Russian
Revolution
The Reason Russia
pulled out of the
Great War
Background:
Alexander II, Czar of Russia
from 1855 to 1881, was best
known for his reforms to Russia.
He freed the serfs (yes, Russia
continued to have a feudal type
system up until the 1800’s), and
started plans to build railways.
He also made changes to the
structure of government.
However, some people did not
feel that Alexander II did enough
for the commoners, so he was
assassinated in March of 1881.
His son, Alexander III, then
became Czar of Russia.
Alexander III, however, took
back control of the Russian
government. He cracked
down on anyone who seemed
to threaten his government.
He also oppressed all nonRussian people who lived
within the Russian empire,
especially Jews.
In 1894, Alexander III’s
son, Nicholas, became Czar
Nicholas II of Russia. He
continued his father’s
strong rule. He launched a
program that aimed at
building up Russia’s
industry. Russia quickly
became a leading producer
of steel in the world.
However, this rapid
industrial growth brought
problems.
Working conditions were poor, wages were
low, and children were forced to work.
Workers grew angry and often went on
strike. The wealth of the nation was in the
hands of a few (the aristocracy).
Revolutionary groups wanted to topple the
government. Some followed the teachings
of Karl Marx.
What was Karl Marx known for?
In January, 1905, thousands of workers and their
families marched peacefully to the czar’s palace in
St. Petersburg, to ask for reforms. Their
requests were met by bullets from the czar’s
troops. The people answered by going on strike,
which brought the country to a stop. Reluctantly,
Nicholas II agreed to make reforms, but little
changed.
The final blow to the Czar’s rule was the Great
War. When Austria-Hungary gave the ultimatum
to Serbia, Nicholas II exchanged a series of
letters with Kaiser Wilhelm II, in the hopes of
preventing war with the German Empire. Nicholas
wanted to only mobilize a partial army, along the
Austria-Hungary border. His military, however,
had no instructions or procedures for a partial
mobilization. Nicholas put the army on “alert”,
which looked like a military declaration of war.
The true
outbreak of war,
on August 1, 1914,
found Russia
underprepared.
Russia had a
standing army of
1.3 million, plus
another 3.1
million in reserve,
as well as the
capability of
millions more.
Russia did not have the railways in place to
quickly transport its army, nor did it have the
industry in place to equip the massive army. In
the first few months of the war, Russia had four
million soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. As
the war worsened, the czar lost control of Russia.
In 1915, Nicholas left for the
front, in order to lead the war
effort. His wife, Alexandra,
took over the every day running
of the empire.
Nicholas’ youngest child, and
heir, Alexei, had a disease. This
disease, hemophilia, did not allow
the blood to clot. Doctor after
doctor was consulted, but their
treatments generally failed.
Alexandra turned to
mystics and holy men, and
found Grigori Rasputin.
In October, 1912, during a
family vacation, Alexei
was injured, and the
bleeding could not be
stopped. Alexandra called
in Rasputin, and
miraculously, the bleeding
stopped the next day.
Alexandra took this as a
sign that Rasputin was a
holy man, and defended
him.
When Alexandra was left in
charge of the day to day
running of the Russian
Empire, she turned to
Rasputin for advice. This,
combined with Alexandra’s
German heritage (she was a
princess of Hesse, one of
the small kingdoms of
Germany, prior to
unification, and Russia was
at war with Germany), made
her decisions unpopular.
By early 1917, Russia was on the edge of collapse.
Food prices shot sky high, and people starved.
Russian workers marched through the streets of
St. Petersburg, shouting “End the war!” and
“Down with the czar!”. Soon, riots broke out and
rebellion quickly spread across the country.
Finally, even the soldiers refused to obey
government orders to put down the revolt.
On March 15, 1917, Nicholas II gave up his throne.
At the same time, leaders in the Duma, or the
Russian parliament, set up a temporary
government. The leaders of the temporary
government wanted democracy. In addition, this
temporary government wanted to keep Russia in
the war. This decision lost the support of soldiers
who didn’t want to fight any longer, and also that
of workers and peasants who wanted an end to
food shortages. Across the country these forces
formed local councils called “soviets”. In some
cities, the soviets actually had more real power
than the government.
In the middle of this, Vladimir
Lenin was determined to bring
about his revolution, which
followed the teachings of Karl
Marx. His slogan “Peace, Land,
and Bread” was soon taken up
by many people. In November
1917, armed workers took
control of government offices.
The fledgling democratic
government was at an end.
To win peasants’ support, Lenin ordered all
farmland be given to them. Workers were given
control of the factories. Lenin also reached a
peace treaty with Germany, which allowed Russia
to withdrawal from the Great War.
Lenin’s next step was to make the Communist
party the only legal political party in Russia. He
and the Bolsheviks (Lenin’s followers) formed a
secret police force, called the Cheka. Lenin
ordered the Cheka to track down anyone against
his government. The Cheka killed or put into
prison tens of thousands of men and women.
