The Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 1)

Don't we try to treat people better? As luck would have it. An opportunity for war was brewing in the Far East. Russia wanted to expand her sphere of influence into northern China and, coincidentally, Japan as well. But Japan didn't really want war. So they proposed an idea to reduce the tension. Hey man, we'll let you do your thing in Manchuria. If you let us do our thing in Korea. I do not think. We have the largest army in the world, what do you have? I'm the Emperor of Japan, I have a giant Mecha suit. Wow, great.

Nicholas and the boys did not see Japan as a threat. So they felt they could put pressure on Japan. But what they didn't know was that Japan had been rapidly militarizing. And when they launched a surprise attack on a Russian fleet in Port Arthur, everyone was shocked. Nicolás hoped that it would be an opportunity to win a quick war and regain the support of the people. No one seriously thought that a weak Asian country could defeat a European superpower. And the Russian people were full of patriotic courage. Hello everyone, we are at war with Japan. (crowd applauding loudly) (whispering quietly) Hello everyone, we are losing the war. (crowd booing loudly) The Japanese won, an embarrassing defeat for Tsar Nicholas.

Russia already had enough problems but now it had been humiliated internationally. The public was outraged and the unrest increased. Nicholas needed hugs now more than ever. Tension was rising rapidly and Russia was on the brink of

revolution

. All she needed was a disaster to push him over the edge. And that disaster would come in January 1905 from an unlikely source: a handsome Orthodox priest named Father Gapon, Father Gapon was leading the workers and their families to the winter palace. But this was not a violent uprising, it was a peaceful protest. They wanted to deliver a petition to Nicholas that simply asked for more freedom and better working conditions.

In fact, the protest was so peaceful and respectful that Marxists thought it was a huge waste of time. Hi Nicholas, a priest is leading a peaceful protest. Here he says that they want to make a request of you. A peaceful petitioning priest, I better get out of here. In fact, Nicholas had left the Winter Palace days before and in his place they brought a truck full of troops with the order to prevent Father Gapon from reaching the palace. Hello, sir, long live the tsar. Please allow me to convey this simple request to our dear father Nicholas II.

Good morning, please allow us to respond by opening fire. (gun fired forcefully) What began as a peaceful protest ended in tragedy. The imperial soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Around 200 civilians were killed and 800 more were injured. All they wanted was the chance to ask Nicholas to make their lives better. Instead, they were met with bullets. Nicholas did not personally order the troops to fire, but as an autocrat, he received the blame. The event became known as Bloody Sunday and Nicholas's reputation plummeted. Strikes broke out across the empire, workers' demands increased, liberals demanded political power, peasants demanded lamd.

The country was out of control and the

revolution

of 1905 had begun. Listen, Nicolás, when the peasants take over my land and murder my family, I can tolerate it, but illegally cutting firewood for me is obscene and the worse I treat my workers, the more they go on strike, I don't understand it. Everyone calm down, as long as the army is on my side there is nothing to worry about. Sir, the sailors are beginning to mutiny. Well, my life just sucks. With Russia still losing to the Japanese, unrest in the army was growing. And some sailors had even started killing officers.

Having the people against you is bad enough, but if the military united, it would be game over. To make matters worse, in October Marxist workers, including Leon Trotsky, began creating local elected councils called Soviets that coordinated strikes and supplied workers. Sergei could see the writing on the wall. Things were going wrong quickly and he needed a big idea to save the tsar. And luckily he had just that. You see that all these angry people from different

part

s of society weren't really working together. Which means there was a weakness to exploit. Sergei wrote a manifesto that would give the liberals an elected assembly called the Duma.

It took some convincing, but Nicholas finally agreed to share power and have an elected assembly approve his laws. Hello liberals, here's his stupid manifesto, happy now? We certainly are. But what about these guys? Aren't you going to give them what they want? Oh my god, no. I was just going to kill them. With the liberals satisfied and after finishing the war with Japan. The tsar returned thousands of troops who then dismantled the soviets, arrested their leaders, and crushed peasant uprisings in the countryside. And how about that annoying parliament with which Nicolás had agreed to share power?

