february revolution: 8-16 march 1917

october revolution: 7-8 november 1917

russian civil war: nov 1917 - oct 1922/june 1923

• Tsar Nicholas II failed to create an administration to ensure weaponry, transportation or food for warfare

  • soldiers suffered from lack of bullets

• zemstvos (local organizations)took control of civilian well-being, in taking care of the wounded and the home front

• russian feb 23, 1917 international women's day protests for the mismanaged war efforts (famine, inflation)

  • protests throughout country = Nicholas abdicated

• duma → professional government

• workers ¨soviets¨ on the rise

• competition for power on the home front but generally supportive of WWI

• april 1917: organization of bolshevik leader vladmir lenin´s passage from exile back to russia

  • lenin believed in maexist ideals

  • made speeches about ¨peace, bread, land¨ (ending the war)

  • joined by trotsky

  • lenin though violence was the way to a new society

• oct 1917: bolshevik led coup that took over government establishment

• bolsheviks tactic to rid of constitutional illusions: murder and imprison advocates for democracy

• nationalized industries + banks in 1917, trying to get out of the war

• germans offered treaty of brest-livousk (1910) which gave russia´s western holdings to germany

• communist international (comintern) in 1919 to spread communism

• groups brought together by hatred of the bolsheviks

• trotsky´s ¨red¨ army and chekha ¨whites¨ disunited in goals, which lead to defeat

• bolshevik power grew with brutality towards citizens

• 1922 union of the soviet socialist republics declared

• under bolshevik rule; industrial production fell, ~10 million dead bc of war and famine

  • healthcare + daycare centers made people could work to revive the economy

  • literacy for rural people through communist enthusiasts

• 1921: lenin declared new economic policy which had elements of capitalism to promote productivity

• jan 1924: lenin dies of a stroke