Russian Revolutions

The creation of a new state: URSS

Russian Revolutions © 2023 by Lethistoria is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
• Russian Empire extended from Europe to Asia.
• Its population was more than 100 million people with different
religion, languages and ethnic groups (Slavs, Mongols, Poles, etc).
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 Russian Empire in 1900

In the early 20th

century, Russia
was an absolute
monarchy ruled by
Tsar Nicholas II.

It was supported
by the army, the
nobility, the
Orthodox Church
and a
bureaucracy.
Tsar Nicholas II and his family
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 The Economy
It was mainly rural and sti! semi-feudal with out-of-date farming. A
wealthy minority of nobles and clergy owned the land. The peasants
were the majority of the population and were bounded to the land as serfs
until 1861 (Emancipation of serfs). Later they could own the land by
paying strong debts, so far %om improving, they became ruined and
poorer. So, fina!y lots of them emigrated to the cities tri&ering social
unrest.

Industry hardly existed in Russia, only a few bourgeoisie invested in it

and depended on foreign money. Workers were exploited by the
bourgeoisie with low wages, and hard labor conditions.

That is why, a capitalist economy couldn’t develop in Russia.

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Russian peasants

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 Russian Society
Upper classes. Royalty,
nobility and high
Clergy: 12%

Middle classes.
Merchants, bureaucrats:
2%

Working classes, soldiers

and peasants: 86%

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 Political situation

Autocracy: the Tsar ruled as an absolute monarch.

There was a parliament with very little power: Duma,
and the tsar could gather or dissolve it whenever he
wanted.

Civil rights were not recognised.

Every reaction against the government was severely

repressed.
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Political groups against tsarism
LIBERAL PARTIES:

Constitutional Democrats or Kadets (Bourgeoisie). They wanted a constitutional

system.

REVOLUTIONARY PARTIES:

Social Revolutionary party: peasants. Anarchists and often terrorists. They

killed tsar Alexander II in 1881.

Social Democrats Labor party: workers. Marxists, divided in two groups:

Mensheviks, moderates. They believed in reforms to achieve a Socialist State.

Bolsheviks, radicals. They believed in a revolution to achieve a Socialist State.

Their main leader and founder was Lenin.
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
Political groups against tsarism
LIBERAL PARTIES:

Constitutional Democrats or Kadets (Bourgeoisie). They wanted a constitutional

system.

REVOLUTIONARY PARTIES:

Social Revolutionary party: peasants. Anarchists and often terrorists. They

killed tsar Alexander II in 1881.

Social Democrats Labor party: workers. Marxists, divided in two groups:

Mensheviks, moderates. They believed in reforms to achieve a Socialist State.

Bolsheviks, radicals. They believed in a revolution to achieve a Socialist State.

Their main leader and founder was Lenin.
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 The revolution of 1905
Due to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), there was an important economic crisis in Russia.

In January 1905 lots of people marched to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (residence of the
Tsar) asking for better living conditions.

The response was that soldiers fired them ki$ing hundreds of people. This is ca$ed “bloody
sunday”.

An early soviet* was created and strikes took place a$ over Russia.

The Tsar had to give more power to the Duma, as in a constitutional system. However, years later,
the Duma had no power at a$ and the social and political crisis continued in Russia.

In June, there was an incident: a mutiny in battleship Potemkin. Men were obligated to eat rotten
meat and they rebe$ed against their officials.

* Soviet: workers, soldiers and peasants revolutionary council.

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Real photographs January 9th 1905

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Revolutions in 1917. Causes
Since 1914 Russia took part in the Great War:

There were high casualties: millions of soldiers died since the war
started.They had an outdated equipment and inadequate training. Everyone
blamed the Tsar, who was fighting at the front.

Many men had to go fighting so they didn´t work the land or in factories. This
caused an economic crisis, prices rose faster than wages, and there were
terrible food shortages.

People were very upset with the government, so protests and strikes grew all
over Russia.

The Tsar family became more unpopular because of the friendship they had with
a monk called Rasputin. He tried to help tsarevich Alexei with his illness,
hemophilia. People thought he had control over the royal family and was also to
blame (assassinated in 1916). Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
Rasputín

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Revolution of February 1917
23th: There was a women’s
demonstration claiming for “ peace
and bread”.

