Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 2)

While Nicholas had been busy playing with his new best friend, tensions in Europe had been rising. It just so happened that in 1914, one Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary, went for a drive with the top-down in Sarajevo. One thing leads to another and suddenly Russia found itself at war with half of Europe. 

A wave of patriotism swept through Russia. The capital was renamed to Petrograd because St. Petersburg sounded a bit too German. Even revolutionaries were getting on board. To them, World War One was a big stinky imperialist war by a foreign one. So pretty much everyone wanted Russia to win. I hope Russia loses. Geez, read the room Lenin.  Lenin hoped Russia would lose because that would help him over through the Tsar.

As long as he did that, who cares if Germany blows up half the country. And blow up half the country they did. An inefficient Tsarist government, meant there were shortages of just about everything you need to fight a war. 

And if losing a teensy-weensy war with Japan upset the people, losing a giant war like this was much worse. Soldiers were deserting. The economy was imploding and in no time, Russia was starving. The peasants were getting more peasantry, the workers were getting more worker, all the while Germany was getting more Germanery. Dmitri, we need to win this war. I need someone with a great military mind to step in and take control. You’re right.

How about general Hickelooper?

How about me?

You can’t run the war. who’ll be in charge of the country while you’re gone?

Obviously my German wife and a homeless wizard. Duh Nicholas declared himself Commander in Chief and went to the front lines, leaving his German wife in charge while they were fighting the Germans. It wasn’t a good look. And because Alexandra was so close to Rasputin, people believe that he was actually calling the shots and secretly destroying Russia and maybe even blinking her, an even worse look. At this point, a bunch of nobles just couldn’t take it anymore. Rasputin is destroying the country, we have to break his magic spell over the Tsar. But how?

Dude, very cool. Hey, its Rasputin. The sexy party is running a little late but in the meantime, why don’t you try one of these totally not poisoned cakes. Dude, why’d you say it like that?

He’s totally gonna know they’re poisoned now. Shut up! I said, they’re not poisoned. Dude, he just ate so much poison, how is he still alive?

It must be the magic. Go with plan B. Is he dead?

See Boris?

I told you he was the antichrist and you didn’t believe me. Can you shut up for one minute and help me roll him up. Are you sure he’s dead?

I don’t know, but I’m supposed to be hosting a charity auction right now. Can we get this over with?

The murder of Rasputin, just like his life is shrouded in mystery and speculation. He probably didn’t really die like that but he also probably didn’t really heal people. He probably didn’t influence Tsar as much as people thought, he probably wasn’t secretly destroying the country. But what he definitely did do, even in his death was ruined the Tsars reputation. Russian autocracy looked outdated than ever. And the Russian people were taking notice. Come on man. Remember what we’re fighting for.

World War One left Russia broke, hungry and exhausted. And with Nicholas acting as Commander in Chief, he was getting even more blame. For the second time, Russia was on the brink of revolution. By 1917, Russia had been fighting a war it couldn’t afford for three years. They were running out of many things, most worryingly, food. On International Women’s Day, 1917 thousands of hungry women in Petrograd were so sick of being hungry that they took to the streets.

And it turns out it’s not just women who experienced hunger, but men too. So the next day they joined in as well. Gatherings on the streets were forbidden but I’m not sure how you’d arrest 250,000 people. The crowds demanded an end to the war, an end to food rationing and even an end to the Tsar autocracy.

Now normally the troops would deal with this kind of thing but as it turns out, soldiers get hungry too. And they were also tired of having to kill their fellow Russian so much. So entire regiments mutinied in the Capitol and they joined the crowd as well, trashing symbols of the Tsar and his autocratic regime. Things were escalating very quickly. 

Liberal politicians watching the riots in the streets had long been dissatisfied with the Tsar since he would shut their parliament down anytime they did something he didn’t like. They believed the only way to bring stability back to the streets was for Nicholas the Second to abdicate. The riots continued. The police fired on soldiers. Soldiers fired on soldiers. The workers reestablished the Petrograd Soviet, politicians began arresting the Tsars ministers.

He may have been an autocrat but he just lost complete control of his capital city. Talk about embarrassing. Nicholas, the troops have turned against us. The people who have taken over the city they’ve even cut my phone line. The phones are down. Things must be bad. I’d better go back there. Nicholas hopped on the next train back to Petrograd but he never made it to the city. His train was met by military generals and other politicians. What’s going on?

