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Did Mexico accept Zimmermann's offer?
Nice job explaining how events in Russia convinced Wilson to join the Allies. 94

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Goes with the political cartoon Suffrage Humanity.

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This song described the Americans joining the war.

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The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of csarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

When Was the Russian Revolution?

In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting into motion political and social changes that would lead to the formation of the Soviet Union. While the two revolutionary events took place within a few short months, social unrest in Russia had been simmering for decades.

In the early 1900s, Russia was one of the most impoverished countries in Europe with an enormous peasantry and a growing minority of poor industrial workers.

Much of Western Europe viewed Russia as an undeveloped, backwards society. The Russian Empire practiced serfdom-a form of feudalism in which landless peasants were forced to serve the land-owning nobility-well into the nineteenth century. In contrast, the practice had disappeared in most of Western Europe by the end of the Middle Ages.

In 1861, the Russian Empire finally abolished serfdom. The emancipation of serfs would influence the events leading up to the Russian Revolution by giving peasants more freedom to organize.

Russian Revolution of 1905

Russia industrialized much later than Western Europe and the United States. When it finally did, around the turn of the 20th century, it brought with it immense social and political changes.

Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the population of major Russian cities such as St. Petersburg and Moscow nearly doubled, resulting in overcrowding and destitute living conditions for a new class of Russian industrial workers.

A population boom at the end of the 19th century, a harsh growing season due to Russia's northern climate, and a series of costly wars-starting with the Crimean War (1854-1856)-meant frequent food shortages across the vast empire.

Large protests by Russian workers against the monarchy led to the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905. Hundreds of unarmed protesters were killed or wounded by the czar's troops.

The massacre sparked the Russian revolution of 1905, during which angry workers responded with a series of crippling strikes throughout the country.

Nicholas II

After the bloodshed of 1905, Czar Nicholas II promised the formation of a series of representative assemblies, or Dumas, to work toward reform.

Russia entered into World War I in August 1914 in support of the Serbs and their French and British allies. Their involvement in the war would soon prove disastrous for the Russian Empire.

Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Food and fuel shortages plagued Russia as inflation mounted. The economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort.

Czar Nicholas left the Russian capital of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1915 to take command of the Russian Army front. (The Russians had renamed the imperial city in 1914, because the name "St. Petersburg" had sounded too German.)

Rasputin and the Czarina

In her husband's absence, Czarina Alexandra-an unpopular woman of German ancestry-began firing elected officials. During this time, her controversial advisor, Grigory Rasputin, increased his influence over Russian politics and the royal Romanov family.

Russian nobles eager to end Rasputin's influence murdered him on December 30, 1916. By then, most Russians had lost faith in the failed leadership of the czar. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the toothless Russian parliament established after the 1905 revolution, when it opposed his will.

Moderates soon joined Russian radical elements in calling for an overthrow of the hapless czar.

February Revolution

The February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar until February 1918) began on March 8, 1917 (February 23 on the Julian calendar).

Demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets of Petrograd. Supported by huge crowds of striking industrial workers, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets.

On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, the regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets and the troops began to waver.

The Duma formed a provisional government on March 12. A few days later, Czar Nicholas abdicated the throne, ending centuries of Russian Romanov rule.

The leaders of the provisional government, including young Russian lawyer Alexander Kerensky, established a liberal program of rights such as freedom of speech, equality before the law, and the right of unions to organize and strike. They opposed violent social revolution.

As minister of war, Kerensky continued the Russian war effort, even though Russian involvement in World War I was enormously unpopular. This further exacerbated Russia's food supply problems. Unrest continued to grow as peasants looted farms and food riots erupted in the cities.

Bolshevik Revolution

On November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar, which is why the event is often referred to as the October Revolution), leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the Duma's provisional government.

The provisional government had been assembled by a group of leaders from Russia's bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin instead called for a Soviet government that would be ruled directly by councils of soldiers, peasants and workers.

The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in Petrograd, and soon formed a new government with Lenin as its head. Lenin became the dictator of the world's first communist state.

Russian Civil War

Civil War broke out in Russia in late 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution. The warring factions included the Red and White Armies.

The Red Army fought for the Lenin's Bolshevik government. The White Army represented a large group of loosely allied forces, including monarchists, capitalists and supporters of democratic socialism.

On July 16, 1918, the Romanovs were executed by the Bolsheviks.

The Russian Civil War ended in 1923 with Lenin's Red Army claiming victory and establishing the Soviet Union.

Impact of The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution paved the way for the rise of communism as an influential political belief system around the world. It set the stage for the rise of the Soviet Union as a world power that would go head-to-head with the United States during the Cold War.

