Life in the Late Soviet Union

Following Stalins death, there were 2 leaders before the fall of the Soviet Union. The poliecies began to change and living conditions became much greater for the people, lots of the core Soviet Ideologies had been abandoned so the fall of the Union was impending


Stalins Successors
 Stalin had not agreed upon his successor, but the position went to the highest ranking Communist Party Official Nikita Khrushchev. Who introduced De-Stalinization, a process where they had to eliminate Stalins cult of personality, ending Labour camps  ending forced labour, improving living conditions, and putting an end to the Stalinist Political system. Khrushchev Introduced many economic and cultural policies that improved living conditions dramatically. Khrushchev was booted from office in 1964 when signing a treaty to keep Russian missiles out of Cuba, this caused embarrassment to the nation. Leonid Brezhnev Followed as leader. Brezhnev signed a few Treaties with the west to ease the tention, but at the same time was very focused on Military. Brezhnev died in 1982, leaving 2 successors, whose terms had been cut short due to the of old age. To break this trend of old leaders, Soviets turned to the next generation and picked Mikhail Gorbachev, who would go on to eliminating the Union.

Technological Advances during the Cold War

   The Soviet Union had a goal of surpassing the West in technology.  Launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog, Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space,Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexey Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966 and the first moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2. Lenin had a belief that they would never surpass the west in living conditions if their technology didnt advance. Soviet Authorities followed that belief and invested heavily in science. The Soviet Union had some of the worlds best scientists that varied from knowledge about: Medicine, Space, Mathematics, and Military Tech.

Education and Health
  The late Soviet power had acknowledged that education was necessity to building the New Soviet Man. Education became more accessible and every child had to go to school. Unfortunetly only 20% of students were only able to make it into university, forcing the rest simply into the work force straight from school.
  Health care was heavily criticized  for the reason that the quality of service was poor, making the health of society poor. After a socialist revolution, the heath care system sky rocketed, and over passed the quality, and availability of the west, and for a short time had a longer life expectancy then the west.

Religion and Culture
  For Most of the Soviet Union religion had been suppressed  and banned. Religion in Russia began to have more freedom in the Leonid Brezhnev era. Leonid made a relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Soviet Government, aswell as the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Although the Soviet Government was easing up on anti-religious laws, most of this freedom was in Russia, and still banned in other Soviet Nations.
  Following the Khrushchev Thaw of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Living conditions for the citizens became better. Censorship had been diminished, and government allowed for experimentation in art works,  loosened its emphasis on socialist realism, and allowed for a conformist public life and intense focus on personal life. But,  Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression in the media and press.

End of the Soviet Union
  As soon as Gorbachev came to power he worked to putting an end to the cold war. Taking troops out of a 9 year war in Afghanistan  and tearing down the Berlin wall. Gorbachev worked to setting up a legislation that would allow free elections, and in 1989, Boris Yeltsin was the official president of Russia. Gorbachev made a New Union Treaty, that would loosen the power of the Union, and have the republics take control of themselves. Later the  Commonwealth of Independent States agreement was signed by leaders of each republic, that would dissolve the Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. Leaving the Presidential power to Boris Yeltsin.

Was the Soviet Union an Enlightenment period?
  The Soviet Union brought leadership to a country that was lacking it. The people were ignored, the land was owned by a few wealthy people and people were stuck in a poor social class. Industries were doing poorly and innovation was falling behind. The Soviet Union brought Russia to the top in Industrialization  Militarization  and revived its economy. The Soviet Union pushed forward technology, medicine, and innovation further then what could have been achieved by the Tsarist government. The only down fall of the Soviet Union was some the power hungry leaders that believed keeping power was more important then the lives of their people, and dehumanization of their citizens would make them into working machines that, for the price of the persons well being, would bring Russia into the lead of Industrialization.

Stalin's "Enlightenment"

As the Soviet Union was just getting back up on its feet, thanks to the NEP, The soviet Union was becoming an enlightenment period for Russia. Although it had some rough moments, the Soviet Union had brought leadership into a country, that was falling apart under the leadership of the Tsar. But as Lenin passed away, a fight for the throne began, and ended up being taken by the most ruthless leader, Stalin. Stalin was born into a poor family and were peasants under the Tsar's ruling. Stalin excelled in school, and in university found the works of Lenin, becoming a follower. Stalin joined the Bolsheviks mid revolution in a minor position, and worked his way to the top through out the years of Lenins ruling.

