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Period: to
Russian Revolution: The Lead Up, The Event, The Aftermath
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Reign of Czar Alexander III (in power 1881-1894)
-Promoted Anti-Semitism
-Targeted Jews
-Favored the Nobility
-Lead Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and National Homogeneity
*His rule lead the Russians to not trust the Czar -
Reign of Czar Nicholas II (in power 1894-1917)
-Autocracy
-Did not help his people as they struggled to industrialize
-Created the Duma to create a "constitutional monarchy" to satisfy his people, but did not give the Duma any power
-Was blamed for all military failures during World War I
*His rule deepened the Russian's distrust of the Czar;was in power when the people revolted -
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
-Argued over land in Northern China
-Japan had an advantage in that they had more ground troops, and they had a stronger navy because they were more industrialized
-Russia lost the war and therefore lost the land in Northern China
*Losing land in the war was embarrassing for them because it showed the rest of the world that they were not as strong as the rest of the Imperial Powers; this forced them to industrialize making people unhappy; Duma was created -
Establishment of the Duma
-Created by Czar Nicholas II in an attempt to pacify the people of Russia
-Was not given much power and was greatly ignored by the Russian government
-The people realized that they had no say and became even more angry
*The fact that the Duma was created, but was not given any power had given the people of Russia false hope and it deepened their distrust of the Czar and of the government; it was created as a result of Bloody Sunday and R-J War to improve the reputation of the Czar -
Bloody Sunday
-200,000 workers marched on the Czar's Winter Palace to present him with a list of grievances because they wanted their living and working conditions improved
-The police open-fired on the protesters where they killed 100 of them and injured 3,000 of them
*This caused strikes and disorder throughout Russia and people again, did not trust or like the Czar because they were trying to handle their problem peacefully and in their eyes they were attacked by the police; Duma was created -
Russia's Participation in World War I (1914-1917)
-Since Russia was not industrialized, they did not have the same kind of military power as the rest of Europe
-They could not get supplies in fast enough to their troops especially after the Gallipoli Campaign failed
-Czar Nicholas II gained control of the military and was blamed for the military failures
*It was embarrassing for Russia to have to pull out early and made people not like the Czar even more -
Rasputin (His Death)
-Was friends with Czar Nicholas II
-Nobles targeted him and tried to kill him because they thought that he was secretly running the government while the Czar was out at war
-Poisoned him twice, shot him multiple times, and finally drowned him
*The nobles blamed Czar Nicholas for killing Rasputin and that contributes to his bad reputation -
Bolshevik Revolution (1917-1920)
-Lenin created the Cheka in order to keep the revolution alive and weed out anyone who was suspected of being a non-supporter of the revolution
-They redistributed farmland to peasants and turned factories over to the workers
-The involvement in World War I ended
*Since the Bolsheviks were promoting communism, the conservatives and European countries fought the Red Army which turned into a Civil War -
Abdication of Czar Nicholas II/ Establishment of Provisional Government
-Eventually Czar Nicholas gave up his power
-After this, Russia instituted a Provisional Government
*This government is the government that was overthrown by the Bolsheviks and lead to the Bolshevik Revolution -
Civil War (1918-1920)
-Red (Bolshevik) Army vs. White (Conservative, Allies) Army
-The Red Army pushed their revolution and communism; was unified and occupied all industrial areas; initially was preoccupied with Germany; won in the end
-The White Army wanted the government of Russia to go back to the way it was before with a Czar; had support of the Allies (numbers); was not unified/too spread out
*The Civil War destroyed the country in that they starved the people (peasants) -
Establishment of USSR
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union
-Self-governing republics discourage nationalism
-Communist(fmr. Bolshevik)Party holds all power
*Over years that the USSR is in power, there are struggles over who will be in charge and they make many enemies with foreign countries because foreign countries did not approve of communism -
Lenin's Death
-Lenin had been in charge of the Bolsheviks and had given them instruction from the beginning
-He was the one that gave the idea of communism to the people
*After Lenin's death there is competition over his replacement and eventually he is replaced by Stalin -
Stalin's Rise to Power
-He manipulated his way into power despite Lenin's concerns
-By 1928, he was in total control of the Communist Party
*Eventually Stalin became the dictator of the Soviet Union and that lead to the Soviet Union being looked at, especially from a foreign standpoint, less like a communist country, and more like a country with a dictatorship -
Leon Trotsky's Exile
-He was exiled to Mexico by Stalin because he kept speaking out against Stalin and Stalin would not stand for it
*Leon was assassinated by a Mexican assassin in 1940, and it is said that this assassin was sent by Stalin because Stalin wanted to keep Leon quite forever
