The document provides background information on the events leading up to the Russian Revolution. It discusses the ineffective Duma under the Tsar, the growth of political parties in Russia including the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, revolutionary terrorism from 1905-1907, World War I and the impact it had on Russia, and worker unrest during this time period. It then describes key events in 1917, including the February Revolution which overthrew the Tsar, the establishment of the Provisional Government, and Lenin's return advocating that all power be given to the Soviets. Finally, it discusses summer unrest, the Kornilov Affair, and how this strengthened the Bolsheviks' position leading up to their seizure of power in the October

1. The
Russian
Revolution

2. Central
Questions
1. What is a revolution?
2. What were the causes of
the Russian Revolution?
3. What was the Russian
Revolution about?
4. How and why were the
Bolsheviks victorious?

3. Russia 1905 – 1914
Dual Polarization
increases
Ineffective Duma.
• Seen only as advisory
• Increasingly
oppositional to Tsar
but no real power to
oppose him.
• Dissolved and
reformed in 1906 to
favor the nobility and
property classes.
1906 Duma Reform
One Duma
Elector =
250 landowners
1,000 large
property holders
15,000 small
property holders
60,000 peasants
125,000 workers

4. Growth of Russian Political Parties
The Right
Octoberists
• Founded October 1905
• Pro-Tsarist but want
political and economic
reform
• Declined as Tsarism more
intransigent and became
less popular
Constitutional Democrats,
or Kadets
• Founded October 1905
• Support at worst a
constitutional monarchy, at
best parliamentary
democracy, civil liberties,
and the protection of
property.
• Main oppositional party in
the Duma

5. Growth of Russian Political Parties
The Left
Mensheviks
• Moderate reform minded Marxist
socialists
• Russia must go through capitalism
before socialism
• Popular among skilled working
class
Bolsheviks
• Radical revolutionary Marxist socialists
• Russia is already capitalist can achieve socialism through “uninterrupted
revolution.”
• Popular among unskilled working class and soldiers.
Socialist Revolutionaries
• Former terrorists turned moderate
socialists
• Russia can avoid capitalism
altogether. Russian peasant is the
seed for socialism.
• Popular among peasants.

6. Why Marxism
in Russia?
• Fit the political and
economic situation.
• Provides an alternative
worldview.
• Puts the working class as
the agent of history.
• Provided ethnic minorities
nationalism and revolution.

7. Revolutionary
Terrorism
• Between 1905 and 1907 = 9,000 casualties.
• From October 1905-1906 alone, 3,611
government officials were killed. By end of
1907, about 4,500 officials killed or injured.
• Also civilians. From 1905-1907, 2,180
civilians killed and 2,530 wounded.
• In 1907, estimated an average of 18
casualties a day.
• For the total period of 1894-1917,
estimated 17,000 individuals became
victims of revolutionary terror.

8. Lena Goldfield
Massacre, 1912
• Labor militarism slowly returning after 1909
because of economic recovery.
• Stolypin assassinated in September 1911.
• On April 4, 1912, workers peacefully assembled
at the Lena gold mines in Siberia to present their
demands to the mine authorities. Unexpectedly,
soldiers opened fire on the petitioners, killing
and wounding hundreds of workers.
• News of the incident spread rapidly to
European Russia, where workers responded
with massive strikes and demonstrations on a
scale reminiscent of 1905.

9. World War I,
1914-1918
Key Causes:
• Serbian Question.
Serb nationalist
assassinates Franz
Ferdinand,
August 1914
• Great Power
rivalry and the
Alliance system:
• Germany-
Austria-Ottoman
• Russian-France-
Britain
• Colonial Rivalry

10. Durnovo
Memorandum
"In the event of Russia’s military
defeat, the possibility of which in
a struggle with a foe like Germany
cannot be overlooked, social
revolution in its most extreme
form is inevitable."
–P. N. Durnovo, February 1914.

11. Russia at War,
August 1914-1916
• At first the war united the
nation around an external
German enemy. But this
didn’t last long.
• Reasons:
– Horrible conditions on the
battlefield and high
casualties.
– Poor conditions in the
home front.
– Disruption of family life.
– Political situation worsens.

12. Russia at War
• 15 million men mobilized for war, mostly
peasants.
• 5.1 million drafted in 1914 alone, or 15%
of all males. 4 million drafted from
towns. 27-45% of the labor force.
• Initial success at the front, but Germans
push Russia back. 4 million Russian
casualties, 1 million deaths in first year.
• Failures at the front embolden the
Kadets in the Duma and they call for
liberals included in the government. Tsar
dissolves Duma 3 September 1915.
• Martial Law from July 1914. Strikes
illegal. Bolsheviks increase agitation and
are outlawed.
• Fixed wages, fixed prices on grain,
alcohol prohibition, food rationing, real
wages down, except in military
production.
• Tsar increasingly isolated. Influence of
Grigori Rasputin angers nobles around
the Tsar.

