Revolutionary Changes in Russia's History

Chapter 30 Revolution in Russia Section 1 Chapter 30 is composed of four sections. Section 1, Revolutions in Russia. Section 2, Totalitarianism, focusing on the case study of Stalinist Russia. Totalitarianism in Russian context. Section 3, Section 3 would be Imperial China Collapses. And Section 4 would be Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia. So to start with the revolutions in Russia, I hope you're able to read your textbook on this section and you're able to watch the pre-recorded video as well. Okay, so let me bring you to the main idea and why it matters now. So if you notice, at the beginning of each chapter, there's always these two important categories. Okay, first let's go to main idea. So the main idea or the main concept in all of these chapters is, of course, the idea of revolution. So revolution, as a long-term social unrest in Russia, exploded in Revo... um sorry exploded in revolution and ushered in the first communist government now why is this important because the communist party that controlled russia then continued to control it until 1991 when the soviet union broke up now that's very important because the countries emerging from the ussr the countries that we know today are in a way shaped by that part of their history So if this didn't happen in history, it might not have resulted to the countries that we know today. So let's begin with these revolutions that happened in Russia. Now to describe Russian Revolution is to liken it to a firecracker. So if you are familiar with a firecracker, you'll have an idea that when you lighten the fuse of the firecracker, sooner or later it will explode. Okay, but this fuse in the context of Russian Revolution is described as a very long one. Meaning, it might appear that there's nothing bad happening during those years in history, but at the end, there's an explosion. Because, Those years were actually a build-up toward this particular revolution. So what are we talking about? What comprised that long fuse, or that very long fuse? So I have here a list of the subtopics that we can find in this section. So we'll look at the Tsars in Russia. So if you're familiar with your history, Tsar was the term that they first used in their... in their king or in their leader in Russia and this actually came from the word Caesar from the Roman Empire. So you have that portion of the Tsarist government. We'll look at the industrialization of Russia which is actually part of that very long fuse. We'll look at examples of crisis at home and abroad which contributed to that fuse. We'll look at the March Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and how it exploded and led to communism through Lenin and eventually Stalin. Okay, so let's begin or let's look back at their history concerning the Tsars. Okay, so I have here a list of the Romanovs. So if you're familiar with this dynasty or this family line, this is actually a family line of the Romanovs. If you remember, maybe to compare it with France or with French monarchy, we have there the Bourbon dynasty, the Louis the King, the King Louis XIV and the other Louis, Louis XVI. So in Russia, you'll have this dynasty of the Romanovs. And in that dynasty, you will have Nicholas I, followed by Alexander II, Alexander III, and then Nicholas II. So these are all related. That's what's next. father to son then grandson then great-grandson okay so if you look at this chart flow or flow chart sorry you'll notice that the common denominator or the common the common form of governance among These czars would be autocracy. Now what is autocracy? Autocracy is a principle of governing wherein the king or the leader has absolute power or total power. You might liken this also to the idea of absolute monarchy. Okay, so if you notice there are three out of four who implemented autocracy or autocratic rule and that would be Nicholas I, Alexander III, and Nicholas II. Notice that there was one. only one who did not implement autocratic rule and that would be alexander ii he was described in the textbook as a reform-minded leader however he was assassinated in 1881 so you might think sayang he's a reform-minded leader but then he was assassinated and the one who succeeded him continued the autocratic rule of the of the grandfather, Nicholas I. This particular topic would include more of Alexander II and Nicholas II's reigns. Let's look at how they used their power in controlling Russia. In what ways did Alexander III enforce autocracy during his reign? Let's look at some of the mechanisms that he used. First, he used strict censorship. He used strict censorship. So when you say censorship, that's when you try to filter or you try to control what's supposed to be printed or written. Or in our case today, what's supposed to be shown on TV, what's supposed to be seen in the movies, etc. In their case, strict censorship was implemented on written documents and, mind you, even private letters. Another... mechanism of autocracy that he used was having a secret police. This secret police is actually getting information or observing even in secondary schools and in the universities. This even required teachers to have a detailed report on every student. So imagine a PTC or something to that effect. But this one is a more detailed one because the teacher has to report to the school. his or her observations about the students in Russia. For those who are sentenced or those who are guilty of wrongdoing, political prisoners are actually sent to Siberia. So what is Siberia? This is a remote region in the eastern part of Russia. So if you know your globe or if you look at your map, Siberian part of Russia would be at the northern part. And it's actually close to the Arctic Ocean already. So meaning to say this is the coldest part of Russia. So imagine being in a prison that is very, very, very cold. So that's where political prisoners were sent. Okay, what else? They tried to uniform or he tried to uniform Russian culture by having one language and that's the Russian language. So If you remember your Balitaan reporting way back, grade 8, if you remember that most of the countries near Russia also have Russian language as their official language. And you can actually attribute that to this part of history, wherein the Russian language was considered to be the official or uniform language of Russia. the people in modern-day Russia and around modern-day Russia. Another thing is having the same religion or state religion, and that's Orthodox Christianity. Again, let me refresh your minds about Orthodox Christianity. This was the split up of Roman Catholicism way back in your