Revolutions: What were the causes of the Russian Revolution? (p. 134 - 135)

• Humanities
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

This class:

• Introduction: What do you already know about the Russian Revolution?

• Read some notes and Read p. 134 - 135
• Write down difficult English words and the Dutch Tanslation
• Video + questions about the Russian Revolution

• Drag the event to the right time

RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION

What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

Russia at the start of the 20th century

• Reigned by monarchs, called Tsars
• Tsar Nicholas II, unpopular by Russians
• Russia spanned a large area
• Multiple nationalities
• Harsh climate, extreme cold winters
• Feudal Empire, lots of poverty
• Aristocratic higher classes 
• Poor living and working conditions fueled unrest 

Monarch

A monarch is a sovereign head of state in a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the state, or others may wield that power on behalf of the monarch

Nationality

Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. 

Feudalism

Feudalism was a combination of legal, economic and military customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships that were derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

Aristocracy

Aristocracy is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning 'rule of the best'.

What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

The 1905 Russian Revolution

WHY: 

• Russia lost a war against Japan
• Poor working conditions
• Policy of Russification 

• Peacful protest included a march 
• Many protesters were killed by soldiers
• Tsar's influence in politics reduced
• A duma, a form of a parliament, was introduced

Russification

Russification (Russian: Русификация, Rusifikatsiya) is a form of cultural assimilation process during which non-Russian communities (whether involuntarily or voluntarily) give up their culture and language in favor of Russian culture.

Duma

A duma (дума) was a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term comes from the Russian verb думать (dumat’) meaning "to think" or "to consider".

What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

Impact of the First World War

• Soldiers travelled long distances
• Soldiers were ill-equipped
• Deaths were demotivated soldiers
• Food sortages in the whole of Russia

The Tsar was getting unpopular

• The Tsar took personal miltary command 
• The Tsar took all the personal blame
• His wife was being seduced by Rasputin

Rasputin

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Emperor Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia.

What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

The 1917 February Revolution 

• During protetst confict broke out
• Faith was lost in the monarchy
• Soldiers joined the side of the protestors
• Tsar Nicholas II was abdicated

• What resulted was a power vacuum
• A lot of groups wanted to reduce the autocratic powers of the Tsar:
• Octobrists, Kadets, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks

Autocracy

An autocracy is a system of government in which a single person or party (the autocrat) possesses supreme and absolute power. The decisions of this autocrat are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control.

Abdication

Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies.

Power Vacuum

In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum, to the political condition "when someone has lost control of something and no one has replaced them.

Write down the difficut English words from p. 134 - 135 about the causes of the Russian Revolution and write down the Dutch translation.

00:52

Write down a definition of the key-word: Aristocracy

01:21

Why did the introduction of the state duma not satisfy the Russians?

02:45

List at least 2 reasons why Tsar Nicholas II was getting unpopular with the Russian people

04:10

Describe what happened on the 23rd and 24th of February 1917 in Petrograd.

Russia at the start of the 2th century

The 1905 Revolution

Russia during WW1 

The 1917 February Revolution

Feudal Empire

creation of a state duma

Aristocracy vs. Poor Russians

food shortages

protest against Russification

soliders joined the protestors

ill-equipped soldiers

Reigned by Tsars

protest in Petrograd

abdication of Tsar Nicholas II

march to the Winter Palace

influence of Rasputin