Nicholas, look man, we need to talk. It’s not you it’s us.

Oh, who am I kidding?

No, it’s definitely you. During the whole crisis in Petrograd, the liberals convinced the generals that if Nicholas abdicated, the people would come down and the generals were onboard. They didn’t have time to quilt the chaos because don’t forget, they were still losing a global oil encompassing war against the Germans. And with the military no longer on his side, Nicholas had no choice but to step down. Throughout his entire reign, he had done everything he could to keep all the power for himself and in the end, that’s exactly what left him with none. But then there was a big question, who would replace Nicholas?

Well, his son Alexei was next in line. Hey buddy, daddy couldn’t handle the complex socioeconomic problems of a giant multinational multiethnic empire that’s engaged in total war with all of Europe. You think you could give it a shot?

Alexei just wasn’t ready to be Tsar. Nicholas did have a brother, but given the state of the empire, he wasn’t keen either. And so 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia just kind of came to an end. The earlier 1905 Revolution hadn’t changed much but this new revolution had left Russia without a Tsar and still before the year was over, there would be one more revolution left to come. Nicholas failure as Commander of The Armed Forces Do you think maybe you could have done any better?

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Now, where was I?

Oh yeah.

Hungry woman, absolute chaos and the end of the Tsar.

Oh, hey guys.

Says here there’s been a revolution and the reign of the Tsars is ended.

Oh, come on.

I missed another one?

Why am I even in this video?

Well, it’s not like you could have done anything. As long as there’s a World War, you can’t get back to Russia. Who wants to start a rebubublution?

I mean rebublu, revolution. Despite getting Nick, Russia was still at war with half of Europe. The Germans however, had an idea. They thought that if they helped Lenin get back, had cause trouble for the new Russian government.

So they put them on a train destination Petrograd. It was a long journey and while Lenin was cooked up in his train, things in Russia were changing. Workers were taking control of their factories, soldiers were socking it to their mean old officers. Without a Tsar, a big old power vacuum had opened up and someone needed to fill it. The liberals proposed they be in charge and they set up the provisional government. The workers however, had already begun establishing local Soviets largely controlled by the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks.

And since neither felt like they had the power to ask the other, Russia ended up in a classic dual power conundrum. The two co-existed with the provisional government becoming the official government and the elected Soviets issuing orders

to the workers and soldiers. This power balance was delicate and all it would take is one bold revolutionary to come along and give everyone a big brain beat down. Oh boy, Lenin’s coming home. I can’t wait for them to see all the great things we’ve accomplished. And I’m gonna show him my fan art.

Oh look, here he comes now. You all suck. The provisional government sucks, the Soviet sucks, even your fan art sucks. Why does he have to be so mean?

In case you couldn’t tell, Lenin wasn’t a fan of everything that had been happening. In his April thesis, he called the provisional government and the Soviets a bunch of big bourgeois bozos and he kind of had a point. There was still a lot for the Russian people to be mad about. 

The provisional government hadn’t got rush out of the war, the people were still hungry and the peasants were still hoping to get more land. Meanwhile, the Soviets hadn’t done much to change things either but even though they weren’t perfect, a lot of people did like what the new government had been doing.

There was progress.

The secret police were disbanded.

The death penalty abolished.

They even planned to hold elections, meaning for the first time ever the Russian people could choose their own government. To many, Lenin seemed like some out of touch weirdo. If Linden wanted to go from whiny irrelevant zero

to a hunky communist hero, had need to shake things up a bit. So he and the Bolsheviks came up with a hot new slogan that promised to give the people what the provisional government wouldn’t, peace.

Don’t like war?

Well end it.

Land.

You want land?

Well give it to you.

Bread.

Hungry?

Scooby Dooby Doo. Linen also called for all power to the Soviets which meant getting rid of the provisional government and having the Soviets run the place, a communist dream. The people like these slogans and bit by bit, the Bolsheviks became more popular. Some Mensheviks even began switching sides but even though the people thought Lenin slogans rocked, as long as the provisional government didn’t mess up, they’d continue to support it. So let’s check in on the provisional government.

Oh, provisional government, you’ve made a big mess. The provisional government lasted for just nine months but those nine months were chaos. The people wanted Russia out of World War One but Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky thought instead of doing that, why not do the exact opposite?

