Russian Revolution of 1917 Kevin Willow Summer Period 7

Bloody Sunday - What Led to the Russian Revolution

•  Bloody Sunday, (January 9 1905), was a massacre in St. Petersburg, Russia, of

peaceful demonstrators marking the beginning of the violent phase of the Russian

Revolution of 1905.

•  At the end of the 19th century, industrial workers in Russia had begun to organize;

police agents, eager to prevent the Labour Movement from being dominated by

revolutionary influences, formed legal labour unions and encouraged the workers to

concentrate their energies on making economic gains and to disregard broader

social and political problems.

•  This sparked the Russian Revolution of 1905 which led to the creation of the

Russian parliament, the Duma, which ended up becoming the group being

overthrown in the revolution of 1917.

The Duma •  As a result of the 1905 revolution, the Duma was established by Tsar Nicholas II in his October Manifesto (October 30th,

1905) that promised that it would be a representative assembly and approval would be required for the enactment of legislation.

•  Gosudarstvennaya Duma which translates into “State Assembly”, was an elected legislative body with the State Council that constituted the Russian imperial legislature from 1906 until it’s dissolution during the time of the March 1907 Russian Revolution.

•  The Duma constituted the lower house of Russian parliament, and the State Council was the upper house.

•  The Gosudarstvennaya Duma or State Duma constituted the first genuine attempt toward parliamentary government in Russia.

Opening Ceremony of the first Duma

Anatomy of the Revolution

•  People resented Tsar Nicholas II’s autocracy and the corrupt and anachronistic elements of his government.

•  Tsarist Russia was behind in industry and farming compared to most of Europe, which resulted in few opportunities for fair advancement in the jobs of peasants and industrial workers.

•  Widespread inflation and food shortages.

•  Insufficient military supplies , logistics, and weaponry led to heavy losses during World War I and the people of Russia directly attributed this to Tsar Nicholas II’s rule.

•  Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905.

Western Contact and Romanov Policy •  Tsarist primacy was enforced and expanded, contacts with western Europe was carefully managed.

•  Economic subordination to the Mongols put Russia at a commercial and cultural disadvantage.

•  Ivan III was eager to launch diplomatic missions to the leading western states.

•  During the reign of Ivan IV, British merchants established trading contacts with Russia, selling manufactured products in exchange for furs and other raw materials. (Mercantilism)

•  The Tsars imported Italian artists and architects to design church buildings and a royal palace in the Kremlin in Moscow.

•  The foreign architects modified Renaissance styles to take Russian building traditions into account, producing ornate, onion-shaped domes that became a characteristic of Russian and other east European churches.

The Kremlin and Imperial Palace 1890

Key Leader: Tsar Nicholas II

•  Tsar Nicholas II was the last Russian emperor (1894-1917).

•  His wife, Alexandra, his children, and him were murdered by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution in 1917.

•  Riots broke out in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on March 8th, 1917. The government and Duma called on Nicholas II to abdicate his rule.

•  Tsar Nicholas II renounced his throne on March 15th, 1917.

•  The Tsar was detained at Tsarskoye Selo by Prince Lvov’s provisional government, and was transferred to the Yekaterinburg in the Urals on April 18th.

•  Anti-Bolshevik “White” Russian forces slaughtered the prisoners on the night of July 16th and burned and buried the remains.

The Romanov Family •  The Romanov Dynasty lasted three centuries, and was ended on July 16 1918

as a reproduction of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children and four servants were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.

•  The body of the youngest daughter was never found, leading to the Anastasia theories that she had survived. Several claiming-to-be Anastasias surfaced but proven false.

Key Leader: Vladimir Lenin •  Born April 10th, 1870 in Simbirsk Russia, died January 1924, near Moscow. •  Founder of the Bolsheviks, a Russian Communist Party, and was the first head of the

Soviet state from 1917-1924. •  Upon his return to Russia in 1895, Lenin and other Marxists, including ,L. Martov the

future leader of the Mensheviks, succeeded in unifying the Marxist groups of the capital in an organization known as the Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.

•  In December 1895, the leaders of the Union were arrested. Lenin was jailed for 15 months and thereafter was sent into exile to Shushenskoye, in Siberia, for a term of three years. He was joined there in exile by his fiancée, Nadezhda Krupskaya , a Union member, whom he had met in the capital. They were married in Siberia, and she became Lenin’s indispensable secretary and comrade.

•  Vladimir Lenin was helped by Germany. When he had returned in April return to Russia, when he had returned in November Lenin and his followers the Bolsheviks had taken over control of the government.

Bolsheviks •  A wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, which, led by Lenin, seized control of the government in Russia (October 1917) and became the dominant political power.

•  The group originated at the party’s second congress (1903) when Lenin’s followers, insisting that party membership be restricted to professional revolutionaries, won a temporary majority on the party’s central committee and on the editorial board of its newspaper Iskra.

•  The Bolsheviks became increasingly popular among urban workers and soldiers in Russia after the February Revolution (1917), particularly after April, when Lenin returned to the country, demanding immediate peace and that the workers’ councils, or Soviets, assume power.

