Russian Backwardness in 19th Century

• Russia remained feudal, underdeveloped while rest of Europe modernized
• Tsars held absolute power, refused to industrialize or grant rights
• Serfs worked fields while tsars lived luxuriously
• Exported grain during famines, causing hundreds of thousands to die

Alexander II's Reforms and Assassination

• Released serfs from serfdom but required 49-year payments to former lords
• Lives barely changed for peasants
• Assassinated by terrorists using explosives
• Death traumatized grandson Nicholas, warned "people did this to me and one day they'll do it to you"

Alexander III's Repression

• Felt father's reforms weakened tsar's authority
• Repressed religious minorities and non-Russians
• Introduced Okhrana secret police force
• Promoted "Russification" to increase loyalty

Nicholas II's Unprepared Rule

• Became tsar after father's sudden death from kidney inflammation
• Admitted "I'm not yet ready to bear... I know nothing of the business of ruling"
• Coronation disaster: 1,500 people died in stampede for free pretzels/beer
• Chose to party with French instead of mourning victims
• Earned nickname "Nicholas the Bloody"

Rise of Communist Movement

• Karl Marx's manifesto explained capitalism as bourgeois exploitation of workers
• Vladimir Lenin: middle-class intellectual, ill-tempered, brother executed for plotting against tsar
• Founded communist newsletter smuggled into Russia
• Split Socialist Party into Bolsheviks (majority) and Mensheviks (minority)
• Bolsheviks more radical, loyal to Lenin's uncompromising ideas
• Mensheviks worried about Lenin's dictatorial tendencies

Industrial Development Under Sergey Witte

• Borrowed money, built factories to modernize Russia
• Created industrial working class with terrible conditions:
  • Long hours, low wages
  • Filthy, disease-ridden factories
  • Overcrowded dormitories
  • Frequent industrial accidents
• Workers began striking for better conditions

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

• Nicholas sought easy war to regain popularity
• Russia wanted influence in northern China, Japan in Korea
• Japan proposed division of spheres, Russia refused
• Japan launched surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur
• Russia suffered embarrassing defeat to "puny Asian country"
• International humiliation increased domestic unrest

Bloody Sunday and 1905 Revolution

• January 1905: Father Gapon led peaceful protest to Winter Palace
• Workers wanted to petition Nicholas for freedom and better conditions
• Nicholas had left palace, troops ordered to stop protest
• Soldiers opened fire on peaceful crowd
• 200 civilians killed, 800 wounded
• Event sparked 1905 Revolution:
  • Strikes across empire
  • Peasants seized land
  • Military mutinies began
  • Leon Trotsky helped establish worker councils (Soviets)

October Manifesto and Revolution's End

• Sergey Witte wrote manifesto promising elected assembly (Duma)
• Satisfied liberals, divided opposition
• Nicholas brought troops home from Japan
• Crushed Soviets, arrested leaders, ended peasant uprisings
• Nicholas then wrote new laws negating Duma's power
• Revolution failed, Lenin watched from exile

Stolypin's Reforms and Repression

• New prime minister Pyotr Stolypin implemented dual strategy:
  • Agricultural reforms to win peasant support
  • Harsh crackdown on opponents
• Thousands sentenced to death ("Stolypin's necktie")
• Russian economy began improving
• Problem for Lenin: prosperity reduced revolutionary support

Lenin-Stalin Partnership

• Lenin met Joseph Stalin at communist convention in Finland
• Stalin excelled at "fundraising": kidnapping, robbing, extorting, assassinating
• Stalin's bank robberies funded Bolsheviks
• Eventually exiled to Siberia
• Russian economy recovering, revolution seemed less likely

Rasputin Scandal

• Grigori Rasputin: peasant mystic with supposed healing powers
• Royal family's son Alexei had hemophilia
• Rasputin seemingly healed Alexei (possibly by stopping aspirin)
• Became very close to royal family
• Threw wild parties with nobility, heavy drinking
• Massive public scandal, damaged tsar's reputation
• Press initially banned from covering, later allowed

World War I Begins (1914)

• Video ends with implication that WWI will bring final crisis
• Sets stage for events leading to Russian Revolution