grade 7 topic, or grade 7 history class, if I'm not mistaken. After they split, Orthodox Christianity has been... the state religion or the official religion in Russia. If you remember, in the Roman Catholic Church, it split to more denominations. And that includes the Protestants. Another thing that he did was to oppress national groups. Now why do you need to oppress national groups? This is actually to make them subscribe to just having one culture, and that's the Russian culture. Sure. So if you have an ethnic culture, if you have other beliefs, then they try to do away with that. So minority groups might include Polish or other ethnicity, and they do not encourage them. Okay, another oppression that they did was against the Jews. If you remember the pogroms, these are organized violence against Jews, meaning to say you're allowed by the government or soldiers will just stand and watch you oppress them or get their stuff, destroy their homes, loot their stores, etc. Because it's allowed by the law. So he also did pogroms against the Jews and all other mechanisms of control. So Alexander III did that during his reign. Okay, so what happened while that was the political condition of Russia? If you go to the economic side, we'll go to the industrialization of Russia. So again, to connect this with previous topics in the previous four years, Okay, industrialization happened in Russia a little later than the Western Europe. If you remember, we've been talking about how backward they were, how they were still clinging to serfdom and peasants when the Western Europe had already evolved into towns and cities. So this was the late boomer kind of industrialization. But by this time, it's around the late 1800s to... In the early 1900s, Russia was already in the momentum of industrialization. In fact, the number of factories doubled within this time frame. Russia actually became the fourth largest producer of steel. They're actually the fourth. And the first, second, third places would be the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, if I'm not mistaken. So that's one of the accomplishments that they had during this time. Another main accomplishment that they had was the Trans-Siberian Railway. Let me show you the coverage of that railway. So this is the map of Russian territory back then. And notice the dotted lines there. That will show you the the path of the railway and it's actually the longest trans railway in the world okay and it actually connected Europe with the areas of Russia towards the Pacific so it's that big it's across Russia okay but to be able to do that and to be able to let their industries boom they had to borrow money from other countries. So that's how they did it. They had to borrow from foreign investors and in order to pay off their debts, they had to raise the taxes. Now, how did that affect the people? So aside from maybe complaining because taxes were raised, it actually affected them also on other aspects. Maybe It's more on the psychological and political aspect than the economic. So let's look at how they were affected. So as rapid industrialization steered discontent among Russians, this was when they started to feel the grueling working condition in Russia. Because if you remember, once you start your industrialization, There's always the sacrifice of pollution, always the sacrifice of not having proper laws yet. There's always the sacrifice of having your children go to work in the factories, just like what happened in the industrialization of Great Britain and the United States and other countries. Now, for them, they also tread on the same pattern. It caused discontent among the Russians, such that some of them... used strikes in order to verbalize their grievances. However, even if they continued to complain about their situation, the government didn't do that much about it. In fact, trade unions were outlawed during that time. And if you remember, trade unions are actually the proper venue wherein you communicate with the government the things that you want to change. but since they were outlawed, you don't have anyone to turn to. So that's how miserable their condition was during the beginning phase of industrialization. Now, during this time, they were also infiltrated by the ideology of Karl Marx. So if you remember Karl Marx from grade 9, who was Karl Marx? Okay, he is the one who wrote the book. the communist manifesto so he basically invented this whole idea of communism so they were infiltrated by that idea and they also tried to apply that in their society especially those who are workers because if you remember communism the the end goal of communism is to have a classless society and to have the workers overthrow the bourgeoisie or the the owners the factory owners or the upper class okay so Marxist revolutions in Russia believed that the proletariat or the working class or the workers would soon or eventually overthrow the Tsar and that they would eventually rule the country in a dictatorship of the proletariat. However, they have two factions during that time. So Russian Marxists split into the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. So what's the difference between them? Okay, it's a matter of, for me, it's a matter of conviction. Right. The Mensheviks are the moderates, while the Bolsheviks are the radical ones. So how do we try to understand that? If you say that you're just on the moderate side, then you're more accepting of people. You're more tolerant of other people. However, if you're on the radical side, then you're really on fire with what you're fighting for. it's not negotiable for you. You wouldn't want to change your terms. Now that's the Bolsheviks. They're more on that full conviction side of a revolutionary. Now what were the characteristics of their leader? Okay, so you see there a picture of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin for short. Okay, so Lenin was their leader during that time and how was he described? He's described as a leader. someone who has a very engaging personality. So maybe another version of that would be he has charisma or he attracts people. Second, the description of him was that he was actually a good organizer. Let me check that one. He was an excellent organizer, not just good. And then third, he was actually ruthless. Okay, so I don't know if that's a good combination or what but that's or those were the characteristics of Lenin. Okay, let's look at other things that were happening during that time. Okay, so let's postpone Lenin for now. What was the last thing that happened to Lenin after he led the Bolsheviks during this time? He was put on exile because he was