The Last Tsar

  • 1896 Nicholas II, “The Bloddy” took the throne after the death of his father
    • Unprepared to rule over a large empire
    • Mass crowd rush resulted in over 1000 deaths (~ 1300 deaths)
  • 1905 - First russian revolution
  • Causes:
    • “Bloody Sunday”: crowd of protestors were fired upon outside the winter palace
    • Defeat to Japan
  • Results:
    • Written constitution
    • Allowed for elections of a legislature (Duma)
    • Granted civil liberties to the people

February Revolution

  • 1914 - Russia joined World War 1, but was poorly prepared
    • 9 million casualities
    • Lost massive amount of territory
    • The Tsar left the capital to lead the military on the frontlines
  • Dec 1916 - Rasputin a key advisor of the Tsar was assassinated
  • Feb 1917 - Tsar Nicholas II abdicated after protests broke out across the capital

Rasputin

  • Peasant from siberia
  • Joins the orthodox church (christian church of russia)
  • Is a monk (not really because he drinks and everyone’s interested him) more of a celebrity
  • 1905 introduced to Nicholas II

“Heals” Tsar Kid Alexie

  • Gains trust of the royal family but healing him by telling the family to not to listen to the doctor
  • Reason that is because the doctors were wrong at the time because asprin makes hemophillia worse

Prophecy

  • If he died or the royal family deserted him both their son and their crown would soon be gone
  • Peasants treated him as one of his own
  • Nobles and Clergymen despised Rasputin

Assassination

  • He was shot at point blank range
  • Someone comes down to get alcohol and sees rasputin wake up from death
    • He was later beaten up by people(wtf history lmfao)
  • He was shot on the forehead
  • Suspicions say that he died by drowning (how tf he surive all of that)

October Revolution

  • The Duma establishes the Provisional Government as a placeholder while they wrote a new constitution
    • Continued fighting WW1, losing support
  • April 1917 - Vladimir Lenin, leader of Bolshevik, returned from exile
    • Revolutionary inspired by Marxism
    • Promised to withdraw Russia from WW1
  • Oct 1917 - The Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government
    • Lenin promised to organize elections

Russian Civil War

  • 1918 - Bolsheviks lost the elections launching russia into a civil war
    • Red Army - Bolshevik army
    • White army Anti-Bolshevik army, including several groups with differing goals
    • Green army - Peasant army fought to protect their communities
  • Lenin adopted extreme policies to achieve victory in civil war
    • War communism - Bolsheviks took control of factories and farms
    • Red Terror - Brutally rooted out enemies of the Bolsheviks

Lenin’s New Economic Policy

  • Lenin feared the collapse of the Soviet economy towards the end of the Civil War
    • Starvation
    • Low production & workers strikes
  • 1921 - Lenin backtracked on his communist ideas and introduced capitalist elements
    • Returned to a money based economy
    • Allowed private business to operate for profit
    • Some industries such as transportation remained under government control
    • Resultedin economic recovery
  • 1924 - Lenin dies of a stroke leading to a power struggle