Russian Revolution- causes and effects

I stumbled upon a French documentary on Russian revolution which helped me realise how little I know about that event.  It’s made solely of the authentic footage of that tormented period, which makes it even more enriching, because an ordinary viewer has little chance to ever see it on the national tv (apparently tv serials are more intriguing). Theme music is simple and genius, somehow it links perfectly with the Russian culture and with a period of difficult times.

 At first, viewers can admire splendor of Romanov’s life, orthodox priests, before religion was completely suppressed, tragic living conditions of the working class.

Some film frames struck me more then others : one at the beginning, when fields are covered by thousands of members of cavalry during attack, then agonizing children soon to be dead because of the famine that ravaged the country, next the celebration of the tercentenary of Romanov dynasty and creepy Rasputin eyes.

Rasputin and Tsar Nicolas II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin/ http://en.ria.ru/

Before the revolution (at the beginning of the 20^th century), peasants made up 80% of the Russian population. Hardship of their lives was due to low efficiency of land cultivation. When they were freed from their masters’ oppression (in the 70. of the 19^th C.) , their situation got even worse. Those who were unemployed decided to leave their village and join working-class people- proletariat- and drudge at grim factories during the heyday of Industrialization. They were worth less than draft animals to their employers because if they died, thousands of others came to replace them. Tolstoy was the writer who spotted and described that hell on earth. When workers organized a peaceful demonstration in Saint Petersburg and marched towards the Winter Palace in order to beg the Tsar for better work conditions, troops shot at them- that day is engraved in Russian memory as the Bloody Sunday. Unfortunately, Nicolas II was more concerned about his defeat with Japanese people than his own compatriots’ demands. As a result, soviet committees were formed throughout the country, but they were brutally oppressed. Tsar responded to that by creating Duma, copy of the  French Assemblée  constituante of 1789. As a consequence, political parties were established. Subsequently, some prime minister attempted to create a new social class- kulaks (middle-class farmers)- but he failed tragically and was assassinated. Russia went bankrupt, so Tsar was forced to borrow money from British and French lenders in exchange for the army alliance. Lenin lied in wait in Switzerland, Germany and France for the advantageous moment to crawl back to his homeland and take the power. In 1912 employees of some factories revolted and the country was traumatized one more time. On the top of all that, Russian public was shocked by a Russian monk, Rasputin, who was allegedly possessed by the Devil. He managed to discredit completely Nicolas II and his kins. The movie covers the Russian history up to the Lenin’s death, but I won’t summarise every bit of information. The documentary was definitely worth watching for me.