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Marxists revolutionaries disagree over revolutionary tactics. The more radical Bolsheviks are ready to risk everything. The charismatic Vladimir Lenin becomes the leader.
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Japan and Russia both wanted control over Korea and Manchuria. They both signed agreements over the territories, but Russia violated the agreement. Japan then attacked Russia.
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200,000 workers and their families went to the czar’s palace to demand better working conditions, more personal freedom, etc. The soldiers were ordered to fire at the crowd. Over 1000 were wounded and several hundred were killed.
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Duma, Russia’s first parliament, met at this time and the leaders wanted Russia to become a Constitutional Monarch. The czar was hesitant to share his power, so he dissolved the Duma.
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Nicholas II made the decision to drag Russia into the war, but because Russia couldn’t handle military and economic costs, along with the fact that they had weak generals and poor equipment, that got destroyed by Germany.
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For five days, riots flared up over shortages of bread and fuel. About 200,000 workers joined the strike and the soldiers were ordered to shoot, but they sided with the rioters.
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Armed Factory workers break into the palace calling themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards. They took over the government offices and arrested the leaders of the provisional government.
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Russia surrendered over a large chunk of its territory to Germany and its allies. The terms of this treaty caused anger all across Russia. They objected to the Bolsheviks and their policies.
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After 3 years of Russia’s civil war, 14 million people died from the war and the famine that followed. Destruction and loss of life from fighting, hunger, and disease left Russia in chaos. In the end, the Red Army won.
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Lenin went for a small-scale version of capitalism called the New Economic Policy. The reforms allow peasants to sell their crops instead of handing them over to the government.
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The Bolshevik leaders saw nationalism as a threat, so, to keep nationalism in check, Lenin organized Russia into self-governing republics under the central government. He called it the Union of Socialists Republics.