14. Refugeedom

15. Labor Unrest in Wartime

16. Loss of Legitimacy
When a film was shown of the Tsar
awarding himself with the St.
George’s Cross, people commented,
“He’s with George—and she’s with
Grigorii.” Another said, “The
peasant Rasputin was alright until
that old woman came along, and of
course the Tsarina is only a woman,
and she needed it because her
husband was at the front.”
“Grisha is governing and getting his away with
the ladies in waiting … And with Fedorovna [the
Empress] as well.”
“In the Tsar’s bedroom our dark little flower. Has
opened up her petals of pleasure. In the Tsar’s
tower our little Alexandra Has been plucked by
all the Guards”

17. Midnight of the Empire
• Tsarist government paralyzed by Winter 1916/1917.
• Political situation at a deadlock.
• War effort turned into complete crisis.
• Tsar losing remaining legitimacy
“We can speak of what is happening now in Russia only with feelings of
confusion. . . . Completely unable to imagine what is coming, we hungrily
devour every rumor and live in a world thick with guesses and hints. This
tension in the political atmosphere cannot continue much longer. There
has been too much in Russia in recent times, even in these last days, that
one may say about what causes us to tremble with nervous anticipation of
the future: “What is ahead?! How will it all end?!” It will end. It must find
resolution. This will happen in 1917.”
--P. Borchevsky, Daily Kopeck Gazette, January 1, 1917

18. February in
Petrograd
Feb 18: Putilov wildcat
strike. 30,000 in streets.
Feb 22: Lockout
Feb 23: International
Women’s Day. 100,000
demonstrate against food
rationing and war.
Feb 25: General strike in
city. Police fire on crowds
Feb 27: Petrograd
Garrison mutiny. Soviet
formed
March 1: Order No. 1
March 2: Nicholas II
abdicates. Provisional
Government forms.

19. Overlapping
Revolutions
• Workers rebellion
• Soldiers mutiny
• Middle class final
rejection of
Tsarism
• Peasant revolution
• Ethnic nationalism

20. Dual
Polarization
becomes
Dual Power
The “we”
becomes
“us” and
“them”
Provisional Government
• Duma members
• Middle class
• Mostly Kadets
• Continue the war
• Await Constituent Assembly
• Government in form
Petrograd Soviet
• SRs and Mensheviks
• “Order No. 1”
• “The Democracy”
• “Revolutionary defensism” and work for
peace
• Await Constituent Assembly
• Government in content

21. Lenin
Returns
April 3, 1917
• Kamenev, Stalin, Molotov in
charge in March
• revolution is over?
• wait and see what
Provisional Govt. does
• Lenin: No!
• April Theses: Soviet is the
embryo of a socialist
government.
• “All Power to the Soviets!”
• “Bread! Peace! Land!”

22. Who is Lenin?
• Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, 1870
• Leader of the Bolsheviks
• Main Principles:
– Imperialism is the highest stage of
capitalism
– Disciplined party of professional
revolutionaries
– “Uninterrupted revolution”
– Turn imperialist war into class war

23. Bread!
Peace!
Land!
The
social
revolution
Peasants’ demands:
– land! (without compensation)
Soldiers demands:
– peace!
Workers’ demands:
– 8-hour day
– higher wages
– price controls
– workers’ management

24. The National
Question
• More than 100 different
ethnicities in the Russian
Empire.
• “Russified” ethnic
intellectuals in cities.
• Nationalist urban
intellectuals.
• Rural majority with local,
religious, and clan
identities and weak
national identities.
• Ethnicity versus class:
most popular nationalist
parties were also socialist.
• Autonomy within
Russian state, Russian
Federation, and national
independence.

25. The National Question
• Kadets and moderate socialists wanted to
maintain a unitary Russian state and deferred
nationality question to Constituent Assembly.
• Bolsheviks supported national self-
determination and supported a federal socialist
state and autonomy.
• Lenin’s two nationalisms: nationalism of the
oppressor and oppressed.

26. Summer of Discontent
• Provisional Gov’t. orders
offensive.
• Soviet organizes antiwar
demonstration. More radical
and Soviet leaders, carry
Bolsheviks slogans.
• Soldiers and sailors erupt
• Demand Soviets to take
power
• Bolshevik Central Committee:
– caution
• Lenin:
– caution
– then support
– then caution
• Results:
– armed demonstration put
down by P.G.
– Bolsheviks outlawed, Lenin
in hiding.

27. August
Dual Power fractures
The players:
– Alexander Kerensky
• (Provisional Gov’t.)
– Petrograd Soviet
• (moderate socialists)
– Bolsheviks
• (radical socialists)
– soldiers, sailors, workers
– The Right
• (Gen. Kornilov)
The issues:
– prices
– the war
– the land
– law and order
– National self-
determination.
The maneuver:
– Kerensky + Kornilov

28. The Kornilov Affair
Kornilov marches on
Petrograd
– the revolution in danger!
Kerensky approaches
Bolsheviks
– legalize
– defend the revolution
Formation of Red Guards
– Kornilov defeated
Results:
– Red Guards armed
– Bolsheviks free
– Seen as the revolution’s
true defenders.

29. September
• Bolsheviks win first majority
in Petrograd Soviet
• Lenin agitates for armed
takeover
– Central Committee resists
– Bolshevik Military
Organization in favor

32. The October
Revolution
• Red Guards, soldiers seize
Petrograd
• telephone exchange
• bridges
• train stations
• Second Congress of Soviets
• Mensheviks, SRs walk
out

33. Why the Bolsheviks
won in 1917
• Crisis of the war
• Weakness of moderates and other
socialists
• Provisional Government foot-
dragging
• “Bread Peace Land” a popular slogan
• Bolsheviks put themselves at the head
of a social revolution that was already
under way.

34. Not why the Bolsheviks won
• Because they were tightly disciplined
– fractured in April, July, September, October
• Because of Lenin’s iron leadership
– Lenin marginalized in April, September, October
• Because they conspired in secret
– their plans no secret to anybody