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It's been a century
since the Russian Revolution
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and the formation of the world's
first communist state.
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But how did it happen?
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How could the mighty Romanov dynasty,
that lasted for 300 years,
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fall to a ragtag group of revolutionaries,
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who brought with them Joseph Stalin
and a brutal reign of terror?
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Lenin understood it wasn't
your numbers that mattered,
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it wasn't your popular support
that mattered,
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you just paralyzed the country
by occupying the key points,
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and then you take over.
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Revolutions don't happen
from the dispossessed and the starving,
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they happen from the middle class,
and it's always been true.
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But at the heart of the Russian Revolution
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lay a very personal battle
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between Lenin's Ulyanov family
and the royal family,
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who were determined
to retain autocratic rule.
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The tsarina used to say
that Russia likes to feel the whip.
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There was always the feeling
that the tsars
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had the divine right of kings,
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they had a sort of God-given obligation
to rule themselves and the autocrats.
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So, there wasn't really space
for democracy.
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The disaster that's happened
to Russia since
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is substantially down
to mistakes made by Nicholas II.
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He is utterly, utterly useless.
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He was a man who shouldn't have been tsar.
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He wasn't suited
to the onerous task of monarch.
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The errors made by the tsar
would bring an empire to its knees.
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But no one could have predicted
that Vladimir Lenin
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would be the man
to seize control in the chaos.
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Lenin understood that power
is constrict in certain knots,
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that you take over a railway junction,
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you take over a telephone exchange,
and you've already got a city.
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Lenin was in a tradition
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of Russian leadership,
and was a very strong part of it.
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He had a profound effect on Russia
that we are really still feeling now.
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1917 in a sense recasts
the ideological map of Europe.
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As the century progresses,
the ideological map of the world.
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March the 13th, 1881, Saint Petersburg.
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The tsar, Alexander II, is on his way
to his army's military roll call.
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He's traveling in a bulletproof carriage,
gifted to him by Napoleon III.
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It had proved necessary as the tsar
had faced numerous assassination attempts
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during his reign.
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Many people wanted
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to get rid of the tsar
and his government.
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But the fact that in middle of
the 19th century you had two inventions...
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...the revolver
and high-explosive dynamite,
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both of which were widespread in Russia,
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which enabled quite amateurish people
to get together
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and organize an assassination.
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This is really a kind
of sustained terrorist campaign.
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There are multiple attempts
on the life of the tsar,
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attempts to blow up his carriage.
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One terrorist, over a period of months,
working as a carpenter
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in the Winter Palace,
manages to plant a body of explosives,
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which very, very nearly kill Alexander II.
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I mean, 11 people are killed,
about 56 are injured.
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It's sort of those moments where he was
in the wrong room at the right moment,
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as it were,
and the explosion just missed him.
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But this time,
the tsar would not be so fortunate.
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Alexander's legs are shredded,
his stomach cut open by shrapnel.
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His dying body is carried
to the Winter Palace,
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where his family, the Romanovs,
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who have ruled Russia
for nearly three centuries,
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are horrified to lay their eyes upon him.
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He only lasted 90 minutes,
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and the bomber himself, also,
lasted 90 minutes.
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His legs were blown off, too.
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The assassination of Alexander II,
it's kind of Russia's 9/11.
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I've read newspaper reports that come out
in the days after the assassination,
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and they are astonishingly graphic
about the physical damage
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inflicted on Alexander's body.
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They sort of start talking
about the shattered legs
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and the tendons hanging out and stuff.
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What they're describing is this wound
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that has been inflicted
on the body of the state,
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you know, so,
the king's two bodies clearly there.
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The group responsible
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for this attack
is Narodnaya Volya, the People's Will.
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The conspirators would be hanged
for their crimes,
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but the movement would continue,
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and it would soon attract the attentions
of one Aleksandr Ulyanov,
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eldest son of the Ulyanov family
and elder brother to Lenin,
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the man who would eventually
eliminate the Romanovs completely.
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But in 1881,
the People's Will's predictions
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do not come to pass.
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There is no great revolution
following the death of Tsar Alexander II.
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He's succeeded by his son,
Alexander III,
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who, upon viewing his dying father,
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vows
to never let the same fate befall him.
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Despite the enormous unrest,
Russian autocratic rule would continue.
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Alexander III considered
Alexander II way too lenient.
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I mean, he'd liberated the serfs.
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So, Alexander III decided
to come down hard on Russia,
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and he was anyway
a very sort of forceful character
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who used to bend forks
in knots at the table.
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And he apparently was able to walk
through doors without opening them.
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He was a huge man.
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And undermined his son, unfortunately,
by calling him girly
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when the tsar was a child,
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and I don't know that the tsar,
Nicholas,
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ever emerged from that repression
from his father
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and that sort of undermining.
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Alexander III has a very bad press.
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People say stagnation, reaction,
and all that is true.
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On the other hand, there were
some good things about Alexander III.
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He never declared war on anybody,
unlike Alexander II,
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who's extremely aggressive,
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made war on the Turkish Empire,
on the Chinese.
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He also listened to his ministers.
He may have been a reactionary,
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but he appointed some
very competent ministers,
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and, in his reign, Russia railways
became one of the best service in Europe,
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Russian post office, too.
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He was a boring man
and he liked the bottle,
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but there were things to be said for him.
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It seems sort of counterintuitive,
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but Russia was actually
a fantastically dynamic society
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in lots of ways in this period.
Really from its defeat in the Crimean War
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in the 1850s, it understands
that it has to industrialize
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if it is to remain competitive
on the international stage.
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So, the defeat in the Crimea at the hands
of the French and the British
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laid bare the fact
that Russia was an undeveloped state.
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Its peasant armies were no match
for the Western powers,
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and so, if Russia wants to remain
in the game, it needs to industrialize.
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Russia was modernizing
at an extraordinary rate,
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but its political system
remained deeply autocratic,
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unlike almost all other European nations
of the era.
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Because of the conditions
of Russia at the time,
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normal, middle-class families
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weren't allowed any form
of political expression at all.
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That was the main problem.
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So, any normal, middle-class family,
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the son would have entered
the revolutionary,
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the radical political sect.
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There was a wave
of repression against Russian radicals,
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oppositionists, and so on.
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Some of these people
are clearly dangerous.
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Some of these people have plotted
to kill the tsar,
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members of the Imperial Family, or,
you know, regional governors and so on.
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There's a general paradox
that a dictatorship,
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as long as it's strict and severe,
is safe.
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The moment it starts to liberalize,
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it gives an inch
and the people take a yard.
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Once the people detect a weakness,
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or a division,
then the whole thing starts to fall apart.
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One such person
who got caught up in this radical world
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was Aleksandr Ulyanov,
known to his family as Sasha.
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He was the eldest Ulyanov son,
and elder brother to Vladimir Lenin.
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The Ulyanov family
was not a typical family.
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There was a very small caste
of civil servants in Russia,
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and the father was a schools inspector.
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And he'd reached a position
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in the civil service
that gave him the rank of a noble.
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That was a very, very small percentage
of people in Russia.
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But they weren't that rich.
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Lenin's elder brother, like Lenin himself,
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brilliant intellectually, covered in
gold medals from school and university,
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and he joined a student group,
and they decided to make a bomb,
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and attempted to kill Alexander III.
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The plan is to assassinate
Alexander II's heir, Alexander III,
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when Alexander III is going
to be attending a ceremony
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to commemorate the assassination
of his father.
