1 00:00:05,533 --> 00:00:08,566 It's been a century since the Russian Revolution 2 00:00:08,633 --> 00:00:12,200 and the formation of the world's first communist state. 3 00:00:13,300 --> 00:00:14,500 But how did it happen? 4 00:00:14,566 --> 00:00:18,666 How could the mighty Romanov dynasty, that lasted for 300 years, 5 00:00:18,733 --> 00:00:22,233 fall to a ragtag group of revolutionaries, 6 00:00:22,300 --> 00:00:26,333 who brought with them Joseph Stalin and a brutal reign of terror? 7 00:00:27,366 --> 00:00:30,066 Lenin understood it wasn't your numbers that mattered, 8 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:32,600 it wasn't your popular support that mattered, 9 00:00:32,666 --> 00:00:36,100 you just paralyzed the country by occupying the key points, 10 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:37,533 and then you take over. 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,266 Revolutions don't happen from the dispossessed and the starving, 12 00:00:42,333 --> 00:00:44,700 they happen from the middle class, and it's always been true. 13 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,166 But at the heart of the Russian Revolution 14 00:00:49,433 --> 00:00:51,166 lay a very personal battle 15 00:00:51,233 --> 00:00:55,033 between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal family, 16 00:00:55,100 --> 00:00:58,133 who were determined to retain autocratic rule. 17 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,466 The tsarina used to say that Russia likes to feel the whip. 18 00:01:04,533 --> 00:01:06,766 There was always the feeling that the tsars 19 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:08,433 had the divine right of kings, 20 00:01:08,500 --> 00:01:13,233 they had a sort of God-given obligation to rule themselves and the autocrats. 21 00:01:13,300 --> 00:01:15,733 So, there wasn't really space for democracy. 22 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,100 The disaster that's happened to Russia since 23 00:01:19,166 --> 00:01:23,300 is substantially down to mistakes made by Nicholas II. 24 00:01:23,733 --> 00:01:25,566 He is utterly, utterly useless. 25 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,466 He was a man who shouldn't have been tsar. 26 00:01:30,533 --> 00:01:33,566 He wasn't suited to the onerous task of monarch. 27 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,533 The errors made by the tsar would bring an empire to its knees. 28 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,200 But no one could have predicted that Vladimir Lenin 29 00:01:42,633 --> 00:01:45,733 would be the man to seize control in the chaos. 30 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,533 Lenin understood that power is constrict in certain knots, 31 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:53,800 that you take over a railway junction, 32 00:01:54,033 --> 00:01:58,033 you take over a telephone exchange, and you've already got a city. 33 00:01:58,366 --> 00:01:59,700 Lenin was in a tradition 34 00:01:59,766 --> 00:02:02,666 of Russian leadership, and was a very strong part of it. 35 00:02:02,733 --> 00:02:06,166 He had a profound effect on Russia that we are really still feeling now. 36 00:02:07,133 --> 00:02:12,566 1917 in a sense recasts the ideological map of Europe. 37 00:02:13,166 --> 00:02:16,200 As the century progresses, the ideological map of the world. 38 00:02:41,666 --> 00:02:45,100 March the 13th, 1881, Saint Petersburg. 39 00:02:45,533 --> 00:02:50,200 The tsar, Alexander II, is on his way to his army's military roll call. 40 00:02:50,666 --> 00:02:55,000 He's traveling in a bulletproof carriage, gifted to him by Napoleon III. 41 00:02:55,533 --> 00:03:00,100 It had proved necessary as the tsar had faced numerous assassination attempts 42 00:03:00,166 --> 00:03:01,366 during his reign. 43 00:03:04,666 --> 00:03:06,000 Many people wanted 44 00:03:06,066 --> 00:03:07,633 to get rid of the tsar and his government. 45 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:12,066 But the fact that in middle of the 19th century you had two inventions... 46 00:03:12,133 --> 00:03:15,400 ...the revolver and high-explosive dynamite, 47 00:03:15,466 --> 00:03:17,366 both of which were widespread in Russia, 48 00:03:17,433 --> 00:03:20,366 which enabled quite amateurish people to get together 49 00:03:20,433 --> 00:03:22,666 and organize an assassination. 50 00:03:24,100 --> 00:03:26,666 This is really a kind of sustained terrorist campaign. 51 00:03:26,733 --> 00:03:29,300 There are multiple attempts on the life of the tsar, 52 00:03:29,366 --> 00:03:31,033 attempts to blow up his carriage. 