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  • The Russian Revolution

  • The year is 1914

  • World War 1 had

  • begun and Russia was at war with Germany.

  • The working class and the peasants make

  • up the Russian Army. However, they are not

  • well equipped or trained for the battles

  • to come. The year is now 1917, millions of

  • Russians had been either killed or

  • wounded. The Russian people were angry at

  • Tsar Nicholas the Second for getting

  • Russia into war and several other

  • reasons including, the Tsar taking

  • personal command of the Army, Rasputin's

  • power over the royal family, food

  • shortages and growing political

  • opposition. The first revolution came

  • about in February 1917 on the Julian

  • calendar in Petrograd, which was the

  • capital of Imperial Russia. Demonstrators

  • protested about the lack of bread due to

  • rationing and were some joined by

  • striking workers. The Army was called

  • upon to suppress the uprising. Several

  • protesters were shot and killed by the

  • soldiers, however, many refused to open

  • fire. The Army to it seemed at mutiny

  • against the Tsar, the Petrograd Soviet

  • was the city council for workers and

  • soldiers. Now, more and more workers and

  • soldiers elected people to it in order

  • to represent their demands. The Tsar

  • abdicated bringing an end to the Tsarist

  • autocracy and a new government took over.

  • This government was run by two political

  • parties, the Petrograd Soviet and the

  • Provisional Government.

  • The Bolshevik Revolution.

  • The Provisional Government

  • was also unpopular. It made the decision

  • to remain in the war and failed to give

  • land to the peasants. Vladimir Lenin and

  • the Bolsheviks were a faction of the

  • Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

  • and eventually became the

  • Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

  • He had a simple slogan which would appeal

  • to the people and the Petrograd Soviet,

  • Peace, bread and land.

  • Peace --- the end of

  • Russia's involvement in World War One.

  • Bread --- solving food shortages and

  • Land --- which would go to the peasants .

  • He also stated all power to the Soviets, meaning

  • that he would seize power in the name of

  • the Soviet. On November 6th and 7th, 1917,

  • or October 24th and 25th

  • on the Julian calendar, the Bolsheviks

  • led by Lenin launched a coup d'etat

  • against the provisional government. They

  • stormed the Winter Palace and arrested

  • the provisional government, putting

  • themselves in charge of Russia's

  • government. After the Revolution, the

  • Bolshevik government exited the war by

  • signing a peace treaty with Germany

  • called "The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk" .

  • A civil war would erupt in 1918 by those

  • who are against the new Bolshevik

  • government. The White Army and the

  • Bolsheviks themselves, the Red Army.

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The Russian Revolution

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