
January 1918 with the help of the Red Guards and a
decree of Sovnarcom. “A complete liquidation of the idea of
democracy by the idea of dictatorship” V.Lenin

Further reforms were introduced (War communism)

Private inheritance abolished in April
Major industries and banks nationalized in June
Mortgages were abolished in August
 Establishment of the Soviet State
July 1918: constitution of the Russian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
“He who does not work, neither shall he eat”

a. Sovereign authority to the All Russian Congress of

Soviets with election by universal suffrage (exceptions)
b. Elected Central Executive Committee who in turn
elected the Council of Peoples’ Commissars as govmt.
c. Capital city moved to Moscow
d. Foundation of other Soviet Republics – Ukraine, etc.
Leon Trotsky:
Negotiator of the 1918
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Lenin’s right-hand man

Supreme commander of
the Red Army by 1919

Exiled by Stalin

Assassinated by
Stalin’s secret police
 Soviet Union, 1922
• 1922: Communists change the name of
Russia to the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR). Lenin and other
communists write a new constitution stating
that the country is a socialist state.
• 1922: Lenin suffers a stroke. He dies two
years later. Stalin takes over.
Bibliography: most photos came
from these two websites
• “The Empire that Was Russia: The
Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record
Recreated”
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ (Feb.
27, 2003)
• “St. Petersburg Photos”
http://www.finditlocal.com/stpetersburg/pho
tos.htm (Feb. 27, 2003)