Rise of the Bolsheviks and a turning point in the war.

1. The Russian
Revolution
{
1917

2.  Russia was unprepared both
militarily and technologically for
the Great War
 Tzar Nicolas 2 insisted on taking
personal charge of armed forces
despite lack of ability and training
 Russian industry couldn’t produce
the weapons needed for the army
 Soldiers trained using broomsticks
and told to pick one up off of a
dead comrade in battle
 2 million soldiers were killed
between 1914-1916 and another 4-6
million wounded or captured
Background

3.  Tsar Nicolas 2 was an autocratic ruler who
relied on his army and bureaucracy to hold up
his regime
 His German born wife Alexandra had fallen
under the influence of Grigori Rasputin
 Rasputin was an uneducated Siberian peasant
who believed he was a holy man
Beginnings of Upheaval

4.  Alexandra relied upon Rasputin
because he seemed to be the only
one who could stop the bleeding of
her son Alexis
 Alexis had hemophilia
 With the tsar at the front Alexandra
made all of the decisions
 She insisted on consulting with
Rasputin
 “her beloved, never-to-be-
forgotten teacher, savior and
mentor”
 Rasputin was considered to be the
power behind the throne and did
not hesitate to interfere in
government leadership
Rasputin

5.  As Rasputin gained more power the people
grew more upset
 Aristocrats felt they needed to do something to
save the situation
 December 1916 Rasputin was assassinated
 He was shot three times, tied up and threw in the
Neva River
 He managed to untie the knots in the water before
he drowned
 His assassination was not enough to save the
monarchy
Rasputin

6.  A series of strikes led by working class women
broke out in the capital city of Petrograd
 The government had started to ration bread a
few weeks earlier after the price had
skyrocketed
 Women who stood in bread lines also worked
12 hour days
 March 8 10,000 women marched through the
city demanding “Peace and Bread” and “Down
with Autocracy”
 They were joined by other workers
The March Revolution
1917

7.  Together a general strike was held
 Strike shut down the factories till March 10
 Alexandra wrote to Nicolas “This is a hooligan movement. If the
weather were very cold they would all probably stay home.”
 Nicolas called out troops to break up crowds by shooting them
 Large numbers of soldiers joined in
The March Revolution

8.  The Duma was a legislative body that had been
dissolved by the tzar met anyway
 March 12 it established a provisionary
government
 Consisted of middle class Duma representatives
 The tzar was urged to step down
 March 15th he stepped down ending the 300 year
old Romanov Dynasty
Duma

9.  Alexander Kerensky was the head of the
government
 Decided to carry on in the war to preserve
Russia’s honor
 Had to deal with the soviets
 Soviets are the name used for several different
Russian political organizations , could substitute
the word council for soviet
 Composed of representatives of the workers and
soldiers
 Generally socialists
 Many different factions
Provisional Government

10.  Bolsheviks began as a small faction of the Marxist
party called the Russian Social Democrats
 Came under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich
Ulianov or V.I. Lenin
 Lenin believed a violent revolution was necessary to
destroy the capitalist system
 1900-1917 he spent most of his time abroad
 Viewed March 1917 as the opportunity to seize
power
 April 1917 German military leaders (hoping to
create disorder) shipped Lenin to Russia
 Sent in a sealed train to prevent their ideas from
infecting Germany
The Rise of Lenin

11.  Lenin’s arrival opened a new state in the
Bolshevik Revolution
 He believed that soldiers, peasants and workers
were ready made instruments of power
 Wanted Bolsheviks to work towards gaining
power of these groups to take control
 Reflected on the discontent of the pople
 Promised to end war, transfer factories and
industries from capitalists to committees of
workers, redistribution of land and transfer of
governmental power to the soviets
The Rise of Lenin

12.  PEACE, LAND, BREAD!
 WORKER CONTROL OF PRODUCTION!
 ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knjUx7A-
G3w
Rally slogans

13.  Party numbers grew as a result of Lenin’s work
 Leon Trotsky as the head of the Petrograd soviets the
Bolsheviks were able to claim power in the name of
all soviets
 November 6 Bolshevik forces seized the Winter
Palace
 Outwardly Lenin “turned over power” to the
congressional government
 March 3, 1918 Lenin sighed the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk with Germany
 Gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland and the
Baltic States
Bolsheviks Seize Power

14.  Many people were opposed to the new
Bolshevik or Communist regime
 Allies against the communist take over were
joined by groups loyal to the tzar and also anti-
Lenin socialists
 Sent thousands of troops to various parts of
Russia in hopes of bringing Russia back into the
war
 Sent material
 1918-1921 Communist (Red) army was forced
to fight on many fronts against the Whites
Civil War

15.  Royal family was a victim of the war
 After the czar abdicated Nicolas, Alexandra and
their 5 children were taken into captivity
 July 16th they were murdered and their bodies
were burned in a local mine shaft
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXrb1rM2Tqo
Civil War

16.  Well disciplined Red Army
 Leon Trotsky was an organizational genius
 Soldiers who deserted or refused to obey were shot on the spot
 Disunity of the anti-communists
 Czarists vs. democracy
 No common goal
 War communism
 Government seized control of banks, grain, ect. In order to help the
war effort
 Revolutionary terror
 Red secret police
 Presence of foreign armies on Russian soil
 Patriotic Russians fought foreigners attempts to control the country
What led to the triumph
of the Communists?

17.  1921 the Communists were in total control of Russia
 Became a communist regime with a single party
dominating the political scene
 State was largely hostile to the Allies as they had tried
to help communist enemies in the civil war
Victory!