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And Aleksandr Ulyanov, he's the kind of,
you know, master bomb maker.
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The People's Will
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was more of a mystic
than an ideological association.
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The idea if we bring down the very top,
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they'll all be so terrified
that the system will disintegrate
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and they'll be a sort of peasant uprising
out of which a new order will arise,
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but they had begun to read Marx.
The trouble with reading Marx, of course,
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is Marx predicted the last place
there'd be a revolution would be Russia.
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So, it was still that romantic idea
of kill the tsar
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and everything will naturally reform.
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A bomb that's packed with pieces of metal
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that have been dipped in strychnine
to inflict maximum number of fatalities.
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I mean, that's worth remembering.
But the plan is undone by the Okhrana,
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and they have wind
of the attempt on the tsar's life,
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and the terrorists are arrested
and rounded up within a matter of days.
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Of course they were sentenced to death.
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Alexander III very generously said,
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"Those that repent, I will reprieve.
Those that don't repent, I will hang."
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Sasha said, "That would be going against
my principles to ask for a reprieve."
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His mother begged him to.
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The hanging of Sasha, that is often seen
as what motivated Lenin.
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Often these things
are personal, not political.
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When his brother was arrested,
his mother rushed to the city.
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Vladimir, the future Lenin,
tried to organize transport
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to get her to the nearest train station,
and he traced around bourgeois Simbirsk
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to try and get someone
who would go with his mother.
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Absolutely all of them refused,
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and that changed his entire perspective
about bourgeois liberals
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and the other middle class,
and it was-- That was overnight.
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And from then on,
he just abused the liberals,
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and the way the family
were snubbed because of this
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changed him as much as any other politics.
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Sasha Ulyanov was hanged
on the 20th of May, 1887.
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Lenin entered the underground
revolutionary movements
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following the path laid out
by his brother,
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and just like Sasha,
Lenin would be tracked
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by the secret police
of the Russian Empire, the Okhrana.
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Every country had
a spy organization, of course,
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but Russia was the first one
that had an entire massive organization
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to suppress dissent
wherever they seemed to find it.
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They had a vast operation
to open people's mail.
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The Russian secret police
had agents everywhere.
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It not only had departments
in Saint Petersburg and Moscow
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and most of the main cities,
it had a French department, as well,
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keeping an eye on the exiles.
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The Okhrana always kept an eye on them,
tailing them round Europe.
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You had to stay one move ahead.
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So, you spent 16 years effectively
going from one bolt-hole to another,
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always one step ahead
of the secret police.
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On the biggest influences
on Lenin, before he read Marx,
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was a novel
by a guy called Nikolay Chernyshevsky
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called What Is to be Done?
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It's a pretty lousy novel,
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but the hero is a selfless,
devoted revolutionary
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who gives himself up to the cause
and walks 20 miles a day,
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does 150 press-ups,
abstains from alcohol.
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And he modeled himself
on this character quite deliberately.
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Lenin always said this book,
which he'd read one summer five times,
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influenced him more
than anything by Marx.
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Lenin was forced to cover his tracks
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as he traveled around the country,
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trying his best avoid the attention
of the authorities.
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At the same time, Nicholas,
the heir to the throne,
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was also on his travels
around the Russian Empire and beyond.
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It was a voyage of great fanfare,
but it came to a shocking end in Japan.
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His father tried
to give him some responsibility,
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decided it wouldn't do any harm to put him
in charge of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
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So, he'd crossed Siberia,
went all the way to Vladivostok,
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and then he was sent
on a mission to Japan,
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which ended disastrously,
because Nicholas was suddenly attacked
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by a Japanese policeman...
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Tsuda Sanzō, who took out his saber
and slashed him on the head,
234
00:14:06,700 --> 00:14:08,766
and did quite a considerable amount
of damage.
235
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,433
Otsu, as far as I could see,
was a bit of a one-off.
236
00:14:11,500 --> 00:14:15,633
I didn't feel that it was a movement
amongst the Japanese against the tsar,
237
00:14:16,266 --> 00:14:18,366
who the Japanese themselves
were horrified by.
238
00:14:18,433 --> 00:14:21,500
Japan had only been open
to Europeans for about 35 years
239
00:14:21,566 --> 00:14:24,233
and there was a general
xenophobic suspicion.
240
00:14:24,300 --> 00:14:28,366
This Japanese policeman thought himself
as a samurai defending Japanese honor.
241
00:14:28,433 --> 00:14:31,066
Nicholas took it very well,
he just stood there smoking,
242
00:14:31,133 --> 00:14:33,033
refused even to sit down to be bandaged,
243
00:14:33,100 --> 00:14:36,033
but, in fact, a large part of his skull
had been cut out
244
00:14:36,100 --> 00:14:38,233
and he suffered from headaches
ever afterwards.
245
00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,733
And it may well have prejudiced him
against the Japanese
246
00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,633
because after that,
in his correspondence,
247
00:14:44,700 --> 00:14:47,133
he refers to the Japanese as macaques,
as monkeys,
248
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:50,500
and he became convinced that
they were utterly inferior to the Russians
249
00:14:50,566 --> 00:14:53,300
and therefore could easily be conquered
in any future war.
250
00:14:56,633 --> 00:15:00,333
The Otsu incident may have been
a near miss for the Romanov family,
251
00:15:00,666 --> 00:15:03,200
but it was a foreboding of things to come.
252
00:15:06,766 --> 00:15:08,433
Just a couple of years later,
253
00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:11,733
Tsar Alexander III
would suddenly fall ill.
254
00:15:12,133 --> 00:15:15,266
He passed away at the age of just 49,
255
00:15:15,333 --> 00:15:18,666
leaving behind his thoroughly
unprepared son Nicholas
256
00:15:19,233 --> 00:15:20,566
to inherit the throne.
257
00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:27,800
Alexander died fairly unexpectedly
of kidney disease
258
00:15:28,033 --> 00:15:29,500
when he was still in his 40s.
259
00:15:29,566 --> 00:15:33,266
I mean, Nicholas had expected
to have another 20 years
260
00:15:33,633 --> 00:15:39,233
to prepare for this onerous responsibility
of ruling this enormous empire.
261
00:15:39,300 --> 00:15:40,700
The problem was the successions.
262
00:15:40,766 --> 00:15:43,000
That's the problem
with a hereditary monarchy,
263
00:15:43,066 --> 00:15:45,000
the monarch has to die at the right time.
264
00:15:45,500 --> 00:15:48,500
When Alexander III died--
And he was only 49.
265
00:15:49,133 --> 00:15:52,033
-- his minister said,
"It was a pity he didn't die much earlier,
266
00:15:52,100 --> 00:15:53,300
so, we had a boy tsar,
267
00:15:53,366 --> 00:15:56,033
who couldn't make any decisions
for at least ten years,
268
00:15:56,100 --> 00:15:59,400
or much later,
so that Nicholas could've grown up a bit."
269
00:15:59,766 --> 00:16:02,366
But Nicholas was always
somewhat infantile.
270
00:16:03,066 --> 00:16:06,000
He was terrified when his father died
271
00:16:06,066 --> 00:16:10,666
at the prospect of having
to take on so much responsibility,
272
00:16:10,733 --> 00:16:14,266
for which he had really received
very little training.
273
00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:19,100
Just a week after his father's burial,
274
00:16:19,166 --> 00:16:20,766
Nicholas married Alix of Hesse,
275
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,700
a German princess,
who would became Tsarina Alexandra.