escaping the arrest from the Tsarist government or the Tsarist regime and so he was on exile. But don't you worry, he will be returning later on. Okay, but first while Lenin was away and the Bolsheviks were not yet victorious, okay spoiler alert, what were the things that are happening simultaneously in Russia alongside with the other Tsarist regime and the industrialization part? Okay, so there were also crises at home and abroad. So if you're familiar with crises in the Marvel episodes, then this is something like that, but only in the context of Russia. So there are three important events that actually affected Russia negatively, and these were considered crises. Okay, the first one is the Russo-Japanese War. If you remember, this was discussed last year. This was when... Japan was emerging to be an imperialist. This was when Japan realized their potential and they actually won over or defeated the big countries. And one of those big countries that they defeated was Russia. Okay, so the Russo-Japanese War happened because at first they had an agreement between the two countries, but Russia broke from that agreement. and that led Japan to retaliate. Fast forward to the end of the story, Russians lost. How is that significant to the state of Russia? It actually proved that Russia was still backward in their industrialization and modernization efforts and also it caused a lot of losses to Russia. Now another event that led to or that showed the weakness of the Tsar and paved the way for the revolution would be the Bloody Sunday. Now this was when workers marched going to the Winter Palace in Petrograd That's the palace of the Tsar. This was the reign of Nicholas II. So they marched there with their families, and they were actually there to petition for better working conditions. So remember how this is related to your industrialization effects. Now, when they did that, Nicholas II's generals actually ordered the soldiers to fire at them. And in that incident, a thousand workers died. Okay. And because of that, they called this particular Sunday the Bloody Sunday. Okay, now, what happened after this? The Bloody Sunday provoked more strikes and more violence across the country. It actually inspired others to also fight against the government. Now, Nicholas tried to, like... Solve the problem by promising them more freedom. In fact, this was when the Duma was first created. What's the Duma? The Duma is the first Russian parliament. So when you say parliament, that means it's not total or absolute power anymore for the Tsar. Because there will be a parliament. Remember the British Parliament or the Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain. Wherein you have a king. but you have a parliament who also decides on the king's behalf or who convene to make a decision that may or may not go with the king's desires or with the king's whims. However, after creating that, eventually since the czar wouldn't want to share his power, then he dissolved the Duma. So it's like Paasa. If you're familiar with that term, it's paasa for the Russians. And then finally, the main event, I think, that really tested Russians'patience with the Tsar would be World War I. Because Tsar Nicholas II dragged Russia to World War I. And this is considered as the final blow because this actually worsened or this actually aggravated the Russians all the more. Okay, now while they were in that war, some other things happened and that's actually described or narrated in your textbook. There was an account wherein when Nicholas II moved to the forefront, it was actually the wife. The wife of Nicholas II, Zarina Alexandra, who ran the government for him. And instead of heeding to political advisors, she actually gave... give more influence to the Rasputin who allegedly was able to heal their son or who was able to ease the symptoms of their sons from hemophilia. So that's one of the accounts mentioned during this time. So imagine how miserable the condition in Russia during this time. You have an incompetent king and a queen or an incompetent queen working for the king's behalf. Okay, now let's go to the next revolution. Actually, this is the main revolution. Let's go to the March Revolution. Okay, now this is basically called the March Revolution because all the events happened in March 1917. Okay, so first, women textile workers in Petrograd had a citywide strike. So this is event after event after event, which led to a bigger revolution eventually. Riots flared up, 200,000 workers, soldiers later sided on them. At first, soldiers were attacking them with the order given by the Tsar. But later on, soldiers sided them, perhaps because the soldiers realized that they have something worth fighting for. And then Tsar Nicholas, later on, abdicated his throne, meaning he stepped down from the throne. Maybe it's too much pressure for him already or because it's hard to control the crowd anymore or the writers anymore and the safest way for him to stay alive is to abdicate his throne. But a year after he was executed and his whole family. Although they did succeed in overthrowing the Tsar, the problematic part of this March Revolution was that it failed to replace him. with a strong government. So the government that replaced him was actually a provisional government or a temporary government headed by Alexander Kerensky. He's the leader of the Duma. Remember the first Russian parliament. However it didn't last long because what happened? Kerensky actually continued with the war, with the war efforts. Okay, by this time, By this time, the Germans who were fighting against Russia thought of a plan. They thought of steering or worsening the chaos in Russia by sending back, if you remember, Lenin, who went on exile, by sending him back to Russia. So they actually arranged for the trip in going back to Russia. And... Traveling in a sealed railway boxcar, Lenin reached Petrograd in April 1917. So that's a month after the March Revolution. Okay, so what happened when Lenin came back? That's when the Bolshevik Revolution happened. Okay, so Lenin and the Bolsheviks gained control of the major Russian Soviets. So what is a Soviet? Okay, going back to the provisional government, that's when they created Soviets. Soviets were local councils. consisting of workers, peasants, and soldiers. So this small group of Soviets, they're actually more influential than the provisional government during this time. And during Lenin's comeback and the Bolshevik's revolt, they were actually able to gain control of all the major Russian Soviets, including the Soviet at Petrograd. Okay, so armed factory workers or as they call themselves Red Guards also stormed