1917 Russia's year of revolutions.

• Author: Wines, Michael

BACKGROUND

The Russian Revolution that began with the overthrow of the Czar and ended with the Bolsheviks in power holds many lessons for today. Among them: Russia has lived under authoritarian rule for much of its history; and building a free and democratic society from the ruins of authoritarian rule is not an easy task.

CRITICAL THINKING/DISCUSSION 1

* Discuss one of the lessons historians take from 1917: that getting rid of dictators is the easy part of revolution and building a democracy from scratch is difficult. Ask why students think people may not always simply embrace democracy when they are given the chance.

CRITICAL THINKING/DISCUSSION 2

* Next, ask students to relate that lesson to what's going on today in Russia, and in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

CRITICAL THINKING/DISCUSSION 2

* Discuss the power of history and culture in shaping people's ideas and values. [Remind students that democracy requires faith in a country's laws and institutions, which is missing from the lives of many Russians and Iraqis at the moment.)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* Czar Nicholas II once said that if reforms brought Russia close to being a democratic republic, "that would be senseless and criminal." Why do you think he would say something like that?

* Why do you think Lenin's promise of "peace, bread, land" was so effective in rallying people to the Communist cause?

WRITING PROMPT

* Have students write an essay on the statement that history often repeats itself. If they agree, can they cite examples?

FAST FACT

* Bolshevik in Russian means majority.

* During the overthrow of the Czar, Lenin was living in exile in Switzerland. Hoping he would help take Russia out of the war, the Germans sent him back to Russia.

WEB WATCH

www.bbc.co.uk/history/ historic_figures/lenin_ vtadimir.shtmt Brief BBC biography of Lenin.

Nicholas II, the Czar of imperial Russia, was commanding his troops in the World War I struggle against Germany when the message arrived from Petrograd: "The situation is grave. Anarchy reigns in the capital."

It was March 2, 1917, and Nicholas rushed back to Petrograd (now St. Petersburg). But at the Navy's headquarters, his last loyal troops had already surrendered to pro-democracy forces representing both Russia's poor and its intellectual elite. The imperial tricolor had been yanked down, and the flag of the revolutionaries rose in its place.

Nicholas saw the handwriting on the wall. He abdicated--and a long legacy of unchallenged rule and unimaginable riches came to an end.

The promised democracy, however...