Revolution And Everyday Life Video Lecture - Class 9

1894 nicholas ii has just been coronated
as the emperor of russia before
continuing there's a technical matter
which needs to be resolved the calendar
to simplify the russian calendar was
thirteen days behind the gregorian
calendar in use today which is why some
things like the october revolution are
said to have occurred in november for
this episode both calendars will be used
so nicholas ii was an absolute monarch
which meant that he had the final say on
everything concerning the russian empire
which was huge during the late 19th
century russia had seen rapid
industrialization alongside this came
new ideas such as the communist ideas of
a certain karl marx which led to the
working class of russia demanding
greater representation so to grossly
oversimplify communism is a political
ideology which argues that the means of
production such as factories should be
collectively owned by everyone as
opposed to individuals it wanted to
abolish social classes and believe that
the economy should be entirely
controlled by the central government the
Imperial Russian government suffered
from being somewhat distant and
incompetent for example agriculture was
slow to industrialized and there were
numerous foreign policy failings the
most notable of these failings were the
ones which caused conflict with the
Japanese leading to the 1904
russo-japanese war so to simplify the
reasons for war can largely be chalked
up to Japan expanding its influence in
Korea and Russia refusing to accept it
Japanese decided the war would settle it
and so launched a sneak attack against
the Russian fleet in Port Arthur which
Russia had leased from China the
Japanese would continue with a string of
victories such as the Battle of Mactan
and the Battle of Tsushima this
embarrassed the Russians and during
peace negotiations led by certain Sergei
Vitter Russia lost Port Arthur in half
of here unfortunately for Russia
military defeat wasn't their only
problem at this time the most notable
event was called Bloody Sunday in which
a priest called father gap on led a
procession through Russia's capital st.
Petersburg to present a petition to the
Emperor
the crowd was fired upon leading to
hundreds of deaths which then caused
riots across the Empire Veta was tasked
with ending the rioting and presented a
compromise the formation of political
parties and an elected assembly called
the Duma for the record this tumor was
mostly useless into had no Authority
nicholas ii could still do whatever he
wanted there were some elections than
the Emperor appointed a new prime
minister piata still even still even
would bring about much-needed
agricultural reform before being
assassinated in a theater in 1911 in
front of the Emperor 1914 was a big year
for Russia since Saint Petersburg was
renamed
to Petrograd because it sounded more
Russian another event which was also
probably important was the first world
war in which Russia had mixed success to
raise morale and against the advice of
literally everyone Nikolas appointed
himself as the head of the army he left
his wife Empress Alexandra in charge of
the capital with her advisor grigori
rasputin after Russia's failings on the
Eastern Front Rasputin was blamed for
corrupting the royal family was
eventually assassinated in 1916 Nikolas
as the head of the army was seen as
responsible for the failings of the war
war fatigue and food shortages led to
protests which Nikolas had hoped to put
down with the army well the army needs
an Eden joined the protesters in order
to calm the situation some Russian
generals met with Nikolas and urged him
to abdicate which he did in 1917
Nicholas his application led to certain
exiled people's most notably Vladimir
Lenin returning to Russia it was people
like Lenin who undermined the new
provisional government by forming a
rival one the Petrograd Soviet Lenin
immediately began calling for the
overthrow of the provisional government
promising the Russian people land food
and an end to the war the provisional
government had decided not to end the
war and many people took to the streets
to protest in at the front of this
protest at Lenin's communist faction
called the Bolsheviks the government
forces decided to open fire and many
prominent Bolsheviks such as Leon
Trotsky were arrested and Lenin was
forced to flee to Finland Trotsky
wouldn't spend long in prison since the
new Russian Prime Minister Alexander
Kerensky appointed a new head of the
army Livia Kornilov Kerensky in corner
love quickly fell out and corner love
marched his troops on Petrograd
Kerensky released many of the Bolsheviks
since their military arm the Red Guard
were the only ones that could stop
Cornell of Cornell off never reached
Petrograd due to Bolshevik sabotage and
was later arrested let him return to
Russia and in a shocking turn of events
called for the overthrow of the
government this time the overthrow was
to be violent Lenin place Trotsky in
command of the revolution the Bolsheviks
seized city infrastructure Kerensky fled
and shortly afterwards the Bolsheviks
seized the Winter Palace the seat of the
Russian government
Lenin then declared to the Petrograd
Soviet that the Bolsheviks were now in
control and Trotsky dismissed their
opponents immediately after the
Revolution Lenin announced three decrees
there was the decree on peace which
promised to put an end to the war the
decree on land which abolished private
land ownership and allowed peasants to
divide land amongst themselves and the
decree on workers which introduced a
minimum wage Lenin also brought in
universal health care and education
increased the rights of women alongside
accepting Finland's Declaration of
Independence
the Bolsheviks announced that there
would be free and fair elections the
next month which the Bolsheviks lost
this was not what Lenin had planned so
he ordered the red car to shut down the
elected assembly and had himself placed
in charge Moscow was declared Russia's
new captain Leyland switched to the
Gregorian calendar in the March of 1918
after some tough negotiations and an
invasion Trotsky and team of delegates
managed to secure humiliating peace with
the Central Powers this treaty the
Treaty of brest-litovsk evap all of this
territory to Germany in the