276
00:16:25,233 --> 00:16:29,600
Her background would prove challenging
for the Romanov family during World War I.
277
00:16:30,133 --> 00:16:34,800
But Nicholas's enormous problems
as monarch started far sooner than that.
278
00:16:35,033 --> 00:16:39,466
In fact, from the day of his coronation,
he was off to a dreadful start.
279
00:16:48,500 --> 00:16:51,600
At his coronation in Moscow in 1896,
280
00:16:51,666 --> 00:16:55,100
there was a big park called Khodynka
in western Moscow,
281
00:16:55,166 --> 00:16:58,266
and the government had arranged
for coronation mugs
282
00:16:58,333 --> 00:17:00,600
and little bags of goodies
to be given out.
283
00:17:03,700 --> 00:17:05,633
The fencing and the gates were all wrong,
284
00:17:05,700 --> 00:17:08,300
and so, when the crowds pressed
to receive their goods,
285
00:17:08,366 --> 00:17:09,533
there's a terrible crush.
286
00:17:12,366 --> 00:17:16,099
Some 1500 people died,
and that was a terrible tragedy.
287
00:17:17,099 --> 00:17:20,500
That night there was a party
at the French Embassy,
288
00:17:20,566 --> 00:17:25,133
and he didn't want to go to it,
but he was persuaded to go to the event,
289
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:28,566
and it was forever held against him
as deeply insensitive.
290
00:17:30,500 --> 00:17:33,700
He had to rely
on his ministers to advise him.
291
00:17:33,766 --> 00:17:37,600
But fundamentally from day one,
the job of being tsar
292
00:17:37,666 --> 00:17:41,733
was pretty much agreed
and dictated by his wife.
293
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:47,300
She was very entrenched in the concept
of autocracy and their divine right.
294
00:17:49,566 --> 00:17:52,433
Nicholas was struggling
in his new role as tsar,
295
00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:55,600
but the man who would eventually
replace him as ruler of Russia
296
00:17:55,666 --> 00:17:57,666
was in a far worse predicament.
297
00:17:58,166 --> 00:18:02,066
Lenin had been captured by the authorities
and was charged with sedition.
298
00:18:02,500 --> 00:18:06,666
In 1897, he was sent to exile in Siberia
for three years,
299
00:18:06,733 --> 00:18:10,333
which could often be
a far less challenging experience
300
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:12,233
than might at first appear.
301
00:18:14,033 --> 00:18:16,433
He was sent to
the quite pleasant town of Minusinsk.
302
00:18:16,500 --> 00:18:19,066
He had his wife with him,
he had his mother-in-law,
303
00:18:19,133 --> 00:18:22,266
he had a monthly allowance,
on which he could keep a cow,
304
00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,166
and a serving maid.
305
00:18:24,233 --> 00:18:27,466
He had a maid of 12,
whom he paid one ruble a month,
306
00:18:27,533 --> 00:18:30,300
and kept her in a sort of cage
under the stairs.
307
00:18:30,366 --> 00:18:33,033
So much for Bolshevik egalitarianism.
308
00:18:33,100 --> 00:18:37,000
He writes home,
saying that he's ice skating and shooting,
309
00:18:37,066 --> 00:18:42,100
and maintains this phenomenal level
of correspondence
310
00:18:42,166 --> 00:18:45,066
with a kind of conspiratorial network now
that really stretches
311
00:18:45,133 --> 00:18:48,800
across the Russian Empire
and beyond to Europe.
312
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,300
Once you were there,
you were housed quite nicely.
313
00:18:53,366 --> 00:18:56,266
In Russia people never felt
that prisoners were to be avoided,
314
00:18:56,333 --> 00:18:58,100
have a friendly chat with a murderer.
315
00:18:58,166 --> 00:19:00,533
People used to go
to the prisons at Easter,
316
00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:02,600
as people go to the zoo
to feed the animals.
317
00:19:02,666 --> 00:19:03,800
It was not a bad life.
318
00:19:06,633 --> 00:19:09,300
Lenin's exile ended in 1900.
319
00:19:09,666 --> 00:19:12,466
He would soon begin his travels
across Western Europe,
320
00:19:12,533 --> 00:19:15,400
where he would meet
other Marxists and dissidents
321
00:19:15,466 --> 00:19:18,033
who were playing the downfall
of the Russian monarchy.
322
00:19:18,366 --> 00:19:22,533
But for now, Lenin
and these agitators seemed insignificant.
323
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:25,300
There were far more pressing concerns.
324
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:30,266
The Russian Empire was surrounded
on two sides by rising military powers.
325
00:19:30,333 --> 00:19:32,366
To the west, Kaiser Wilhelm,
326
00:19:32,433 --> 00:19:36,000
under whose rule Germany had been unified
in 1871.
327
00:19:36,066 --> 00:19:41,133
To the east, Emperor Meiji,
whose restoration of Japan in 1868
328
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,433
had forged another
rapidly industrializing state.
329
00:19:44,666 --> 00:19:48,400
The first battle would be with Japan
in 1904.
330
00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,266
Few world observers expected
an Asian military
331
00:20:00,333 --> 00:20:03,200
to challenge a European power
at this time.
332
00:20:03,633 --> 00:20:08,533
Japan's surprising success in the conflict
fueled social unrest throughout Russia,
333
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,300
which came to be known
as the 1905 Revolution.
334
00:20:15,266 --> 00:20:19,066
The Russo-Japanese War
was very bad for morale,
335
00:20:19,133 --> 00:20:22,200
because the Russians were trounced,
and their fleet was destroyed.
336
00:20:22,266 --> 00:20:25,700
And that didn't help the tsar
in his bid to be popular.
337
00:20:26,766 --> 00:20:31,600
A war being lost was a mixture
of embittered soldiers and sailors,
338
00:20:31,666 --> 00:20:35,700
whose lives had been just thrown away
in a hopeless war against the Japanese,
339
00:20:35,766 --> 00:20:38,533
an appalling disgraceful defeat.
340
00:20:39,266 --> 00:20:42,533
Coming home finding that factories
weren't paying properly and so on,
341
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,233
there were shortages
and there was general disarray.
342
00:20:45,300 --> 00:20:48,133
And it was an opportunity
for disaffected soldiers
343
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:49,300
to organize themselves.
344
00:20:52,533 --> 00:20:55,233
The response to the civilian unrest
345
00:20:55,300 --> 00:20:57,500
and demands for reform would be brutal.
346
00:20:57,766 --> 00:21:01,033
Imperial troops opened fire
on the protestors.
347
00:21:01,100 --> 00:21:03,766
The events of Bloody Sunday,
as it came to be known,
348
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,600
would damage Tsar Nicholas's
reputation forever.
349
00:21:11,333 --> 00:21:14,266
Well, the Bloody Sunday
Massacre was, in some ways,
350
00:21:14,333 --> 00:21:17,000
typical of Nicholas II's reign,
351
00:21:17,066 --> 00:21:21,733
that either he had to have much more sense
or he needed a good spin doctor,
352
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:23,000
and he had neither.
353
00:21:23,066 --> 00:21:27,000
The revolutionary parties
are all caught off guard by 1905.
354
00:21:27,066 --> 00:21:28,800
Nobody predicted Bloody Sunday.
355
00:21:29,066 --> 00:21:34,066
Uh, it's clear that the war, you know,
is going disastrously with Japan.
356
00:21:34,133 --> 00:21:38,166
There was no real sense that Russia
had reached a kind of turning point.
