Post on 13-Apr-2020
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
UNIT 3: REVOLUTION
CENTRAL QUESTIONS
• What was the historical context that laid the groundwork for
revolution in Russia?
• What were the revolutionary leaders’ goals?
– What were Vladimir Lenin’s goals?
• Were the revolutionaries successful in meeting their goals?
CAUSES OF RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
• Unprepared for total war of WWI
– Weak industry
– Lack of supplies
– Inexperienced leadership
• Rasputin’s influence in Russian gov’t
• Economic crisis
– Harsh food rationing
– Growing rate of poverty
• Dissatisfaction with Tsar Nicholas II
• Late and rapid industrialization
THE REVOLUTION
• Russian Revolution is actually comprised of two separate
revolutions in a short span of time:
– February Revolution
– October Revolution (or Bolshevik Revolution)
FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
March 8, 1917
• A strike in Petrograd snowballed into massive protest
– Protestors and striking laborers demanded bread
– Russian troops called in to suppress riot
• Nicholas orders deadly force; many troops mutiny
• Tsar’s palace guards abandon post
• March 15, Nicholas abdicates (renounces throne)
• Group of government officials declare the Provisional Government (PG) as new gov’t
OCTOBER/BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
• PG proves to be weak
– Remained in WWI; hugely unpopular
– Industry weakened; mass unemployment
– Cost of living skyrocketed
• Soviets (town councils of local workers, commoners) began to form and challenge the PG
• Vladimir Lenin convinces Bolsheviks (revolutionary socialist political party) to overthrow
the PG
– Soviets support Bolsheviks
• Overthrow is successful, Lenin becomes leader
VLADIMIR LENIN
• Leader of the Bolshevik Party
• Charismatic
• Well-liked by lower class
• Believed a vanguard of socialist intellectuals (including
himself) should lead the proletariat in violent revolution,
not wait for them to do it like Marx predicted
• Vanguard = group of people leading the way in new
developments or ideas
• Was exiled from Russia for printing and spreading
documents encouraging violent revolution; returned in
1917
• Returned in 1917 after February Revolution
• Exiled to Finland after a failed revolt
• Returned again in mid-1917 to lead October Revolution
END OF THE REVOLUTION
• Lenin taking power sparks the Russian Civil War
– Red Army (Lenin’s Bolsheviks) versus White Army (loose alliance of anti-communist
groups)
• War sees a devastating cost in human life
– 7,000,000-12,000,000 total casualties, mostly civilians
• Red Army wins, Bolshevik power cemented
– Rename themselves the Communist Party; government called Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR)
S U C C E S S :D I D T H E B O L S H E V I K S S U C C E E D
I N T H E I R G OA L S ?
SUCCESSES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Goal: Overthrow oppressive governments
• Both a success…
– Tsar Nicholas II is forced to abdicate, and the PG is dissolved
• …and a failure
– Lenin and later Stalin’s USSR was an oppressive tyranny worse than the previous regimes
• Dissidents imprisoned, murdered, “disappeared,” or exiled
• Mass famine
SUCCESSES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Goal: Create a communist utopia with newly empowered workers
• Failure
– Socialism, and eventually communism, is achieved through a “revolution from below”
• The USSR took power through a “revolution from above”
– Lenin/Stalin’s brutal dictatorships helped the common man no more than Nicholas or the PG
– The USSR’s communism was not communism at all
• Classes still existed
• The workers owned nothing
– Wealthy elite owned everything
• Profit drove production of goods
EXIT TICKET
With a partner, on a half-sheet of paper, answer the following:
1. What was the sequence of events in the February Revolution and October
Revolution?
2. Why was the Bolshevik goal of creating a communist utopia a failure? (USE
YOUR OWN WORDS)
3. Why did people dislike Tsar Nicholas II so much? Use specific examples
from the lesson.