austro-hungarian Empire although they
themselves would be forced to give this
up in the Treaty of Versailles to many
in Russia this peace was long overdue
two others such as the Czechoslovakian
legion it was a complete betrayal the
Czechoslovakian legion had fought for
Russia in the First World War in return
for Czechoslovakian independence from
the austro-hungarian Empire after peace
was declared they revolted their initial
success spurred other enemies of the
Bolsheviks to take up arms as well thus
beginning the Russian Civil War in
earnest in terms of the factions the
Bolsheviks and their supporters are
called the Reds those who opposed them
are known as the whites Britain France
Japan and the United States elected to
intervene on the side of the whites it
was mostly to reopen the Eastern Front
against Germany but there was also a
great worry about the spread of
communism the whites were initially very
successful but it wasn't long before
their progress stalled this was because
they weren't very unified and many of
those fighting against the Bolsheviks
were fighting for their own independence
not to restore the Russian Empire the
white generals were also somewhat
useless for example alexander kolchak
struggled to keep his officer sober
insulted his allies and executed tens of
thousands of people turning them to the
Bolshevik cause he did manage to capture
a quatre in vogue where the former
Emperor was being held
the Bolsheviks didn't want the Emperor
to fall into enemy hands and so he and
his family were executed on July the
17th 1918 the Reds had the advantage of
geography their territory was much more
compact and had greater levels of
industrialization it had better
infrastructure lines of communication
raw materials and a larger population to
maintain order in this area the
Bolsheviks began what is called the Red
Terror this involves sending dissidents
to work camps shooting protesters and
Trotsky holding the families of generals
hostage so they'd stay loyal eventually
it became clear to the Allies that the
Bolsheviks were going to win the Allies
withdrew in the Czechoslovakian Legion
returned to Czechoslovakia which was
independent by then anyway the collapse
of the Russian and austro-hungarian
empires meant that many peoples in
Eastern Europe were looking to establish
their own nation
and borders the polish led by Yosef
pazsitzky wanted to expand the newly
independent Poland at the cost of Russia
at the same time the Bolsheviks were
also looking to spread communism to
their neighbors and recon-car Russia's
old territories the Bolsheviks also
believed that the turmoil in Germany in
the former austro-hungarian Empire meant
that communist governments could be set
up there as well in 1919 the Polish
invaded Ukraine in capture Kiev the
Bolsheviks counter-attacked and forced
the Polish all the way back to Warsaw
the Polish repulsed the attack thus
maintaining their independence and
stopping Bolshevik forces from entering
Germany these borders were established
with Ukraine and Belarus becoming
socialist republics which were
essentially Russian puppet States having
failed to spread communism to Eastern
Europe for now the Bolsheviks moved to
secure their position in Russia Lenin
turned to fixing Russia's economic woes
by implementing the new economic policy
this allowed some private enterprise a
distinctly non Bolshevik idea to help
revitalize the economy in 1922 Russia
and its surrounding Socialist Republics
which were nothing more than puppets
States agreed to form the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics Lenin had
become a welder in the early 1920s and
after a series of strokes was left
bedridden until his death in 1924
Lenin's death left the power vacuum
which only two men could fill the first
was Trotsky the second was a certain
Josef Stalin Stalin had played a role in
the Russian Revolution prior to this
first as an editor of the Bolshevik
newspaper and also as a commander in the
Red Army during the invasion of Poland
by the time of Lenin's death Stalin held
the position of general secretary the
highest political post in the USSR
Stalin was able to forge alliances with
other prominent party members and
concealed Lenin's criticisms of him so
Trotsky in Stalin how two distinct
positions with how to proceed trotsky's
position is known as permanent
revolution Trotsky felt that unless
socialist revolution was encouraged in
other countries the Bolsheviks
revolution would halt and it would
become impossible for the soviet union's
to survive whereas Stalin's belief known
as socialism in one country argued that
socialism with in the USSR should be
strengthened before it could be exported
anywhere else so long story short Stalin
was victorious in the struggle for power
and in 1929 Trotsky was exiled from the
Soviet Union he ended up in Mexico where
he was assassinated in 1940 after his
victory Stalin began to tighten his grip
over the Soviet Union he did this by
purges assassination censorship and a
secret police force the NKVD stalin
removed many members of the commie
his party and famously purge the offices
in the Red Army Stalin's most famous
tools in maintaining order with the
ghoul axe the successor to Lenin's work
camps the conditions in these camps were
almost unbearable and the mortality
rates were incredibly high
Stalin wasn't just a tyrant he also
brought about many domestic reforms such
as the five-year plans which were
designed to improve industrial output
which it did to a miraculous degree
another reform introduced was
collectivization whereby farmers were
forced to unite their farms in order to
increase crop yields and speed up
mechanization it should be remembered
that Stalin's reform has changed Russia
from an empire struggling to keep up to
a political and economic powerhouse so
in conclusion the legacy of the Russian
Revolution is hard to measure in many
respects all it did was replace one
authoritarian regime with another it's
worth noting that the actions of Lenin
Trotsky Stalin and many others helped
turn Russia into a superpower one which
was vital to stopping the Nazis one area
where it definitely changed the world
was that it marks the last point in
which Russia and the West saw each other
as allies I hope you enjoyed this
episode and thank you for watching