The Russian Revolution

“I shall maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my unforgettable dead father.”

-- Alexander II

Industrial Development• The Russian Tsars Alexander

III and Nicholas II were determined that Russia must become an industrial power.

Sergei Witte• Sergei Witte, the industrialist

and railroad tycoon, was appointed Finance Minister in 1892 by Alexander and would serve both Alexander III and Nicholas II.

• Witte pursued a policy of planned economic development, protective tariffs, high taxes, the gold standard, and industrial efficiency.

• Under Witte the Russian railway system grew from 30,000 to 60,000 miles and the Trans-Siberian Railroad was almost completed.

• Iron production increased from 928,000 tons to 4,641,000 tons.

• Textiles manufacturing flourished and the factory system was developed throughout the country.

Industrial Discontent

• Rapid industrialization brought considerable social discontent.

• Landowners were envious of industrialists and angry about foreign investments.

• Peasants were upset that grain exports and heavy taxes were used to pay for development in which they did not share.

Emerging Proletariat• The nearly three million

industrial factory workers labored in harsh conditions for very low wages.

• Trade unions were illegal and though they were granted an 11.5 hour day they had little state protection.

Agrarian Unrest

• Similar social unrest was found in the rural areas.

• Peasants were still bound economically to their mirs or village communes and were burdened by state redemption, taxes and failing grain prices.

• Peasants were often too poor to support their families and had to hire themselves out the landed nobility or more prosperous peasants called Kulaks.

• The population of Russia doubled between 1860 and 1914 – from 50 million to approximately 103 million.

• Hunger, discontent and violent uprisings became common in rural Russia.

Political Developments

• The development of new political parties and movements accompanied the social and economic troubles.

The Social Revolutionary Party.

• A new party with roots in the agrarian populist movement was founded in 1901.

• The Social Revolutionary Party opposed industrialization and called for a return to the communal life of the farms.

The Constitutional Democratic Party.

• The CDP or Kadets was formed in 1903, drawing its members from the local councils called Zemstvos.

• They modeled themselves on the liberal progressives of western Europe.

• The Kadets wanted a parliamentary regime with responsible ministers, civil liberties, and economic progress.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks

• Russian socialists did not believe in the compromises and accommodations of the western European Socialists.

• The repressive policies of the Tsarist regime forced the socialist Russian Social Democratic Party to operate in exile.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

• The future leader of the Communist Revolution was born the son of a high bureaucrat.

• Ulyanov’s brother was executed as part of plot to kill Alexander III.

• Ulyanov became a Marxist and was arrested in 1895.

• After spending five years exiled in Siberia, he fled the country and spent the next 17 years in Switzerland.

Lenin• In Switzerland

he wrote under the name of Lenin and became heavily involved in exiled Social Democrats.

• In his “What is to be Done?” Lenin outlined his plan for revolution.

• Revolution was to come from an elite cadre of highly organized professional revolutionaries.

• The Party, he said, must maintain “the strictest secrecy, the strictest selection of members and the training of professionals.”

The London Congress• At the London

Congress of Social Democrats, Lenin forced a split in the party.

• His followers gained a razor thin majority in party, and there after called themselves the Bolsheviks – meaning majority.

Mensheviks and Bolsheviks• The minority group

was called the Mensheviks.

• The Bolsheviks, under Lenin’s leadership, called for the unification of the proletariat and the peasants.

The Two Tactics.

• Lenin’s plan was based on these two principles – An elite party and a dual social revolution.

The Bolsheviks

The Dismissal of Witte

• In 1903, Nicholas II dismissed Witte, hoping to quell the social unrest.

• The next year Russia went to war with Japan hoping to rally the people to Tsar and country.

The Russo-Japanese War

• Russia was quickly defeated by the Japanese in 1905, following the capture of Port Arthur by the Japanese and the loss of two Russian fleets.

The Revolution of 1905

• With the humiliating loss Russia faced a serious internal domestic crisis and reacted with violence and repression.

Bloody Sunday

• On January 22, 1905 a priest named Father Gapon led several hundred workers on a protest march to present a petition to the Tsar at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

• The petitioners were slaughtered by the tsar’s troops in front of the Winter Palace.

• Revolutionary disturbances spread throughout the country.

Revolution

• The tsar’s uncle was assassinated and strikes broke out in St. Petersburg where worker’s groups called soviets gained control of the city.

The October Manifesto

• The Tsar recalled Witte and issued the October Manifesto which promised a constitutional government.

