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Ten Minute History - The Russian Revolution (Short Documentary) | History Matters | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Ten Minute History - The Russian Revolution (Short Documentary)
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Summary
Core Theme
The Russian Revolution was a complex and violent period that saw the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy, the rise of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin, and ultimately the establishment of the Soviet Union under Stalin, transforming Russia into a global superpower.
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1894 Nicholas II has just been coronated
as the Emperor of Russia before
continuing there's a technical matter
which needs to be resolved the calendar
to simplify the Russian calendar was 13
days behind the Gregorian calendar in
use today which is why some things like
the October Revolution are said to have
occurred in November for this episode
both calendars will be used so Nicholas
II was an absolute monarch which meant
that he had the final say on everything
concerning the Russian Empire which was
huge during the late 19th century Russia
had seen rapid industrialization along
alongside this came new ideas such as
the Communist ideals of a certain KL
Marx which led to the workingclass of
Russia demanding greater representation
so to grossly oversimplify communism is
a political ideology which argues that
the means of production such as Factory
should be collectively owned by everyone
as opposed to individuals it wanted to
abolish social classes and believed that
the economy should be entirely
controlled by the central government the
Imperial Russian government suffered
from being somewhat distant and
incompetent for example agriculture was
slow to industrialize and there were
numerous foreign policy fail failings
the most notable of these failings were
the ones which caused conflict with the
Japanese leading to the 1904 Russo
Japanese war so to simplify the reasons
for war can largely be chalked up to
Japan expanding its influence in Korea
and Russia refusing to accept it
Japanese decided that war would settle
it and so launched a sneak attack
against the Russian Fleet in Port Arthur
which Russia had leased from China the
Japanese would continue with a string of
Victories such as the Battle of mton and
the Battle of tsushima this embarrassed
the Russians and during peace
negotiations led by certain Sergey V
Russia lost Port Arthur in half of here
unfortunately for Russia military defeat
wasn't their only problem at this time
the most notable event was called Bloody
Sunday in which a priest called father
gapon LED A procession through Russia's
capital St Petersburg to present a
petition to the emperor the crowd was
fired upon leading to hundreds of deaths
which then caused riots across the
Empire V was tasked with ending the
rioting and presented a compromise the
formation of political parties and an
elected assembly called the Doomer for
the record this dumer was mostly useless
since it had no Authority and Nicholas
II could still do whatever he wanted
there were some ctions and the emperor
appointed a new prime minister Pi sppin
sppin would bring about much needed
agricultural reform before being
assassinated in a theater in 1911 in
front of the emperor 1914 was a big year
for Russia since St Petersburg was
renamed to petrograd because it sounded
more Russian another event which was
also probably important was the first
world war in which Russia had mixed
success to raise morale and against the
advice of literally everyone Nicholas
appointed himself as the head of the
army he left his wife Empress Alexandra
in charge of the capital with her
adviser gor Rasputin after Russia's
failings on the Eastern Front Rasputin
was blamed for corrupting the royal
family and was eventually assassinated
in 1916 Nicolas as the head of the army
was seen as responsible for the failings
of the war war fatigue and food
shortages led to protests which Nicholas
had hoped to put down with the Army well
the Army mutinied and joined the
protesters in order to calm the
situation some Russian generals met with
Nicholas and urged him to abdicate which
he did in 1917 Nicholas's abdication led
to certain exiled peoples most notably
Vladimir Lenin returning to Russia it
was people like Lenin who undermined the
new provisional government by forming a
rival one the petrograd Soviet Lenin
immediately began calling for the
overthrow of the provisional government
promising the Russian people land food
and an end to the war the provisional
government had decided not to end the
war and many people took to the streets
to protest and at the front of this
protest stood Lenin's communist faction
called the Bolsheviks the government
forces decided to open fire and many
prominent Bolshevik such as Leon trosky
were arrested and Lenin was forced to
flee to Finland trosky wouldn't spend
long in prison since the new Russian
Prime Minister Alexander kensky
appointed a new head of the army LV
cornov kensky and cornov quickly fell
out and cornov marched his troops on
petrograd kensky released many of the
Bolshevik since their military arm the
Red Guard were the only ones that could
stop cornov cornov never reached
petrograd due to Bolshevik sabotage and
was later arrested Lenin returned to
Russia and in a shocking turn of events
called for the overthrow of the
government this time the overthrow was
to be violent Lenin placed trosky in
command of the Revolution the Bolshevik
seized City infrastructure kensky fled
and shortly afterwards the Bolshevik
seized the winter the seat of the
Russian government Lenin then declared
to the petrograd Soviet that the
Bolsheviks were now in control and
trosky dismissed their opponents
immediately after the revolution Lenin
announced three decrees there was the
decree on peace which promised to put an
end to the war the decree on land which
abolished private land ownership and
allowed peasants to divide land amongst
themselves and the decree on workers
which introduced a minimum wage Lenin
also brought in universal healthcare and
education increased the rights of women
alongside accepting finland's
Declaration of Independence the
Bolsheviks announced that there would be
free and fair elections the next month
which the Bolsheviks lost this was not
what Lenin had planned so he ordered the
red card to shut down the elected
assembly and had himself placed in
charge mosco was declared Russia's new