53 00:03:31,100 --> 00:03:35,366 One terrorist, over a period of months, working as a carpenter 54 00:03:35,433 --> 00:03:38,733 in the Winter Palace, manages to plant a body of explosives, 55 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,033 which very, very nearly kill Alexander II. 56 00:03:42,100 --> 00:03:45,800 I mean, 11 people are killed, about 56 are injured. 57 00:03:46,033 --> 00:03:50,200 It's sort of those moments where he was in the wrong room at the right moment, 58 00:03:50,266 --> 00:03:52,733 as it were, and the explosion just missed him. 59 00:03:56,466 --> 00:03:59,500 But this time, the tsar would not be so fortunate. 60 00:04:03,566 --> 00:04:07,400 Alexander's legs are shredded, his stomach cut open by shrapnel. 61 00:04:08,100 --> 00:04:10,400 His dying body is carried to the Winter Palace, 62 00:04:10,466 --> 00:04:12,466 where his family, the Romanovs, 63 00:04:12,533 --> 00:04:15,133 who have ruled Russia for nearly three centuries, 64 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,000 are horrified to lay their eyes upon him. 65 00:04:21,166 --> 00:04:22,766 He only lasted 90 minutes, 66 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,166 and the bomber himself, also, lasted 90 minutes. 67 00:04:25,666 --> 00:04:27,166 His legs were blown off, too. 68 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,433 The assassination of Alexander II, it's kind of Russia's 9/11. 69 00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:37,466 I've read newspaper reports that come out in the days after the assassination, 70 00:04:37,533 --> 00:04:42,133 and they are astonishingly graphic about the physical damage 71 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:43,533 inflicted on Alexander's body. 72 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,100 They sort of start talking about the shattered legs 73 00:04:46,166 --> 00:04:48,233 and the tendons hanging out and stuff. 74 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:50,233 What they're describing is this wound 75 00:04:50,300 --> 00:04:53,000 that has been inflicted on the body of the state, 76 00:04:53,066 --> 00:04:55,300 you know, so, the king's two bodies clearly there. 77 00:04:59,300 --> 00:05:01,266 The group responsible 78 00:05:01,333 --> 00:05:04,600 for this attack is Narodnaya Volya, the People's Will. 79 00:05:05,333 --> 00:05:07,666 The conspirators would be hanged for their crimes, 80 00:05:07,733 --> 00:05:09,466 but the movement would continue, 81 00:05:10,133 --> 00:05:13,766 and it would soon attract the attentions of one Aleksandr Ulyanov, 82 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:18,333 eldest son of the Ulyanov family and elder brother to Lenin, 83 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,300 the man who would eventually eliminate the Romanovs completely. 84 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,266 But in 1881, the People's Will's predictions 85 00:05:26,333 --> 00:05:27,766 do not come to pass. 86 00:05:28,366 --> 00:05:32,300 There is no great revolution following the death of Tsar Alexander II. 87 00:05:33,033 --> 00:05:35,800 He's succeeded by his son, Alexander III, 88 00:05:36,033 --> 00:05:38,500 who, upon viewing his dying father, 89 00:05:38,566 --> 00:05:41,533 vows to never let the same fate befall him. 90 00:05:42,433 --> 00:05:47,266 Despite the enormous unrest, Russian autocratic rule would continue. 91 00:05:51,066 --> 00:05:55,066 Alexander III considered Alexander II way too lenient. 92 00:05:55,133 --> 00:05:57,100 I mean, he'd liberated the serfs. 93 00:05:57,166 --> 00:06:00,766 So, Alexander III decided to come down hard on Russia, 94 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,666 and he was anyway a very sort of forceful character 95 00:06:03,733 --> 00:06:06,733 who used to bend forks in knots at the table. 96 00:06:07,166 --> 00:06:11,166 And he apparently was able to walk through doors without opening them. 97 00:06:12,266 --> 00:06:13,333 He was a huge man. 98 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,466 And undermined his son, unfortunately, by calling him girly 99 00:06:17,533 --> 00:06:19,300 when the tsar was a child, 100 00:06:19,366 --> 00:06:21,666 and I don't know that the tsar, Nicholas, 101 00:06:21,733 --> 00:06:24,533 ever emerged from that repression from his father 102 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:26,100 and that sort of undermining. 103 00:06:26,533 --> 00:06:28,633 Alexander III has a very bad press. 