The Duma• Tsar Nicholas II announced the

establishment of two house legislature called the Duma.

• But Nicholas reserved for himself the power to appoint ministers, and to make financial, military and foreign policy.

The First Duma• The First Duma was elected

with a very radical assembly despite very limited suffrage.

• Nicholas then dismissed Witte again and appointed P.A. Stolypin.

• Stolypin then persuaded Nicholas to dismiss the Duma.

• A second Duma was then elected in February 1907.

• The Second Duma was still not cooperative enough and the Tsar dismissed this one as well.

• The Third Duma was sufficiently pliable for the Tsar who had managed to quickly regain autocratic rule.

Stolypin’s Repressions• Stolypin began to repress any

rebellion by establishing field courts to try rebellious peasants.

• Moderate land reforms were also established , but hatred of Stolypin was high.

• In 1911, Stolypin was assassinated by a Social Revolutionary who may have been an agent of the Tsar.

Rasputin• By this time the Tsarina and

much of the court had fallen under the spell of the strange powers of the uncouth monk Rasputin, who claimed to have the power to heal the hemophilia of the Tsar’s son.

World War I• When the war broke out

Nicholas went to the front to take personal charge of the war.

• While the Tsar was gone from court Rasputin became more and more influential.

• As the leadership in Russia muddled its way through one disaster after another, the working class, middle class and aristocrats became more convinced that something must be done.

• A group of aristocrats, sick of the priest’s orgies and believing he was in league with Germany, assassinated Rasputin at a tea party.

The March Revolution

• At the beginning of March 1917, a series of strikes broke out in Petrograd (the new name of St. Petersburg).

International Women’s Day

• On March 8th 10,000 women factory workers marched through the streets demanding “Peace and Bread”

• The march led to the call for a general strike which shut down all of the factories on March 10th.

• The Tsar ordered the troops to disperse the crowds, shooting them if necessary.

• After initially opening fire, many of the troops instead joined the demonstrations.

Abdication• On March 12th the Duma met

and declared itself the Provisional Government and called on the Tsar to abdicate.

• He did so on March 15.

The Provisional Government

•Moderate Constitutional Democrats established a Provisional Government.

•Controlled by middle class liberal aristocrats.

• These moderates believed in 19th century liberal ideas such as free speech and universal manhood suffrage.

• They were determined to carry on the war against Germany.

The Soviets• Councils of workers and soldiers

formed committees that acted as quasi-independent governments all over Russia.

• Socialist Revolutionaries began to organize peasants, workers and soldiers and called for terrorism to achieve socialist revolution.

The Bolsheviks•Lenin’s Bolsheviks were caught off guard by the swiftness of the Tsar’s fall from power.

Finland Station• Lenin began negotiating with

the German High Command, who wanted to sow further chaos in the Russia.

• April 1917, Lenin was transported by the Germans to Russia in a sealed train.

April Theses• Lenin outlined his plan for a

Bolshevik revolution.• He believed the Bolsheviks

had to seize control of the Soviets and convince the masses to follow the communists.

Peace, Land and Bread

•The Bolsheviks used propaganda to promise the lower classes peace land and bread.

The Provisional Government

• A constitutional convention was called for the fall of 1917.

• Peasants were promised land but in reality that were already taking it on their own.

Army Order No. 1• The Petrograd Soviet ordered

the army to remove their officers from command and replace them with elected committees.

• All discipline in the army now collapsed.

Bolshevik Revolution• July 1917, Lenin was forced to flee

to Finland and many Bolsheviks were jailed after being accused on planning a coup.

• Alexander Kerensky, a Socialist Revolutionary, was elected Prime Minister, but his government was weak and in trouble.

Kornilov Coup• General Lavr

Kornilov attempted to march on the Winter Palace in Petrograd.

• Kerensky released the Bolsheviks from jail to help crush the coup – Lenin hurried back to Russia.

Lenin Returns• Lenin and his comrade Leon

Trotsky seized control of the Petrograd Soviet

• Lenin and Trotsky began planning a coup of their own.

November 6-7, 1917.

• Bolsheviks forces easily seized control of the Winter Palace and the Provisional Government collapsed.

All Russian Congress• Lenin proclaimed the power of

government was in the hands of the new Parliament

• In reality he controlled to government through the Council of People’s Commissars.

The Constituent Assembly

• The Congress called for an election to establish a new parliament to meet in January 1918.

• The Bolsheviks failed to gain a majority of the seats.

• Lenin shut down the parliament by force.

