Ch. 14 Revolutions in Russia Czars Resist Change In 1881 Alexander III assumed the Russian throne and stopped all reforms Will cling to principles of autocracy (gives him total power) Anyone who questioned his authority questioned
the government, the Russian Orthodox church and society as a whole was labeled as a danger to society Alex III in hopes of squashing rebellion would put strict censorship codes in place for all written and published documents (even private letters) Create a secret police Have schools and universities watched Political prisoners were sent to Siberian Gulags
Only allowed to speak Russian Persecuted Jews (pogroms) Nicholas II will assume throne in 1894 he will continue these practices Russia will industrialize and create the trans Siberian railway The Revolutionary Movement Grows
The industrialization of Russia will cause tension and the govt. will outlaw unions Due to this a 2nd rev. movement grows and they follow the views of Karl Marx(right to overthrow govt.) Will form the Dictatorship of Proletariat- workers would rule the government/country This party will split into 2 groups Mensheviks- moderates wanted a broad base of popular
support for change Bolsheviks- radicals willing and wanting to sacrifice everything in the name of change Leader of Bolsheviks was Vladimir Lenin Considered to be engaging and likeable and organized(IT factor) Also great at being ruthless Due to his popularity he will have to flee to western Europe to save his life until he felt it was safe enough to return
Bloody Sunday Jan 22, 1905 200,000 workers and their famalies approached the Czars winter palace They carried a written petition demanding better working conditions, more personal freedom, and an elected legislature Czar Nicholas II ordered his generals to fire on the crowd More than 1,000 were wounded and several hundred are killed It will be come to be known as Bloody Sunday
This will cause waves of massive strikes and violence In Oct. 1905 Nicholas II finally promised more freedom Approved creation of Duma first Russian Parliament First members met in May 1906 and wanted a constitutional monarchy Buttttttttttttt Nicholas II didnt like this idea so he
reneged on his word and dissolved the Parliament after just 10 weeks WW 1: The Final Blow In 1914 Nicholas II will drag Russia into a world war This will be fatal to Russia due to them not being economically and militarily prepared Troops were poorly equipped, poorly trained, weak generals, not fought against machine gun Will result in over 4,000,000 dead Russians within 1
year This will weaken the power of the Czar Nicholas II He will move his HQ to war front in hopes of rallying his troops and while he was away his wife ran the Russian govt. She will prove to be a weak leader due to refusing to listen to the council and instead she will listen to Grigori Rasputin- self described holy man who claimed to have magic powers
He supposedly eased the Czars sons illnesses and in return was given the power to make political decisions He opposed reform and gave his friends powerful positions In response a group of nobles had him murdered. He was stabbed twice, shot 3 times, poisoned, supposedly hung, and eventually drowned( when body was recovered there was proof he tried to
scratch his way out of the ice) The March Revolution In March 1917 200,000 workers stormed the Russian streets shouting down with the autocracy Down with the war At first the soldiers were ordered to shoot the rioters and they obeyed Soon after the mob convinced the soldiers that the
Czar did not have any Russians best interest at heart These protests turn into an actual uprising forcing Czar Nicholas II to step down Leaders of the Duma created a provisional govt./temporary govt. As the war raged on more radical groups emerged and eventually the soviets will be created consisting of local counsels of workers, peasants, and soldiers The Germans believed Lenin would cause more
unrest in Russia and hurt their war effort if returned, therefore they arranged to have him brought back The Bolshevik Revolution Lenin will return and take control of Russias soviets and soon will win the will of the people His slogan is Peace, Land, Bread In Nov. 1917 armed factory workers stormed the winter palace in Petrograd calling themselves the Bolshevik red guard
They will take over the government and arrest its provisional leaders Within days of his hostile takeover Lenin and his red guard will redistribute Russia's farmland to the peasants Gave control of factories to the workers Signed a truce with Germany pulling out of the war This will anger Russians (non Bolshevik) and cause more issues back home
Opponents to the Bolshevik govt. will form the White Army This army was made up of different smaller subsets: those that wanted the return of the royal family, those that wanted a democratic govt. and even socialists that opposed Lenins version of socialism These groups had a difficult time cooperating with one another and at times there were 3 different white armies fighting against the Bolsheviks
Civil war will rage between the Red army and the White army from 1918 1920 Roughly 14 million Russians will die as a result of this civil war The Bolsheviks will crush the white army and show that they could not only seize power but also keep it This revolution will wreck the political, economic, and social society of Russia
Lenin Restores Order In March 1921 Lenin will try out a small scale version of capitalism called the New Economic Policy Allowed peasants to sell surplus crops instead of forcing them to give them to the govt. Govt. kept control of major industries/corporations in Russia but did allowed for some smaller private business ownership The govt. also encouraged foreign investment
Bolsheviks saw that Nationalism was a great threat to their party and unity therefore Stalin organizes Russia into several self governing republics loyal to the central govt. Under this in 1922 Russia will be renamed to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Bolsheviks will rename their party the Communist Party based of Karl Marx
Stalin Becomes Dictator Lenin will have a stroke in 1922 and survive but this will set in motion competition for leading the communist party 2 of the front runners were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin Stalin was cold, hard, and fierce- his name means man of steel He worked behind the scene in the communist party and put all his followers in places of power By 1928 Stalin was in total command of Communist Party
due to forcing Trotsky into exile