357
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,400
This was a spontaneous protest
that then ended in a bloodbath,
358
00:21:43,466 --> 00:21:47,500
because the tsarist authorities
attacked the protestors.
359
00:21:48,300 --> 00:21:52,433
He wasn't there
when the troops opened fire.
360
00:21:52,500 --> 00:21:55,433
He just responded very badly.
361
00:21:55,500 --> 00:21:57,666
He sensed that he was getting less popular
362
00:21:57,733 --> 00:22:01,533
and when he became known
as Nicholas the Bloody,
363
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:06,633
he started to spend most of his time
at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo,
364
00:22:06,700 --> 00:22:10,466
which was about 15 miles away
from Saint Petersburg.
365
00:22:10,533 --> 00:22:13,766
He realized there might be
a threat of assassination.
366
00:22:14,533 --> 00:22:17,800
1905 had been a dreadful year
for the Romanovs,
367
00:22:18,033 --> 00:22:20,466
but the protest did eventually die down,
368
00:22:20,533 --> 00:22:24,800
and, crucially, the Russian armed forces
remained loyal to the throne.
369
00:22:25,466 --> 00:22:27,600
A peace treaty was declared with Japan,
370
00:22:27,666 --> 00:22:31,533
with a deal brokered
by U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt.
371
00:22:32,166 --> 00:22:35,600
Lenin and his accomplices across Europe,
just like everyone else,
372
00:22:35,666 --> 00:22:40,033
had been caught completely off guard
by the events of 1905.
373
00:22:40,266 --> 00:22:41,500
Out of nowhere,
374
00:22:41,566 --> 00:22:46,100
it seemed that the revolution they were
searching for was occurring spontaneously.
375
00:22:46,566 --> 00:22:49,200
But in the end,
the tsar remained in power,
376
00:22:49,266 --> 00:22:52,566
and although a parliament called the Duma
had been set up in response,
377
00:22:52,633 --> 00:22:54,633
it was flawed from the beginning,
378
00:22:54,700 --> 00:22:59,066
and Nicholas had the ability
to veto any and all legislation.
379
00:23:00,133 --> 00:23:02,400
There had been anger and resentment,
380
00:23:02,466 --> 00:23:05,766
and, also,
they were losing a war against Japan.
381
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,100
That was big profound shock to the system,
382
00:23:08,166 --> 00:23:10,666
and that changed the middle class's view
383
00:23:10,733 --> 00:23:12,733
about the kind
of political system they had,
384
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,300
and the autocracy substantially.
385
00:23:15,366 --> 00:23:18,633
That, "We're so useless,
we can even lose a war against Japan,"
386
00:23:18,700 --> 00:23:20,366
that had a really profound impact.
387
00:23:21,166 --> 00:23:22,533
Lenin says that, you know,
388
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,033
"My generation won't live
to see the revolution."
389
00:23:25,100 --> 00:23:29,066
You know, there is this sense that
this was like a one-shot deal,
390
00:23:29,133 --> 00:23:30,066
and we blew it.
391
00:23:30,133 --> 00:23:31,566
We weren't organized enough,
392
00:23:31,633 --> 00:23:34,533
we weren't able
to give direction and purpose
393
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,033
to what was a sort
of spontaneous popular uprising.
394
00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:40,566
Lenin, even right up to 1917,
395
00:23:40,633 --> 00:23:45,633
was quite despairing that revolution,
as his vision of revolution,
396
00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:48,666
was ever gonna actually happen
in his lifetime.
397
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:54,166
So, 1905 was kind of a dry run
for what might come later,
398
00:23:54,233 --> 00:23:57,033
but it wasn't planned as a revolution.
399
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:02,066
For now, the tsar seemed safe.
400
00:24:02,133 --> 00:24:03,733
The war had come to an end,
401
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,700
and the revolutionary fervor
had died down.
402
00:24:07,333 --> 00:24:08,800
But it was not to last.
403
00:24:09,033 --> 00:24:13,433
In the next few years,
both the Romanov family and Ulyanov family
404
00:24:13,500 --> 00:24:15,000
would be introduced to figures
405
00:24:15,066 --> 00:24:17,666
that would prove critical
in Russia's future.
406
00:24:18,633 --> 00:24:22,166
For Lenin, it was a Georgian
named Ioseb Dzhugashvili,
407
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:24,666
later to be known as Stalin,
408
00:24:24,733 --> 00:24:28,766
although upon first appearance
Lenin was unimpressed.
409
00:24:31,466 --> 00:24:34,033
Lenin was the leader
of that Bolshevik section,
410
00:24:34,100 --> 00:24:38,200
and was already, you know, the top man,
and Stalin was a nobody, really.
411
00:24:38,666 --> 00:24:41,233
At first Lenin hardly noticed Stalin,
412
00:24:41,300 --> 00:24:45,333
but later on in Vienna he noticed Stalin
was a very, very useful handyman.
413
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:49,700
Lenin had a sort of rather patronizing
view of non-Russians,
414
00:24:50,233 --> 00:24:52,266
so, he called him
"this wondrous Georgian."
415
00:24:52,333 --> 00:24:54,500
Stalin was regarded as extremely useful.
416
00:24:54,566 --> 00:24:58,366
He was some sort of gofer, you know,
he never refused to do anything.
417
00:24:58,433 --> 00:25:03,566
He was always happy to kill, to rob,
he never balked at anything.
418
00:25:03,633 --> 00:25:05,800
He could do things physically,
get into a fight.
419
00:25:06,033 --> 00:25:09,133
Lenin quite admired that about Stalin,
he was as tough as anything.
420
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,333
He had a quality of intimidating people
421
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,133
and above all,
he hardly ever talked, unlike Trotsky.
422
00:25:14,533 --> 00:25:16,633
That's why Stalin
and Trotsky never got on.
423
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,466
Stalin's secret was
to appear far less knowledgeable,
424
00:25:20,533 --> 00:25:22,766
far less intelligent, than he really was.
425
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:24,733
He understood a lot of languages.
426
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,000
He was an extraordinary judge
of character.
427
00:25:27,066 --> 00:25:29,800
Stalin's secret was not
to find the strongest people
428
00:25:30,033 --> 00:25:31,000
to work with him.
429
00:25:31,066 --> 00:25:33,200
The strongest people might want
to succeed you.
430
00:25:33,266 --> 00:25:35,300
He always chose the omega male.
431
00:25:35,366 --> 00:25:37,300
He had his sort of allies with him
432
00:25:37,366 --> 00:25:40,500
and he knew how
to make people feel they needed him.
433
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,600
A year later when they met again, Lenin
couldn't remember any of his other names.
434
00:25:44,666 --> 00:25:48,333
He literally didn't remember meeting him.
But he made himself very useful,
435
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:50,466
particularly when they needed
to raise money.
436
00:25:57,533 --> 00:26:00,766
The Romanovs were also
about to come into contact
437
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:02,300
with a mysterious figure
438
00:26:02,366 --> 00:26:06,100
from the fringes of the Russian Empire,
Rasputin.
439
00:26:06,166 --> 00:26:09,733
Tsar Nicholas's only son Alexei,
the heir to the throne,
440
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,333
had been diagnosed with hemophilia.
441
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:17,000
The tsar and tsarina were searching
for anyone who could help their ailing son
442
00:26:17,066 --> 00:26:21,433
and Rasputin seemed to be the only figure
who was capable of doing so.
