L4: The Russian Revolution (February 1917 & October 1917) Tan Block Agenda Objective: To understand… 1.The events surrounding the Revolutions of February

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L4: The Russian Revolution (February 1917 & October 1917)

Tan Block

AgendaObjective: To understand…1. The events surrounding the

Revolutions of February and October 1917

2. How Lenin’s plan for revolution played out in practice

3. Whether the Communist Revolution in Russia was a People’s Revolution.

Schedule: 1. Opening Activity & Note Set

Up2. Lecture and Video Clips

Opening ActivityNone

Homework1.None!



L4: The Russian Revolution (February 1917 & October 1917)

Blue Block

AgendaObjective: To understand…1. The events surrounding the

Revolutions of February and October 1917

2. How Lenin’s plan for revolution played out in practice

3. Whether the Communist Revolution in Russia was a People’s Revolution.

Schedule: 1. Opening Activity & Note Set

Up2. Lecture and Video Clips

Opening ActivityNone

Homework1.None!

Taking The Pulse of Russia: 1905

• We began our study of the Russian Revolution by looking at Russian history from 1861 to 1905 (The Emancipation of the Serfs through the liberal revolution of 1905).

• By 1905, how would you describe life in Russia?

Russian Government: 1905

• Constitutional Monarchy

• Tsar Nicholas II• Parliament (Duma)

– Two houses:• Lower House:

Members elected by universal male suffrage

• Upper House: Appointed by the Tsar

– Tsar had an absolute veto



Tsar Nicholas II Dissolves the Duma…Twice…Then Rewrites the

Law• After the first set of elected Duma members could not

cooperate with the Tsar’s ministers he dissolved the Duma– This only lead the people to to elect even more radical member

• The Tsar then dismissed the second Duma• Tsar rewrote the voting laws to allow the propertied class more representation in government.

– This assured that in the election of 1907, the Tsar would have a loyal majority in the Duma.



World War One Further Weakens Russia’s Constitutional Monarchy

• War was initially embraced with Patriotic enthusiasm

• Many Russian citizens believed that alliance with Britain and France would bring democratic reforms to Russia’s fledgling

Constitutional Monarchy.



World War One• However, Russia was largely unprepared for

war• Substantial numbers of Russian soldiers were

sent to the front without rifles; they were told to find guns among the dead.

• There were 2 million casualties in 1915

alone. QuickTime™ and a decompressor


Conditions in the Russian Army• Problems on the Eastern Front

– Irregular leave, bad food• Problems on the Home Front

– High inflation– Beginnings of industrialization created high demand for skilled

workers. Increasingly skilled workers were relieved from military duty, therefore most of the conscripted soldiers were peasants.

– Massive fuel and food shortages• Merge to create particularly problematic conditions for peasants

– Low wages, high inflation, mandated war service, no fuel, and no food. QuickTime™ and a

decompressorare needed to see this picture.

World War One• People begin to immediately blame the Tsar for the

problems Russia is facing on the front.• Various political parties in the Duma began to unify

and call for a new democratic government to be formed and

replace the Tsar.• In response, Nicholas II said he was going to travel to the front to lead and rally Russia’s army.



Conditions Worsen in the Russian Government

• With the Tsar at the front, control over the government fell to his wife Tsarina Alexandra.

• The Tsarina took most of her advice from an uneducated Siberian preacher Grigori Rasputin.– Alexandra believed that only

Rasputin could cure her son’s hemophilia

• She began to unseat top ministers at Rasputin’s urging.





Conditions Worsen in the Russian Government

• In an attempt to end Rasputin’s influence on the Tsarina, three members of the aristocracy murder Rasputin– He is poisoned by lives, shot but lives, stuffed in a carpet and

tossed in a river but crawls out of the carpet, eventually dies in the river.

• The Tsarina goes into shock and essentially stops running the government.• Food shortages worsen and morale declines.



February Revolution 1917

• In February 1917, women took to the streets in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) to protest food shortages.

• The protest soon spread throughout the city and became a riot.

• The Tsar (from the front) ordered soldiers to break up the riots, but they refused

and joined in the riots.• Revolution broke out.



Tsar Nicholas Abdicates • Members of the Duma pressed the Tsar to

abdicate in order to avert a full-scale bloody revolution against the government.

