Russian Revolution
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Background
Russia was the largest regime (land and population) in
Europe.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
ECONOMY - SOCIETY
-
Weak, based on agriculture, slow industrial
development opposite to others.
Lack of social mobility (semi-feudal regime)
Increase in industry creates low wages, child
labor, miserable working conditions.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
POLITICAL SITUATION
1894-Nicholas II, autocratic rule, poor decisions.
 Absolutism-repression of the czars; lack of
enlightened ideas.
 Duma (congress) rarely met
often disbanded by czars.
 Russification-forcing many
nationalities of the empire to have
the same language (Russian),
customs, and traditions.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Several political parties
– Democratic Constitutional Party (bourgois
– Liberal)
– Social – Revolutionary Party (peasant
revolution) Esers
– Russian Democratic Party (Marxist)
 1912  Mensheviks
 Bolsheviks
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Rasputin. Too much influence on
royal family. Corrupt.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)-humiliating
loss.
“Bloody Sunday”-workers march peacefully, shot
at.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
 Revolution
of 1905 (fails).
Soviets will appear (assemblies
of soldiers, peasants and
workers)  Strikes, violence,
demostrations….
 Unfulfilled promises :universal
sufrage, agricultural reform…
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
REVOLUTION 1917
Immediate Cause—World War I
 Russia’s
poor showing (military
disasters)
 Lack of supplies, millions in
casualties, desertions …
 Revolution 1917
– Feb : bourgeois revolution
– Provisional Government
– October : Soviet Revolution
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Events of Revolution
February 1917
Social and economic crisis: inflation, lack of raw
materials….
Military crisis
Development
23rd February , big demonstration in Saint
Petersburg “peace and bread”
25th General strike
26th soldiers refused to shoot at people. Motinies
in the quarters
27th _ Provisional Governmenl Luov + Kerensky
Isabel Torralbo Talavera

March. Czar Nicholas abdicates 
Republic

Lenin back from exile.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Provisional Government
Kerensky and the Mensheviks
(moderate) still support WWI  crisis
continued
April thesis Lenin “All power for the
soviets”
- Condemns the Provisional Government
as bourgeois and urges "no support" for it
-Calls for a parliamentary republic not to be
established and calls this a "retrograde step." He calls for "a
republic of Soviets of Workers‘
-Asserts that Russia is "passing from the first stage
of the revolution —which placed power in the hands of the
bourgeoisie—to its second stage, which must place power in
the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of
the peasants.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
TRUE OR FALSE? LENIN
Lenin’s brother was hanged for
plotting to kill the czar.
 Lenin was kicked out of college.
 Lenin was exiled to Siberia for three
years
 Lenin was not his real name.
 Lenin was mummified following his
death.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera
October / November
Revolution
The Bolsheviks with the “Red
Guard” take the Winter Palace
(October 1917)  Provisional
Government overthrown.
A workers´government was
proclaimed led by Lenin. The
revolution has succeded.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
First measures of
the new
government
Treaty of BrestLitovsk—out of WWI.
(very hard conditions
for Russia)
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Land was
expropiated and
divided up between
the peasants
Factories were taken
over by workers´
comittees
November 1917
Elections for the
Constituent
Assembly
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
PartyOt
Votes
Percent
Deputies
SocialistRevolutionary
Party (SRs)
17,100,000
41.0
380
9,800,000
23.5
168
2,000,000
4.8
17
1,360,000
3.3
18
11,140,000
26.7
120
Bolsheviks
Constitutional
Democratic Party
(Kadets)
Mensheviks
Others
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Civil war—Reds vs. Whites (19181921).
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Civil War 1918 - 1921

Combatant:
– Bolsheviks (Red Army) led by Trotski
vs
– Mix of liberals and supporters of Tsarism
(White Army)

Victory of the bosheviks:
– Popular support
– Lack of coordination among the different
armies
– Trotsky.
Moscow capital (1918)—U.S.S.R.
(Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
1922)
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
After Civil War
1922  Federal
State: Union of
Socialist Soviet
Republics 1922
- Economy (1921-1928)
 NEP  system of
mixed economy which
allowed private
individuals to own
small enterprises
-

1924  Constitution
– Supreme Soviet
(legislative power)
– Presidium ( head of
State)
– Council of Peolple´s
Commissars
(Government
CPSU (Communist
Party of the Soviet
Union
(book
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
After Lenin’s death
 power struggle
Trotsky / Stalin
Trotsky  export the
revolution
Stalin  “socialism
in one country”
Josef Stalin becomes
the leader of the
Soviet Union.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
Forced Russia into a
modern industrialized
nation.
Totalitarianism.
5 year plans—collective
farms
Purges out all his
enemies.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
 USSR
is a super power.
Isabel Torralbo Talavera
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ZT2z0nrsQ8o
What characters can you recognize in the
video?
 What vision (good, bad…) does it give
from each one of them? Give specific
examples.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera