The Russian Revolution

1. The Russian Revolution • EQ: What caused the revolution and how was it maintained?

2. Overview - Russia 1917 Collapse of 2 systems of gov’t • Autocratic Tsar Nicholas II (r.1894-1917) • Liberal Provisional government Two Revolutions • February/March 1917 • October/November 1917

3. Causes of the 1917 Russian Revolution • Widespread discontent-all classes • Agitation from revolutionaries • Weak leadership of Tsar Nicholas II • Defeat in Russo Japanese War, 1905 • Bloody Sunday, 1905 • Losses in WWI Demonstrators march on Winter Palace, 1905

4. Russian Frustrations • Russia is late to industrialize • Land, Businesses in the hands of elites • 90% of people are peasants • Agricultural practices needed modernization

5. March Revolution, 1917 I. Leaders a.Petrograd women II. Beginning of Dual Power a. Duma/Provisional Gov’t Alexander Kerensky b. Petrograd Soviet Army Order # 1

6. Protesters gather outside the tsar’s palace in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in 1917. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

7. March Revolution, 1917 III. Problems of Provisional Government  war, land reform, national minorities, social reform (workers), economy

8. November/Bolshevik Revolution, 1917 • Vladimir Lenin • Peace • Land • Bread • Leon Trotsky • Centered power in soviet

9. November/Bolshevik Revolution, 1917 • III. Solutions to problems •  Communist State •  Government • change •  Treaty of Brest • Litovsk •  Terror (Cheka)

10. “To the question ‘Who led the February uprising?’ we can answer definitely enough; conscious and tempered workers educated in the main party of Lenin.” Quotation attributed to Trotsky “…perhaps the most striking aspect of events was neither the Bolsheviks’ daring, nor the behavior of the workers, but the complete disintegration of government authority…The Bolsheviks seized power because the country was in the throes of anarchy.” Historian P. Kenez, 1999

11. Great Civil War, 1918-1920 Who will challenge the Bolsheviks power? • I. Bolsheviks vs. Everybody Else • Reds vs. Whites (reactionaries) • War Communism implemented • requisition of grain • abolition of private trade • terror • nationalized industry • rationing

12. Victims of the Cheka

13. Great Civil War, 1918-1920 Who will challenge the Bolsheviks power? • III. Centralization of party • IV. Success of Reds • unity • army discipline • effective political goals • mobilization of home front • ineffective allied support

14. Bolshevik Boris Kustodiyev. 1920, oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

15. This 1919 Bolshevik poster shows the three White generals Denikin, Kolchak and Yudenich as three vicious dogs who are under the control of America, France and Britain.

16. 1918 Bolshevik propaganda poster depicting Trotsky as Saint George slaying the reactionary dragon (Trotsky was People’s Commissar of War, and organizer of the Red Army). Note the dragon is wearing a top hat, which the Soviets associated with capitalism.

17. White Army propaganda poster depicting Trotsky as a "Red devil" that attempts to appeal to anti-Semitism. The text above the picture reads, "Peace and Liberty in Sovdepiya"

18. Russian Revolutionary Poster, "Mount your horses, workers and peasants! The Red Cavalry is the guarantee of victory." Designer unknown, 1919. Scanned from the Evergreen Review Reader 1957-1967

19. "The future is with us. Leninism is our ideal!" This poster depicts Lenin as the bringer of a brighter future.

20. "From the NEP Russia will become the socialist Russia."

21. "The October revolution is a bridge to a bright future." The role of the October 1917 revolution was a common theme in Russian propaganda

22. "10 years of October." …showing that the success of the revolution continued onward into the future.