Category: Eastern Front – WWI

Lenin had set up a dictatorship, but was still enacting many of his socialist policies, like giving the poor land and food. However, he had still not gotten them out of the war so began to negotiate with the Germans, with Trotsky as the middle man. Germany demanded a large chunk of territory that, if lost, would cripple the Russian Economy. Lenin called this an insult to Russia, so Trotsky thought of a new idea. If they simply stopped fighting then the Germans would see that they wanted to just stop and not fight anymore. Obviously, this plan failed and Germany advanced thousands of more troops into their territory. When peace was offered again, they demanded even more land. The Soviets had to accept.

Being in a more exposed position, the capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow. Lenin then established the Communist International or Comintern, an effort to expand communism in other countries. However, many non-Bolshevik groups were not a fan of the Bolshevik Policies, and formed the White Army, thrusting Russia into a civil war. The two main factions were the Red Army, made up of the Bolsheviks and their militias, and the White Army who was made up of basically everyone else, mainly the regions controlled by the Russian Empire, like Poland, Ukraine, Finland and Belarus, or the anti-Bolsheviks, like the more moderate Socialists, the Monarchists and the Republicans.

Due to a lack of coordination inside the White Army and the Red Army controlling the industrial heartland, the Red Army made quick progress. However, the Tsar, who was being kept in Ipatiev House this entire time, was a concern of the Bolsheviks. They believed that if the White Army captured the Tsar, they could reestablish the monarchy they fought so hard to abolish.

At around midnight on July 17th, 1918, the Romanovs were woken up and got told they were moving to a safe location due to the war. Believing Nicholas’ cousin, King George V of Britain, had come to rescue them, they excitedly got dressed. The Romanovs were told to go into the basement and stand against the wall, under the pretext of a photograph being taken to assure that they were safe and well. The group was as follows.

• Nicholas II, former Tsar of Russia
• Alexandra Feodorovna, the former Princess of the Rhine and Tsarina of Russia
• Their 5 children, Olga, Anastasia, Alexsei, Maria and Tatiana
• Court Physician Eugene Botkin
• Lady-in-waiting Anna Demidova
• Footman Alexei Trupp
• Head Cook Ivan Kharitonov

Then, a group of slightly drunk executioners entered the room. The leader pulled out a Colt M1911, and fired three shots at Nicholas, who fell to the floor dead. The rest of the Royal Family and the entourage were shot dead against the wall. The loud gunfire alerted others around the large house. Due to the smoke, the firing was ceased, only to find that the children were still alive, with Tatiana only being injured. They were then ordered to bayonet the children. This proved to be highly ineffective.

Alexsei, who was still in shock in his seat was shot point blank in the head. Tatiana and Olga were both shot in the head too. Maria, cowering in the corner was also killed. Anna, who survived the initial attack, was stabbed to death against the wall. The last to die was Anastasia, who cried out as the bodies were being taken away. She was hit with the butt of a rifle in her chest before being shot in the head with a revolver. The bodies were then carried out to the woods where there were put in a mass grave, covered in acid and buried. The bodies were not discovered until the 1970s and only identified in the 1990s. Boris Yeltsin, future President of Russia ordered the demolition of the house. It is unknown if they were acting on Lenin’s orders or their own.

The allied powers, wanting to not spread the ideas of Communism, sent their own troops to assist the White Army. However, with the end of WW1, the map of Europe was redrawn, and many states that the Russian Empire used to own became their own countries. Russia recognised the independence of the Baltics but the southern state of Georgia, a key point of the White Army due to its oil fields was attacking the Red Army. Lenin made a deal with one of the minor factions in the war, the Black Army and an alliance was formed. Eventually, they crushed the Southern and Western front, bringing more nations into the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or, as it’s more commonly known, the Soviet Union by 1922.

Despite the Tsar being deposed, one of the main issues that the Russian People still had wasn’t resolved, they were still in the war. In order to concentrate the war onto one front, the Germans actively sent Lenin back on a train to Petrograd from Switzerland in order to start a revolution and get Russia out of the war.

With the Tsar gone, the Duma believed they should be in power, setting up a provisional government. However, the Soviets claimed that they were the government, setting up local establishments run by Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, who would command the workers and soldiers. It was a delicate but fragile power balance. And Lenin was not a fan.

[There should be no] support for the Provisional Government; the utter falsity of all its promises should be made clear. [This government is] a government of capitalists, [and] should cease to be an imperialist government.

Lenin’s writings about the Government in his April Theses

Whilst many of their policies still left people starving and soldiers still fighting in the war, progress was slow and steady. The secret police was disbanded, a democracy was being established and the death penalty was abolished. However, Lenin thought this needed to change, promising the people everything that the Provisional Government wasn’t giving them, that being Peace, Land and Bread, and declared all power should be given to the Soviets. People began supporting his radical ideals and the Provisional Government began to panic. Instead of backing out of the war, they decided to launch the Kerensky Offensive, named after minister of war, Alexander Kerensky, believing that a victory would help support for the Provisional Government. This offensive was a massive failure and crashed the economy. The people, still starving with their husbands, sons and brothers dying out on the front, began to riot riots once more.

A group of armed protestors went out onto the streets and were subsequently shot by the Government soldiers. Lenin and the Soviets wanted to distance themselves from the violence. However, they marched under Soviet slogans and Kerensky, now the Prime Minister decided to use this to lock up the Soviets and accuse Lenin of being a German Agent, whereupon he fled to Finland in disguise.