the Winter Palace and they actually served as the army of the Bolsheviks. Now, this Red Guards or army was actually headed by Leon Trotsky as you can see there in the photo. Okay, so Leon Trotsky was the commander, the general, general. that led these Red Guards to win the revolution. Now, when Bolsheviks came into power, Lenin became their leader. What were the first actions or decisions done by Lenin? As predicted, since he was into communism, his first decisions or actions were also reflective of communism. So let's look at some of the things he did. He ordered that all farmland be distributed. to the farmers. So it's just logical. Also, factories be given or be given control to the workers. The Bolshevik government also signed a truce with Germany to stop all fighting. So they stopped fighting with Germany. However, eventually, the people also didn't like this because it's like a humiliating kind of agreement wherein some territories of Russia had to be given to Germany. So because of that, it triggered widespread anger among people and they objected the Bolsheviks eventually and they even objected the killing or the execution of the royal family. Okay, so you see, you cannot please everybody. At one point, they loved the Bolsheviks and then later on, they hate them again. Okay, so eventually, civil war broke out in Russia. This is a three-year struggle. Where in the White Army, this is composed of everyone else that hated the Bolsheviks versus the Bolshevik. Which was led by Leon Trotsky. Okay, but eventually, as I've said, spoiler alert, Leon Trotsky was able to win over the White Army. Okay, now let's have a quick comparison between Russian Revolution, comparing it with the previous revolutions that we've studied in history. So if you remember, the American and the French Revolution. Now, which one is more likely the same trajectory as the Russian Revolution, if you remember? Okay, I want you to think about that. And during the online session, the live session, let's talk about your answer. Is it, was Russian Revolution more similar to American Revolution or to French Revolution? Okay, let's find out when we meet during our live session. Another thing that you can do is to compare the two revolutions. So you have the March Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution. So compare their causes, compare their effects. You can see the interpreting charts in your textbook. You can actually answer that later for your activity. Okay, next. Let's look at how Lenin restored Russia during this time. Okay, so how he restored order in Russia. So, war and the revolution destroyed the Russian economy and Lenin actually did something to be able to restore their order in Russia. So, first, he implemented the new economic policy. This is actually a combination of communism and a little of capitalism. So, in a way, he compromised a little so that the economy will be able to recover. So how did he compromise or how did he customize or modify communism in Russia? Let's look for some examples. He temporarily put aside this plan for state-controlled economy and instead, for example, he allowed the peasants to sell their surplus or their products to other individuals instead of turning them over to... to the government because if you remember in communism everything should be um should be given to the government and the government will be the one to distribute the profits later on but for this particular situation in russia lenin in a way compromised by allowing them to sell their produce and gain profit from it okay another compromise or another modified version would be letting some small factories businesses and farms operate under private ownership so again you In a communist society, everything is state-owned. So if you remember our discussion last year, I told you the shopping malls, the hotels, everything will be owned by the government. But in this case, Lenin allowed for some small factories or businesses to have their own thing, or to be able to sell their product or be owned privately. Now, all of these eventually paved the way. It allowed for the economy to recover. Another thing that he did was to keep nationalism in check. This is by organizing Russia into several self-governing republics, which was known as the USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This was the Union of different... nations or nationalities or countries and you put them all together and USSR became just one nation or one country. He also eventually renamed the party the Bolsheviks party into Communist Party. Now this Communist Party became the one who held the power during this time so as was described by the textbook for us. Lenin had established a dictatorship of the Communist Party. Well, he should have established a dictatorship of the proletariat, which was the main goal of communism. So in the end, it became his party having all the power in the government, or in the USSR. Okay, now, again, for another activity, I want you to... compare and contrast the communism, the original version from Marx, and the communism version of Lenin. So how did Lenin customize or modify communism in Russia? I want you to compare them in this chart and answer interpreting charts. So that's your next activity. Finally, Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922. He was able to survive that but they started to think of who should replace him. So what happened? There were two contenders. One is Leon Trotsky, who, if you remember, was the general or the commander of the Red Guards. And another one was Joseph Stalin, who used to be a secretary general. So let's look at their background. Since we know Leon Trotsky already, let's look at Joseph Stalin. So Stalin actually means Man of Steel, Superman. He was... cold heart impersonal that's his description okay another description was given by lenin and to quote comrade stalin has concentrated enormous power in his hands and i am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution so this is a bit alarming description for someone who will be the next leader and we'll find out more about stalin in the next section because The ending of this section is that he became the leader of Russia. What happened to Trotsky? Trotsky was put into exile, so he was no threat anymore for Stalin. Stalin was able to manipulate behind the scenes while he was still Secretary General. And so when it's time for him to be a contender in the leadership, he was able to pave the way already. So Stalin became a dictator. And will continue to be. We'll get to find out how he ruled over Russia as a totalitarian state in the next section. So, I'll see you again. Thank you and God bless.