capital and Lin switched to the
Gregorian calendar in the march of 1918
after some tough negotiations and an
invasion trosky and the team of
delegates managed to secure a
humiliating peace with the Central
Powers this treaty the Treaty of breast
lovs gave up all of this territory to
Germany in the austr Hungarian Empire
although they themselves would be forced
to give this up in the Treaty of Vera to
many in Russia this peace was long du to
others such as the Czechoslovakian
Legion it was a complete betrayal the
Czechoslovakian Legion had fought for
Russia in the first world war in return
for Czechoslovakian independence from
the austr Hungarian Empire after peace
was declared they revolted their initial
success spurred other enemies of the
Bolsheviks to take up arms as well thus
beginning the Russian Civil War in
Earnest in terms of the factions the
Bolsheviks and their supporters are
called the Reds those who opposed them
are known as the whites Britain France
Japan and the United States elected to
intervene on the side of the whites it
was mostly to reopen the Eastern Front
against Germany but there was also a
great worry about the spread of
Communism the whites were initially very
successful but it wasn't long before
their progress stalled this was because
they weren't very unified and many of
those fighting against the Bolsheviks
were fighting for their own independence
not to restore the Russian Empire the
white generals were also somewhat
useless for example Alexander kak
struggled to keep his officers sober
insulted his allies and executed tens of
thousands of people turning them to the
Bolshevik cause he did manage to capture
a cinberg where the former Emperor was
being held the Bolsheviks didn't want
the the emperor to fall into enemy hands
and so he and his family were executed
on July the 17th 1918 the Reds had the
advantage of geography their territory
was much more Compact and had greater
levels of industrialization it had
better infrastructure lines of
communication raw materials and a larger
population to maintain order in this
area the Bolsheviks began what is called
the Red Terror this involved sending
dissidents to work camps shooting
protesters and trosky holding the
families of generals hostage so they'd
stay loyal eventually it became clear to
the Allies that the Bolsheviks were
going to win the iies withdrew and the
Czechoslovakian Legion returned to
Czechoslovakia which was Independent by
then anyway the collapse of the Russian
and austr Hungarian Empires meant that
many peoples in Eastern Europe were
looking to establish their own Nations
and borders the Polish led by Yosef
pitsky wanted to expand the newly
independent Poland at the cost of Russia
at the same time the Bolsheviks were
also looking to spread communism to
their neighbors and reconquer Russia's
old territories the Bolsheviks also
believed that the turmoil in Germany and
the former austr Hungarian Empire meant
that Communist governments could be set
up there as well in 199 19 the Polish
invaded Ukraine and captured KB the
Bolsheviks counter attacked and forced
the Polish all the way back to Warsaw
the Polish repulsed the attack thus
maintaining their independence and
stopping Bolshevik forces from entering
Germany these borders were established
with Ukraine and Belarus becoming
socialist republics which were
essentially Russian puppet States having
failed to spread communism to Eastern
Europe for now the Bolsheviks moved to
secure their position in Russia Lenin
turned to fixing Russia's economic WS by
implementing the New Economic Policy
this allowed some private Enterprise a
distinctly non bevic ideal to help
Revitalize the economy in 1922 Russia
and its surrounding socialist republics
which were nothing more than puppet
States agreed to form the Union of
Soviet Socialist republics Lenin had
become unwell during the early 1920s and
after a series of Strokes was left
bedridden until his death in 1924
Lenin's death left the power vacuum
which only two men could fill the first
was trosky the second was a certain
Joseph Stalin Stalin had played a role
in the Russian Revolution prior to this
first as an editor of the bevic
newspaper and also as a commander in the
Red Army during the invasion of Poland
by the time of Lenin's death Stalin held
the position of General Secretary the
highest political post in the USSR
Stalin was able to forge alliances with
other prominent party members and
concealed Lenin's criticisms of him so
Trotsky and Stalin held two distinct
positions with how to proceed trotsky's
position is known as permanent
revolution trosky felt that unless
socialist Revolution was encouraged in
other countries the Bolshevik Revolution
would Hal and it would become impossible
for the Soviet Union to survive whereas
starling's belief known as socialism in
one country argued that socialism within
the USSR should be strengthened before
it could be exported anywhere else so
long story short Stalin was victorious
in the struggle for power and in 1929
trosky was exiled from the Soviet Union
he ended up in Mexico where he was
assassinated in 1940 after his victory
Stalin began to tighten his grip over
the Soviet Union he did this via purges
assassination censorship and a secret
police force the nkvd Stalin removed
many members of the Communist party and
famously purged the officers in the Red
Army Stalin's most famous Tools in
maintaining order were the goo LX the
successor to Lenin's work camps the
conditions in these camps were almost
unbearable and the mortality rates were
incredibly High Stalin wasn't just a
tyrant he also brought about many
domestic reforms such as the 5-year
plans which were designed to improve
industrial output which it did to a
miraculous degree another reform
introduced was collectivization whereby
farmers were forced to unite their farms
in order to increase crop yields and
speed up mechanization it should be
remembered that Stalin's reform has
changed Russia from an Empire struggling
to keep up to a political and economic
Powerhouse so in conclusion the legacy
of the Russian Revolution is hard to
measure in many respects all it did was
replace one authoritarian regime with
another it's worth noting that the
actions of Lenin trosky Stalin and many
others helped turn Russia into a
superpower one which was vital to
stopping the Nazis one area where it
definitely changed the world was that it
marks the last point in which Russia and
the West saw each other as allies I hope
you enjoyed this episode and thank you
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