The Russian Revolution
McKay 904-910, Palmer 18.93
The Path to Revolution
Fundamental
Institutions Altered
-Serfdom
-Zemstvos
Nicholas II
coronation
1861
1881
Political Parties Form
-Cadets- Constitutionalists
--Mensheviks- Orthodox Marxist,
want to gradually achieve Comm.
Rev., love Proletariat , democratic
--Bolsheviks- view Mir as
paradigm, skip Ind. Rev., elitist,
violent
1894
Alexander III
-Stolypin Policies
-State sponsored
Industrialization
-Mir Attacked
-Kulaks grow
1905
1914
WWI
Begins
-Russo Japanese War
-Bloody Sunday
-October Manifesto
-Duma
Feb. Rev.
-Petrograd Food Riots
Provisional Gov. v
Petrograd Soviet
-Treaty of
Brest-Litosvk
-Civil War
erupts (Whites
v. Reds)
1917
1918
1921
Bolsheviks
win
October Revolution
(November 6)
Bolsheviks seize
power
Russia and the Great War
• Russians enthusiastic for
war
• Sang “God save the
Tsar”
• Conservatives
– Opportunity for expansion
in Balkans
• Liberals & Socialists
– Alliance with GB and
France would spawn
democratic reforms
Disaster of WWI
• Nicholas attempted Total War mobilization
– But less effective than Germany
– Industry was unable to supply soldiers by 1915
• Soldiers sent to front without rifles
– Battles of Tannenberg + Masurian Lakes led to
2 million casualties by 1915
• Middle class (in Duma) were supportive of war
effort and organized war activities
– Formed Commercial and Industrial Committee
(in Petrograd) to increase production
• Nicholas II
– Devoted family man
– But Poor leader in time of crisis
– Held autocratic power (Could veto & dissolve
Duma)
– Retained belief in Divine Right
• Duma
– September 1915 called for new government
responsible to the Duma
• Tsar adjourned Duma and left for the Front
“Our Dear Friend Grigori”
• Tsarina Alexandra (German)
– Took control of government
– had contempt for Russians & Parliament
– Under influence of Grigori Rasputin
• Rasputin
– self-appointed holy man from Siberia
– Believed to possess supernatural powers
and got friends appointed to prominent
positions of power
– Had apparent hypnotic power over sickly
(hemophilia) Alexis
– Rumored to be Tsarina’s lover
– In letter to Nicholas from Rasputin
• “If I die or you desert me, in six months
you will lose your son and the throne.”
• 3 aristocrats murdered Rasputin in
December 1916
Click for Clip (2/3)
Clip for Clip (3/3)
The February (March) Revolution
• Food shortages caused riots in February
(March 8) 1917 in Petrograd
– “Down with the tsar!”
• Troops refused to fire on the rioters
• Two competing authorities arose in
Petrograd
– Duma Committee Organizes
• Moderate, constitutionalist
– Petrograd Soviet organizes
• Revolutionary (from below)
• Socialists groups tried to win over the
Petrograd
• Duma set up Provisional Gov under Prince
Lvov
• Admitted Alexander Kerensky (moderate
socialist) to new gov
• Called for the abdication of Nicholas II
• Army took the side of the revolution
– Could not vouch for the loyalty of their
men
• March 17, 1917 Nicholas abdicated throne
Alexander Kerensky (center, white), charter
member of the Provisional Government and its
head in September-October 1917, arriving in
Moscow on or about 12 August 1917.
Provisional Government (March-November 1917)
• Provisional government made up of
moderate liberals took over Russian
Republic
– Began to draft Constitution
• Establish equality before law,
freedom of religion, speech,
assembly
• Right to form unions, strike
• Universal male suffrage
• Fatal Mistakes
– Not interested in social revolution
– Refused to refused to redistribute
lands for the peasants
– Vowed to continued the war
against Germany
Alexander Kerensky is speaking at a meeting of
the Provisional Government in the Library of
Nicholas II
Petrograd Soviet
• Emerged as a competing government
with Provisional gov
• Comprised of factory workers, soldiers,
radical intelligencia
• Held mass meetings (2-3 thousand
workers, soldiers, socialist intellectuals)
• Army Order No. 1
– Stripped officers of their authority
– Placed power in hands of elected
committees of common soldiers
– Meant to prevent counter
revolutionary dictator from arising
– Led to total collapse of army discipline
– Officers murdered
– “voting with their feet” Lenin
• Many soldiers abandoned the
army and seized land
Russia (Feb.-Nov.) 1917
Who is in charge?