•  By October the Bolsheviks had majorities in the Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and Moscow Soviets; and when they overthrew the Provisional Government, the second Congress of Soviets (devoid of peasant deputies) approved the action and formally took control of the government.

•  Immediately after the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks refused to share power with other revolutionary groups, with the exception of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries; eventually they suppressed all rival political organizations.

•  They changed their name to Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) in March 1918; to All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) in December 1925; and to Communist Party of the Soviet Union in October 1952.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilich

Overview of the Russian Revolution •  The Russian Revolution of 1917 was made of two revolutions,

the first of which, in February, was the overthrowing of the imperial government and the second, in October, placed the Bolsheviks in power.

•  The connection between the Tsar and the majority of the Russian population had been broken. The government was full of corruption and was incredibly inefficient. The tsar’s reactionary policies, especially the dissolution of the Russian parliament, the Duma, which was the chief fruit of the 1905 revolution, had spread wide dissatisfaction across all types of Russian citizens. The Russian Empire’s many ethnic minorities grew increasingly restive under Russian domination. Painting of the October

Revolution

Overview of the February Revolution •  Riots over the scarcity of food broke out in the capital, Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), on

February 24. Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate March 2 . When his brother, Grand Duke

Michael, refused the throne, more than 300 years of rule by the Romanov dynasty came to an

end.

•  A committee of the Duma appointed a Provisional Government to succeed the autocracy, but it

faced a rival in the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. The 2,500 delegates to

this soviet were chosen from factories and military units in and around Petrograd.

•  The Soviet soon proved that it had greater authority than the Provisional Government, which

sought to continue Russia’s participation in the European war. On March 1 the Soviet issued its

famous Order No. 1, which directed the military to obey only the orders of the Soviet and not

those of the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government was unable to countermand

the order. All that now prevented the Petrograd Soviet from openly declaring itself the real

government of Russia was fear of provoking a conservative coup.

Between the February and October Revolutions •  Between March and October the Provisional Government was reorganized four times. The

first government was composed entirely of liberal ministers, with the exception of the Socialist

Revolutionary Aleksandr F. Kerensky. The subsequent governments were coalitions. None of

them, however, was able to cope adequately with the major problems afflicting the country:

peasant land seizures, nationalist independence movements in non-Russian areas, and the

collapse of army morale at the front.

•  Meanwhile, soviets on the Petrograd model, in far closer contact with the sentiments of the

people than the Provisional Government was, had been organized in cities and major towns

and in the army. In these soviets, “defeatist” sentiment, favouring Russian withdrawal from the

war on almost any terms, was growing.. At the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets,

convened on June 3 , the Socialist Revolutionaries were the largest single bloc, followed by

the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.

Overview of the October Revolution •  By September the Bolsheviks and their allies, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, had

overtaken the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks and held majorities in both the

Petrograd and Moscow soviets. By autumn the Bolshevik program of “peace, land, and

bread” had won the party considerable support among the hungry urban workers and the

soldiers, who were already deserting from the ranks in large numbers.

•  Although a previous coup attempt (the July Days) had failed, the time now seemed ripe. On

October 24–25 (November 6–7) the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries staged a

nearly bloodless coup, occupying government buildings, telegraph stations, and other

strategic points. Kerensky’s attempt to organize resistance proved futile, and he fled the

country.

•  The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which convened in Petrograd simultaneously

with the coup, approved the formation of a new government composed mainly of Bolshevik

commissars.

Video on the Russian Revolution

http://media1.school.eb.com/eb-media/26/128926-024-76972596.mp4

Timeline February 23-27 - The February Revolution begins with strikes, demonstrations, and mutinies in Petrograd

(also called the March Revolution if following the Gregorian calendar)

March 2 - Czar Nicholas II abdicates and includes his son. The following day, Nicholas' brother, Mikhail

announced his refusal to accept the throne. Provisional Government formed

April 3 - Lenin returns from exile and arrives in Petrograd via a sealed train

July 3-7 - The July Days begin in Petrograd with spontaneous protests against the Provisional Government;

after the Bolsheviks unsuccessfully try to direct these protests into a coup, Lenin is forced into hiding

July 11 - Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the Provisional Government

August 22-27 - The Kornilov Affair, a failed coup by General Lavr Kornilov, commander of the Russian

Army

October 25 - The October Revolution - the Bolsheviks take over Petrograd (also called the November

Revolution if following the Gregorian calendar)

October 26 - The Winter Palace, the last holdout of the Provisional Government, is taken by the

Bolsheviks; the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviated as Sovnarkom), led by Lenin, is now in

control of Russia

Bibliography

Stearns, Peter N., Michael Adas, Stuart B. Schwartz, and Marc J. Gilbert. World Civilizations The Global Experience. 5th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d.

244-55. Print.

Britannica ImageQuest. Britannica Digital Learning, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://quest.eb.com/>.

Britannica School High. Britannica Digital Learning, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high>.

"Russian Revolution of 1917." Britannica School.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <

http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/64488>.