443
00:26:25,166 --> 00:26:29,700
He met them initially at a tea
with the so-called Black Sisters,
444
00:26:29,766 --> 00:26:34,433
who were the Montenegrin princesses,
Milica and Anastasia,
445
00:26:34,500 --> 00:26:39,200
who had invited him
to Milica's palace for tea.
446
00:26:40,333 --> 00:26:44,166
Then it was several months afterwards
that Alexei fell
447
00:26:44,466 --> 00:26:46,433
and was bleeding badly,
448
00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:51,466
and they thought of asking Rasputin to try
and heal him,
449
00:26:51,533 --> 00:26:52,433
and he did.
450
00:26:52,500 --> 00:26:58,333
But the questions always remain
as to how he cured him or even if he did,
451
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,133
or whether
he just calmed the Tsarina down,
452
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,500
because she believe he was a man
of God.
453
00:27:03,566 --> 00:27:05,200
There's also an interesting thing
454
00:27:05,266 --> 00:27:08,400
that aspirin was beginning
to be used as a painkiller,
455
00:27:08,466 --> 00:27:11,233
and Rasputin
was always very against medication
456
00:27:11,300 --> 00:27:15,200
and he recommended they not use aspirin,
and that might have helped.
457
00:27:18,033 --> 00:27:20,400
If Alexei had not been a hemophiliac,
458
00:27:20,466 --> 00:27:22,466
history could have been quite different,
459
00:27:22,533 --> 00:27:25,766
because it created such resentment,
460
00:27:26,333 --> 00:27:29,633
the invitation of Rasputin
into the Imperial Family,
461
00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:34,733
that that in itself helped bring about
the downfall of the dynasty.
462
00:27:38,700 --> 00:27:42,233
Rasputin's presence would cause scandal
in Russia.
463
00:27:42,300 --> 00:27:44,533
Endless rumors began to spread
464
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,166
about the exact nature
of his involvement with the Romanovs.
465
00:27:50,366 --> 00:27:52,166
First of all he was kept a secret.
466
00:27:52,233 --> 00:27:53,766
The press was forbidden to mention him,
467
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,233
which immediately made people think
there was something terrible going on.
468
00:27:57,300 --> 00:28:01,000
Until about 1912 when press restrictions
were abolished in Russia
469
00:28:01,100 --> 00:28:03,766
and it was impossible
to stop the papers printing everything,
470
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,100
and then Rasputin sold papers.
471
00:28:06,166 --> 00:28:08,033
The journalists absolutely loved him.
472
00:28:08,100 --> 00:28:10,633
You could follow him,
you could get all sorts of stories
473
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,100
from restaurant owners,
from prostitutes about his behavior.
474
00:28:14,166 --> 00:28:16,000
Police would sell their stories to him.
475
00:28:16,066 --> 00:28:18,733
He became the sort of
news-making phenomenon.
476
00:28:20,166 --> 00:28:26,166
In 1911, there were letters
disseminated around by an old friend,
477
00:28:26,233 --> 00:28:31,733
which had very passionate notes
to Rasputin from the tsarina.
478
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,266
You know, "I kiss you warmly,"
things like that.
479
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,333
Rasputin's presence was bringing
480
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,666
the Romanov family reputation into ruins.
481
00:28:42,733 --> 00:28:47,533
But in 1913, a chance to repair
some of the damage seemed possible.
482
00:28:48,033 --> 00:28:51,166
That year marked 300 years of Romanov rule
483
00:28:51,233 --> 00:28:54,266
and huge tercentenary celebrations
were planned
484
00:28:54,333 --> 00:28:57,100
that would hopefully boost public morale.
485
00:28:57,166 --> 00:29:02,300
However, yet another assassination attempt
would soon undo everything.
486
00:29:13,133 --> 00:29:16,666
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
was gunned down in Sarajevo.
487
00:29:17,666 --> 00:29:20,133
World War I was about to begin.
488
00:29:20,566 --> 00:29:25,000
Russia's failure against the Japanese
nearly brought an end to Nicholas's rule.
489
00:29:25,066 --> 00:29:28,433
He would not survive a defeat
against the Germans.
490
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,166
Considering the Germans already
had the British
491
00:29:34,233 --> 00:29:35,600
and the French to cope with...
492
00:29:36,166 --> 00:29:40,166
with their enormous empires
of Indians and Algerians and so on,
493
00:29:40,233 --> 00:29:42,800
and that very soon
the Americans would come into the war,
494
00:29:43,033 --> 00:29:45,100
you would've thought Russia
would've had hope.
495
00:29:45,166 --> 00:29:47,233
But the Russian Army was a peculiar army
496
00:29:47,300 --> 00:29:51,166
in that the officers were enthusiastic,
but the soldiers were not.
497
00:29:51,233 --> 00:29:54,666
The soldiers had been,
many of them, part of a defeated army,
498
00:29:54,733 --> 00:29:57,500
most of them had nothing
against the Germans whatsoever,
499
00:29:57,566 --> 00:29:59,533
and they didn't see them as an enemy.
500
00:30:01,033 --> 00:30:03,700
The corruption in the civilian area,
501
00:30:03,766 --> 00:30:07,333
where no boots were produced,
no rifles produced,
502
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,100
and so, soldiers were told to go in
503
00:30:09,166 --> 00:30:12,500
and pick the first rifle and pair of boots
off the corpse in front of you.
504
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,033
There were desertions,
and murder of officers, and so on.
505
00:30:20,100 --> 00:30:23,166
I think that it was generally
considered a disaster
506
00:30:23,233 --> 00:30:27,666
when he decided to take over the troops
and get rid of Grand Duke Nicholas,
507
00:30:27,733 --> 00:30:29,666
who was probably a very good general.
508
00:30:29,733 --> 00:30:33,566
He was certainly a more imposing figure
than the tsar.
509
00:30:34,066 --> 00:30:40,166
And that did apparently
leave the tsarina and Rasputin in charge.
510
00:30:40,233 --> 00:30:43,133
The war was an absolute disaster
for Russia.
511
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,066
An autocrat has gotta be judged
on the autocrat's decision,
512
00:30:47,133 --> 00:30:48,766
and it was a disastrous decision.
513
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,633
And an even bigger decision was
514
00:30:50,700 --> 00:30:54,600
he put himself in charge
of the military strategy,
515
00:30:54,666 --> 00:30:56,633
which was a terrible mistake,
516
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,800
because once it goes wrong,
he's the only one you can blame.
517
00:31:00,033 --> 00:31:02,666
And there was a stalemate
on the Eastern Front.
518
00:31:02,733 --> 00:31:06,366
The Germans had already
occupied large tracts of Russia.
519
00:31:06,433 --> 00:31:10,333
There was absolutely no will
amongst the army to carry it on,
520
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,433
desertions were on a massive scale,
521
00:31:12,500 --> 00:31:15,033
there was almost no way
for a Russian victory.
522
00:31:18,233 --> 00:31:20,733
The winter of 1916
not only saw the chill
523
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,500
of inevitable defeat for the Russian Army,
524
00:31:23,566 --> 00:31:27,433
it also saw a shocking
and painful loss for the Romanovs.
525
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:33,766
Certain members of their extended family
526
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:39,166
would not tolerate Rasputin's influence
over the tsar and tsarina any longer.
527
00:31:41,366 --> 00:31:45,100
There was growing resentment
within the Romanov family
528
00:31:45,166 --> 00:31:48,466
among the relatives,
who were absolutely appalled
529
00:31:48,533 --> 00:31:51,633
at Alexandra's close relationship
with Rasputin.
