While the February Revolution was a genuine mass uprising, the October Revolution was largely a coup d'état orchestrated by Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks did not have the majority support in Russia (they lost the election for the Constituent Assembly), but they used the disciplined Red Guard and persuasive slogans to seize power from a weak Provisional Government, proving it was an act of seizure, not a popular vote.
The Bolsheviks immediately signed the with Germany, giving up huge chunks of land (Finland, Poland, Ukraine) to end the war. This was deeply unpopular but necessary. Chapter 30 Section 1 Guided Reading Revolutions In Russia
The Revolution of 1905 was a dress rehearsal . It taught the revolutionaries (Lenin, Trotsky) that the army could be swayed and that the Czar would never voluntarily give up power. While the February Revolution was a genuine mass
When approaching the worksheet, the first section usually focuses on the early signs of trouble. This was deeply unpopular but necessary
On March 2, 1917, Nicholas II, realizing his train could not reach the capital and that his generals had abandoned him, abdicated the throne for himself and his son (the hemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei). The 300-year reign of the Romanov dynasty was over.
WWI was a catastrophe for Russia. By 1917, the Russian army had suffered over 4 million casualties. Soldiers lacked rifles and boots; officers were incompetent. On the home front, food and fuel shortages caused massive suffering. The czarina, Alexandra, was under the influence of the mystic , whose corrupt influence further discredited the monarchy.
The revolution was sparked by over a century of oppressive rule under the czars. Two key figures defined the final decades of imperial rule:
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