As we enter into the 1900s
imperial Russia is under the absolute control of the czar and [a] [czar] an analogous term would be emperor he has
absolute control over Russia, and he's part of the Romanov dynasty
Romanov Dynasty
That has had control that has ruled over imperial Russia since the early 1600s, so for Roughly
300 years, but as we see from the late 1800s through through the early 1900's really over the course of TSAr
nicholas II rule you see ever increasing tensions between the ruling class between the royalty and
the aristocracy and the labor class sometimes called referring themselves as the proletariat the proletariat comes from an
Enrollment Society it was the the lowest class the people who [were] kind of doing the labor in Roman society?
But they proudly referred to themselves as a proletariat and as we'll see the the revolution that occurs in
1917 that's really the culmination of the struggle between the laborers the ones that are working under ever increasingly harsh conditions in
factories in Urban centers or the ones that are working in the fields and and
The ruling class and this tension just keeps getting worse and worse and worse [as] we [get] into
1905 and 1905 is one of the more notable events that show that things aren't going all that well for the tSAr in
January of that year you have a an orthodox priest
Leading a a strike leading a protest
Trying to get this is in St.. Petersburg trying to March to the TSAr's palace, and it's an unarmed
It's a peaceful protest
But they want to be heard they want to explain to the tSAr. How hard the working conditions are for laborers under in in
Imperial Russia and the Tsar isn't actually in town at the [time]
But his force [is] actually opened fire on these peaceful protesters and that that that event in which
There's all these casualties of these peaceful protesters is called Bloody Sunday
Bloody and this was in January
Bloody Sunday, which is in January of 1905 and this sparks an attempted revolution?
Where [are] it people who are sympathetic to those protesters they start taking [to] the street throughout Russia?
You start having the government forces suppressing them wherever they are but eventually that that revolution is put down
It's an unsuccessful
revolution but it increases the tension even further and frankly even folks who might have been
Somewhat sympathetic to the TSAr before almost viewed him as a bit of a father figure now are thinking hey
You know this guy's forces open open open fire on peaceful protesters
maybe he's really not on our side and those tensions continue to increase as we go all the way into
1914 which we've seen in [other] videos is the start of world war one and
like happens
And we've seen it in both world war one and world war two russia tends to take the brunt of these things and world war
one is Incredibly difficult [on] Russia first of all all of the a
Good fraction of the young men have to go fight, then a lot of the economy has to be
repointed at
supporting the war effort at the supplies for the troops the food for the troops and so it starts to really hurt the conditions for
the average person
Which [were] already bad remember they were protesting in 1905 and now things are getting worse as we go through World war one
For the average individual now to make a bit of a concession [to] the general public and to move somewhat into a more representative
world after the revolution of 1905 the TSAr does create the Duma which is a
representative assembly
Representative assembly that didn't have a ton of power
But it did start to give the people voice and every time
They assembled to him whether the TSAr was actually not too pleased with it
He's like who are all of these people who seem to be very aggressively anti me and he kept getting the Duma
dissolved and then a new Duma would be elected and this kept going on and on and on all the way until we get to
The beginning of World war [ron] now as I said World war one
conditions start to get worse people start to get even more
Skeptical of Tsar rule to make things [even] worse when [TSAr] [nicholas] II has left, st.
Petersburg to really help
Lead the Troops or in his mind lead the troops near the front of the war the country
Or the empire is really goes under the control of his wife the CzArina, Alexandra
And she is heavily under the influence of this gentle right over here
Gregory Rasputin and Rasputin is one of these fascinating
Characters from history because he was this mystical faith healer type guy who was able to really?
Manipulate the the Czarina and to some degree the TSAr and so people started getting suspicious of well
Who is this guy this?
Mysterious guy who's hanging out in the palace and seeming to have very strong influence over our?
rulers and there were even suspicious of the Czarina at this time [the] lot of the royalty they married between
countries and the Czarina
She was actually born in
Germany and her father was German she grew up in Germany and her mug rand mother was actually Queen Victoria of England and you might
Remember that that Russia is now at war with Germany. So they're like hey. We have this German
Czarina essentially controlling the country under the the sway of this mysterious shady figure gregory
rasputin people do not like the way that this is going and so by
1917 things come to a head and in February and especially march of 1917 the
They are able to force the tsAr to abdicate to say hey enough is enough
We're taking it straight to you you have to
You have to give up your power, and it's called the February revolution
But the TsAr doesn't actually abdicate until march so you could argue that you could call it the March
Revolution now once the [tSAr] abdicates you have a provisional government
You have a provisional government
Take control and all of this is happening in
1917 but people are also not happy with this provisional government remember the war is continuing to go on it's not really looking that well
For Russia they're continuing to lose people the economy is continuing to tank and what you have is workers start to to
Start to assemble start to organize in the various cities
And they form these workers councils these councils and the word and russian for them is soviets
These soviets start to form and you fast forward into october of that year and these soviets are able to
along with the Bolsheviks, which is a party are able to Force the
provisional government
to
To abdicate its power or to give up its power and then you have the control by a soviet [Council] and in the soviet Council
the Bolsheviks
Led by Vladimir Lenin are the ones who are [actually] able to take power now revolutions?
I mentioned you know what revolutions are happen
Or they're the culmination of decades of increasing tension and as we've seen multiple times in history revolutions are not clean things
it's not like the tSAr abdicate or the government abdicates and [another] government takes over and then everyone's all nice the
Bolshevik Revolution which installs which it now has this
council of soviets which [we're] the Bolsheviks aren't control led by
Vladimir Lenin you can imagine the people who are royal who are loyal to the king the monarchists?
They're not happy you can imagine people who are more aligned with
Capitalist models of government because the soviets and the the bolsheviks they are strongly strongly
Socialist they they're followers of Marx. They imagine an ideal state that has a
That has very limited
private property rights and on and on and on and so this sparks [a] the russian [Civil] [war] which lasts from
1917 to
1922 and like Most Civil Wars it is incredibly Bloody you have two to three million casualties
Two to three million casualties as part of that [civil] war and casualties those could be deaths those could be injuries
but in the end the
Bolshevik Red Army is victorious and sometimes that Civil war is viewed as a
conflict between the red Army of the Bolsheviks the one that favoured Socialism extreme socialism Communism really and
The white Army the army that was either on the side of the monarchists or they're more capitalist
But they're definitely against the red army
And there's also another group the green army which is you know not aligned with either one of them
So let me let me write this down. It's really the civil war is red Army
versus
versus white Army
Versus white army and then there's even the notion of a green army which is not aligned with either of these verses
The Green Army and this continues all [the] way through
1922 until the Red Army is able to be victorious, and that's really the official of the soviet Union in
1922 and Lenin is the first premier of the soviet union, So he is the premier of [the] soviet union?
But he does not last long he eventually dies from from natural causes [a] Few years later in
1924 where he is followed by Stalin and you might be asking well, what happened to the TSAr and his?
Family after they abdicated well, it's not that great of an outcome and it's it's at least for them
And it's one of these famous things in history where his entire family
His entire family actually gets executed the summer after he abdicates and so this was an entire family every member of his [family] was
Was executed there were some theories that that one of that his daughter right over here, anastasia might have actually escaped
But it was later lee later conclusively proven that she too was was also executed so you see that right over here the [tSAr]
Abdicating in nineteen abdicating in 1917 and then the next summer his entire family is
actually
Executed so it's a bloody beginning. It's a bloody period But this this is kind of what happens when you have
significant revolutions