Petrograd Soviet
-Workers, Social Democrats
Provisional Governemt
-Kadets, Octobrists, Liberals
Bolsheviks
Lenin (1870-1924)
• Devout Marxist ‘revisionist’
• Exiled to Siberia for socialist agitation
• Lived in western Europe (17 years) and revised
Marxism
• Marxist-Leninism
– Lenin’s version of Marxism applied to Russia
– Stressed that capitalism could be destroyed only
by violent revolution
• Denounced social democratic/Lassalian
parties
– Seduced by meager concession by
bourgeoisie government
– Supported the war effort
– Lenin hoped for Russia’s defeat
– Communist revolution was possible in agrarian
country
• Peasant were poor and revolutionary
– Rejected Marxist determinism
• Small dedicated professional revolutionary
could ‘cause’ the revolution
– Not seduced by short-term gains
The Bolsheviks
• Lenin arrived in April and sided with
the Soviets
• Condemned any cooperation with the
“bourgeois government”
• All Power to the Soviets
• All land to the peasants
• Stop the war now
• “Peace, Land, and Bread”
– Peace with the Central Powers
– Redistribution of Land and Bread
– Transfer of factories & mines to
committees of workers
– Recognition of the Soviets as the
supreme power (not Prov Gov)
Trotsky
• Lenin’s promise of “all power to the
Soviets” was meant to crush Kerensky
and the Constituent Assembly
• Kerensky (PM), General Kornilov (War
hero), fought each other & weakened
Provisional Gov.
• Kerensky tried to convoke a
‘preparliament’ but it was too late
• October 1917 the Bolsheviks gained a
majority in the Petrograd Soviet
• Leon Trotsky
– Convinced Petrograd Soviet that
German/Counterrevolutionary plot was
in works
– Got himself elected to head
revolutionary committee with power
over Petrograd's military
The October (November) Revolution
• November 6-7, 1917 Bolsheviks took over
telephone exchanges, RR, electrical power
stations in Petrograd
• Congress of Soviets pronounced Provisional
Gov over and named Council of People’s
Commissars (Lenin at the head) the new
government
• Lenin called for the peace and redistribution of
property
• Constituent Assembly (21 mil had voted for) was
surrounded and dissolved
• Majority rule was replaced with Class rule
– Dictatorship of the proletariat was established
• Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communist
party
• Why (did they succeed)?
– Democracy became anarchy
– Lenin and Trotsky were superior leaders
– Bolsheviks appealed to many with “Peace,
Land, and Bread”, “All the power to the
Soviets.”
Lenin sweeping Russia clean
of monarchist & capitalists
Bolsheviks
• Most amazing aspect of Bolshevik coup was
that it lasted
• How?
• Lenin took credit for granting Peasants’
Land
– A “Russian 1789” (Great Fear) was
already under way
– Peasant were seizing land and could not
be stopped in 1917
• Made peace with Germany
– Brest-Litovsk ended war with the West
– Gave Germany Baltic provinces, Poland,
Ukraine
– Russians were tired of war
• Promised freely elected Constituent
Assembly
– Socialist Revolutionaries (Peasants Party)
won major victory
• Lenin disbanded them by force after
only 1 day (1/18/1918)
Whites v. Reds (1917-1921)
• Civil War began
– “Long live the Soviets,
down with the
Bolsheviks.”
– Whites
• Tsarist reactionaries,
liberals, bourgeois,
zemstvos,
Constitutional Demo,
Mensheviks, and
Social
Revolutionaries
• United by their hatred
of Bolsheviks
– Reds
• Bolsheviks (Lenin &
Trotsky)
Trotsky slaying
the Reactionary
Dragon:
The picture
alludes to an icon
of St. George
slaying a dragon,
popular in the
Russian
Orthodox church.
The inscription
on the worm says
Counterrevolution
Propagand
a poster
from the
era (1919),
depicting a
caricature
Leon
Trotsky (as
a large
demon like
figure with
bright red
skin.
Whites v. Reds
• 18 self proclaimed
competing governments
competing with Lenin
• White Army closed in on
Reds in Autumn of 1919
• Yet by 1921 the
Bolsheviks had prevailed
• How?
• Whites
– Strategically
disorganized
– Politically undefined &
divided
• Labeled conservative
Why the Bolsheviks Won
• Clearly defined political beliefs
• Strategically united
• Superior Army
– Trotsky
– Organized Red Army
– Drastic discipline (deserters shot on sight)
– Utilized former Tsar officers
• War Communism
– Total War concept to a civil war
– Nationalized banks, industry
– Authorized labor unions to take food from the
farmers
– Rationed vital resources
• Revolutionary Terror
– Cheka (Extraordinary All-Russian Commission of
Struggle Against Counterrevolution, Speculation,
and Sabotage) secret police
– Executed “class enemies”
• Killed circus clown who poked fun at
Bolsheviks
– Silenced political opposition
The first questions
you should put to
the accused… To
what class does he
belong, what is his
origin, his
education,
profession? These
should determine
the fate of the
accused
Click for Clip (8:09)
Anastasia
Romanov
Anastasia Romanov
Anna Anderson