The Communists• The Bolsheviks, now calling

themselves Communists, began to fulfill the promise made to the masses.

• Land was Nationalized• Factories were turned over to the

workers.

Alexandra Kollontai• Communist woman that instituted

a series of welfare programs and social reforms.

• Marriage was made a civil act• Divorce was legalized as was

abortion• Men and women were equal under

the law.

Zhenotdel•Program was developed to

inform the people about the laws.

•Many women that tried to liberate other women were attacked and killed.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk• Lenin made a separate peace

with Germany, ending Russian involvement in WWI.

• Russia gave up claims to Poland, Ukraine, Finland and the Baltic.

Russian Civil War• Many people were upset over

the Communists programs and the changes taking place.

• Anti- Communist Armies calling themselves the White Armies began to attack the Communist Red Army.

The War• Between 1918 and 1921 the Red

Army was surrounded by the White Army and fought on many fronts.

• The Whites were led by Generals Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich.

White Successes

• At first the war went badly for the Red Army by late 1919 the Reds were on the verge of collapse.

Foreign Involvement

• French British and American forces came to the aid of the White Army, but their efforts ultimately worked against the White Army.

Leon Trotsky• By 1920, the Red Army, under

the leadership of Leon Trosky, had defeated the Whites and regained control over all of the territory of Russia.

Reasons for Red Victory

• The Communists instituted strict discipline.

• War Communism – take over of all means of production.

• Terror – the Cheka secret police used the Red Terror to crush internal opposition.

• The White Army was unable to mount a common and coordinated offensive against the Red’s internal lines of defense.

• The Whites did not agree on a common goal and were often at odds with each other.

• Foreign intervention was used as a propaganda tool by the Reds to appeal to Russian patriotism.

The End of the War to End All Wars

The Last Year of the War•With Russia out of the war,

Germany launched a major offensive to defeat the Allies before America could get into the conflict.

• 140,000 American troops landed in France, turning the tide in the battle.

• By the summer the Meuse Argonne forest counter-offensive had Germany in retreat.

The Final Days• The German High Command

announced in September that they could not win the war.

• Ludendorf demanded that the government begin negotiations for an armistice.

• Knowing that the Allies were reluctant to deal with the autocratic government of the Kaiser, a new liberal government was established.

The Kiel Mutiny

• On November 3, 1918 sailors in the naval yards at Kiel rose in Mutiny.

• Germany erupted in revolution – Soviet style committees were formed.

The Kaiser Abdicates• On November 9, 1918 the

German Kaiser abdicates and leaves for Holland.

• An agreement was now reached for an end to hostilities.

Armistice• Armistice was signed on the

11th hour of the 11th day of November, 1918 in a railway car at Compiègne in the north of France.

November Revolution• Riots and demonstrations

rock Germany in November.• The Social Democrats began

to bring order to the chaos.• The SD was split between

revisionist and more radical elements.

The German Communists•The German Communist

Party was founded under Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg.

• When the Communists tried to seize control of Berlin in December, Friedrich Ebert and the conservative Freikorp crushed the rebels and murdered Luxembourg and Liebknecht.

• A similar rebellion in Munich will also be crushed by the conservatives – leading to a deep fear of communism in the hearts of the German middle class.

Versailles ConferenceVersailles

ConferencevU.S. President

Woodrow Wilson called for a war to end war.

vCrusade to “make the world safe for democracy.”

Wilson’s 14 PointsWilson’s 14 Points•End secret treaties•Freedom of the seas.•Remove economic

barriers.•Reduce armaments.•Adjusts colonial claims.

• Promote “self determination”• Evacuation of occupied land• European boundaries drawn

along national lines.• Creation of an International

peace organization - the League of Nations.

The Big FourThe Big Four•The Versailles conference is dominated by–Woodrow Wilson of the US.–David Lloyd George of Britain–George Clemenceau of France–Vittorio Orlando of Italy

The Big FourThe Big Four

Business as Usual.Business as Usual.•European Imperialists

agreed to a League of Nations - but divided up imperial control under League Mandates.

The Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles

•February 1919 - European powers signed the League Covenant - to make the League of Nations a part of the Treaty of Versailles.

•The Big Four pressed for a treaty that would punish Germany and give territories to the victors.

•France got a Security Treaty that would ensure aid in case Germany ever invaded again.

•The Treaty of Versailles signed - June 1919.

•Only included four of Wilson’s 14 Points.

•Article 231 “The War Guilt Clause” blamed Germany and forced reparations and the occupation of German territory.