InNo+seank2013+10.17.10

= **Part 2: War and Revolution** = media type="youtube" key="HD2bXvC6suA?fs=1" height="385" width="640"

This is a short 10 minute video about some interesting facts on Lenin and the Bolsheviks. It may help you understand how they gained power.

Play this to hear the summary explained by this little character :D. It would save you some time reading the notes. media type="custom" key="7311665" align="center"

Chapter 7: Russia at war, 1914-17

 * 1) The news that the country was at war (August 1914) was very popular
 * 2) There were patriotic demonstrations in support of the Tsar
 * 3) There was hatred of Germany
 * 4) Nicholas renamed St Petersburg to Petrograd because he thought it sounded German

Early Defeats

 * 1) Two huge Russian armies attacked Germany in August 1914
 * 2) However instead of a swift victory against one German Army, the Russian's poor choice of bring enough equipment got the better of them.
 * 3) In two battles, at Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes, the Russian armies were wiped out
 * 4) By the end of 1914, Russia had lost over one million soldiers to casualties.

The collapse of the economy

 * 1) As the war continued in 1915, Russian economy began to collapse
 * 2) The first problem was that they were losing workers to the battlefield.
 * 3) 15.5 million of them were taken to fight.
 * 4) In 1915, 600 factories had to close because of the lack of workers.
 * 5) Instead of corn being grown in farms, many people began to grow weed.
 * 6) Transport was another problem because Russia was the biggest country in the world.
 * 7) They depended on food and raw materials, but there were not enough trains to keep the armies well as well as the townspeople supplied with food and materials.
 * 8) Thousands of tonnes of butter, meat and grain rotted in railway sidings in the countryside, while soldiers and people went hungry because there weren't enough trains.
 * 9) Coal supplies to factories and power stations also stopped because the trains were too slow.
 * 10) As power began to fail, more factories closed.
 * 11) Infation was another big problem because it started to lose its value in 1914.
 * 12) Food prices began to go up and people therefore found themselves buying less less food.
 * 13) By the end of 1915, meanwhile all the economy failure, 300 thousand Russiands were killed 3 million were wounded or locked away in enemy prison camps

'Dark forces destroying the throne'

 * 1) In August 1915, Nicholas decided to take personal command in his armies.
 * 2) He left Petrograd to to live at army headquarters.
 * 3) However he also let Alexandra in charge of the government but she was completely under the influence of Rasputin
 * 4) For the next sixteen months, Alexandra was able to do more or less what she liked
 * 5) She used her power to sack ministers who displeased her and them with whom she and Rasputin favored.
 * 6) With many ministers coming and going, the work of the government began to stop.
 * 7) Food, fuel, ammunition were now becoming almost unobtainable.
 * 8) Although the Russian armies won some important victories in 1916, the death toll of Russian soldiers went over a million.
 * 9) Rumors spread that since Alexandra was German.
 * 10) They said that Alexandra and Rasputin were German agents trying to destroy Russia from within.
 * 11) One of the closest supporters of the Tsar said that there were 'dark forces destroying the throne'
 * 12) In December 1916, three patriotic nobles murdered Rasputin
 * 13) When the news of Rasputin's death arrived in the public, people kissed each other in streets thinking the 'dark forces' were no more.
 * 14) In 1917, blizzards and temperatures as low as -35 degrees celsius kept thousands of railway engines frozen.
 * 15) Supplies of grain, coal, wood, and oil dwindled to nothing.
 * 16) Conditions became right for revolution

March 7, Wednesday

 * 1) 20 thousand angry steel workers were out on streets

March 8, Thursday

 * 1) 50 factories closed down
 * 2) 90 thousand workers went on strike
 * 3) International Women's day
 * 4) thousands of socialist women demonstrating

March 9, Friday

 * 1) 200 thousand workers were on strike

March 10, Saturday

 * 1) 250 thousand on strike
 * 2) no public transport or newspaper
 * 3) food shortages continued
 * 4) cossaks refused to attack procession of strikers

March 11, Sunday

 * 1) President of Duma sent telegram to the Tsar urging him take notice of the seriousness in the chaos in streets
 * 2) The Tsar's response was to order the Duma to stop meeting

March 12, Monday

 * 1) Mutiny began in the army.
 * 2) The Duma set up a twelve-man committee called the Provisional Committee to take over the government
 * 3) It began to organize food supplies for the city.

March 13, Tuesday

 * 1) The Tsar wanted to share power with the Duma now they were in charge but the Duma refused

March 14, Wednesday

 * 1) Leading army generals sent telegrams to inform Nicholas that none of his army supported him.
 * 2) He was losing control

March 15, Thursday

 * 1) Nicholas, 250 km away from the capital decided to give the throne to Alexis but later realized he was too ill.
 * 2) The crown was given to his brother, Grand Duke Michael instead.
 * 3) However, fearing to end up like Nicholas, he abdicated as well.