And Section 4 would be Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia. So to start with the revolutions in Russia, I hope you're able to read your textbook on this section and you're able to watch the pre-recorded video as well. Okay, so let me bring you to the main idea and why it matters now.

So if you notice, at the beginning of each chapter, there's always these two important categories. Okay, first let's go to main idea. So the main idea or the main concept in all of these chapters is, of course, the idea of revolution.

So revolution, as a long-term social unrest in Russia, exploded in Revo... um sorry exploded in revolution and ushered in the first communist government now why is this important because the communist party that controlled russia then continued to control it until 1991 when the soviet union broke up now that's very important because the countries emerging from the ussr the countries that we know today are in a way shaped by that part of their history So if this didn't happen in history, it might not have resulted to the countries that we know today. So let's begin with these revolutions that happened in Russia.

Now to describe Russian Revolution is to liken it to a firecracker. So if you are familiar with a firecracker, you'll have an idea that when you lighten the fuse of the firecracker, sooner or later it will explode. Okay, but this fuse in the context of Russian Revolution is described as a very long one. Meaning, it might appear that there's nothing bad happening during those years in history, but at the end, there's an explosion.

Because, Those years were actually a build-up toward this particular revolution. So what are we talking about? What comprised that long fuse, or that very long fuse?

So I have here a list of the subtopics that we can find in this section. So we'll look at the Tsars in Russia. So if you're familiar with your history, Tsar was the term that they first used in their... in their king or in their leader in Russia and this actually came from the word Caesar from the Roman Empire.

So you have that portion of the Tsarist government. We'll look at the industrialization of Russia which is actually part of that very long fuse. We'll look at examples of crisis at home and abroad which contributed to that fuse. We'll look at the March Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and how it exploded and led to communism through Lenin and eventually Stalin.

Okay, so let's begin or let's look back at their history concerning the Tsars. Okay, so I have here a list of the Romanovs. So if you're familiar with this dynasty or this family line, this is actually a family line of the Romanovs.

If you remember, maybe to compare it with France or with French monarchy, we have there the Bourbon dynasty, the Louis the King, the King Louis XIV and the other Louis, Louis XVI. So in Russia, you'll have this dynasty of the Romanovs. And in that dynasty, you will have Nicholas I, followed by Alexander II, Alexander III, and then Nicholas II.

So these are all related. That's what's next. father to son then grandson then great-grandson okay so if you look at this chart flow or flow chart sorry you'll notice that the common denominator or the common the common form of governance among These czars would be autocracy.

Now what is autocracy? Autocracy is a principle of governing wherein the king or the leader has absolute power or total power. You might liken this also to the idea of absolute monarchy.

Okay, so if you notice there are three out of four who implemented autocracy or autocratic rule and that would be Nicholas I, Alexander III, and Nicholas II. Notice that there was one. only one who did not implement autocratic rule and that would be alexander ii he was described in the textbook as a reform-minded leader however he was assassinated in 1881 so you might think sayang he's a reform-minded leader but then he was assassinated and the one who succeeded him continued the autocratic rule of the of the grandfather, Nicholas I. This particular topic would include more of Alexander II and Nicholas II's reigns.

Let's look at how they used their power in controlling Russia. In what ways did Alexander III enforce autocracy during his reign? Let's look at some of the mechanisms that he used. First, he used strict censorship.

He used strict censorship. So when you say censorship, that's when you try to filter or you try to control what's supposed to be printed or written. Or in our case today, what's supposed to be shown on TV, what's supposed to be seen in the movies, etc.

In their case, strict censorship was implemented on written documents and, mind you, even private letters. Another... mechanism of autocracy that he used was having a secret police. This secret police is actually getting information or observing even in secondary schools and in the universities.

This even required teachers to have a detailed report on every student. So imagine a PTC or something to that effect. But this one is a more detailed one because the teacher has to report to the school. his or her observations about the students in Russia. For those who are sentenced or those who are guilty of wrongdoing, political prisoners are actually sent to Siberia.

So what is Siberia? This is a remote region in the eastern part of Russia. So if you know your globe or if you look at your map, Siberian part of Russia would be at the northern part. And it's actually close to the Arctic Ocean already. So meaning to say this is the coldest part of Russia.

So imagine being in a prison that is very, very, very cold. So that's where political prisoners were sent. Okay, what else? They tried to uniform or he tried to uniform Russian culture by having one language and that's the Russian language. So If you remember your Balitaan reporting way back, grade 8, if you remember that most of the countries near Russia also have Russian language as their official language.

And you can actually attribute that to this part of history, wherein the Russian language was considered to be the official or uniform language of Russia. the people in modern-day Russia and around modern-day Russia. Another thing is having the same religion or state religion, and that's Orthodox Christianity. Again, let me refresh your minds about Orthodox Christianity. This was the split up of Roman Catholicism way back in your grade 7 topic, or grade 7 history class, if I'm not mistaken.