Death of Lenin
  in 1921, Lenin began having minor strokes, knowing that he must not have much time to live, Lenin wrote his will and pointed out that he does not want one leader to succeed him, but a group of leaders. That included Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev. Also noting that he saw arrogance  and rudeness in Stalin, recommending he be removed  from his posts in the Communist Party. Lenin died on the 21st of January 1924, from a brain haemorrhage, living only until he was 53.

The Fight for Leadership
  Although Lenins wish was for the power to divided equally amongst Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev, The members wanted to shrink that number. Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev decided to team up and discredit Trotsky from leadership. Stalin stopped Lenins wife from publishing his testament to the public, knowing that it would raise questions about him as a leader, and prevent him from taking out the other 3 members from leadership. Trotsky was on holiday when Lenin died, Stalin convinced Trotsky to stay on his vacation, until the funeral, But Stalin gave him the wrong date for the funeral. This made Trotsky look bad, and made Stalin look like a perfect fit for the next leader. By 1929 Stalin had removed key people and replaced them with his
supporters.

Stalin's 5 Year Plans to industrialize the State
 When becoming the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin came to the realization that the West was far ahead in industrialization and technology. Stalin knew that it was important that he would not fall behind to the west, and that he needs to modernize the economy, as it would lead to a stronger army. Als
o find it important to modernizing farms, to provide more food, and providing farms with tractors and machinery would improve efficiency.
  To modernize Russia in the quickest time possible, Stalin created the Five Year Plans. This tactic involved State taking control of all factories, telling them what to make, how much to make, where to make it,and setting unreachable goals for factories.
-The first five year plan was from 1928 to 1932
-The second five year plan was from 1933 to 1937.
-The third five year plan was from 1938 to 1941 but was interrupted by the war.
 Although the targets that were set were completely unrealistic, vast improvements were made by factories to avoid attention of State. The emphasis was on heavy industries such as coal, oil, iron and steel and electricity.

This Graph shows the Factory progress in Russia(1927 being before the Five Year Plans were implemented)

	1927	1932	1937
Coal	35 million tons	64 mt (75 mt target)	128 mt (152 mt target)
Oil	12 million tons	21 mt (22 mt target)	29 mt (47 mt target)
Iron Ore	5 million tons	12 mt (19 mt target)	unknown
Pig Iron	3 million tons	6 mt (10 mt target)	15 mt (16 mt target)
Steel	4 million tons	6 mt (10 mt target)	18 mt (17 mt target)

Progress was on the rise and Stalin did everything that he could to make sure that the country strived for Industrialization  Going as far as calling Foreign experts to teach the workers how to improve and work more efficiently. Stalin made Failure to reach Quota a serious offence on behalf of the managers, and would execute those who fail to reach Quota. So managers had to lie on some of their numbers, as the goals set were impossible to reach.

Life of the Workers

 Life of the workers was hard, and had to work countless hours for very little pay. The youth that had been born into the propaganda State country were made to believe that working a few hard years will gain them reward in the future. Motivating the workers was a very important part for the managers, pay by performance was an incentive to get workers to work harder. Failure to work hard could result in that worker being fined, or charged with the crime of "being an enemy of the people" and sent to a labor camp where they would have to work until they died.

   Although the Five Year Plan had many problems, and held the public in a prison state, Russia became an Industrial powerhouse, which played a big role in the war that was coming.

Living Conditions
   Living under Stalins ruling was rough, Many workers over worked, and most resources going towards the army. There were Famines costing 5-10 million peoples lives, as wells as 27 million casualties in the war alone. People were left to face the damages from World War II. Religion was banned and atheism was push towards students through education and anti-religion propaganda.

Death of Stalin
 The War was catastrophic in the number of Casualties Russia has faced, but was successful in stopping Germany. As the battle ended, Germany was divided into two parts, west belonging to USA, and east belonging to the Soviet Union, This created a show down between two enemy's known as the "Cold War" where the two sides agreed to Mutual Assured Destruction. This caused both sides to try to one up each other in Technology, Industrialization, and comfort of living. Joseph died in the middle of this war on 5 March 1953, Without a mutually agreeable successor, but went to the highest ranking Communist Party Official Nikita Khrushchev.