 * AT THE END OF THIS MARCH REVOLUTION THE QUESTION WAS:**
 * Should the Duma's Provisional Committee or the Petrograd Soviet govern Russia?**

Two new governments

 * 1) The Provisional Committee now called themselves the Provisional Government
 * 2) It meant they would govern until elections could be held.
 * 3) The Petrograd Soviet was the unofficial government who aimed to protect the interests of working people and soldiers
 * 4) Other Soviets had the same aim, whatever the Petrograd soviet does, the other soviets copy
 * 5) This gave them a lot of power
 * 6) Their first action was Order No.1 that told soldiers and sailors to take control of all arms, ammunition and equipment
 * 7) Off-duty soldiers were not to solute their officers
 * 8) They had to address them as Mister Colonel or Mister General instead of your excellency
 * 9) This Order was obeyed by all parts of the army and now the Petrograd Soviet controlled the armed forces
 * 10) 2500 deputies in Petrograd Soviet were revolutionaries.
 * 11) For the time being, they were willing to cooperate with the Provisional Government and wait for the changes they wanted

Lenin and the April These

 * 1) At the time of March Revolution the leader of the Bolsheviks, Lenin, was in exile in Switzerland.
 * 2) He disagreed with revolutionaries who cooperated with the Provisional Government
 * 3) He wanted to get Russia to have a second revolution
 * 4) At the time, Russia and Germany were in the Great War.
 * 5) Germany was happy to get Lenin back to Russia because it would give them the advantage.
 * 6) When Lenin arrived in Petrograd on April 16, 1917, he made a speech stating
 * 7) the war must end with Germany
 * 8) All land must be given to the peasants
 * 9) banks must be nationalized
 * 10) Bolsheviks should change their name to communists
 * 11) No support must be given to the provisional government
 * 12) all power to the soviets
 * 13) These ideas later became the April Theses
 * 14) On June 1917, the Russian armies made a major attack on Austria.
 * 15) This attacked turned into a retreat where many went to Petrograd

The Kornilov Revolt

 * 1) Kerensky became Prime Minister of the Provisional Government.
 * 2) General Kornilov, the Commander-in-chief of the armies, challenged Keresnky for power.
 * 3) He planned to get rid of Petrograd Soviet, arrest revolutionaries, take control of the government and continue fighting Germany.
 * 4) He had some of the best troops, the Savage Division (from Caucasus) and the Cossacks.
 * 5) Kerensky had few loyal troops and was about to loose power.
 * 6) Allowed Bolsheviks to set up defense force called red Guards to help defend Petrograd
 * 25,00 Bolsheiks armed with rifles and machine guns to fight Kornilov's troops.
 * 1) Kornilov's troops refused to fight fellow workers and resulted in Kornilov being arrested.
 * 2) Bolsheviks became heroes and came out as a fighting force.
 * 3) Position further strengthened when they got majority of elections for the Petrograd Soviet.
 * 4) By October 1917 the Bolsheviks were at their peak and considered carrying out the second revolution.

The state of Russia in September 1917

 * 1) Peasants began to take control of land waited for Provisional Government to give them land but didn't.
 * 2) Over 2000 farm peasants killed landlords, took land from Church and Tsar
 * 3) Kerensky sent soldiers on "punishment expeditions" to prevent land grabbing.
 * 4) Not enough troops to continue the work so violence continued.
 * 5) This delayed the harvest on many farms and led to food shortages (again).
 * 6) Faced winter with threat of famine
 * 7) Army discipline broke down in Russia, the Petrograd Soviet's Order led to a lot of disobedience before.
 * 8) Thousands were deserting the army each week to go back and grabbed their fair amount of land.
 * 9) Bolsheviks encouraged soldiers to stop fighting, drunkenness, chaos and violence was all over the army.

The November Revolution

 * 1) Lenin returned to Petrograd in October 1917 and wanted revolution immediately.
 * 2) Leon Trotsky, and Bolshevik chairman drew up plans in a disused school called the Smolny Institute.
 * 3) Army supported the Bolsheviks and guards of Peter and Paul Fortress gave all rifles over to Bolsheviks.
 * 4) On 6 November, Red Guards began to take control of important locations such as bridges, government buildings, railway and power stations.
 * 5) Provisional Government headquarters in the Winter Palace which was only guarded by army cadets and the Women's Battalion of the army.
 * 6) On 7 November a cruiser (Aurora) captured by the Bolshevik sailors sailed up river Neva and fired at the Winter Palace.
 * 7) The Red Guards also followed and stormed the Winter Palace.
 * 8) The Provisional Government guards gave up without a fight and ministers of the government were arrested and taken away
 * 9) Bolsheviks controlled Petrograd now.
 * 10) Lenin announces that he is setting up a new government.

**Summary**

Russia had lost some major battles during their war with Germany so Tsar Nicholas decided to take charge in the armyandleftAlexandra and Rasputin in charge of the government. However Rasputin, being unpopular was assassinated and the Duma tried to take control by making the Provisional government. Tsar Nicholas abdicated his throne to his son however he was too sick to become the Tsar; Nicholas's brother who became Tsar later abdicated his throne as well. This made Russia a republic. Lenin tried to come back in charge by making the April Theses. During this period, many the power of the throne was thrown around and by the end of this, the Bolsheviks took control of Petrograd and the government.

**Questions** How many times did the ruler of the government change? Why did Lenin get exiled? Why did Nicholas as well as his family abdicated his throne? Describe the Bolsheviks rise in power. How many wars did Russia lose?