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Reign of Czar Alexander III
- in power from 1881 - 1894
- Condoned persecution of Jews and targeted Jews
- Did not care about peasants, only for nobles
- Believed in autocracy, orthodoxy, and national homogeneity *people became unhappy with the Czar, and this mistrust carried on with the next few Czars.
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Czar Nicholas II
- Believed in Autocracy like his father
- Blamed for Ruso-Japanese war
- Blamed for Bloody Sunday
- People were unhappy with him
- People revolted; demanded legislature
- Creates Duma (legislature)
- Fighting on the front of WWI
- Abdicates throne in March of 1917 *disliked by the people very much; People revolted against him; Start of Russian revolution
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Russo-Japanese War
-War for Manchurian region of China
-Japan had an advantage, they were industrialized
*When Russia lost, social condition grew worse. Czar Nicholas II is blamed for the war and there is pressure for him to make a legislative body -
Bloody Sunday
-200,000 workers marched on the Czar's Winter Palace intending to show a list of complaints and to demand relief from their working and living conditions
-Police kill 100 of them, and 3,000 injured
*Social condition grew worse. Czar Nicholas II is blamed for the massacre and there is pressure for him to make a legislative body and the loss of the war happens right near this time -
Establishment of Duma
- After Bloody Sunday, Nicholas reluctantly promised more freedom. He approved the creation of the Duma (Russia’s first parliament).
- They met first in May 1906. Its leaders were moderates who wanted Russia to become a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain.
- Nicholas was hesitant to share his power, so he dissolved the Duma after ten weeks.
- Russians were angry that Nicholas broke up the Duma soon after he promised more freedom.
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Russia's Involvement in WWI
-Russia was unprepared to handle economic and military costs and German army, causing 400 million Russian soldiers to be killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.
-Czar Nicholas went directly to the war front, so his wife, Czarina Alexandra, took over the government.
-She took advice from the disliked Rasputin.
*Allowed for the Bolshevik Revolution because people were upset at the Czar for not leaving the war. Also, Russia fell under influence of Vladimir Lenin who helped pull Russia out of the war. -
Death of Rasputin
In late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer for the Tsar and his wife Alexandra's only son Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia. At court, he was a divisive figure, seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan. The high point of Rasputin's power was in 1915, when Nicholas II planned the fights in World War 1. In 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by a group of conservative noblemen who opposed his influence over Alexandra and the Tsar. -
Czar Nicholas abdicates throne
-Czar Nicholas II stepped down due to the March Revolution, and one year after, the Romanovs were murdered
-Duma leaders established a temporary, provisional government
-Alexander Kerensky headed it and his decision to continue WW1 lost his support from the Russian people
-Socialist revolutionaries fought for power causing soviets, councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers, to form
* Allowed for the Bolshevik revolution because socialist ideas were circulating due to bad Russian conditions -
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Bolshevik Revolution
-In 1917, the Bolshevik Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace and took over government office
-Farmland was distributed among the peasants and control of factories was given to the workers
-Treaty of Brest-Litovsk made Russia give territory to Germany and its allies, causing Russians to get embarrassed
*Allowed for the USSR because the USSR gave control of Russia to the communist party, and since the Bolsheviks made all the decisions during the Revolution, the USSR formed based on their control -
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Russian Civil War
The White Army opposed the Bolsheviks
-White Army made of divided groups such as groups who wanted democracy, groups who wanted the czar, and socialists who did not like Lenin
-Western nation sent military aid to help the White Army
-The civil war killed around 14 million Russians
-Leon Trotsky commanded the Red Army into victory
*Allowed for the formation of the USSR because the Red Army (Bolsheviks) was able to win power over Russia, allowing them to create the communist nation they desired. -
Establishment of USSR
-The USSR used capitalism called the New Economic Policy
-Gov't controlled many industries, but allowed for some private ownership
-USSR was organized into self-serving gov't republics that were under a central government
*The USSR was significant because it created a dictatorship by the communists, changed the economy, and restricted some activity. There was no nationalism present. Long-term consequences were that Russia was not united and had a different economy than the majority of the world. -
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Stalin Rises to Power
-Stalin was a cold and hard leader. His name means “man of
steel” in Russian.
-He began to climb to the head of the government between 1922 and 1927. He worked behind the scenes to move his supporters into positions of power.
-By 1928, Stalin was in total command of the Communist Party.
Significance:
* Stalin was moved into position to become a dictator with absolute power. -
Lenin Dies
-Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922, but survived and ended up causing competition for the new head of the Communist Party once Lenin died
- Before Lenin died, he wrote that he felt Stalin had an extreme amount of power that he did not know how to properly use
-In 1924, Lenin died from a stroke
* Lenin's death was significant because the first leader of the USSR died, allowing for Joseph Stalin to take over and rule over the USSR with totalitarianism and terror for a significant amount of time -
Leon Trotsky's Exile
-Leon Trotsky was the man who helped bring the Red Army to victory during the civil war
-He was exiled to Alma-Ata by Stalin and then later to Mexico
-It is believed that soviet agents assassinated him in Mexico
* Leon Trotsky's death was significant because it showed how Stalin was willing to do anything to make sure no one stood in his way of complete power. With Trotsky gone, Stalin's main competition for control of the USSR was taken away, allowing Stalin to implement his ideas on the USSR
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