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.