Soviet Enlightenment? (Part 2)

Living Conditions under the Soviet Union
After a rough relationship between the Tsar and the citizens, the Soviets began to become popular amongst the people, as they promised freedoms, a stop to WWI, Land reform, and most importantly food!

The Swift abolishment of the Tsarists government
 Through effective use of propaganda, and the failing leadership of Tsar Nicholas II. the soviets had many soldiers on their side. Using the weapons they had been given for the war to revolt against the Tsar, and fighting for the empowerment of the soviets. These were called the "Red guards". 24-25 October 1917 the Red guards had control of most major places in Petrograd, places like Trains, Railway Stations, and Telephone Exchange were under Soviet control. Thanks to Trotsky being the official leader of the Red army, and Lenin's return from Exile, Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace & arrested members of provisional government, and it took only a few days for the Soviets to take control of major cities

The Soviet Opposition
 Although the Tsar was proven to be the wrong leader for the country at the time, there were allot of people that opposed the change of power. Creating what is called the "whites", citizens opposing the empowerment of the soviets decided to fight against the Reds. The Whites were very unsuccessful in fighting off the Reds, as they had no leader, and no organization, had to cover a long area, so the Red were able to kill off opposition one at a time. Many country's were also against the uprising of communism in Russia  and were opposed to it leaving the war, That even the Czech Republic began taking action and attacking Russian soldiers.

Initial Soviet Changes 

 With a Group of 25 members of Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries and 14 Bolsheviks. The Soviets were now in a heart of the country, Petrograd. Lenin was chairman, Trotsky was the Commissar for War, and Stalin , Commissar for Nationalities.In December 1917, The Soviets had passed new laws, and made many changes in the country.
-The land that was previously owned by the Tsar, Nobles, and Church was redistributed.
-The social classes were abolished, and now every person was considered a "comrade", an equal citizen.
-Factory workers were to work a maximum 8 hour shifts a day to avoid over working their people.
-Closed down any non-Bolshevik newspapers.
-Setting up a secret Police force called the "Cheka".
-Marriage laws relaxed to allow non religious services and easier divorce.
-In 1918 banning all opposing forces, becoming a single party nation.
-Began talks with Germany, Austria, Hungary of a peace treaty to end WWI

Women in the work place
 Women were made equal to men, in pay and as a colleague  Alexandra Kollontai Set up Women’s Department of the Sovnarkom, and was the first female in any European government. Marriage became legal for men over 18 and women over 16. Abortion became legal, and women were also encouraged to be house wives if need be.

Education 
 Many schools were opened across Russia  the Soviets pushed for educating the next generation about the communist ideals. Even classes became open for peasants and workers to learn to read and write, and would also learn about the communist ideals

Changes in the Military Force
Trotsky was in charge of the Military and made the Military stronger through his very Disciplined ideals. Trotsky introduced the conscription of all men 18-40, which inflated the number of troops that were in the army. Many men were not happy with the conscription, so to avoid any Disloyal soldiers going out of line: Trotsky introduced Capital Punishment, and Harsh Disciplined  Trotsky employed the Tsar's best officers, and encouraged new talent. Having lots of respect for his troops, Trotsky made many visits to the front line to boost morale, and motivate his soldiers through speeches.

The Soviet Dark Side
  Although, at the beginning of their leadership, the Soviets made lots of positive change in the country, which proved them to have enlightenment ideals, the Soviets were beginning to forget about their people and more focused on the strength of their power, and their armies. To make sure the Red Army had enough food supplies and weaponry, the Government decided to take control over all aspects of the economy. By Nationalizing the economy, and controlling the distribution of goods, the economy was collapsing, the prices were rising, and the Roubole was stopped being used, as it held close to no value.
Town (Factory workers)
The Factories were supervised by state representatives who used strict disciplined on the workers to make sure the workers didnt slack off. They also banned all trade unions and had zero tolerence for protest, by sentencing death penalties to anyone convicted of protest. the factories began becoming short on labor  so no one was allowed to leave the cities, to avoid citizens abandoning the factories.
Farmers
Peasant were expected to grow lots of crop for very little pay. This discouraged the farmers from working hard and growing sufficient crops. The government sent in Cheka to make sure non of the farmers are hoarding crops, and would terrorize the families. The farmers became mad at the government, so instead of hoarding crops, they would simply grow enough to feed their families. This resulted in a massive famine across the country.