Not all Russians were happy to see the Bolsheviks
in control. Some who opposed them put together
an army called the White Army. The Bolsheviks
then formed the Red Army. A civil war followed,
which lasted three years, and killed 15 million
Russians. In the end, the Red Army won.
In 1921, Lenin launched a new plan to rebuild the
Russian economy. It allowed for some private
ownership of property, relaxing Lenin’s desire of
complete state control. He also changed the
government to form a new nation: The Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
In 1924, Lenin died, and Joseph Stalin
took over the job of running the Soviet
Union.
Stalin believed his most important task
was to make the Soviet Union one of
the world’s strongest nations. To
produce more food, he ordered that
farms be grouped together into
collectives. These were large farms on
which people worked together as a
group. Stalin’s secret police killed or
put into prison peasants who were
against the collectives. He then had
hundreds of huge factories built and
forced people to work in them.
Stalin placed all parts of the economy under
government control. In doing so he created a
command economy. He then laid out a path for
economic growth in five-year plans. The plans set
up production schedules for farms and factories.
By the late 1930’s, Stalin had met his goal of
making the Soviet Union a leading industrial
nation.
Most Soviet people had jobs and enough food. They
still had no voice in the government. In fact, when
citizens protested and called for change, Stalin
ordered purges. All those who opposed him were
killed or put into prison. Millions of his purge victims
were sent to forced labor camps in Siberia.
The Soviet Union became a work power under
Stalin’s government. It also became a
totalitarian state - a state in which the
government has complete control over people’s
lives. Even with all the changes, however, Soviet
citizens had no more freedom or political power
than earlier citizens had under the czars.
Notes:
The Russian Revolution:
• Nicholas II was the last Tsar of Russia
• In 1917, peasants rebelled due to the lack of food, and the
loss of life during the Great War
• On March 17, 1917, Nicholas gave up his throne
• In November 1917, Vladimir Lenin took over the
government, and established a communist government.
• Lenin pulled Russia out of the Great War by signing a treaty
with Germany.
• In 1921, Lenin restructured the government, and changed
the name of Russia to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic
(USSR).
• In 1924, Lenin died, and Josef Stalin took over as dictator.
What happened to: Grigori Rasputin:
Rasputin’s influence over the royal
family was used against him. Nobles in
influential positions around the czar,
wanted him removed. Alexandra,
however, refused to listen.
In 1914 (before Nicholas went to the
front), there was an assassination
attempt on Rasputin. A woman thrust
a knife into Rasputin’s abdomen, and
his entrails hung out of what seemed
to be a fatal wound. However, with
surgery, Rasputin recovered.
In December, 1916, a group of nobles decided that
Rasputin had far too much influence over Alexandra, so
they plotted to get rid of him. He was invited over to one
of the noble’s house, where he was served wine and cakes
laced with cyanide. Rasputin was unaffected. Since
Rasputin was unaffected by the poison, the conspirators
decided that they had to shoot him. He was then shot in
the back. The group left the house, and since one
member forgot his coat, he returned. As he returned, he
decided to check on the “body”. Rasputin opened his
eyes, and tried to strangle his killer. The other
conspirators arrived back at the house, noticed what was
happening, and shot Rasputin three more times. As the
conspirators moved toward his body, Rasputin was
struggling to get up. He was then clubbed into
submission, and thrown into an icy river.
Cause of death: drowning.
The Romanovs:
Nicholas II and Alexandra, and their children: Olga,
Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, Alexei
After Nicholas II resigned as the czar, the family
was kept under house arrest at their primary
residence, the Alexander Palace, not far from St.
Petersburg.
In August, 1917, the family was moved to Tobolsk,
in Siberia, since the government wanted to remove
them from the capital and possible harm. There
they stayed until Lenin’s Bolshevik’s took over in
November, when they were moved to
Yekaterinburg. While they were there, their life
was uncertain, since they never knew if they would
be separated or killed. They were allowed very
few privileges.
On July 16, 1918, the family was told to dress.
Thinking that they would be sent somewhere
else, they put on coats (which had jewels sewn
into the seams), and followed their guards.
They were led, along with four servants, into the
basement of the house in which they were
staying, and executed.
The legend is that the youngest daughter,
Anastasia, survived. She supposedly fainted, and
was thought to have been killed. When she
revived, she was allegedly smuggled out of the
house, and escaped.
In 1991, 8 remains were found under a dirt road.
In January, 1998, the remains were identified,
using DNA analysis, as the (unrelated) servants,
Nicholas II, Alexandra and three of the sisters.
Alexei and one sister (thought to be Maria or
Anastasia) were not among those remains. In April
2008, Russian authorities announced that they had
found the two missing skeletal remains, those of
Alexei and his sister, confirmed by DNA analysis.
Anna Anderson:
Anna Anderson claimed to be the
Grand Duchess Anastasia, who
had miraculously survived the
execution. Only a few surviving
relatives of Anastasia actually
believe she was who she said she
was. Anna died in 1984. Later,
tissue samples that had been
obtained from medical testing
were used for DNA testing – she
was not related to the Romanovs.