530
00:31:51,700 --> 00:31:54,133
Because they believed all the gossip,
as well.
531
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,266
And it reached a point
where they were saying,
532
00:31:56,366 --> 00:31:58,766
"Well, not only have we got
to get rid of Rasputin,
533
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,666
this evil Machiavellian influence,
534
00:32:01,733 --> 00:32:05,000
we've actually got to get rid of her
and lock her up in a nunnery."
535
00:32:05,066 --> 00:32:07,633
She was causing a lot of trouble.
536
00:32:07,700 --> 00:32:10,466
It was the aristocrats
537
00:32:10,533 --> 00:32:15,433
who felt that Rasputin was bringing
the whole Romanov name down.
538
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,500
One of the problems here
was that nobody knew why
539
00:32:19,566 --> 00:32:21,300
Rasputin was always going to court,
540
00:32:21,366 --> 00:32:25,033
and it was to cure the boy, Alexei.
541
00:32:25,100 --> 00:32:28,133
But because nobody knew
that Alexei was ill,
542
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:32,200
nobody could tell the aristocrats
why he was still being welcomed at court.
543
00:32:32,266 --> 00:32:35,433
Rasputin was blamed
as being a German agent.
544
00:32:35,500 --> 00:32:38,800
They were convinced he was giving advice
to the Tsar to make peace,
545
00:32:39,033 --> 00:32:40,533
at least with the Germans.
546
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,533
So, a conspiracy was formed
547
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,666
with the connivance of many people
in the government.
548
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,066
Two of the assassins both left
quite detailed memoirs
549
00:32:50,133 --> 00:32:51,666
and descriptions of the killing.
550
00:32:51,733 --> 00:32:54,433
There are quite a few discrepancies
in both the memoirs.
551
00:32:54,500 --> 00:32:58,366
He ended up in the river,
but he was tipped over a railing,
552
00:32:58,433 --> 00:33:02,233
and he ended up with a lot of wounds
on his face and head.
553
00:33:02,300 --> 00:33:05,533
And nobody's sure whether it was
because he was beaten up or whether...
554
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,333
Whether it was trying
to transfer the body.
555
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,433
The plotters were incompetent,
they didn't know how to handle guns,
556
00:33:12,500 --> 00:33:14,333
they couldn't even kill him efficiently.
557
00:33:15,066 --> 00:33:19,533
And, eventually, it took three bullets
before they finally killed the poor man.
558
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,300
It was an ignominious way
to get rid of Rasputin.
559
00:33:24,366 --> 00:33:27,433
At the time,
they were greeted as national heroes.
560
00:33:27,500 --> 00:33:31,666
Everyone thought they'd saved Russia
by killing Rasputin.
561
00:33:40,133 --> 00:33:44,333
Rasputin's time at court
had come to an end in brutal fashion,
562
00:33:44,700 --> 00:33:47,300
and it would not be long
before the Romanovs themselves
563
00:33:47,366 --> 00:33:51,066
would also be seen off
in equally bloody circumstances.
564
00:33:51,466 --> 00:33:55,600
Just as in 1905, during the disasters
of the Russo-Japanese War,
565
00:33:55,666 --> 00:33:58,666
civil unrest was about
to break out in Russia.
566
00:33:59,133 --> 00:34:01,200
The historic city of Saint Petersburg
567
00:34:01,266 --> 00:34:04,200
would see the beginnings
of the February Revolution.
568
00:34:04,266 --> 00:34:09,000
It had been renamed Petrograd,
literally "Peter's city," in 1914,
569
00:34:09,066 --> 00:34:11,300
as Saint Petersburg had been thought
570
00:34:11,366 --> 00:34:13,500
too Germanic a name at a time of war.
571
00:34:14,133 --> 00:34:17,600
But the new designation did nothing
to contain the revolutionary fervor
572
00:34:17,666 --> 00:34:19,466
that was unleashed in the city.
573
00:34:20,166 --> 00:34:22,199
It soon became so overwhelming
574
00:34:22,266 --> 00:34:26,133
that Tsar Nicholas II
was forced to step down.
575
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,500
He couldn't quite accept
how bad the crisis was.
576
00:34:36,566 --> 00:34:41,366
He had this passivity
and resistance to crisis.
577
00:34:41,433 --> 00:34:44,800
He had to be driven to abdicate,
and he finally did.
578
00:34:45,033 --> 00:34:48,500
But the tsarina always believed
that had she been with him
579
00:34:48,566 --> 00:34:52,466
she would have been able
to dissuade him from abdicating.
580
00:34:52,533 --> 00:34:57,700
He really hoped he was doing
a kind of grand gesture to save Russia,
581
00:34:57,766 --> 00:35:01,666
and so, it was done
out of a genuine love of country.
582
00:35:05,566 --> 00:35:07,566
With Nicholas having vacated the throne,
583
00:35:07,633 --> 00:35:10,266
a power vacuum was created in Russia
584
00:35:10,333 --> 00:35:14,533
with two major factions
in Petrograd fighting for control.
585
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,466
On one side was a council
of workers and soldiers
586
00:35:17,533 --> 00:35:20,000
known as the Petrograd Soviet,
587
00:35:20,066 --> 00:35:22,633
which soon counted
Leon Trotsky as a member.
588
00:35:22,700 --> 00:35:25,500
On the other side was
the Russian Provisional Government,
589
00:35:25,566 --> 00:35:29,300
which had been quickly established
by ministers who'd served under the Tsar.
590
00:35:30,033 --> 00:35:33,600
They would move the Romanov family
to Siberia for safekeeping,
591
00:35:33,666 --> 00:35:37,300
but soon nowhere in Russia would be safe.
592
00:35:40,333 --> 00:35:45,133
The Provisional Government represents
a vision of a liberal Russia
593
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:50,366
where you'd have a community
of citizens who are given equal rights,
594
00:35:50,433 --> 00:35:54,633
but you probably enshrine a liberal order
based around representative government.
595
00:35:54,700 --> 00:35:57,666
The Soviet represents
a very different kind of Russia.
596
00:36:00,100 --> 00:36:02,566
The Provisional Government made
a halfhearted attempt
597
00:36:02,633 --> 00:36:04,300
to continue with the war.
598
00:36:04,366 --> 00:36:06,666
But because it couldn't come
to a decision,
599
00:36:06,733 --> 00:36:08,400
it couldn't get the economy going,
600
00:36:08,466 --> 00:36:11,500
it couldn't satisfy even the housewives
for bread and so on.
601
00:36:11,566 --> 00:36:13,333
So, more and more dissatisfaction.
602
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,400
Lenin was in Zurich at the time.
603
00:36:15,466 --> 00:36:18,266
Someone entered his rooms
in his lodging house and said,
604
00:36:18,333 --> 00:36:20,133
"Have you heard there's a revolution?"
605
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,233
At first he didn't believe it,
then he did.
606
00:36:22,300 --> 00:36:24,766
And he wanted to get back to Russia
as soon as possible.
607
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:26,533
From the moment the war started,
608
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,800
Lenin was totally against the war.
609
00:36:30,033 --> 00:36:33,566
His line was,
"Better that this country should lose...
610
00:36:33,633 --> 00:36:37,800
The better that kaiserism wins
than tsarism continues."
611
00:36:38,033 --> 00:36:41,600
So, he was basically saying
his own country should lose the war.
612
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:48,666
Lenin was in a difficult situation.
