The Russian Revolution overthrew the Russian monarchy and established the Soviet Union. The revolution was preceded by growing unrest with the increasingly unpopular Tsar Nicholas II due to military defeats, economic struggles, and his autocratic rule. In 1917, mass protests and strikes led Nicholas to abdicate, replacing the monarchy with a provisional government. However, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks then seized power in October 1917, establishing the world's first communist state. Under Stalin's totalitarian rule in the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union had a centrally planned economy, state terror against dissidents, and total government control over all aspects of society.

1. Russian Revolution

2. Opening Focus Assignments
 1/9 “Faults of WWI Peace Treaty”
 1/10 “WWI and changing values”
 1/11 “Views of the War”
 1/14 “Lost Generation”
 1/15 “Dawes Plan”
 1/18 “Path to Revolution”

3. Russian Government Before
Revolution
 Monarchy: The Czar (Tsar)
 Until 1905 the Tsar's powers were
unlimited.
 Russia had no constitution,
 no political party system to check the
Tsar's power
 A strong secret police which terrorized
the people.

4. Royal Background
Nicholas II
• Created the first secret police in Russia, brutal
leader, response to revolt of army officers in 1825

5. Czar Alexander II
• He implemented important reforms, notably the abolition of
serfdom,
• In 1867, he sold Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the
United States.
• Killed by the Revolutionary Group: The People’s Will

6. Czar Alexander III
• Alexander III's reign was during an industrial
revolution in Russia .
• His reign was harsh, against revolutionaries and
other liberal movements.

7. Czar Nicholas II (1894)
Last Czar of Russia
 Nicholas II was a harsh and weak ruler
 The Russian economy was bankrupt because
of the Russo-Japanese War and WWI Russia’s
entry into WWI became very unpopular.

8. Czar Nicholas II and Family

9. Russo-Japanese War (1904)
Dispute over Manchuria with
Japan
Shook national confidence in their
progress and rule of Czar.

10. Bloody Sunday (1905)

11. Russia and World War I
 Russia declares war on Austria-
Hungary
 War becomes unpopular
 Rationing leads to starvation
 Nicholas II leaves St. Petersburg to war
front

13. Rasputin

14. Rasputin with Admirers

16. March Revolution (1917)
 1917- protests spread through St.
Petersburg and the Royal palace is
taken over.
 Czar abdicates
 Provisional government (Duma) takes
control lead by Alexander Keresnky
 Provisional government unpopular
after decision to stay in WWI

17. October (Bolshevik) Revolution-
1917
 Lead by VI Lenin “Peace, Land, and
Bread”
 Won support of people (especially
peasants)

19. 1918
 1918 March The Bolsheviks accept the
peace of Brest‑Litovsk, ending WWI with
Germany.

20. 1919-1920
1919 White Armies (Royal and Menshevik
troops) attack the Reds (Bolsheviks) from
all directions.
 1920- Reds defeat Whites

21. Rule of Lenin 1920-1924
 Economic Reforms included the New
Economic Plan (NEP)
-moderate mix of capitalism and
socialism
 Political Reforms
-Bolshevik party became Communist
Party
-Russia becomes the United Soviet
Socialist Republics

23. Communism
 A Form of Socialism
 Central Planning of the Economy by the State
 Gov’t (Communist Party) makes decisions
on individual jobs and pay

24. 1924
 Lenin Dies
 Power Vaccuum
 Leon Trotsky vs. Joseph Stalin
 Stalin takes control
 Now must decide how he will maintain
power
 Decides to create a totalitarian state

26. Characteristics of a Totalitarian
State
 Dictatorship- Absolute Authority
 Dynamic Leader- Vision for the nation
 State Control Over All Sectors of Society
 Business, Family Life, Labor, youth groups, housing,
religion, education, the arts
 State Control Over the Individual
 Obedience
 Denies basic liberties
 Organized Violence
 Uses force to crush opposition

27. Stalin’s Totalitarian State
 State Control of the Economy
 5 year plan, collective farms
 Police Terror
 Great Purge, crush opposition
 Religious Persecution
 Control of the individual
 Propaganda (socialist realism)
 Molding peoples minds
 Education
 Controlled by the government