Red Terror
 Due to a rising number of assassination attempts on Lenin for the mistreatment of the workers. Lenin decided to toughen up on Cheka, and made labor camps for anyone that opposed the Bolsheviks. Cheka tortured and executed anyone that questioned the Bolsheviks, and going as far as sending the Tsar to a concentration camp in Siberia, and killing his family in their home by Red soldiers.1917-1924 Cheka killed more than 250,000 people.

Soviet Russia in 1921
  The economy was completely in ruins and the workers began to revolt. The famine killed over 5 million people, and people turned to cannibalism to survive. It was clear that War Communism had made things worse. As protests began to get serious, Lenin made a wise decision of creating a New Economic Policy (NEP) Which had the following effects:

-Stopped requisition squads raiding the countryside.
-Peasants to pay small amount of grain as tax each year and the rest they could sell.
-Small factories of less than 20 men could return to their old owners & make a profit.
-Traders could make, buy & sell goods at a profit.
-Trade with foreign countries encouraged
This was successful in boosting the economy and lower the famine. Lenin saw the NEP as a temporary option, as it did not meet his communist ideas. NEP lasted until 1928

Soviet Enlightenment? (Part 1)

Living Conditions under Tzar Nicholas II (1905-1914)

  
 As the Bolsheviks ideology and power was spreading, it gained lots of followers that stood along side with the Reds, and dethroned the Tzar. The people of Russia felt that they're standards of living were not sufficient with what they thought it could be.

Social Classes
   Below the Tsar. 0.1% of population owned 25% of land. It was clear that the Nobles held more power then they should. Up to 80% of the population were peasants. This 80% was living in extreme poverty and had no more rights then prisoners, not being allowed to leave the village that they worked, which was slightly more progress which they had to fight for back in 1861, when they couldn't even leave the land that they worked on. Whole families had to sleep in a single room house, where they, slept, ate, and grew up in. The families would work on farms, but there were very poor farming methods which led to excessive food shortages, and most of their food would go to the Nobles and the Bourgeoisie.
   15% of the population were Industrial workers. These people lived in towns and cities, but their living conditions weren't much better then the peasants that were living on the country side. Although the number of industrial workers were rising to to peasants leaving farm lands, the homes in the city were in awful condition. most had no running water or sewage system. The working life was just as bad, men and womens had to work long hours and had very low wages. All trade unions were banned, and striking was illegal under the ruling of the Tzar, but was becoming common, as the workers could not bare the conditions under which they were living in.

Religion
  Religion played a huge role under the Tzar's ruling, the churches owned alot of land, and were in favor of the Tzar's ruling, and stating that opposing the Tzar was a sin.

Rising Discontent with Tzar Nicholas
  The peasants, Which made up 80% of the total population, were becoming increasingly fed up with the living conditions under the Tzar's ruling. The harvest was extreme poor during 1900 & 1902, and food shortages began to starve many people to death. and the industrial slump saw many workers being laid off, and created strikes, and demonstrations in many cities. The middle class (Bourgeoisie) were also becoming less happy, as they wanted more say in how the country is run.

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
  The Tzar decided to fight for the power and control over Korea and Manchuria. Believing that this would be an easy win over the Japanese, and distract its people from the tensions and problems back at home. But  Japan attacked and beat Russian forces at Port Arthur and Russia suffered a Humiliating defeat. The war conditions made Russia, even worse. With even more food shortages, inflating prices, and high levels of unemployment, the popularity of the Tzar government was shrinking rapidly.

Bloody Sunday 22 Jan 1905
   Citizens furious at the Tzar, Father Gapon led 200,000 workers through the streets of St. Petersburg right up to the Tzars front door, at the Winter Palace. With them they had a petition with all the problems the workers were facing. Unfortunetly the Tzar was not in the Palace at the time. The tensions around the Palace were rising and the guards panicked and fired at the crowed, killing close to 1000 workers. This event led many cities around the country to be in an outrage, and by January there were over 400,000 workers on strike. Many cities were electing soviets to lead the strikes. Even the peasants began an uprising of their own, in june/july many peasants began killing their land lords. these strikes seriously paralyzed Russia, and the St. Petersburg strike was led by Leon Trotsky, who began to have very influential power on the city.