After they split, Orthodox Christianity has been... the state religion or the official religion in Russia. If you remember, in the Roman Catholic Church, it split to more denominations. And that includes the Protestants.

Another thing that he did was to oppress national groups. Now why do you need to oppress national groups? This is actually to make them subscribe to just having one culture, and that's the Russian culture. Sure. So if you have an ethnic culture, if you have other beliefs, then they try to do away with that.

So minority groups might include Polish or other ethnicity, and they do not encourage them. Okay, another oppression that they did was against the Jews. If you remember the pogroms, these are organized violence against Jews, meaning to say you're allowed by the government or soldiers will just stand and watch you oppress them or get their stuff, destroy their homes, loot their stores, etc. Because it's allowed by the law. So he also did pogroms against the Jews and all other mechanisms of control.

So Alexander III did that during his reign. Okay, so what happened while that was the political condition of Russia? If you go to the economic side, we'll go to the industrialization of Russia.

So again, to connect this with previous topics in the previous four years, Okay, industrialization happened in Russia a little later than the Western Europe. If you remember, we've been talking about how backward they were, how they were still clinging to serfdom and peasants when the Western Europe had already evolved into towns and cities. So this was the late boomer kind of industrialization. But by this time, it's around the late 1800s to... In the early 1900s, Russia was already in the momentum of industrialization.

In fact, the number of factories doubled within this time frame. Russia actually became the fourth largest producer of steel. They're actually the fourth.

And the first, second, third places would be the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, if I'm not mistaken. So that's one of the accomplishments that they had during this time. Another main accomplishment that they had was the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Let me show you the coverage of that railway. So this is the map of Russian territory back then. And notice the dotted lines there.

That will show you the the path of the railway and it's actually the longest trans railway in the world okay and it actually connected Europe with the areas of Russia towards the Pacific so it's that big it's across Russia okay but to be able to do that and to be able to let their industries boom they had to borrow money from other countries. So that's how they did it. They had to borrow from foreign investors and in order to pay off their debts, they had to raise the taxes.

Now, how did that affect the people? So aside from maybe complaining because taxes were raised, it actually affected them also on other aspects. Maybe It's more on the psychological and political aspect than the economic.

So let's look at how they were affected. So as rapid industrialization steered discontent among Russians, this was when they started to feel the grueling working condition in Russia. Because if you remember, once you start your industrialization, There's always the sacrifice of pollution, always the sacrifice of not having proper laws yet.

There's always the sacrifice of having your children go to work in the factories, just like what happened in the industrialization of Great Britain and the United States and other countries. Now, for them, they also tread on the same pattern. It caused discontent among the Russians, such that some of them... used strikes in order to verbalize their grievances. However, even if they continued to complain about their situation, the government didn't do that much about it.

In fact, trade unions were outlawed during that time. And if you remember, trade unions are actually the proper venue wherein you communicate with the government the things that you want to change. but since they were outlawed, you don't have anyone to turn to. So that's how miserable their condition was during the beginning phase of industrialization. Now, during this time, they were also infiltrated by the ideology of Karl Marx.

So if you remember Karl Marx from grade 9, who was Karl Marx? Okay, he is the one who wrote the book. the communist manifesto so he basically invented this whole idea of communism so they were infiltrated by that idea and they also tried to apply that in their society especially those who are workers because if you remember communism the the end goal of communism is to have a classless society and to have the workers overthrow the bourgeoisie or the the owners the factory owners or the upper class okay so Marxist revolutions in Russia believed that the proletariat or the working class or the workers would soon or eventually overthrow the Tsar and that they would eventually rule the country in a dictatorship of the proletariat. However, they have two factions during that time.

So Russian Marxists split into the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. So what's the difference between them? Okay, it's a matter of, for me, it's a matter of conviction.

Right. The Mensheviks are the moderates, while the Bolsheviks are the radical ones. So how do we try to understand that? If you say that you're just on the moderate side, then you're more accepting of people.

You're more tolerant of other people. However, if you're on the radical side, then you're really on fire with what you're fighting for. it's not negotiable for you.

You wouldn't want to change your terms. Now that's the Bolsheviks. They're more on that full conviction side of a revolutionary. Now what were the characteristics of their leader? Okay, so you see there a picture of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin for short.

Okay, so Lenin was their leader during that time and how was he described? He's described as a leader. someone who has a very engaging personality.

So maybe another version of that would be he has charisma or he attracts people. Second, the description of him was that he was actually a good organizer. Let me check that one. He was an excellent organizer, not just good. And then third, he was actually ruthless.

Okay, so I don't know if that's a good combination or what but that's or those were the characteristics of Lenin. Okay, let's look at other things that were happening during that time. Okay, so let's postpone Lenin for now. What was the last thing that happened to Lenin after he led the Bolsheviks during this time? He was put on exile because he was escaping the arrest from the Tsarist government or the Tsarist regime and so he was on exile.

But don't you worry, he will be returning later on. Okay, but first while Lenin was away and the Bolsheviks were not yet victorious, okay spoiler alert, what were the things that are happening simultaneously in Russia alongside with the other Tsarist regime and the industrialization part? Okay, so there were also crises at home and abroad.