• Nicholas accepts defeat and abdicates.• With Nicholas’ abdication, Tsarism ends in

Russia• A new provisional government is established in Russia. QuickTime™ and a


Democracy Comes to Russia

• The revolution was joyfully accepted throughout the country

• Upper and middle classes rejoiced at the prospect of a more determined and effective war effort.

• Workers happily anticipated better wages and more food.



Provisional Government• Led by Alexander Kerenskey• Provisionally government quickly established equality before the law;

freedom of religion, speech, and assembly; the right of unions to organize and strike

• Developed a power sharing agreement with the Petrograd Soviet– Petrograd Soviet was a huge, fluctuating mass meeting of 2,00 to 3,000 workers,

soldiers, and Mensheviks.– This “half-government” issued its own radical orders, often at odds with the orders of the Provisional government. – How is this consistent with Lenin’s two stage theory of revolution?

• Continued Russia’s involvement in the war QuickTime™ and a


The Petrograd Soviet Weakens the War and Creates Turmoil in Russia

• The most famous of these orders was Army Order No. 1– Stripped officers of their authority and placed power in

the hands of elected committees of common soldiers.– Led to a total collapse of army discipline.– Many soldiers abandoned the front

and returned home



Lenin Returns to Russia• Sensing the turmoil in Russia, in April of 1917 the German

government sent Lenin, his wife, and about 20 members of the Bolshevik party--all living in exile in Switzerland--back to Russia.

• Lenin and the Bolsheviks opposed the power sharing agreement between the provisional government and the Petrograd Soviet.– Believed that Petrograd Soviet was content to wait for

communism to unfold naturally--Lenin wanted it now! • The Germans hoped that Lenin would create further confusion in Russia and undermine the Russian war effort. QuickTime™ and a


Lenin Returns to Russia• “Dear comrades, soldiers, sailors, and workers. I am

happy to greet in your persons the victorious Russian revolution, and greet you as the vanguard of the world-wide proletarian army…the piratical imperialist war is the beginning of civil war throughout Europe…world-wide Socialism has already dawned…Germany is seething…any day now the whole of European capitalism may crash. The Russian revolution accomplished by you has prepared the way and opened a new epoch. Long live the world-wide Socialist revolution.” – Lenin, qtd in N. N Sukhanov, The Russian Revolution 1917,

trans. J. Carmichael, OUP, 1935.

The Bolsheviks Gain Popular Support

• Throughout the spring and summer, the Bolsheviks gradually increased their popular support.

• The Bolshevik Platform:– Immediate peace with Germany– Redistribution of land to the peasants– Transfer of factories, mines, and other industrial plants from capitalists to committees of workers in each plant.– Recognition of the soviets as the supreme power--not the provisional government.– Peace, Land and Bread!



The October Revolution 1917

• In October, Lenin saw his opportunity to begin the second stage of revolution: communist take over.

• On October 25 1917, the Bolsheviks took control of Petrograd’s electricity, railroad stations, telephones, and roadways. They then stormed the Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was stationed.

• We will take a look at two sources which each offer a description of the October Revolution:– Source One: Excerpt from October 1917 directed by Sergei

Eisenstein a Soviet filmmaker who made the film in 1927 to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the Russian Revolution

– Source Two: Newsreel footage from the days immediately following the revolution.

• http://www.soviethistory.org/bigScreenVideo.php?SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917&navi=byYear

• Why these two views?

http://www.soviethistory.org/bigScreenVideo.php?SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917&navi=byYear

http://www.soviethistory.org/bigScreenVideo.php?SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917&navi=byYear

October Revolution Discussion

• What is your take, what happened at the October Revolution? Was it a coup d’etat or an uprising of the people?

• Did Lenin and the Bolsheviks instigate the Russian Revolution, or did they capture it after it had already begun?

• What is the Russian Revolution?

The USSR• In October 1917 Lenin was named the

head of the new Bolshevik government in Russia,

• Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

• Lenin would begin his program of consolidating Bolshevik control over the USSR.



Documents

L4: The Russian Revolution (February 1917 & October 1917) Tan Block Agenda Objective: To understand… 1.The events surrounding the Revolutions of February