The Russian Revolution, 1917
• In Russia, World War I exacerbated long-term problems of political stagnation, social inequality, incomplete industrialization, and food and land distribution, all while creating support for
revolutionary change.
• Military and worker insurrections, aided by the revived Soviets, undermined the Provisional Government and set the stage for Lenin’s long-planned Bolshevik Revolution and establishment of a communist state.
The Russian Revolution, 1917
• What were the “larger stories” of the late
1800s/early 1900s? Economically, politically, socially, culturally?
Sourcing:
Russian Peasant DBQ, pp.5-9
• Complete your analysis of the assigned
document from the unit packet.
• Whole-class discussion of
A. What role your author plays in the “Russian story”,
Revolutionary Opposition
• Populists (Narodniks, help mir peasants) • Nihilists and anarchists (Bakunin and
others)
• Social Democratic Labor Party, 1883, becomes Marxist Social Democratic Party in 1898 (1903 split)
– “Menshevik” (minority, though it wasn’t), evolutionary socialists led by Trotsky and Kollontai
– “Bolshevik” (majority, though it wasn’t), revolutionary, led by Lenin
• Peasants can be brought to worker
The Russian Empire in 1914
• In Petrograd, Alexandra and her friend Gregory Rasputin the starets.
• Inflation rose, food and fuel shortages increased and the battlefield death toll mounted.
The February-March Revolution
The February-March Revolution
• Food and fuel shortages caused bread riots.
• Czar Nicholas II
abdicates after massive strikes and troop
desertions.
• Prince Lvov led the
Bolshevik Influence
Bolshevik Influence
• Lenin’s April Theses:
– Provisional Government bourgeois
– WWI a bourgeois war – All power to the soviets
(councils)
• Lenin called for “Land, Bread and Peace”
– Land for the peasants
Provisional Government March 1917
Provisional Government March 1917
to November 1917
to November 1917
• Same problems as the Czar and made the mistake of trying to stay in the War ($ from Entente).
• July 1917 offensive a deadly mistake.
• Petrograd Soviet Order 1 allows soldiers to elect officers and stop fighting. • A Bolshevik coup failed in
July (disputed).
March 1917 to November 1917
• General Kornilov attempts military dictatorship in
September, Bolsheviks released from jail to help Provisionals
• Wins, but Bolsheviks seize control of the cities in
November and give land to peasants immediately
Kerensky as War Minister
Civil War 1918-1922
Civil War 1918-1922
• “Red Terror”: The Cheka (a political police) established in December 1917.
• Trotsky founded Red Army • Civil war erupted between the
Bolshevik Reds and the
collected opposition (Whites). • “War Communism”
nationalized the largest
July 17, 1918 the
July 17, 1918 the
Imperial Family
Imperial Family
was executed by
was executed by
firing squad in villa
firing squad in villa
at the lower right
Lenin In Charge…
• Alexandra
Kollantai
establishes
Zhenotdel for
women’s education
• New Economic
Synthetic Comparison, p. 12
• What were the “larger
stories” of Europe in the
late 1700s? What was
France’s role in these?
• What were the “larger
Syntheses: Pattern and Reason
• Overall, the use of colonial non-European combatants was not unlike the American theater of the 7 Years
War, where both Britain and France made use of Amerindian allies to fight in place of their troops.
• These characteristics in World War I can be compared to the 30 Yrs. War. Although it was a battle over
Debating the Depression…p.13
• Read the assignment now…
• Options (no more than 3 per option)
• Sources:
– Textbook
– Reputable sites (know the author and intent)
• Search with variety of terms: Great Depression and…