So if you're familiar with crises in the Marvel episodes, then this is something like that, but only in the context of Russia. So there are three important events that actually affected Russia negatively, and these were considered crises. Okay, the first one is the Russo-Japanese War. If you remember, this was discussed last year. This was when...

Japan was emerging to be an imperialist. This was when Japan realized their potential and they actually won over or defeated the big countries. And one of those big countries that they defeated was Russia.

Okay, so the Russo-Japanese War happened because at first they had an agreement between the two countries, but Russia broke from that agreement. and that led Japan to retaliate. Fast forward to the end of the story, Russians lost. How is that significant to the state of Russia?

It actually proved that Russia was still backward in their industrialization and modernization efforts and also it caused a lot of losses to Russia. Now another event that led to or that showed the weakness of the Tsar and paved the way for the revolution would be the Bloody Sunday. Now this was when workers marched going to the Winter Palace in Petrograd That's the palace of the Tsar.

This was the reign of Nicholas II. So they marched there with their families, and they were actually there to petition for better working conditions. So remember how this is related to your industrialization effects. Now, when they did that, Nicholas II's generals actually ordered the soldiers to fire at them. And in that incident, a thousand workers died.

Okay. And because of that, they called this particular Sunday the Bloody Sunday. Okay, now, what happened after this?

The Bloody Sunday provoked more strikes and more violence across the country. It actually inspired others to also fight against the government. Now, Nicholas tried to, like...

Solve the problem by promising them more freedom. In fact, this was when the Duma was first created. What's the Duma?

The Duma is the first Russian parliament. So when you say parliament, that means it's not total or absolute power anymore for the Tsar. Because there will be a parliament. Remember the British Parliament or the Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain. Wherein you have a king.

but you have a parliament who also decides on the king's behalf or who convene to make a decision that may or may not go with the king's desires or with the king's whims. However, after creating that, eventually since the czar wouldn't want to share his power, then he dissolved the Duma. So it's like Paasa.

If you're familiar with that term, it's paasa for the Russians. And then finally, the main event, I think, that really tested Russians'patience with the Tsar would be World War I. Because Tsar Nicholas II dragged Russia to World War I. And this is considered as the final blow because this actually worsened or this actually aggravated the Russians all the more. Okay, now while they were in that war, some other things happened and that's actually described or narrated in your textbook. There was an account wherein when Nicholas II moved to the forefront, it was actually the wife. The wife of Nicholas II, Zarina Alexandra, who ran the government for him.

And instead of heeding to political advisors, she actually gave... give more influence to the Rasputin who allegedly was able to heal their son or who was able to ease the symptoms of their sons from hemophilia. So that's one of the accounts mentioned during this time.

So imagine how miserable the condition in Russia during this time. You have an incompetent king and a queen or an incompetent queen working for the king's behalf. Okay, now let's go to the next revolution.

Actually, this is the main revolution. Let's go to the March Revolution. Okay, now this is basically called the March Revolution because all the events happened in March 1917. Okay, so first, women textile workers in Petrograd had a citywide strike. So this is event after event after event, which led to a bigger revolution eventually. Riots flared up, 200,000 workers, soldiers later sided on them.

At first, soldiers were attacking them with the order given by the Tsar. But later on, soldiers sided them, perhaps because the soldiers realized that they have something worth fighting for. And then Tsar Nicholas, later on, abdicated his throne, meaning he stepped down from the throne.

Maybe it's too much pressure for him already or because it's hard to control the crowd anymore or the writers anymore and the safest way for him to stay alive is to abdicate his throne. But a year after he was executed and his whole family. Although they did succeed in overthrowing the Tsar, the problematic part of this March Revolution was that it failed to replace him.

with a strong government. So the government that replaced him was actually a provisional government or a temporary government headed by Alexander Kerensky. He's the leader of the Duma.

Remember the first Russian parliament. However it didn't last long because what happened? Kerensky actually continued with the war, with the war efforts.

Okay, by this time, By this time, the Germans who were fighting against Russia thought of a plan. They thought of steering or worsening the chaos in Russia by sending back, if you remember, Lenin, who went on exile, by sending him back to Russia. So they actually arranged for the trip in going back to Russia.

And... Traveling in a sealed railway boxcar, Lenin reached Petrograd in April 1917. So that's a month after the March Revolution. Okay, so what happened when Lenin came back? That's when the Bolshevik Revolution happened. Okay, so Lenin and the Bolsheviks gained control of the major Russian Soviets.

So what is a Soviet? Okay, going back to the provisional government, that's when they created Soviets. Soviets were local councils.

consisting of workers, peasants, and soldiers. So this small group of Soviets, they're actually more influential than the provisional government during this time. And during Lenin's comeback and the Bolshevik's revolt, they were actually able to gain control of all the major Russian Soviets, including the Soviet at Petrograd. Okay, so armed factory workers or as they call themselves Red Guards also stormed the Winter Palace and they actually served as the army of the Bolsheviks.

