Transcript Modern World History Assign. #2

Modern World History
Assign. #2-3
Chapter 14, Section 1
“Revolutions in Russia”
Czar Alexander III
(1881-1894)
• Clung to principles of
autocracy (one person
rule or absolute
monarchy)
• Strict censorship on
written materials
• Secret police watched out
for dissent (especially in
teachers and professors)
• Political prisoners sent to
Siberia
• Oppressed other national
groups in order to impose
Russian culture
Russian
Pogroms (#2)
• Pogroms – wave of
organized violence
against Jews
• Police and soldiers
stood by as Russian
citizens looted and
destroyed Jewish
homes, stores, and
synagogues
Czar Nicholas II
(1894-1917)
• He continued the tradition of
autocratic rule
• Though Russia developed
more factories it still lagged
far behind western Europe
• Nicholas raised taxes to
finance the buildup of Russian
industries, and sought foreign
investors
• Russia became the 4th largest
producer of steel
• Began the building of the
Trans-Siberian Railway
connecting European Russia in
the west to the Pacific Ocean
in the east
Russian
Industrialization
• Growth of factories
brought problems of
grueling working
conditions, miserably low
wages, and child labor
• Russia outlawed unions
• Workers turned to political
parties to help them
improve their conditions
• Several revolutionary
groups formed and some
believed in the ideas of
Karl Marx
Bolsheviks (#4)
• Marxist revolutionaries believed that
the industrial class of workers should
overthrow the czar and create a
“dictatorship of the proletariat”
(meaning the workers would rule the
country not the czar or landholding
nobles)
• Russian Marxist split into two groups:
– Mensheviks (moderate)
– Bolsheviks (radical)
• Bolsheviks were a small number of
committed revolutionaries who were
willing to sacrifice everything
• Their leader was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,
who was forced to flee to western
Europe in the early 1900s to avoid arrest
Russo-Japanese
War (#5)
• Both Japan and Russia
wanted control of
Manchuria in northern China
• Japan surprise attacked
Russian ships off the coast of
Manchuria in 1904 starting
the Russo-Japanese War
• Japan drove Russian troops
out of Korea and destroyed
the Russian fleet
• News of the repeated
Russian losses sparked
unrest at home and led to a
revolt in the midst of the
war
Bloody Sunday (#6)
• 200,000 workers and their families approached the czar’s
Winter Palace in January of 1905
• They brought a petition for better working conditions, more
personal freedom, and an elected national legislature
• Nicholas II’s generals ordered soldiers to fire on the crowd
(over 1,000 wounded, hundreds were killed)
Creation of the
Duma (#7)
Czar Nicholas II giving a speech from his throne
on the occasion of the opening of the Duma.
• After Bloody Sunday strikes and
violence swept across the country
• Nicholas II promised the creation of
the Duma (Russia’s first parliament)
• The Duma met in May 1906
• It was dominated by moderates
who wanted a limited
constitutional monarchy like the
one in Great Britain
• Nicholas II didn’t want to share
power, so he shut it down 10 weeks
later
• The people became angry and
continued to desire reforms
Impact of WWI on Czar’s Power (#8)
• Russia was unprepared to
handle the military and
economic costs of the war
• Weak generals and poorly
trained troops were no match
for the German army
• In the first year of the war
Russia suffered defeat after
defeat and massive numbers
of casualties
• This created even more civil
unrest at home and
questioning of the czar’s
leadership
March Revolution
(#9 & #10)
Kerensky greets
Russian troops
as the war goes
on under the
Provisional gov’t
• People were upset about high
inflation, shortage of food and
supplies, called for an end to
the war
• Local strikes and protests
turned into a general uprising
• Czar Nicholas II was forced to
abdicate his throne (3
centuries of czarist rule came
to an end)
• The leaders of the Duma
established a provisional
government led by Alexander
Kerensky
• The Provisional Government
made the mistake of keeping
Russia in the war
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Returns (#11)
• As the war dragged on conditions
inside Russia worsened
• Soldiers and civilians did not support
the new Provisional Government
• Angry peasants demanded land
• City workers, peasants, soldiers, and
socialist leaders formed local councils
called soviets, which gained more
power than the Provisional
Government in most places
• During this time, Germany helped
Vladimir Lenin return to Russia in
hopes that he would stir things up
and hurt Russia’s war effort against
Germany (in a sealed boxcar)
Appeal of Lenin (#12)
• “All power to the soviets”
– the idea that the popular
local councils would have
more say in a government run
by Lenin appealed to the
people who had so little say
for so long
• “Peace, Land, and Bread”
– End Russia’s involvement in
WWI
– Provide land to the peasants
– Bring food to the starving
cities
Bolshevik
Revolution (#13)
Winter Palace in St. Petersburg Today
• In November of 1917,
armed factory workers
stormed the Winter Palace
in St. Petersburg
(Petrograd)
• Calling themselves the
Bolshevik Red Guards they
took over government
offices and arrested
government officials
• Overnight Alexander
Kerensky and the
Provisional Government
had been overthrown
Bolsheviks in Power (#14)
• Peace – signed a truce
with Germany to stop all
fighting and began peace
talks
• Land – Lenin ordered all
farmland to be
distributed to the
peasants
• Bread – ?
• Factories – Lenin gave
control of the factories to
the workers
Russian Civil War (#15)
• Opposition to the Bolsheviks
– Many were upset with the
humiliating terms of the Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk which gave up
a large amount of land to
Germany
– Many supported the return of
the czar to rule (and became
more upset when he and his
family were murdered)
– Others upset that they were
not getting a democratic
government and opposed
Lenin’s style of socialism
Russian Civil
War (#15)
• Opponents formed the
White Army to defeat
Lenin’s Red Army
• The U.S. and other Allied
nations sent aid and
forces to help the White
Army
• The Red Army led by Leon
Trotsky fought against the
White from 1918 to 1920
• 14 million died in the
fighting
• The Red Army ultimately
won, but Russia was left
with destruction, hunger,
and chaos
New Economic Policy (#16)
• In March 1921 after the Civil War
was over, Lenin set aside his plan for
a state-controlled economy to deal
with the economic problems and
starvation facing the nation
• New Economic Policy –
– allowed peasants to sell their
surplus crops instead of turning it
over to the govt.
– allowed some small businesses,
factories and farms to operate
under private ownership
– Allowed some foreign investment
Other Reforms by Lenin (#17)
• Russia organized into self-governing
republics under the central government
(regional states with different ethnic
groups in them)
• Renamed the nation Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR)
• Renamed the party the Communist Party
• Wrote a constitution with democratic
principles
– in reality it became a dictatorship of
the Communist Party
– not a dictatorship of the proletariat
(workers) like Karl Marx had called for