The Russian Revolution
Terms, Names, Events
What is totalitarianism?
An absolute single party government
• No individual freedom
Controls all aspects of
individual life through
coercion and repression
• It sweeps away all legal, social, and
political traditions
• Sets 1 goal – usually industrialization
or conflict and all of its resources go
toward it
• Any dissent is branded as evil and no
political differences are tolerated
• Participation in approved public
organizations is first encouraged and then
required
• Old religious and social ties are replaced by
commitment to the state
• Whole classes of people are singled out for
extinction (Jews in Germany and Kulaks -the
wealthiest peasants- in Russia)
• Police operate without any restraints or
procedures – they are directed by the
whim of the rulers.
(For example, Hitler had the right and
power to amend the German Constitution at
will; recently happened in Pakistan)
• By being unpredictable, they keep a
sense of terror among the people they
dominate.
Czar Nicholas II
• Nicholas was the son of Alexander
Romanov, a giant, intimidating man, and
Maria Dagmar, Princess of Denmark, a
petite woman.
• A weak-willed leader of Russia; never
wanted to be the Czar; not physically
robust like his father and brother;
couldn’t make decisions
• Married Alexandra, grand-daughter of
Queen Victoria of England
• She was strong-willed and
influenced her husband;
Alexandra’s sister, Ella, was
married to a Russian noble, which
influenced Alexandra’s choice in
marrying a Russian too.
• Russia was a backward country in the
early 1900’s.
• An agrarian economy with most of the
land owned by the nobility class
• The rest of the civilized world had been
born into the Industrial Revolution; just
beginning in Russia
• Russia was “behind the times”
• The Czar (Tsar) was the same as a king
and ruled as a dictator
• He permitted the Russian people to
form a Duma (like our congress) with
each city and town sending a
representative
• Russian people wanted land reform so
that commoners could own land, and
not just the nobles
• He wouldn’t listen to his people and
abolished the Duma (their congress) thereby
eliminating any voice the people had in their
government
• During WWI he led the Russian army into
battle against Germany, leaving his wife at
home to rule
• Riots broke out in St. Petersburg and other
cities because people were tired of being
poor, hungry, and mistreated
• The Bolshevik party (the workers’ party) gained
control in an uprising and captured the royal family,
sending them to Siberia in 19l8
• They were executed and their bodies were hidden
(story of Anastasia). Alexandra and Nicholas had
been married for twenty-three years at the time of
their deaths
Tsarina Alexandra Romanov
• Born in Germany in 1872
• Grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of
England
• When 3 years old her brother, sister,
and mother died of diseases
• She fell in love with Nicholas at her sister’s
wedding.
• She learned the Russian language before
marrying Nicholas.
• They married in 1895 and had five children.
• The first four children were girls: Olga,
Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.
• Because Alexandra didn’t produce a male
heir, the people hated her.
• When Alexandra produced a fifth child, a boy
named for his father, it became apparent that
he was afflicted with hemophilia, a genetic
disease inherited from Alexandra’s side of the
family . This gave those close to the Czar
more reason to hate Alexandra for producing
a “defective heir.”
• Alexei’s disease was a state secret and only
a few knew about it.
• She worked to help the poor people in Russia
and headed the Red Cross during WWI.
• The Russian people also hated her because
she was German, and they thought she was
cold and indifferent, when she was merely
shy.
• They also never understood why she was
involved with Rasputin.
Rasputin
• He was born in 1872 in
Siberia.
Real name was Grigori
Efimovich Rasputin
• He was married, had three children, and
was a priest
• He was both a mystic and a healer (a
“startsy”).
• Many startsies were rough spoken,
uncultivated men who dressed in
peasant garments and were coarse
in their habits.
• Many were immoral, holding orgies,
drinking heavily, brawling and making
public nuisances of themselves. Their
immorality and vulgar behavior was
part of their theology of “salvation
through sin,” which required them to
sin lustily in order to attain the
maximum salvic effect.
• The startsy were popular among
aristocratic ladies.
• Czarist Alexandra favored him because he saved
her son Alexei’s life when the doctors couldn’t
(Alexei was a hemophiliac).
• Rasputin became close to the royal family and
became part of the social scene of the court.
• During WWI the Czar went to the battle front with
his troops, leaving Alexandra to rule in his
absence. People began rumors about the Tsarina
and Rasputin.