Well, then he wrote a bunch of new laws that basically said, hey, remember the manifesto I wrote and how they were going to pass my laws? Slight change of plan. Actually, I'll do whatever I want. And you are going to shut up. What, people won't tolerate this. People, what people? That's why people don't like you. And so Nicholas had survived the revolution of 1905 but, waiting for a revolution in Russia, where was Lenin? Well, Lenin and his communist friends were still in exile. He desperately tried to radicalize the uprising, but all he could do was watch as the movements failed to organize, the liberals betrayed the poor, and the tsar played with the people.

Furious, he believed that Russia had missed a great opportunity to make a true revolution. From now on, he felt that the only way left was an armed revolution by the workers. Watching the events of 1905 unfold, Lenin learned a lot. The tsar, however, would turn out to have learned nothing. After the failure of the 1905 revolution. The Tsar's new boss was Pyotr Stolypin and he had great ideas to avoid more chaos. First step, reform agriculture, this will make the peasants love you. And the second step, we will kill anyone who doesn't do it. To discourage further revolutionary ideas, Stolypin began to further repress the tsar's opponents and thousands were sentenced to death.

The news even earned a new nickname, Stolypin's Tie, I don't understand it. Oh, sure. Because it goes around my neck and it's very funny. But despite the depression many positive reforms were also being made and the Russian economy even began to improve. This is a problem for Lenin. If people weren't suffering then they wouldn't support a revolution. Still in exile and without funds, the Bolsheviks were simply in no position to do anything. Fortunately, it was around this time that Lenin met an incredibly handsome Georgian with his second favorite historical mustache, Joseph Stalin. Lenin and Stalin met at a communist convention in Finland and Lenin liked Stalin because he was truly ambitious and was excellent at raising funds for the Bolsheviks and by fundraising I mean kidnapping, stealing, extorting, bribing, ransoming, murdering, break into prisons, steal. , bank robbery, execution and robbery again.

He is Stalin. The Mensheviks are not so enthusiastic about all this theft, but we still need money. So next time you pull off a big heist, do it quietly. Okay, quiet, I got it. (loud gunshots) If this isn't silence, I don't know what is. Stalin's extravagant antics eventually exiled him to Siberia, but he had established himself as a great Bolshevik. However, no Bolshevik dance could stop what was happening. The Russian economy was recovering. For the tsar, things were looking up. This is great. All Nicholas has to do is sit back and not mess anything up. Hello everyone, great news.

I would like to introduce you to my new best friend. He's a crazy, drunk, bearded, horny, scandal-ridden magic wizard, man. And he smells like a goat. We are screwed. Rasputin, a very poor peasant from nowhere. But unlike all the other poor peasants, Rasputin had sacred healing powers. And when this mystical saint entered St. Petersburg, people began to take notice. He quickly became famous and the news of this mysterious man and his healing hands reached the royal palace. The appearance of the homeless holy healer was of great interest to the tsar and his wife. As far as the world goes, they weren't that bloody, but enough that his son Alexe got hemophilia, or in layman's terms, oh my, that's a lot of blood.

She knew that Rasputin could cure people, in 1906, Alexandra asked Rasputin to come see if she could cure her son and, as it turns out, Rasputin cured Alexei, possibly taking away the aspirin the doctor prescribed. . Having seemingly done the impossible, Rasputin became very, very close to the royal family, but having a crazy wandering wizard hanging around was not a good look for the Tsar because Rasputin was strange. Not only was he a big fan of alcohol, but he also threw crazy

part

ies with the Russian nobility. (loud beep) And no one knew how the goat got to the roof.

The press was initially banned from talking about Rasputin, but the ban was eventually lifted and the tabloids went to town. It was all a big scandal and everyone was scared that this guy was influencing the tsar and his wife. Nicholas could have spent this period of relative peace improving his image. Instead, he spent it doing this, but as strange as the whole Rasputin thing was, as long as the economy kept getting better and people's lives kept getting better, maybe Nick would be okay. Maybe there would be no more revolutions. Maybe this video could even end here or maybe things were about to get worse, much worse.

You see the years 1914, and that means it's for World War I. (dramatic music)