If the people saw more Russian victories, they’d have to support the new government and that one just about as well as you might expect. These heavy defeats worsened the Russian economy and made the hungry people hungrier. And by now I think, you know what comes next. They trashed the place. More looting, more riots, more violence. 

It was like the Tsar had never abdicated. Tens of thousands of armed workers took to the streets during some of the worst violence Petrograd had seen yet. And in response Kerensky called in the troops who opened fire on the demonstrators. For now, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders wanted to distance themselves from the violence but the crowds marched under Bolshevik slogans and as a result, Kerensky now the prime minister took the opportunity to step down on the Bolsheviks. Their leaders were arrested.

Lenin was accused of being a German agent and he was forced to flee to Finland in disguise.

This sucks!

Now I’ll never get to have my revolution. Why are you wearing a dress?

It’s a disguise idiot. And it makes me feel pretty. Kerensky had successfully dealt with the violence but he just couldn’t catch a break. This increasing support for more extreme forms of socialism, along with the poor handling of the war alarmed traditional liberals and boogie business boys. To appease them, Kerensky decided to promote a military legend to Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Someone who hated the revolution, loved the death penalty and was devoutly anti-socialist, General Kornilov.

.

Hey man, thanks for the promotion. That was real swell of you. Of course, with you by my side who would dare try to overthrow me?

How about me?

I did not see this coming. Unfortunately for Kerensky, Kornilov hated the liberal and socialist reforms of the new government, particularly the dumb socialist soldiers committees. The army was no place for undisciplined left-wing snowflakes.

Fearing a Bolshevik takeover was imminent, Kornilov ordered his men towards Petrograd to oust the soviet and take over. Kerensky freaked out and he needed help. Since he knew Trotsky was finger licking good at organizing, he and other Bolshevik leaders were released and they, along with the Soviet, organized the Defense of Petrograd. Kornilov had the power of soldiers but the Soviet had the power of workers and they did what workers do best.

Railroad workers diverted Kornilovs men away. Telegraph workers messed with his communications, they even infiltrated his forces and encouraged the demoralized men to desert. They were also armed on mess, but in the end no fighting was necessary because Kornilovs coup just fell apart and Kornilov was sent straight to prison. Everything was coming up Kerensky. Hey, thanks for the help boys.

Couldn’t have done it without you. Now that there’s no longer any threat, how about you return all those guns I gave you?

In order to kill a rat, Kerensky had just given a gun to a bear, a Bolshevik bear. The whole affair was a huge propaganda win for them. They had defended the revolution and their popularity skyrocketed. They found themselves elected to the Petrograd in Moscow Soviets with Trotsky even becoming chairman in Petrograd. 

They were now in a very powerful position, almost powerful enough for Lenin to return home from Finland and finally stages along the way to communist, revolution. The Bolsheviks began planning their takeover of the Russian government. Some got cold feet and began arguing against Lenin’s armed revolution in favor of a more peaceful approach. And they even wrote newspaper articles about it which kind of gave the whole scheme away. The Bolsheviks are planning an armed revolution? 

I did not see this coming. Kerensky began arresting Bolsheviks and as a result, Lenin and the boys felt they had no choice but to commence the revolution right now. Lenin was back in Petrograd but was still in hiding. So Trotsky got the ball rolling. 

Using his position as Soviet Chairman to organize the Bolshevik militias. Now, if you were to ask Soviet artists, the revolution went something like this. As much as they would like you to think it was a glorious, violent, heroic takeover, the truth seems to be a little more underwhelming. The Bolsheviks just kind of walked into key buildings in the city and to control. Bolshevik supporting sailors, even brought in a huge battleship but there wasn’t really any fighting. Nobody really tried to stop them.

In just one day, they took control of the city. Next, Kerensky just managed to escape before the Bolsheviks surrendered the Winter Palace placing the provisional government under siege inside.

Is it safe to come out yet?

I think so. Fear my revolutionary might. Give me that that. That night, Lenin came out of hiding to play a bigger role in the revolution. With him back at the helm, they had one more job to do, storm the Winter Palace and arrest the provisional government. And here comes the final showdown. The palace was defended by a force known as the Battalion of Death who immediately gave up and just like that, Lenin had won. 