October Manifesto
   In the pressure of the rising strikes, the Tzar decided to write up a list of promises in hopes of ending the revolution, the promises were as follows:

-An elected Duma (parliament)
-All Russian men to have the right to vote.
-All laws to be approved by the Duma.
-Human Rights,  Freedom of speech
-Right to form political parties
-Uncensored newspapers.

   The public didn't wasn't sure how these changes would effect them and better their lives, but the Bourgeoisie were very happy of these promises. The Tzar used the army to eliminate any violent soviet opposition.

Stolypin 
  The Tzar had appointed Stolypin as the chief Minister, Stolypin had very strict policies. Stolypin took down any Parliament that wasn't completely on side with the Tzar, and took a leftist approach. In order to calm down terrorism, Stolypin executed anyone opposing the Tzarist government.
-1906 – 1008 people arrested, tried and executed. 21,000 sent to prison camps in Siberia.
-1907-1911 – 1800 hanged – hangman nicknamed ‘Stolypin’s necktie’.

World War One
  The Russians were pleased about the war at the time, thinking it would boost employment and country morale. Russians began hating anything that was German, and even went as far as renaming St Petersburg to Pertograd to sound less German. But as Russians began losing the war, the enthusiasm for war ended, and suffered seriously problems. There were not enough men to work the factories, and the transportation was very poor, failing to bring food and ammo to troops in battle. The prices in Russia rose, and the wages did not, inflation had began. Women started striking in Moscow and Petrograd. On August 1915 Tzar blamed the Commander of the army for their loses in the war, and decided to take over control of the army, leaving his wife in charge of the county. The Tzars command did not improve the performance of Russia in the war, and the winter had Russia in chaos. Very little food, By 26th  of February, 250,000 workers were striking. This was known as the February Revolution, The Tzar, aggravated, ordered his troops to fire upon protesters  but the army refused, and joined the protest, making it first time the Tzar not being in control of his army. 

Vladimir Lenin

   Vladimir Lenin was born 22nd of April 1870. He was born into a family that valued education, and expected their kids to value it just as much. Vladimir's mother and father were both directors of the public schools in the province and had stable jobs. Both his parents were monarchists and liberal conservatives, and were very loyal to Tsar Alexander II. As a child Vladimir bossed around his sister Olga, and had an extremely competitive nature, as well as being very destructive.

    On 12 January 1886, Vladimir's father died from a brain hemorrhage

 when Vladimir was 16 years old. This triggered Vladimir to be very confrontational and fitful behavior, and leading him to lose his belief in God. His elder Brother Aleksandr "Sacha" Ulyanov was studying biology at St. Petersburg University, and in 1885 received a gold medal from his university for his excellence in school.he was elected onto the university's Scientific-Literary Society, which led him to reading banned Leftist literature by  Dmitry Pisarev, Nikolay Dobrolyubov, Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Karl Marx. This literature changed his views on the Tsar, and he joined a radical revolutionary group whose main focus was to kill the Tzar. Sacha's job was to construct a bomb, but Before they attack commenced, the conspirators were arrested and tried. On 25 April 1887, Sacha was sentenced to death by hanging, and executed on 8 May. Regardless of the losses he has suffered, Vladimir stayed focus on his school work, also receiving a gold medal from his school, just like his brother. After finishing school Vladimir decided to go back and study law at Kazan University.

  At the at Kazan University Vladimir became interested in his late brothers political views and formed a group of revolutionary's, On 4 December he took part in a demonstration demanding the abolition of the 1884 statute and the re-legalisation of student societies, but along with 100 other protesters was arrested by police. Vladimir was accused of being the ring leader and was expelled from his university, and placed under police surveillance by The Ministry of Internal Affairs. Vladimir's mother became very worried about Vladimirs political views against the Tzar, so she decided to take him and move to village of Alakaevka, Samara Oblast, hoping he would get into agriculture. Unfortunetly he remained unpopular with locals, and had all his equipment and livestock to be stolen, which ultimately forced his mother to sell the farm.

   In September 1889, the Ulyanovs moved to Samara, here he met an exiled dissident Alexei P. Sklyarenko' , they became very good friends and adopted the Marxism.