Now, this Red Guards or army was actually headed by Leon Trotsky as you can see there in the photo. Okay, so Leon Trotsky was the commander, the general, general. that led these Red Guards to win the revolution. Now, when Bolsheviks came into power, Lenin became their leader. What were the first actions or decisions done by Lenin?

As predicted, since he was into communism, his first decisions or actions were also reflective of communism. So let's look at some of the things he did. He ordered that all farmland be distributed. to the farmers.

So it's just logical. Also, factories be given or be given control to the workers. The Bolshevik government also signed a truce with Germany to stop all fighting.

So they stopped fighting with Germany. However, eventually, the people also didn't like this because it's like a humiliating kind of agreement wherein some territories of Russia had to be given to Germany. So because of that, it triggered widespread anger among people and they objected the Bolsheviks eventually and they even objected the killing or the execution of the royal family. Okay, so you see, you cannot please everybody.

At one point, they loved the Bolsheviks and then later on, they hate them again. Okay, so eventually, civil war broke out in Russia. This is a three-year struggle. Where in the White Army, this is composed of everyone else that hated the Bolsheviks versus the Bolshevik.

Which was led by Leon Trotsky. Okay, but eventually, as I've said, spoiler alert, Leon Trotsky was able to win over the White Army. Okay, now let's have a quick comparison between Russian Revolution, comparing it with the previous revolutions that we've studied in history. So if you remember, the American and the French Revolution. Now, which one is more likely the same trajectory as the Russian Revolution, if you remember?

Okay, I want you to think about that. And during the online session, the live session, let's talk about your answer. Is it, was Russian Revolution more similar to American Revolution or to French Revolution?

Okay, let's find out when we meet during our live session. Another thing that you can do is to compare the two revolutions. So you have the March Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution. So compare their causes, compare their effects. You can see the interpreting charts in your textbook.

You can actually answer that later for your activity. Okay, next. Let's look at how Lenin restored Russia during this time. Okay, so how he restored order in Russia. So, war and the revolution destroyed the Russian economy and Lenin actually did something to be able to restore their order in Russia.

So, first, he implemented the new economic policy. This is actually a combination of communism and a little of capitalism. So, in a way, he compromised a little so that the economy will be able to recover.

So how did he compromise or how did he customize or modify communism in Russia? Let's look for some examples. He temporarily put aside this plan for state-controlled economy and instead, for example, he allowed the peasants to sell their surplus or their products to other individuals instead of turning them over to...

to the government because if you remember in communism everything should be um should be given to the government and the government will be the one to distribute the profits later on but for this particular situation in russia lenin in a way compromised by allowing them to sell their produce and gain profit from it okay another compromise or another modified version would be letting some small factories businesses and farms operate under private ownership so again you In a communist society, everything is state-owned. So if you remember our discussion last year, I told you the shopping malls, the hotels, everything will be owned by the government. But in this case, Lenin allowed for some small factories or businesses to have their own thing, or to be able to sell their product or be owned privately. Now, all of these eventually paved the way. It allowed for the economy to recover.

Another thing that he did was to keep nationalism in check. This is by organizing Russia into several self-governing republics, which was known as the USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This was the Union of different...

nations or nationalities or countries and you put them all together and USSR became just one nation or one country. He also eventually renamed the party the Bolsheviks party into Communist Party. Now this Communist Party became the one who held the power during this time so as was described by the textbook for us.

Lenin had established a dictatorship of the Communist Party. Well, he should have established a dictatorship of the proletariat, which was the main goal of communism. So in the end, it became his party having all the power in the government, or in the USSR.

Okay, now, again, for another activity, I want you to... compare and contrast the communism, the original version from Marx, and the communism version of Lenin. So how did Lenin customize or modify communism in Russia?

I want you to compare them in this chart and answer interpreting charts. So that's your next activity. Finally, Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922. He was able to survive that but they started to think of who should replace him. So what happened?

There were two contenders. One is Leon Trotsky, who, if you remember, was the general or the commander of the Red Guards. And another one was Joseph Stalin, who used to be a secretary general.

So let's look at their background. Since we know Leon Trotsky already, let's look at Joseph Stalin. So Stalin actually means Man of Steel, Superman. He was...

cold heart impersonal that's his description okay another description was given by lenin and to quote comrade stalin has concentrated enormous power in his hands and i am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution so this is a bit alarming description for someone who will be the next leader and we'll find out more about stalin in the next section because The ending of this section is that he became the leader of Russia. What happened to Trotsky? Trotsky was put into exile, so he was no threat anymore for Stalin.

Stalin was able to manipulate behind the scenes while he was still Secretary General. And so when it's time for him to be a contender in the leadership, he was able to pave the way already. So Stalin became a dictator. And will continue to be.

We'll get to find out how he ruled over Russia as a totalitarian state in the next section. So, I'll see you again. Thank you and God bless.

Transcript for:Revolutionary Changes in Russia's History

Transcript for:
Revolutionary Changes in Russia's History