As far as violent bloody revolutionary uprisings go, this wasn’t really one of them. But Lenin was finally in charge of Russia. He had spent his whole life dreaming of this moment. He set up the first council of Peoples Commissars, his own cabinet with him in charge. This was it. His chance to finally make his communist utopia with equality and freedoms beyond compare.

Hey linen, before we took power, they were planning on holding elections, shall we go ahead with those?

Of course, you can’t have a communist utopia without high levels of political participation. The proletariat should be free to. We lost. What?

The social revolutionaries won, we lost. Those don’t count. Lenin claimed the elections were unfair and the constituent assembly they created was counterrevolutionary. He presented the new assembly with a motion that basically said, sign here and give up your power. And when the assembly was like, No Lenin said.

See, they’re disobeying me, proof they’re counterrevolutionary. Shut it down boys Moderate Socialists and others weren’t happy when Lenin had the assembly closed by force. And when computers began taking to the streets, they were fired upon. 

For Lenin, setting up a communist utopia was looking suspiciously like setting up a dictatorship. While he was implementing many of the communists policies you’d expect, he was also refusing to work with other political parties and cracking down on opposition. Hey Linen, are you setting up a dictatorship?

I’ll shoot you if you are. Of course not. What a crazy theory. Anyway, I’m pleased to announce I’m setting up a secret police force to repress and kill traitors and by traitors, I of course mean anyone not loyal to me. The assassination attempt made on Lenin’s life in August 1918 failed but in response, the Bolsheviks ramped up their oppression.

But while all of this chaos was erupting back home, Linen and the boys were also distracted by another problem. They were still at war with the Germans and they had promised to give the people peace. So Linen made Trotsky Commissar for Foreign Affairs and sent him off to negotiate a peace deal with the Germans. The Germans offered Trotsky really harsh terms, you know, cause they were winning the war. They demanded Russia, give up a butt ton of land, something that would be devastating to the economy. Look, I know it’s not great but I think we have to accept it.

Are you insane?

This will ruin us. Hey Trotsky, you got a big brain, what do you think?

How about no war, no peace. What’s that Mr. Trotsky, sir?

It’s simple, no war means well stop fighting the Germans but no peace means we won’t sign the peace treaty either. Then when the Germans see we’ve just stopped fighting, they’ll have to leave us alone or something. Trotsky, that’s genius.

I could kiss you. Do you want me to kiss you?

Stop asking me that. Trotsky’s no war no peace plan was a huge success. Oh wait no, just kidding, it went exactly as you’d imagine. When the Germans saw the Russians had stopped fighting they slammed 700,000 troops deep into Russian territory with no resistance. 

Now the new peace treaty offered by Germans was way worse with Russia losing a huge amount of territory, population and resources. The Bolsheviks had no choice but to accept and Russia was humiliated. With Petrograd now in an exposed position, Lenin moved the capital to Moscow, just in case. Things really weren’t going well for Lenin and many, many people were extremely unhappy with the Bolshevik government and its actions.

Linen, you pissed off so many people that they’ve united against you. Were under attack. Relax, we always expected some counter-revolutionary pushback. I think we can handle a few angry monopoly men. But Lenin, it’s not just the monopoly men.

Okay, who are we up against?

Well, the liberals, the Social Revolutionaries, national separatists in Poland Finland and the Ukraine, independent warlords setting up chiefdoms, anarchist rebels, the Green Peasant Armies, the Cossacks, the Caucasian States, the Baltic States the British, the French, the Americans and the Japanese. Oh, and it legions of Czechoslovakian soldiers seem to have taken over the Trans-Siberian railway and stolen all the imperial gold reserves.

How could this get any worse?

Oh, and it says here your mother-in-laws coming to stay. A variety of Bolshevik forces had united together to topple Linens government and Russia descended into a full blown civil war. Now the Russian civil war was extremely intricate and would really need its own video but essentially the Anti-Bolshevik. 

White Movement, gain control of vast underdeveloped areas while the Bolshevik Reds controlled the industrial heartland using this to their advantage, along with the surprising military genius of Trotsky and the shocking disorganization of the White Army, the fortified Red Army gradually came out on top. It was an absolutely brutal conflict with both sides committing horrendous atrocities. To maintain order at home, the Bolsheviks began the Red Terror and the secret police would execute tens of thousands of suspected traitors.