    May 1890, Vladimir's mother convinced the authorities to allow Vladimir to undertake his exams externally at a university of his choice. Choosing the University of Saint Petersburg and obtaining the equivalent of a first-class degree with honors. Vladimir spent then next several years in Samara working as a lawyer, and writing papers on his Marxist approach on Russia  Vladimir started spreading these papers and he was arrested for doing so. Imprisoned at the House of Preliminary Detention in Shpalernaya Street, Vladimir was refused legal representation, so denied all charges. Vladimir was then sentenced without trial to 3 years exile.
  Vladimir moved to Germany, and later on to Switzerland where he met more revolutionaries and would later return to Russia in heat of the revolution, In November 1905.

The rise of the Bolsheviks

The Rise of the Bolsheviks

   The Bolsheviks were a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, which was led by Lenin, and seized control of Russian government on October 1917. They ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.



Founding of the Bolsheviks

   The Bolsheviks were founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov. By 1905 the were a mass organization running under the democratic internal hierarchy and were governed by the principle of democratic centralism. They considered themselves to be the leaders of the revolutionary working class of Russia. The party was split in two, when  Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over the membership rules. As Lenin wanted the party to be filled with revolutionary experts and Martov would like to have room for outsiders. he two had disagreed on the issue as early as March–May 1903, but it was not until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split the party. One side Bolsheviks, other side Mensheviks. Martov's supported Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed, these differences quickly grew and the split became irreparable.

the 1905 Revolution

The two Parties were in a state of flux in 1903-1904. the parties had many members switching sides.The two factions were in a state of flux in 1903–1904 with many members changing sides. Leon Trotsky, who would go on to be the second to Lenon in control, first supported the Mensheviks, but left them in September 1904. This was the start of the Bolsheviks revolution and they pushed for socialist revolution on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, thus ending the rule of the Provisional Government and leaving all political power to the Soviets. This event is known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, this armistice didnt last long, as the fighting continued in February. A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds (Supporters of the soviet union) and the Whites (supporters of the Tzar), starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds victory.

Creation of the Union

On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR. These documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations of each republic.

The Fall of Tzar Nicholas the Second

    The rise of the soviet union was had a huge impact on the world and was responsible of revolutionary change in Russia.  The people were not happy with the Tzar and resulted in an uprising of the people and swift take over by the Bolsheviks. the main reasons why the revolution happened was:

The Great Losses of World War 1
Russia's first major battle of the war was a disaster: in the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, over 30,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded and 90,000 captured, while Germany suffered just 20,000 casualties. By the end of October 1916, Russia had lost between 1,600,000 and 1,800,000 soldiers, with an additional 2,000,000 prisoners of war and 1,000,000 missing, all making up a total of nearly 5,000,000 men. This was because of the poor command. many losses were in the beginning of war and were higher then expected, leaving the command to send out barely trained soldiers that made up a large number of those casualties and critically injured. By the spring of 1915, the army was in steady retreat, some of it was not orderly, some by desertion and flight from combat. This put the soldiers moral at an all time low.

The Social Uprisings against the Tzar
The devastation of this war greatly effected not only the soldiers, but also the people. the economy was breaking down from the heightened strains of war. The main problems included food shortages, rising prices, due to the inflation which dragged down incomes at a rapiud rate, and shortages made it difficult to find anything to buy, even if one could afford it. The Tzar was blamed for this crisis, and all his support started to fade. The Stated of Dumea started issuing warnings in November 1916, telling that terrible disasster would grip the country unless a constitutional form of government is in place. Nicholas ignored them, and the Tsarist Regime was taken out a few months later during the February Revolution of 1917. One year later, The Tzar and his family were executed.

Power and Promise of Bolsheviks 
 Alexander Kerensky, a young and popular lawyer and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRP). he had joined cabinet and became the central figure of the government. But he was still faced with many of the problems left from the previous leadership, and the revolution. problems such as, Opposing parties, and food supply shortages from the war torn economy. The political group that proved most troublesome for Kerensky, and would eventually overthrow him, was the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was exiled to Sweden because of the ban on political parties under the rule of the Tzar, but upon his return the popularity of the party grew steadily, he perceived the opportunity for his Marxist revolution.