RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Some people enjoy reading or playing board games. Imagine if you had to ask the government permission to buy a book or a game. Let’s read about the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a country with laws similar to that.

For hundreds of years, the Tsars ruled the Russian Empire. Tsar means emperor in Russian. Tsar Nicholas II was the emperor in the early 1900s. Many people in Russia were not happy living under Tsar Nicholas II. His unfair government made life difficult for anyone who wasn’t rich, and people wanted a change.

On March 8, 1917, workers in the city of Petrograd (now called St. Petersburg) went on strike in protest of the Tsar. The protests quickly spread to other cities. The protesters demanded a change in the country’s leadership. The Tsar was unable to control the protests, and he was forced to abdicate, or give up, the throne. These protests, called the March Revolution, were the first part of the Russian Revolution.

A temporary government was formed to take the Tsar’s place. This new government was not able to improve the lives of Russia’s citizens. Russia needed a leader to help them. They found that leader in Vladimir Lenin.

Vladimir Lenin was the leader of a group called the Bolshevik Party. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party wanted to establish a communist government. In a communist government, the state owns and controls all of the country’s resources. They own abdicate all the land, factories, and businesses. The state also supplies everyone with all they need, such as food, housing, education, and healthcare.

Lenin spread the idea of communism throughout Russia. In November of 1917, the Bolsheviks started the second part of the revolution. This part was a war. They won the revolution, and Lenin became the new leader of Russia. Lenin implemented communism in Russia. To implement means to put into effect. The government abolished private land ownership and took control of the factories.

Russia was the first communist country in the world. Russia under the communists was also called the USSR. That stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Most people refer to the USSR as the Soviet Union.

The people of the Soviet Union soon found out that communism was not actually a good idea. People in Russia were not free to live the way they wanted. Because the government owned everything, people couldn’t do anything the government didn’t allow. Millions of Russians in the USSR suffered from hunger or government harassment, meaning bother. The USSR often punished small crimes very harshly. People were sent to labor camps in a freezing part of Russia called Siberia, where many died. Over the years, the Soviet government killed millions of its own citizens.

The Communist regime , or government, ruled Russia until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.