No one was safe from the violence not even Nicholas himself. You’ve probably been wondering what Nicholas has been up to this whole time. Well, after his abdication, At first, they were allowed to live in their usual luxury but after Lenin took over, their conditions worsened. the Bolsheviks were just holding on to Nick until they could work out what to do with him. But the civil war complicated things. The last thing they wanted was for Nick to be freed by the White Armies.

And so to stop this from happening, Nicholas Bolshevik guards decided to act. It’s not entirely certain whether Lenin ordered it or if the guards were acting on their own volition but on July 17th, 1918 with White Armies approaching, they woke Nicholas and his family in the middle of the night and brought them into the basement.

There a drunken squad of Bolsheviks murdered the entire family. Nicholas, the last Tsar, once one of the most powerful men alive had met a brutal end. but after years of fighting and millions of deaths, Trotsky in his Red Army came out victorious.

Wow, that was a close one. Okay, back to creating a communist utopia. How are we doing on that?

Well, the civil war helped create a massive famine and about 5 million people starved to death, there’s massive inflation and the Ruble is worthless, hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of railway track have been destroyed, disease and epidemics have killed 3 million, the population in Moscow and Petrograd has collapsed, life expectancies has plummeted, sailors in Ronstadt are rebelling, people are freezing to death in their own apartments and life has been reduced to a constant search for food and shelter. 

Whoa, well this just means I’ll have to work twice as hard, day and night to save the country. Nothing will stop me, short of a couple of sudden strokes. Get the doctor. One thing you have to keep in mind is that everything I’ve been talking about, the civil war, the assassination attempt and Lenin struggle to maintain control at home were all happening around the same time. And it must have been extremely stressful.

Lenin began getting headaches, insomnia and in 1922, he suffered two separate strokes. As the Soviet union was officially declared under a strict one party system, Lenin’s health continued to decline and his ability to lead the communist party went with it. Everybody assumed Trotsky would succeed him. He was a great speaker, he’d won the civil war and he had a dope train. 

The last person anyone expected to take over was Stalin. Stalin wasn’t a great intellectual like Lenin or charismatic war hero like Trotsky. He was as one Menshevik described him a gray blur. Someone who operated in the background, someone who you might not even notice but it was in the background that Stalin would rise to power.

Here’s how it happened. After the revolution, all the Bolsheviks hoped to get a cool job in the new government. What did you get?

Commissar for War. Sweet.

What’d you get?

Secretary. Stalin was made General Secretary for the Communist Party. It wasn’t what he wanted but Stalin quickly realized that even though it wasn’t fancy, it was a powerful position. As secretary, he had the power to give people jobs within the party. So he would give jobs to all of his pals who in turn would give them their support. The more pals he gave jobs, the more power he got the more power he got, the more pals he got. Linen may have been having wall-to-wall strokes, but he was still involved in the party and he was taking notice. He wasn’t a fan of Stalin abusing his position or insulting his wife to her face. Lenin knew he couldn’t let Stalin take over. But by this stage he was just too sick to fight it.

Hey man, tell whoevers in charge of giving people jobs That would be Stalin, sir.

Whoa, deja vu. Linens last wish was to not let Stalin take over but by the time he died, Stalin was too powerful to remove. He had his remaining opponents arrested or killed. Trotsky was banished and fled to Europe. Eventually he would be assassinated by Soviet spies in 1940. Our dear comrade Lenin has died. We should have a state funeral. 

No, lets mummify him and put them on display so people can look at his dead body forever. That’s gross. Your gross. Guards, kill him. Linen had waited so long to take control in Russia but he never got to see his communist utopia. His short time in charge was spent dealing with the destroyed Russian economy World War One and the civil war.

He was cruel and merciless, but he really did seem to believe communism would make Russia a better place. Stalin on the other hand, would take the Soviet Union down a different path. If you thought Lenin was a tyrant, well, you aren’t seen nothing yet girl. A secret police state, a rapidly militarizing superpower led by a paranoid man who deeply distrusted the West would see the world come to the brink of nuclear annihilation. That’s right. I’m talking about. Remember to click the link in the description below to download Rise of Kingdoms for free. Fight alongside allies, conquer their players and use superior tactics to emerge victorious in a strategic battle Royale.

and I’ll see you there.

Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 1)