• High ranking officials in the court that hated
Alexandra and Rasputin planned to
assassinate him.
Poisoned his food at a dinner party
Shot him outside of the party
Stabbed him and clubbed him
Dumped his body into a frozen river
Cause of death was determined to be
drowning.
The Czar and Tsarina were outraged because
Rasputin was the only person who could save
their son’s life.
Karl Marx
• German philosopher,
social scientist, historian,
and revolutionary, considered to be the most
influential socialist of the
19th Century.
• Sharp contrast between the alienated nature
of labor under capitalism and a communist
society where human beings freely
participated in cooperative production.
• Met Friedrich Engels in Paris and formed a
life-long friendship
• In 1847 wrote The Communist Manifesto with
Engels.
• By 1850 revolutions against autocratic
governments were breaking out throughout
Europe.
Capitalism
• An economic system based on private
ownership of the means of production
and distribution of goods.
GAP factory owner
GAP
factory
workers
The Bolsheviks
The Russian political party that followed
the teachings of Karl Marx.
Made several attempts to take over Russia
All rebellions were unsuccessful and rebels
were executed
Finally successful on October 24, 1917.
Eleven million peasants were drafted into
the Russian army during WWI. Many
people were unhappy with the Czar because
the economy was in ruins and people did not
want to be at war.
The Bolshevik party became the
Communist party in Russia.
The name of the country was changed from Russia
to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.
In the first election the Bolsheviks received only
32% of the votes.
Vladimir Lenin
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His brother was hanged for trying to
assassinate the Czar.
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Joined the Bolshevik Party and
became its leader
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In 1897 he was exiled to a work
camp.
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Led the revolution against the Czar
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• Lenin’s slogan was “Bread, Land,
Peace and All Power to the Soviets!”
He signed the peace treaty ending WWI but
Russia lost the Ukraine and the Baltic region,
as well as 80% of its iron and 90% of its coal.
This made the Bolshevik party very
unpopular.
The Bolsheviks had their own military called the
Red Army. Lenin used his military to repress
political opponents
• A civil war broke out in Russia.
• The Bolsheviks, under Lenin, ruled the land
and placed all industry, businesses, and
farms under government control.
• In time, every group that opposed the
Bolsheviks was eliminated. Whole
populations of people were ruthlessly killed.
• Lenin died of natural causes in 1924.
Leon Trotsky
Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Formed the South Russia
Workers Union
Exiled to Siberia in 1900
Took the name Trotsky in 1902
• Joined Lenin and revolutions prior to 1917
• Captured and sent to Siberia again
• Escaped to London and met Josef Stalin
• Returned to Russia after Bolshevik
Revolution and joined Lenin
• Founded the Red Army
• After Lenin’s death he shared power with
Stalin but opposed his murderous tactics
• Stayed true to Marxism and fought for true
class equality
• Popular with the people; made Stalin jealous
• Expelled from Communist Party and then
from the Soviet Union
• Trotsky’s followers were sent to concentration
camps and never seen again
• Relocated to Mexico
• Murdered in Mexico City in 1940 by a
Stalin assassin with an ice-axe
Josef Stalin
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Leader of the USSR from
1929 until his death
in 1950
Changed Communism
from a revolutionary
movement to a totalitarian government
• Transformed Russia into a leading industrial
nation
• Ruthlessly cruel and paranoid
• Killed everyone who opposed him, including
family members
• Reign of terror in Russia under Stalin
• Defeated Hitler along with the Allies in WWII
and then established Communist
governments in Eastern Europe
What is Communism?
• Simply stated: everything is owned by everyone
because the government owns it all!
• The goal was to produce goods and give them to
people based on need rather than effort.
• Everyone would share everything
• Almost immediately became corrupt!
• Goal was to make the entire world Communist
Who Are the Proletariat?
• The working class people (factory workers)
• Lived In poverty conditions in cities while
factory owners grew rich
• Worked for unjustly low wages and poor
conditions (just like 3rd World countries
today; sweatshops)
• The class of people that were to benefit from
a Communist government
Animal Farm
• A satire* about the Russian Revolution and any
revolution that promises equality but then becomes
corrupt.
*Satire is a literary work holding up human vices and
follies to ridicule or scorn
It is also a fable because the characters are animals
with human characteristics and there is a moral to
the story.