1917/10: The russian revolution

The deterioration of the supply situation of the population in Russia in the harsh Winter of 1916/1917 and the mismanagement of the leadership in 1917 in the industrial centers led to hunger revolts, strikes and demonstrations.

 

On 18. February 2017, a strike broke out in the Putilov plant, a Petrograd armament plant. As a result, the management decided to lock out 30,000 men. There was an immediate protest against the catastrophic supply situation. The protests spread like an avalanche to other companies, and the general strike was proclaimed. Thousands marched with red flags on the Nevsky Prospekt.

 

On 25. October 1917 was the violent takeover of power by the communist Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Russia. This led in 1922 to the establishment of the Soviet Union, a dictatorship of the communist party of Russia.

 

Germany saw early the possibility of expanding the influence of the „Bolsheviks“ through financial support and covert operations in order to destabilize the country and subsequently subjugate it warily.

 

The leadership of the „Bolsheviks“ were supported with german money: German foreign Minister Richard von Kühlmann in December 1917 for Kaiser Wilhelm II


“ . . . This was the purpose of the destructive work we carried out behind the front line in Russia, primarily to promote separatist tendencies and to support the Bolsheviks. It is only the means which continually inflicted on Bolsheviks on different channels and under changing Etiquette from our side that have enabled them to design the „Pravda“, their main organ, to operate an energetic action and to greatly widen the initially narrow base of their party. . . .“

 

The Germans also helped Lenin from the swiss exile to secretly travel through Finland to Russia and bring cash in two-digit millions.

 

The great fear of the USA was now back, Germany’s cooperation with Russia. This was certainly a reason for the entry of the United States into the first world war

 

After taking power, the Bolsheviks signed with Germany on 03. In March 1918, the separate peace of Brest-Litovsk.

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