Russian revolution

The Russian
Revolution
Katey Hanes

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Reign of Czars Alexander II
and Alexander III
(1861–1881)


Emancipation of Serfs
• In 1854, he announced to Lords that they were to find a
way to go about freeing the serfs. In 1861, a group of
Lords created the Emancipation statute. Alexander gave
them an Imperial Proclamation to go with it. It made
serfs free of their landlords and let them vote, marry
who they please, sue in court, own property, buy the
property they had been on with their landlord, and trade
freely.

Zemstvos
• In 1864, Alexander II allowed each district of Russia to
create Zemstvos: local councils charged with creating
and maintaining roads, schools, and medical services.
Their main job was to educate the peasants. During
WWI they fed and clothed the army.

Russification
• Before Alexander III, Russification meant that the Czar should
accept any nationality as being an ethnic group so long as they
acknowledge their allegiance to the Russian state. But
Alexander III changed this, saying everyone should just be
“Great Russians”. Anyone that did not put being Russian first
would be faced with pogroms (waves of severe prosecution).


The Early Reign of
Czar Nicholas II
(1895–1905)


The Last Czar and Czarina
• In 1896, Nicholas II, son of Alexander III, was crowned
Czar. He saw the problems of his people but refused to
do anything about them, ignoring the problem. He
prosecuted any dissenters and refused to make any
reforms. When her husband left for WWI, Czarina
Alexandra Feodorovna replaced the ministers with ones
that favored the extremely controversial mystic
Rasputin. Both his rule and hers led to the collapse of
imperial Russia.

Revolution of 1905
• For a long time, the average Russian workday was 11 hours.
Factories cared not for their workers and put them in harsh
conditions. After a while, Georgi Gapon, a priest who headed
the Assembly of Russian workers, called for a protest of 110,000
workers in 1905. They marched to St. Petersburg, where police
and Cossacks were waiting. At least 100 workers were killed
and 300 were wounded. This event, Bloody Sunday, caused a
chain reaction of strikes and mutinies all throughout 1905.

The Duma
• After the events of Bloody Sunday, Nicholas II created
the Duma, a national legislature, in an attempt to
appease the public. However, he still refused any
legislation involving reform, so he solved no problems.
His downright refusal to help his country at all caused
support for communist revolutionaries, or Bolsheviks.


World War I and the Fall of
the Czar
(1906–March 15, 1917)


Murder of Rasputin
• On December 16-17, 1916, several people related to or
friends of the Czar and Czarina murdered the Czarina’s
advisor Rasputin. The higher-ups did not like the fact that
he, a peasant, had such a high inﬂuence. After being shot
three times, poisoned, and beaten brutally with a barbell,
the mystic remained alive. He did not ﬁnally die until he
was drowned in a hole in the Malaya Nevka River’s ice.
Later the body was found and autopsied, and the
murders were punished in a variety of ways.

WWI Causes Problems
• By 1917, over one million Russians had died in World
War I. Over four million had been wounded. The public
blamed the Czar for the defeat. The Czar had mobilized
Russia’s armies and caused a chain reaction that started
WWI. People began to revolt against him. Workers
once again united to protest the Czar’s ignorance.

Nicholas II Abdicates
• In 1917, food shortages were widespread across Russia.
Workers once again went on strike and rioted. The Czar
attempted to shut down the Duma and tried to use his
army to stop protests. He refused the Duma’s demands
to change the government. In March 1917, he gave up the
throne in fear of a revolution. But it was too late.


The Provisional Government
and the Bolshevik Revolution
(March 16, 1917–March 1918)


New Government, New Ruler
• After Czar Nicholas II abdicated, a temporary Provisional
Government was formed. Alexander Kerensky became the
Minister of Justice, then shortly after became the Minister of
War. He was then quickly elected Prime Minister. Despite
having called for many good reforms in the past, he now
became disliked by the Russian people. Instead of stopping
the detested war, he announced a new offensive. At least
two million soldiers left the war unofﬁcially, not wanting to
ﬁght. He also did not give peasants land, which Lenin did.

November Coup D’Etat
• In 1917,Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, organized
an ingenious Coup against the provisional government. He
had his supporters occupy government buildings and other
locations. The Coup ended in two days with no blood. The
occupation alone had overthrown the government and
created a socialist one, the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republicans, better known today as the USSR.

Brest-Litovsk Treaty
• On December 3, 1917, Leon Trotsky was charged by his
delegation and German and Austrian representatives to end
Russia’s involvements in WWI. He used every tactic he could
to delay signing the treaty he had been offered, but eventually
Lenin forced him to sign it. Because of the treaty, Russia gave
up Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic provinces, the Caucasus, and
Poland.


Civil War Ensues in Russia
(March 1918–1921)


Red vs White
• The signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty eventually led to a war
between Bolsheviks (Reds) and anti-Bolsheviks (Whites). The
Whites began attacking in 1919, coming up the Volga, into Ukraine,
and into a town just 250 miles from Moscow. One army division
even made it to the edges of Petrograd twice. But the Reds
counterattacked, and pushed them back past the Black Sea, the
Baltic, and the Pacific. The Reds quickly organized themselves, as the
Whites continued to be spread out. The Reds used their resources
more readily, made sure their army stayed loyal, and used terror
without mercy. The Whites were brutal and disorganized, lacking
any direction.

Ex-Czar and Family Murdered
• In 1918, Nicholas II and his family had been confined
in a merchant’s house in Ekaterinburg. But the
Whites were approaching and the family’s guards
were afraid that the family might be liberated by
them. So, they decided that on that night, November
6-7, they would kill the whole family.

Versailles Treaty
• This treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, a year after the end of the first World
War, was a peace treaty. It mainly affected Germany. which was burdened
with the so called “war guilt”. Germany had to give away several lands, as
well as give back what Russia lost in the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Germany’s
army was greatly reduced, and it was denied the right to an airforce, tanks,
and of course, submarines. With the loss of land came the loss of revenue
from said land, which put Germany’s economy in stitches. Germany also
had to pay war depts to the allies, which didn’t help the situation.


Works Cited
• http://www.historytoday.com/michael-lynch/emancipation-russian-serfs-1861-charter-freedom-or-act-betrayal

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSzemstvos.htm

• http://quizlet.com/10445077/ap-european-history-unit-eleven-russian-revolution-and-the-soviet-union-page-one-and-two-ﬂash-cards/

• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/russiﬁcation.htm

• http://www.biography.com/people/alexandra-feodorovna-37295

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUS1905.htm

• http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/rasputin_2.htm

• http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=1294&bhcp=1

• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/alexander_kerensky.htm

• http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bolsheviks-revolt-in-russia

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWbrest.htm

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/eastern_front_01.shtml

• http://www.theroyalforums.com/9781-ninety-years-ago-murder-of-tsar-nicholas-ii-and-his-family/

• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm


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