25th: general strikes took place

throughout Russia.

26th: tsarist troops refused to shoot

the strikers.

All the protests involved peasants,

workers, soldiers; so, the Tsar was
forced to abdicate.
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 February to October 1917

A!er the abdication of Nicolas II, the Mensheviks socialists with some liberals (Kadets) formed a
provisional government as a Republic. It was led by Kerensky.

They tried to establish a liberal political system.

they were very weak because of different reasons:

they didn´t take control over a% russian territory. Russia sti% took part in the WWI and people
wanted to withdraw &om the war.

The Tsarists didn´t accept them, they wanted to reestablish the tsarism.

the Bolsheviks organised in soviets, that strengthened a% over the country and people
supported them because they wanted extreme reforms. They created their own army: The Red
Army. Their leader was Lenin.
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 February to October 1917
Lenin was the most important revolutionary socialist and became the
Bolsheviks leader.

Having been exiled in Europe, the abdication of the tsar and a secret
pact with the capitalist Germany, a!owed him to return to Russia in
April. He would withdraw "om the war (Brest-Litovsk treaty, March
1918).

He dra&ed his April Theses, demanding extreme reforms to the

provisional government.

Eventua!y the Bolsheviks and Lenin prepared for the October

revolution to take control of the country. Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 Revolution October 1917

October 25th: The Bolsheviks with the Red Guard took control over St. Petersburg and the Winter Palace.

The provisional government fell and they established a workers´ government led by Lenin, with
Trotsky and Stalin supporting him.

The first measures (based on April theses) of the new government were:

To withdraw from theWWI- Brest-Litovsk treaty (giving resources to Germany).

To distribute expropriated lands to peasants and give control of factories to workers committees.

To recognise different nationalities.

To nationalise banks.

July 18th: they assassinated Tsar Nicolas II and his family in Yekaterinburg. Video

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Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 The Civil War 1918-1921
The 1918 revolution was successful, but the country was split into two
sides:

Bolsheviks with the Red Guard or Red Army, led by Trotsky.

Tsarists and liberals with the White Army

They both clashed for 3 years (1918-1921) and finally the bolsheviks won the
civil war.

During the war the government adopted some measures called “war
communism”, which consisted of expropriating lands and factories for the state
and taking whatever they needed ( grain, raw materials, etc)to supply the
army and win the war.
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 The formation of the USSR
In 1922, the Union
of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR)
or Soviet Union
was created. It was
made up of Russia
and other republics.
Let’s see the map.

It would last until

its dissolution in
1991.
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 The formation of the USSR
Lenin fina!y achieved the dictatorship of the proletariat. He
banned a! the political parties except for the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union (CPSU).

In 1923 a new Constitution was established. It was based on

communist ideas.

In the economy, they implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP),

based on capitalism to recover $om the crisis: they a!owed some
peasants to farm $eely (Kulaks), $ee internal trade and sma!
companies. They would control banks, international trade, transport and
big enterprises. Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
 Vladímir
Ilich
Uliánov,
Lenin.

Lenin en una tribuna, A. Gerasimov (realismo soviético) Stalin, Lenin y Trotsky

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 Stalin´s dictatorship
Lenin died in 1924. Trotsky was supposed to be his successor, but Stalin
intervened and took control of the government. Trotsky fled abroad and was
assassinated years later in Mexico.

Stalin based his power in three pi!ars:

Personality cult. Through propaganda he was presented as “father of

the country”.

Reinforcement of CPSU.

Terror policy. Any opponent to the regime was imprisoned in Gulags

(labor camps) or ki!ed.
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO
Stalin, A. Gerasimov.

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 Stalin´s dictatorship

In 1927, Stalin created a new government agency: Gosplan. It was

responsible for planning the new economic system: five-year plans.

They intended to improve the economic situation by developing the iron,

coal, steeling, and electric industries and transport.

Eventually the economy improved and the USSR became a world power.

However, it happened at the expense of impoverishment of the

population. Wages were low and no consumer goods were produced, so
people died of starvation, cold, etc.
Leticia Álvarez de Luna 4º ESO