Revolution and Nationalism
1900-1939
Revolutions in Russia C. 30 S.1
 In 1881 revolutionaries
frustrated by slow change
in Russia, assassinated czar
Alexander II.
 Alexander III takes over in
1881 and halts all reforms
in Russia, ruled by
AUTOCRACY- absolute
power.
 Many political prisoners
killed or sent to Siberia,
Jews were especially
targeted.
Russia Industrializes
 Russia becomes the fourth largest producer of steel in
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the world
The longest railroad in the world is completed (The
Trans-Siberian Railway)
Laborers are treated poorly and forced to work long
hours, under harsh conditions, for little pay or food.
Revolutionaries in the labor movement wanted
PROLETARIAT-workers would rule the country
The Bolsheviks- revolutionaries willing to sacrifice
everything for change. Led by a ruthless organizer
VLADIMIR LENIN.
Crisis In Russia and Abroad
Events that sparked the
Revolutions
 The Russo-Japanese War –
 WWI- over 4 million killed,
late 1800’s Russian losses in
Manchuria sparked unrest
 Bloody Sunday, 1905- 200,000
Workers petition czar
Nicholas II for better working
conditions. He orders
soldiers to fire, killing many
and wounding 1,000.
missing, wounded, over 1
million killed. Weakened the
country even further.
 RASPUTIN- “The Holy
Man”…ummmm. No!
 The March Revolution 1917200,000 starving workers
took to the streets, “Down
with the czar.” “Down with
the war” at first soldiers shot
them..then sided with them
Nicholas II 18681918
“Read all about it..Czar
Nicholas II abdicates
the throne! He and his
family are killed one
year later! 300 years of
the Romanovs rule is
over! Down with the
czar!”
---July 1918
Provisional Government
 Provisional Government- temporary government.
 Led by Alexander Kerensky, he favored staying in
WWI. The Russian people did not and he lost
support.
 Soviets- local workers, peasants, and soldiers who
wanted more land and better conditions; were formed
and opposed the new government.
 Lenin (who had been exiled for many years) returns to
Russia to lead the Bolshevik Revolution.
“Peace, Land, and Bread”
Russian Revolution and Civil War
1905-1922
 Bolshevik territory, Oct.
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1919
Territories lost (Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk, 1918)
Bolshevik uprisings, 1917–
1918
White Russian and
Allied attacks, 1918–1920
Bolshevik counterattacks,
1918–1920
Major civil war battle areas,
1918–1920
Boundaries of Russia, 1922
Lenin and the Bolsheviks gain
power
 November 1917 armed workers storm Kerensky's palace
and seize control.
 Lenin gives farmland back to the peasants and orders
factories to be run by the workers
 Signed a truce with Germany and pulled Russia out of
the war
 Many Russians mad with the terms of the treaty, not
everyone liked Lenin
Civil War in Russia
White Army
Red Army
 Many different groups that
 Supported Lenin
did not get along
 No real leadership
 Some wanted the return of
czarist Russia, some just did
not like Lenin
 Led by Leon Trotsky
 Won the 2 year war
 Over 14 million Russians died
from the battles, disease, and
famine.
The USSR and Communist Party
 Lenin restores order in Russia
 The economy slowly recovered
 In 1922 the country was changed to the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) to honor the Soviets
 The Bolsheviks renamed their party the Communist
Party- described a classless society that would rule
when workers took over. Theory from Karl Marx
 Essentially a dictatorship
Marx vs. Lenin
Karl Marx
 • History was the story of class
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struggle.
• The struggle Marx saw was
between
capitalists and the proletariat, or
the workers.
• The proletariat’s numbers would
become so great and their condition
so poor that a spontaneous revolution
would occur.
• The revolution would
end with a “dictatorship
of the proletariat”—the
communal ownership
of wealth.
Lenin
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History was the story of class struggle.
• The struggle Lenin saw was capitalists
against the proletariat and the
peasants.
• The proletariat and the peasants were
not capable of leading a revolution
and needed the guidance of professional
revolutionaries.
• After the revolution, the
state needed to be run
by a single party with
disciplined, centrally
directed administrators
in order to ensure
its goals.
Joseph Stalin
becomes dictator
Lenin Suffers a stroke in
1922.
Stalin a ruthless leader
wants to rule the
Communist Party
Lenin dies in 1924 but said
right before he died,
“Comrade Stalin..has
concentrated enormous
power in his hands, and I
am not sure that he always
knows how to use that
power with caution.”
Stalin will rule the USSR
with ABSOLUTE POWER.