The Russian Revolution Study Set

Czar

Absolute monarch or ruler of Russia

Proletariat

Lowest class in a society, referring mostly to industrial workers.

Bourgeoisie

The middle class

Bolsheviks

Communist majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party

Romanov

Czarist royal family who ruled Russia for 3 centuries

Totalitarianism

Absolute unlimited power by a ruler and control over every phase of life.

Soviet

Elected councils formed during the Revolution

Pre-Revolutionary Russia

• only true autocracy left in Europe

• No representative political institutions for the people

• Nicholas II became Tsar in 1884

• Marxist ideas become popular

• Popular Mensheviks VS

• Radical Bolsheviks, led by Lenin

• Russia suffers humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War

Bloody Sunday - The Revolution of 1905

-Thousands of discontented urban workers & poor peasants from countryside peacefully protest

-Sought to petition the czar for better working conditions & suffrage

-The czar's guards fired into the crowd

Shooting sparked widespread strikes and uprisings

-The Duma (Russian Congress) was allowed more power temporarily

-Nicholas dissolved the Duma within weeks

World War 1: The Last Straw

-Czar Nicholas II brings Russia into the Great War

-War revealed the ineptitude and arrogance of the country's aristocratic elite.

• Most peasants had very little invested in the war.

-poorly supplied troops result in massive casualties

Czarina Alexandra: The Power Behind the Throne

-Czarina Alexandra ran the government (as an autocrat!) while Nicholas II was at the Eastern Front for the war

-She was heavily influenced by Rasputin - a mystical "holy man"

-Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to discredit the monarchy

Collapse of the Imperial Government

-Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos and make unwise appointments that lose people's support of the Czar

-Nicholas left for the Front (September 1915)

-Alexandra and other high government officials accused of treason

-Rasputin assassinated in December of 1916

-Complete mismanagement of the wartime economy

-Industrial production plummeted, inflation and starvation were rampant and the cities were overflowing with refugees

-became a hotbed for pol. activism, and this was ignited by serious food shortages in March 1917, especially in St. Petersburg

The March Revolution

• Starts with food riots, strikes, and protests against the war

• The Duma declares itself a Provisional Government

• Formed SOVIETS - local councils

• Czar Nicholas abdicates the throne (steps down)

• Lenin and his Bolsheviks return

Vladimir Lenin

• Leading Marxist revolutionary

• Committed to class struggle and revolution

• Exiled to Siberia for anti-czarist protests

• Later fled to Western Europe

• Returns to take the lead and implement socialist reforms.

October Bolshevik Revolution

-Bolshevik Red Guards - Workers take over government offices and arrest the leaders of the Provisional government

-All private property of wealthy was abolished and divided among the peasantry

-Largest industrial enterprises nationalized

• Political Police are organized

• Revolutionary army created with Leon Trotsky in charge -the "Red Army"

-Bolshevik party renamed Communist Party in March of 1918.

-The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated with Germany and Russia leaves WWI.

Civil War in Russia

• Fought between 1917-1920

• "Reds" versus "Whites"

• "Reds" were the Bolsheviks and Red Army

• "Whites" were army officers, bourgeoisie, Cossacks, and moderate revolutionaries

• Whites received support from England, France, USA, and Japan

• Reds ultimately victorious

Death of the Imperial Family

-Placed under house arrest during the March Revolution

-Czar Nicholas, Alexandra & their 5 children were executed in July 1917

The Soviet Union

-Lenin reorganized the country & renames it the Soviet Union in 1922

-Implements the ideas of Karl Marx

-Issues his New Economic Policy in 1921 allowing some capitalist policies

Joseph Stalin's Rise to Power

-Stalin was a Bolshevik revolutionary

-Appointed general secretary of the party's Central Committee in 1922

-Managed to consolidate power following Lenin's death in 1924

-Viciously eliminated any opposition

-Stalin modernized the Soviet Union through "5 Year Plans" of industrialization

-His secret police allowed no opposition or freedoms

-Ordered the execution of millions

-Created a fully communist state