Russian Revolution. February Revolution On Feb. 23 rd 1917, working- class women gather in Petrograd...
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Transcript of Russian Revolution. February Revolution On Feb. 23 rd 1917, working- class women gather in Petrograd...
Russian Revolution
February Revolution
• On Feb. 23rd 1917, working-class women gather in Petrograd to ask for “bread and peace”
• Men join them and Nicholas II soon orders his troops to fire on them
• The troops refuse and 80,000 of them join the protestors
• The Duma and other political parties secretly say Nicholas II must go
• Nicholas II abdicates; his brother Michael abdicates
• The Duma becomes the provisional gov’t
• Alexander Kerensky becomes temporary prime minister; keeps Russia in WW I
Arrival of Lenin
• Lenin had been living in exile in Switzerland
• Germany helps him get to Petrograd by train
• Arrives April 3rd, 1917• Lenin’s speeches are published,
become known as “April Theses”
• Lenin’s #1 goal: place Russia under Bolshevik control (Communist)
• Anti-Provisional Gov’t• Tries to organize massive street
demonstrations
October Revolution
• Bolsheviks gain more power over the summer of 1917
• However, Kerensky is calling for new elections to take place on Nov.12th
• Lenin knows it will be much harder to overthrow a gov’t that is legitimately elected
• Lenin organizes a Bolshevik army• On October 24th, revolutionaries
occupy key posts in Petrograd: telegraph offices, banks, railroad stations, bridges
• By October 25th, the Winter Palace was the only gov’t building not taken
• Kerensky flees morning of Oct. 25th • His officials stay, thinking he’ll bring
back troops• The palace is surrounded, but
revolutionaries refuse to fire on Russians
• The officials are persuaded to give up and are arrested
Aftermath• Kerensky flees to Europe, then
eventually becomes a professor of history in the U.S.
• Lenin declares Decree of Peace (Russia will leave WW I)
• Decree on Land (Land will be redistributed among peasants)
• Russia was still on the Julian Calendar; November 7th everywhere else