Russian Revolution Vocabulary

Russo-Japanese War

War between Russia and Japan; Japan wins and takes parts of Manchuria under its control.

Czar Nicholas II

Russian Czar during WWI; unpopular with Russian people; overthrown in March 1917; executed by Bolsheviks after November Revolution (1917)

Rasputin

Russian peasant monk who was able to influence Russian politics by gaining the confidence of the Czarina

Bloody Sunday 1905

Peaceful protest against the czar where protesters are shot by the army

March Revolution 1917

began in petrograd when workers, women, students, and soldiers protested food shortages, war failures, and anger at Tsar Nicholas II’s rule.

Provisional Government

A temporary government created by the Duma after the abdication of the czar; it made the decision to remain in World War One. Failed because it was unable to take care and feed soldiers, didn’t want to go into another harsh winter.

Alexander Kerensky

Headed the Provisional Government in 1917. Refused to redistribute confiscated landholdings to the peasants. Thought fighting the war was a national duty.

Soviets

local councils consisting of workers

Bolskeviks

a radical communist group who felt that an additional revolution in Russia was needed. Led by lenin

Revolution

a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.

Lenin

Founded the Communist Party in Russia and set up the world's first Communist Party dictatorship. He led the October Revolution of 1917

Communism

aimed to abolish private property and create a classless society under Bolshevik control.

Karl Marx

founder of modern communism

Mensheviks

socialist party that opposed the Bolsheviks, founded in 1903 by Martov, and they supported a gradual, democratic path to socialism rather than the Bolsheviks’ push for a rapid, revolutionary takeover.