Sources

The Russian Revolutions of 1917. Anna M. Cienciala, University of Kansas.
The Russian Revolution of 1917. Daniel J. Meissner, Marquette University.
Russian Revolution of 1917. McGill University.

PHOTO GALLERIES

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The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The violent revolution marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and centuries of Russian Imperial rule. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the tradition of csarist rule.

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The revolution started when Czar Nicholas the Second lost popularity. The Russian people started to lose faith in him because of how much corruption, the economy that was in ruins, and how he would constantly dissolve the Russian parliament (the Duma). The Russian involvement in World War 1 just made things worse for the country. Russia was no match for the industrialized and advanced country of Germany. Due to this when Russia sent soldiers into war many of them died (over one and a half million Russian soldiers).  They had much more deaths in this war than any other war for Russia. It was also very costly which hurt the economy very badly which hurt the country in general. These factors all added up to many Russian moderates who started to feel that Czar should be overthrown. Finally on March 8th, 1917 people started to protest (that started with people begging for bread) within a few days the protest spread to industrial workers. Then the army got involved which resulted in open fire and deaths. Eventually the Government officials was forced to resign, and the Duma gave power to the Pertograd Soviet. Czar resigned and offered power to his brother who declined. That ended Czar rule. The President saw this new Democracy and felt that the war was now Democracies against harsh Monarchies. Wilson now wanted to stick with democracies and that gave him pressure to enter the war.
The next revolution was lead by Vladimir Lenin who saw along with many others how weak their government was. They used force to acquire government buildings and overthrow the Pertograd Soviet. This new government that was lead by Lenin declared peace with Germany and began to Industrialize Russia into a Soviet country.

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President Wilson was reluctant to enter World War I. When the War began, Wilson declared U.S. neutrality and demanded that the belligerents respect American rights as a neutral party. He hesitated to embroil the United States in the conflict, with good reason. Americans were deeply divided about the European war, and involvement in the conflict would certainly disrupt Progressive reforms. In 1914, he had warned that entry into the conflict would bring an end to Progressive reform.

Shortly after war erupted in Europe, President Wilson called on Americans to be "neutral in thought as well as deed." The United States, however, quickly began to lean toward Britain and France.

Convinced that wartime trade was necessary to fuel the growth of American trade, President Wilson refused to impose an embargo on trade with the belligerents. During the early years of the war, trade with the Allies tripled.
This volume of trade quickly exhausted the Allies' cash reserves, forcing them to ask the United States for credit. In October 1915, President Wilson permitted loans to belligerents, a decision that greatly favored Britain and France. By 1917, American loans to the Allies had soared to $2.25 billion; loans to Germany stood at a paltry $27 million.

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The Zimmerman Telegram was a coded telegram sent by the foreign secretary of the German empire, Arthur Zimmerman, on January 19th of the year 1917. The U.S wanted to join World War 1 to go against Germany. Therefore, the telegram was sent ( The Zimmerman Telegram). The Telegram was decoded by the British intelligence, and when the American people found out what it meant, they were enraged. The decoding of the Telegram also generated support for the United States declaration of War on Germany.  Britain's discovery of the meaning of the Telegrams was considered one of their greatest triumphs during the war.  The telegram itself stated Germany's alliance with Mexico and Japan.  It also stated that Mexico would be given Texas, Arizona, and Mexico, which obviously, the US didn't want. That is why they were enraged.

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During WW1 the government had to find an easy way to convince the American people into war. The way they solved this was through propaganda posters. President Wilson created the Comitee on public information, basically they censored all the news coming out. The government hired illustrators to make the posters. The posters would be found everywhere so every man, women, and child could see them. The government had three set plans/steps to go into the war. First they had to convince the American people into fighting a war against the Germans(mainly). Once everyone was excited to fight they had to get people to fight. This was when the famous uncle sam was introduced. Its a little ironic that something viewed as an american symbol was orginally propaganda. They also had to get funding for the war this was when libery bonds came about.  I think its ironic that many of our national symbols today were orginally propganda posters.

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Germany started using U boat attacks during the first world war. They were using the boats to sink enemy ships. Throughout the war U boats would sink thousands of ships ships. Some of these ships were neutral ships which were being used for trade or commercial use. President Wilson didn't like the sinking of neutral ships and he warned Germany to stop the sinking. Germany apologized quickly and stopped the attacks. Later on in the war when Germany was desperate due to the British blockade, they started using the U boats again. Due to U boat attacks 7500 people died in WW1. Americans had died in the sinking of the people died in the sinking of Lusitania, Arabic, and Sussex. Unrestricted submarine warfare was a serious problem about the war and Germany for our president and people.