613
00:36:49,066 --> 00:36:51,033
In order to get from Switzerland to Russia
614
00:36:51,100 --> 00:36:53,300
to take advantage
of the February Revolution,
615
00:36:53,366 --> 00:36:55,333
he would have to travel through Germany,
616
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,266
with whom his country was at war.
617
00:36:57,666 --> 00:37:00,500
A complicated deal would have
to be brokered.
618
00:37:04,133 --> 00:37:06,366
I would say it wasn't Lenin
who made his move,
619
00:37:06,433 --> 00:37:08,500
it was the German High Command
that made the move.
620
00:37:08,566 --> 00:37:12,066
He had been offered
kind of inducements from the Germans.
621
00:37:12,133 --> 00:37:15,166
They'd offered him money,
and he'd always refused it.
622
00:37:15,666 --> 00:37:18,300
But now he was less scrupulous.
623
00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:22,633
He agreed to the famous sealed train
through Germany.
624
00:37:22,700 --> 00:37:24,433
In the German point of view,
625
00:37:24,500 --> 00:37:27,500
it seemed
like a perfectly reasonable tactic.
626
00:37:28,100 --> 00:37:29,666
Lenin didn't make the deal.
627
00:37:29,733 --> 00:37:32,233
Lenin never got his hands dirty.
628
00:37:32,300 --> 00:37:35,566
Lenin never directly did something
629
00:37:35,633 --> 00:37:37,666
that might be politically damaging.
630
00:37:38,233 --> 00:37:41,766
The deal to get him
and his cohort of followers
631
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,633
back to Russia when revolution broke
632
00:37:44,700 --> 00:37:48,000
was negotiated by intermediaries.
633
00:37:48,066 --> 00:37:51,366
So, he had to go on this torturous journey
up through Germany,
634
00:37:51,433 --> 00:37:53,633
across to Sweden,
all the way up through Sweden,
635
00:37:53,700 --> 00:37:55,266
to Finland and down.
636
00:37:55,700 --> 00:37:57,700
That train deposited Lenin
637
00:37:57,766 --> 00:38:00,433
at the Finland Station
in Saint Petersburg.
638
00:38:01,466 --> 00:38:04,033
Now, if the Provisional Government had
had the sense
639
00:38:04,100 --> 00:38:06,433
to turn up with a small group
of people to meet him
640
00:38:06,500 --> 00:38:09,800
and arrest him on the spot...
But they couldn't get around to it.
641
00:38:10,033 --> 00:38:11,500
They were incredibly inefficient.
642
00:38:12,166 --> 00:38:14,566
Lenin's genius, when he arrives
at the Finland Station
643
00:38:14,633 --> 00:38:17,166
and he gives a speech
from the armored car,
644
00:38:17,333 --> 00:38:20,400
he calls for all power to the Soviets.
645
00:38:20,566 --> 00:38:24,400
And that's not a call for direct democracy
646
00:38:24,466 --> 00:38:26,366
rather than representative democracy.
647
00:38:26,433 --> 00:38:31,633
That's a call for
this much more brutal exclusive vision
648
00:38:31,700 --> 00:38:36,466
of a revolutionary future,
in which everyone who was on top before
649
00:38:36,533 --> 00:38:38,266
will now be at the bottom.
650
00:38:38,333 --> 00:38:41,266
The dual power system meant
that everything had to be agreed
651
00:38:41,333 --> 00:38:44,066
by the Soviet
and the Provisional Government,
652
00:38:44,133 --> 00:38:46,533
which led to paralysis.
653
00:38:46,666 --> 00:38:49,233
Lenin was very, very good at using this.
654
00:38:49,300 --> 00:38:53,200
He was incredibly skillful
at the black arts and propaganda,
655
00:38:53,266 --> 00:38:54,733
and used it rather brilliantly.
656
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:58,233
And he loved the revolution,
this part of the revolution.
657
00:38:58,300 --> 00:39:00,733
The Bolsheviks do nearly
overplay their hand, you know.
658
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:06,166
In the July Days, they do try
to stage an uprising in Petrograd,
659
00:39:06,233 --> 00:39:07,466
and it is crushed.
660
00:39:08,066 --> 00:39:12,233
In the middle of July,
Lenin is charged with treason.
661
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,366
There is information
coming out about money
662
00:39:15,433 --> 00:39:18,166
that the Bolsheviks accepted
from the Germans.
663
00:39:18,233 --> 00:39:22,166
So, he's under arrest,
and he escapes to Finland,
664
00:39:22,233 --> 00:39:25,466
and is out of the country
for quite a lot of the while,
665
00:39:25,533 --> 00:39:28,066
then comes back and insists,
666
00:39:28,133 --> 00:39:29,733
"There is no power in this country.
667
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:34,233
Let's take over the railway station,
and the post offices, and power is ours.
668
00:39:34,300 --> 00:39:37,100
It's there for the taking.
Take it from the street.
669
00:39:37,166 --> 00:39:38,533
We can do it."
670
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,433
Lenin's belief
in the profound weakness
671
00:39:54,500 --> 00:39:55,633
of the Provisional Government
672
00:39:55,700 --> 00:39:57,566
would prove justified.
673
00:39:57,633 --> 00:40:00,333
Russia's October Revolution had begun,
674
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,300
and the Bolsheviks's attempt
at a coup d'état would spark a civil war
675
00:40:04,366 --> 00:40:07,066
that would last until 1922.
676
00:40:09,133 --> 00:40:12,033
Without Lenin, there wouldn't
have been a Bolshevik Revolution
677
00:40:12,100 --> 00:40:14,566
and there wouldn't have been
any second revolution.
678
00:40:14,633 --> 00:40:18,633
And he pushed and pushed and pushed
his party members with him.
679
00:40:18,700 --> 00:40:20,400
They were very, very reluctant,
680
00:40:20,466 --> 00:40:22,600
because they were scared of being shot
681
00:40:22,666 --> 00:40:24,400
or they're scared it wouldn't work.
682
00:40:24,466 --> 00:40:29,433
There wasn't one particular spark
that week or that month that led it,
683
00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:31,666
it was Lenin saying, "This is our chance."
684
00:40:31,733 --> 00:40:34,466
Lenin's regime is a government
that's born in war.
685
00:40:34,766 --> 00:40:37,400
So, really, it's helpful
to think about the period,
686
00:40:37,466 --> 00:40:39,633
I think, from 1914 to 1921,
687
00:40:39,700 --> 00:40:42,000
as one of continuous warfare.
688
00:40:42,066 --> 00:40:44,166
The Bolshevik party
at the beginning of 1917
689
00:40:44,233 --> 00:40:46,200
is about 20,000 people.
690
00:40:46,266 --> 00:40:48,766
By the end of the civil war,
it's about 1.3 million.
691
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:52,400
And most of the new recruits are men
692
00:40:52,466 --> 00:40:56,300
whose formative administrative experience
has been in the army.
693
00:40:56,366 --> 00:40:58,766
They are militarized in their psychology.
694
00:41:02,233 --> 00:41:04,133
The actual revolution in Russia,
695
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,000
initially, was very much in Petrograd
696
00:41:06,066 --> 00:41:08,200
and of course Moscow.
697
00:41:08,266 --> 00:41:11,100
The way in which it took hold
across rural Russia
698
00:41:11,166 --> 00:41:15,133
was really very anarchic and violent.
699
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:20,533
And there were horrific scenes
of peasants rampaging across estates,
700
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:22,800
burning the manor houses down,
701
00:41:23,033 --> 00:41:25,366
slaughtering the occupants,
702
00:41:25,433 --> 00:41:28,600
killing all the cattle
owned by the landowners.
