AP EURO: LECTURE OUTLINE pp. 726-733
Europe in 1917 -
1. Total war
2. Serious domestic discontent
3. Some countries were able to maintain support for the war and keep control
4. Some countries were on the verge of collapse
5. Russia did collapse
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:
The Revolution of 1905 had failed to produce a liberal constructional monarchy in Russia
The Tsar had all the power and relied on
1. The army
2. The bureaucracy
Problems for Russia in World War I =
1. Unprepared militarily
2. Unprepared technologically and industrially
3. Lacked good military leadership
4. Russia suffers major military defeats - by 1917 Russia was on the verge of being defeated
Nicholas II and Alexandra -
1. The last Romanovs
2. The Tsar was not up to the challenges
3. Tried to take personal charge of the armed forces
4. Family problems - Alexis their some was hemophiliac
5. Tsarina Alexandra falls under the influence of Rasputin - interferes in government affairs
THE MARCH REVOLUTION:
Petrograd = new name of Saint Petersburg
Strikes break out in Petrograd in 1917
Skyrocketing bread prices, rationing, shortages
Women’s March in Petrograd - mass demonstrations demanding “Peace and Bread”
Workers join the women in protest - general strike shuts down all factories
Tsar orders troops to break up the strikes and demonstrations - shoot if necessary
The soldiers refuse to fire on the protesters and end up joining them
Tsar loses control of Petrograd
The Duma declares that it is taking power on March 12th
New government is created = the Provisional Government
The Tsar abdicates on March 15th
In a period of one week the Tsarist regime falls apart - the March Revolution did not really overthrow the government - the government basically collapses due to the pressures of the war
The collapse of the Tsar’s government -
1. Surprise/unexpected how quickly it fell apart
2. No real plan for what to do next
3. Middle class and liberal aristocrats establish the Provisional Government - temporary
4. Provisional govt wants to create a liberal govt and stay in the war
5. Peasants and workers want an end to the war
The Soviets = councils of workers and soldiers deputies
Represented the radical interests of the lower classes
Made up of different socialist groups
The Socialist Revolutionaries = the SR = peasant socialism
The Social Democratic Party = Marxists
A. Mensheviks - moderates
B. Bolsheviks - radicals
The Bolsheviks -
1. Led by Vladimir Lenin
2. Violent revolution - destroy capitalism
3. “the Vanguard” of the Revolution = small party of well disciplined professional revolutionaries
4. Lenin had been exiled to Switzerland
5. “the sealed train” = German ship Lenin back to Russia to cause problems
6. Lenin arrives in Russia in April 1917 - issues the April Theses
A. gain control of the Soviets
B. overthrow the Provisional Government
C. “Peace, Land, Bread”
The Provisional Government -
1. Plans for a constructional convention in the fall of 1917
2. Continue the war effort
3. Peasants begin seize land
4. Army falls apart - formation of Soviets in the army
5. Peasants soldiers being mass desertions - drop there weapons and go home
6. No one really supports the Prov. Govt
7. In July Alexander Kerensky becomes the leader of the government
THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION:
July 1917 - Lenin and the Bolsheviks first attempt to overthrow the government
The Kornilov Affair -
1. In September of 1917 General Kornilov attempts to seize power
2. Kerensky releases Bolsheviks from prison/asks for the help of the Petrograd Soviet
3. Lenin and Bolsheviks are strengthened
4. Shows how weak the Provisional Government is
Red October = the Bolshevik Revolution
1. In October 1917 Lenin and the Bolsheviks size power in Petrograd
2. The Provisional Government collapses
3. Constituent Assembly meets in Jan. 1918 - Lenin breaks it up by force
4. Bolsheviks rename themselves - the Communist Party
5. Land is nationalized and turned over to the local rural soviets
6. Get Russia out of the war - March 1918
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk =
1. Russia signs treaty with Germany
2. Russia gives up large amount of territory to Germany - Eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Baltic states
3. Russia is out of the war
CIVIL WAR:
Opposition to the Bolsheviks =
1. Groups loyal to the Tsar
2. Middle class and aristocratic liberals
3. Other socialists groups like the SR’s and Mensheviks
4. The Allied governments of Western Europe
The Russian Civil War 1918-1921
1. Reds v. Whites = Bolsheviks v. anti-Bolsheviks
2. The Red Army - created and headed by Leon Trotsky
3. White forces led by Admiral Kolchak from the East
4. White forces led by General Denikin in the South
5. Other groups also attack or threaten the Bolsheviks
6. The various White forces never unite and are defeated one by one
7. Bolsheviks are more ruthless and brutal
8. The Tsar, his wife, and five children are murdered by the Reds in July 1918 at Ekaterinburg
War Communism =
The Red Terror -
Intervention of Allied armies
Russia in 1921 -
THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR:
Russia drops out of the war
Germany tries one last offensive to break the stalemate - Mar.-July
Arrival of a million American soldiers
The Second Battle of the Marne - Germans are defeated - July
German government begins to collapse
Kaiser abdicates on November 9
The Armistice = the end of fighting - the 11th hour , 11th day, 11th month of 1918
REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVALS IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:
Nov. 1918 - the Kaiser’s regime ends
The majority moderated socialist Social Democrats proclaim a parliamentary republic in Germany
The radical German Communist Party declares Germany to be a revolutionary socialist republic
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg -founder of the German Communist Party
Jan. 1919 - the Communists try to seize power in Berlin/fail and the they are crushed
Austro-Hungary Empire -
1. The Habsburg dynasty ends
2. The empire is replaced with many new independent states
Serbia is replaced with Yugoslavia which tries to include all the Slavic peoples of the Balkans into one new kingdom
Bela Kun - attempts a communist revolution in Hungary/crushed