The Perfect Storm

Events leading up to the death of the Romanovs

Russia in World War I

• 1914: Russia enters World War I under the leadership of Czar Nicholas to support and protect Serbia from German invasion.

• Russia is largely defeated during this period due to poor leadership, weak intelligence, lacking technology etc.

• Over 2.25 MILLION Russians were killed in the war.

• Scattered war involvement led to extensive poverty and suffering throughout Russia.

February Revolution• February Revolution: February of 1917 a coup is staged against

Czar Nicholas. Nicholas is forced to abdicate and is sent with his family into exile in Ekaterinberg in the Ural Region of Russia.

• A provisional government is set up led by George Lvov and Alexander Kerensky.

• Newly formed government continues to fight in war.

• July: Kerensky leads enormous military debacle known as the July Offensive.

Bolshevik Revolution

• The Bolsheviks, a Marxist Social Democratic Labor Party formed in the late 19th early 20th century gained traction in 1905, establishing itself as a major organization of the “revolutionary working class.”

• Bolshevik Revolution, October 1917: the Bolsheviks, overthrow the provisional government and establish the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Government.

• The Bolsheviks are led by Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Treaty of Brest-Litovks, April 1918: Bolshevik Leaders sign the Treaty of Brest- Litovsk, effectively ending Russia’s involvement in the war.

• Treaty demands Russia makes large territorial concessions.

• Many Russians saw this Treaty as a sign of weakness and betrayal on behalf of the new government.

Civil War and Other Complications

• Russian Civil War 1917-1922 (approx.):– Tremendous infighting between multiple factions

vying for power in the new Russia:– Red Army (Bolshevik Socialists)– White Army: A group of Imperial sympathizers,

monarchists, and those striving for a capitalist system or alternative form of socialism. (Disappointed by the Treaty of Brest-Litosk, this group allied with the Czechs to fight the Red Army, with hopes of re-establishing an Eastern front against the Germans).

Plans for the Romanovs?• Ural Soviets (Bolsheviks in the Ural Region) in Ekaterinburg hoped

to execute the Royal Family.

• Leon Trotsky hoped to put the family on a public trial as a means to establish the authority of the Bolsheviks.

• Vladimir Lenin wished to keep the family in exile for potential usefulness later as political pawns.

• White Army and sympathizers: Various plans, it is argued they sought to free the Czar as a symbol of the White Movement (not likely for future leadership).

Romanovs Execution

• Reaction to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty made all Red plans to put the family on trial or use them as a political pawn superfluous.

• As a result, Yakov Sverdlov, a Bolshevik Party Leader took it upon himself to give the order to execute the family on July 16.

• Early in the morning on July 17, the family is executed in the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg.

Open Book Reading Quiz

• How was news of the execution of the Romanov family released? (explain the events that led up to the public understanding of their death).

• Who was Sokolov?

• How did Sokolov become the main investigator into the deaths of the Romanovs?

• Why did people come to question Sokolov’s account? (What were the holes in Sokolov’s story?)

Homework

• Read and text-mark Chapter 3 of The Romanovs: The Final Chapter AND the 2009 article from The Independent, Mystery Solved as Tests Prove Tsar’s Entire Family Was Murdered

• Next class: – Romanovs true burial– The Romanov sisters, mystery solved– How did it come to this? Czarist Russia and

preparation for Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev