Ten Minute History - The Russian Revolution (Short Documentary)

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

Channel: History Matters

Views: 2,716,807

Keywords: Russia, Russian Revolution, USSR, Soviet Union, Soviet Russia, Communism, Karl Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Nicholas II, Russian Civil War, October Revolution, February Revolution, Russo-Japanese War, Poland, War, 1917, World War One, Russian Empire, Germany, Czechoslovak Legion, russian revolution documentary, russian revolution 1917, explained, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Rasputin, GCSE, A Levels, AP Euro, AP World History, History, documentary

Id: ZZ55ZvBe07U

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2016