The violence was eventually repressed by Kerensky but the workers were still supporting Communist ideals, which worried the liberals and factory owners. In order to help ease the tension, Kerensky appointed anti-Socialist General Kornilov to Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. However, Kornilov hated the even slightly socialist policies of the Government so much that he grabbed his army and began to march on Petrograd. Panicking, Kerensky pulled Trotsky, who had defected to the Bolshevik cause, out of prison, armed them and told them to deal with Kornilov. It was a swift victory for Trotsky, by sabotaging railway and communications lines and convincing Kornilov’s men to desert. But when Kerensky asked for the guns back, Trotsky refused and Kerensky had now accidentally just armed the party that the working class were looking for. And due to the victory against Kornilov, party popularity sky rocketed.

They were eventually elected to the leader of the Soviets, allowing Lenin to return from Finland to enact his Communist Revolution. They were very loud about their uprising, alerting Kerensky who had Bolsheviks arrested. With their numbers rapidly dwindling due to being sent to prison, Lenin decided it was now or never. Trotsky got to work arming the Bolshevik Militias, who would storm government buildings, easily seizing control. They eventually seized control of most buildings in Petrograd and, as Kerensky ran out of the city, the Bolsheviks surrounded the Winter Palace.

Having finally come out of hiding, Lenin decided it was time to storm the palace. The guards gave up, and practically allowed Lenin and the Bolshevik Militia through, arresting the politicians inside. Lenin was now the leader of Russia, now called the Soviet Union. He decided to hold an election, the first of which he lost, called the other parties anti-Revolutionary, arrested their leaders and had no more elections after that. The Russian people began to suspect that Lenin was setting up a dictatorship.

On August 30, 1918, Lenin was speaking at a plant in Moscow. As he finished, he left the plant, when Fanny Kaplan fired 3 shots at him. Lenin survived and Kaplan was arrested and executed. This was not the first attempt on Lenin’s life, nor would it be the last. The newly established Bolshevik secret police ramped up their repression because of this. But, in the end, that was the Russian Revolution. It was not a great act of patriotism and bravery like in the United States. Nor was it a brutal, violent uprising like in France. Communist art may make you think that but ultimately, the Russian Revolution was one man with an idea, who wanted to depose a totalitarian rule and replace it with his own one, who simply did it by walking into buildings and asking what he wanted.

By 1917, soldiers began deserting, the economy was through the floor and people were starving due to the war. As Commander in Chief, Nicholas was getting even more blame than he usually did. On March 8th, or February 23rd on the Julian Calendar that Russia used at the time, a large group of women took to the streets, protesting the starvation they were going through. The next day, many of the men joined in too. They demanded to stop the food rationing and the war, whilst also deposing the Tsar.

In situations such as these, soldiers would usually take care of them, but tired of the war themselves and firing on their own people they’re meant to protect, they turned on their own generals. Members of the Duma also joined in, tired of the Tsar dissolving them whenever he wanted. All of these groups had one thing in common. They wanted the Tsar to abdicate.

As the violence escalated the Soviets were reestablished to manage riots. Nicholas decided to return to Petrograd, but was stopped on the way there, by a group of politicians and generals, who all said he needed to abdicate right now, in order to quell the violence. Eventually he agreed and three centuries of Romanov rule in Russia fizzled out like that.

Even though many people were not a big fan of the Imperialist government run by the Tsar, a Russian loss in WW1 would almost certainly mean the Tsar being replaced by the Imperialist government of Germany, lead by the Kaiser. Due to the war being against Germany, the capital of St Petersburg was renamed to Petrograd to sound less German. However, one person who did not support Russia’s success in the war was Vladimir Lenin, who despised the Tsar so much even if it meant the country was reduced to ash and ruin getting him deposed.

However, unlike the Western front, the Central powers had made a decent advance into Russian Territory, due to poor leadership and logistical problems. The Tsar declared himself Commander in Chief of the Army, leaving Petrograd to go to the front lines, leaving his wife, a German, and Rasputin, a crazy, homeless “wizard”, in charge of the country, which isn’t something you really want to do ever, especially when you’re at war and even more so a war with Germany.

A group of nobles, tired of Rasputin’s antics, believing he was secretly destroying Russia and having sex with the Tsarina, decided to act. Some of the conspirators included Felix Yusopov, a Russian Prince and Count, and Dmitry Pavlovich, a Grand Duke and the grandson of Tsar Alexander II.

On December 29th, 1916, the pair invited Rasputin to a small party in a palace. From this moment on, the story becomes hearsay and rumours. Some believe that because of the events that unfolded, that Rasputin actually was a wizard. Once Rasputin arrived, they offered him tea and cakes, all laced with enough cyanide to kill 3-4 men. However, Rasputin ate it all and seemed fine. The Prince then gave him some wine, also laced with cyanide. Rasputin drank 3 glasses and was still perfectly fine. Tired of this, Yusopov went a bit less subtle, grabbing a revolver and shooting Rasputin in the chest.

The two then left the palace, with another conspirator wearing Rasputin’s clothes and hat, to make it seem as though Rasputin had left the palace alive. Upon returning to the palace, they were shocked to find that Rasputin was still alive, who lept up from the floor and attacked them, before running out into the snowy courtyard. He was shot twice more, whereupon he fell on the ground. Yusopov then allegedly began beating Rasputin of the head with a dumbell. Eventually, they carried him to a nearby bridge, throwing him into the icy water. It is not known if he was still alive by the time he was thrown in the water, despite rumours claiming he was thrashing around in the freezing cold water, but his body was found on January 1st underneath the ice.

Once it was found that Yusopov and Pavlovich were part of the conspiracy, Yusopov was exiled to his country estate and Pavlovich was sent to a garrison in Persia, modern day Iran. Rasputin was buried on January 2nd.