703
00:41:28,666 --> 00:41:30,433
It was very savage.
704
00:41:30,500 --> 00:41:33,800
The resistance took too long
because most the army and the navy
705
00:41:34,033 --> 00:41:37,700
were so demoralized that
they came over to the Bolshevik side.
706
00:41:37,766 --> 00:41:39,333
They were very, very happy
707
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,533
to go around the hospitals,
shooting ministers.
708
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,466
There was a general murderous feeling
about the government
709
00:41:44,533 --> 00:41:46,300
which Lenin just released.
710
00:41:52,033 --> 00:41:55,733
Lenin was quickly becoming
the most powerful man in Russia.
711
00:41:56,300 --> 00:41:58,433
He'd agreed to an end
to the war with Germany
712
00:41:58,500 --> 00:42:00,500
with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
713
00:42:00,566 --> 00:42:05,066
And his new secret police were commencing
a strategy of violent repression
714
00:42:05,133 --> 00:42:07,800
that would become known as the Red Terror.
715
00:42:10,666 --> 00:42:14,333
The now-deposed Romanov family
were being held in safekeeping
716
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,066
by the Provisional Government.
717
00:42:16,133 --> 00:42:18,533
Attempts had been made
to send them into exile,
718
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,100
but the efforts were to no avail.
719
00:42:21,266 --> 00:42:25,366
Soon, the tsar, his wife and children,
and his last remaining staff
720
00:42:25,433 --> 00:42:29,766
were captured by the Bolshevik forces
and sent to Yekaterinburg
721
00:42:30,100 --> 00:42:33,200
where they were kept in strict isolation.
722
00:42:37,666 --> 00:42:41,433
At around midnight on July the 17th, 1918,
723
00:42:41,500 --> 00:42:45,800
the family were awoken and escorted
into the basement of the house.
724
00:42:54,266 --> 00:42:56,533
This once all-powerful dynasty
725
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,800
had authorized the execution
of Sasha Ulyanov,
726
00:43:00,033 --> 00:43:01,466
Lenin's elder brother.
727
00:43:02,033 --> 00:43:04,133
But now the tables had been turned,
728
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:06,800
and the Romanovs were no more.
729
00:43:10,033 --> 00:43:13,100
The tragedy is that they had 11 assassins
730
00:43:13,166 --> 00:43:16,000
for 11 people to be shot.
731
00:43:16,066 --> 00:43:19,800
And when it came to it,
I think the assassins were quite drunk,
732
00:43:20,233 --> 00:43:22,166
and nobody wanted to shoot the children,
733
00:43:22,233 --> 00:43:26,066
so, they shot the tsar and tsarina first.
734
00:43:26,733 --> 00:43:30,300
And the children had
a most horrifying death
735
00:43:30,366 --> 00:43:32,300
you could ever imagine or inflict.
736
00:43:32,366 --> 00:43:35,566
And that was brought about
by their loving parents,
737
00:43:35,633 --> 00:43:37,400
just indirectly over the years.
738
00:43:38,666 --> 00:43:43,266
Who could have imagined that
those innocent children would be murdered?
739
00:43:43,333 --> 00:43:47,700
This was why it was so horrifying
when it happened.
740
00:43:47,766 --> 00:43:52,800
No one ever imagined those children
would be so cruelly murdered.
741
00:43:53,033 --> 00:43:55,433
There's no paper trail,
but we pretty much know
742
00:43:55,500 --> 00:43:58,233
it would never have happened
without Lenin agreeing to it.
743
00:43:58,300 --> 00:44:02,433
No one was gonna kill the Romanovs
without Lenin's say-so.
744
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,666
Nicholas II's mother, the Dowager Empress,
745
00:44:10,733 --> 00:44:14,566
was able to escape the carnage
on a ship leaving from the Crimea
746
00:44:14,633 --> 00:44:17,700
along with other members
of the extended Romanov family.
747
00:44:18,333 --> 00:44:21,633
But the dynasty that ruled Russia
for over three centuries
748
00:44:21,700 --> 00:44:24,000
had come to a vicious end.
749
00:44:24,166 --> 00:44:29,200
By 1922, the civil war in the country
had also reached its conclusion,
750
00:44:29,266 --> 00:44:34,433
with the Bolsheviks victorious
and a new Soviet Union established.
751
00:44:35,233 --> 00:44:38,100
Lenin began cementing
power as soon as he started.
752
00:44:38,166 --> 00:44:39,766
His organization was so good
753
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,000
that he had the common soldiers
and sailors,
754
00:44:42,066 --> 00:44:43,733
and above all he had the secret police.
755
00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:46,533
He had Trotsky,
who I think the real genius,
756
00:44:46,700 --> 00:44:49,266
to take a whole lot
of disillusioned deserters,
757
00:44:49,333 --> 00:44:50,733
you then create a Red Army,
758
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:53,033
one of the most brilliant armies
in the world.
759
00:44:53,100 --> 00:44:57,766
With Trotsky's military genius
and Lenin's organization and subversion,
760
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,000
I think he consolidated all the time.
761
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,333
He absolutely used terror.
762
00:45:05,033 --> 00:45:07,666
Not only that,
he was very, very good at lying.
763
00:45:07,733 --> 00:45:10,333
He was very skillful about
building majorities,
764
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,333
building groups loyal to him.
765
00:45:13,266 --> 00:45:15,466
After the revolution, people were saying,
766
00:45:15,533 --> 00:45:19,133
"Yes, we need a republic and we need,
you know, a constitution and all that,
767
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:21,166
but we still need a firm tsar, as well."
768
00:45:21,233 --> 00:45:23,000
They kind of wanted the two.
769
00:45:23,066 --> 00:45:26,233
They couldn't quite
disassociate themselves.
770
00:45:26,666 --> 00:45:30,200
It's this idea
of the protective all-embracing tsar
771
00:45:30,266 --> 00:45:32,266
who looked after the nation.
772
00:45:32,666 --> 00:45:36,666
There is always gonna be
this tendency towards the abuse of power,
773
00:45:36,733 --> 00:45:40,466
because the party acknowledges
no checks at all on its own behavior.
774
00:45:40,533 --> 00:45:43,166
There's no independent judiciary,
no independent press,
775
00:45:43,233 --> 00:45:45,233
there's certainly no political opposition.
776
00:45:45,300 --> 00:45:48,300
So, there is always going
to be this kind of tendency
777
00:45:48,366 --> 00:45:52,533
towards a sort of degeneration
into ever more absolute power.
778
00:45:55,366 --> 00:45:59,200
But Lenin would not hold onto
this new position for long.
779
00:45:59,500 --> 00:46:02,466
He suffered a debilitating
series of strokes,
780
00:46:02,533 --> 00:46:06,100
and died on the 21st of January, 1924.
781
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:10,200
Ioseb Dzhugashvili,
now known as Joseph Stalin,
782
00:46:10,266 --> 00:46:13,466
saw an opportunity laid out before him.
783
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:19,066
The Russian Revolution of 1917
changed the world forever.
784
00:46:19,233 --> 00:46:20,800
The Romanovs had been usurped,
785
00:46:21,033 --> 00:46:24,433
and the largest country on earth
was a communist state.
786
00:46:24,500 --> 00:46:28,100
The man who would become
the most powerful dictator in history
787
00:46:28,166 --> 00:46:30,600
was now cementing his position.
70067
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