104 00:06:28,700 --> 00:06:32,366 People say stagnation, reaction, and all that is true. 105 00:06:32,433 --> 00:06:35,500 On the other hand, there were some good things about Alexander III. 106 00:06:36,133 --> 00:06:39,466 He never declared war on anybody, unlike Alexander II, 107 00:06:39,533 --> 00:06:40,766 who's extremely aggressive, 108 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,533 made war on the Turkish Empire, on the Chinese. 109 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,633 He also listened to his ministers. He may have been a reactionary, 110 00:06:46,700 --> 00:06:49,233 but he appointed some very competent ministers, 111 00:06:49,300 --> 00:06:53,133 and, in his reign, Russia railways became one of the best service in Europe, 112 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:54,333 Russian post office, too. 113 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:56,400 He was a boring man and he liked the bottle, 114 00:06:56,466 --> 00:06:58,333 but there were things to be said for him. 115 00:06:59,500 --> 00:07:01,166 It seems sort of counterintuitive, 116 00:07:01,233 --> 00:07:03,700 but Russia was actually a fantastically dynamic society 117 00:07:03,766 --> 00:07:07,333 in lots of ways in this period. Really from its defeat in the Crimean War 118 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,333 in the 1850s, it understands that it has to industrialize 119 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:14,500 if it is to remain competitive on the international stage. 120 00:07:15,133 --> 00:07:19,366 So, the defeat in the Crimea at the hands of the French and the British 121 00:07:19,433 --> 00:07:24,066 laid bare the fact that Russia was an undeveloped state. 122 00:07:24,133 --> 00:07:27,600 Its peasant armies were no match for the Western powers, 123 00:07:27,666 --> 00:07:31,466 and so, if Russia wants to remain in the game, it needs to industrialize. 124 00:07:33,433 --> 00:07:36,733 Russia was modernizing at an extraordinary rate, 125 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,700 but its political system remained deeply autocratic, 126 00:07:40,233 --> 00:07:43,400 unlike almost all other European nations of the era. 127 00:07:46,033 --> 00:07:48,333 Because of the conditions of Russia at the time, 128 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:50,333 normal, middle-class families 129 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,633 weren't allowed any form of political expression at all. 130 00:07:54,333 --> 00:07:55,733 That was the main problem. 131 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,033 So, any normal, middle-class family, 132 00:07:58,100 --> 00:08:00,366 the son would have entered the revolutionary, 133 00:08:00,433 --> 00:08:01,800 the radical political sect. 134 00:08:02,033 --> 00:08:06,033 There was a wave of repression against Russian radicals, 135 00:08:06,100 --> 00:08:07,700 oppositionists, and so on. 136 00:08:07,766 --> 00:08:09,733 Some of these people are clearly dangerous. 137 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:12,700 Some of these people have plotted to kill the tsar, 138 00:08:12,766 --> 00:08:15,800 members of the Imperial Family, or, you know, regional governors and so on. 139 00:08:17,133 --> 00:08:19,400 There's a general paradox that a dictatorship, 140 00:08:19,466 --> 00:08:22,166 as long as it's strict and severe, is safe. 141 00:08:22,233 --> 00:08:24,333 The moment it starts to liberalize, 142 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:26,500 it gives an inch and the people take a yard. 143 00:08:26,566 --> 00:08:29,066 Once the people detect a weakness, 144 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,233 or a division, then the whole thing starts to fall apart. 145 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,299 One such person who got caught up in this radical world 146 00:08:39,366 --> 00:08:43,600 was Aleksandr Ulyanov, known to his family as Sasha. 147 00:08:44,300 --> 00:08:48,300 He was the eldest Ulyanov son, and elder brother to Vladimir Lenin. 148 00:08:52,633 --> 00:08:56,133 The Ulyanov family was not a typical family. 149 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,433 There was a very small caste of civil servants in Russia, 150 00:08:59,766 --> 00:09:02,433 and the father was a schools inspector. 151 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:04,533 And he'd reached a position 152 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,200 in the civil service that gave him the rank of a noble. 153 00:09:07,266 --> 00:09:10,400 That was a very, very small percentage of people in Russia. 154 00:09:10,466 --> 00:09:11,700 But they weren't that rich. 155 00:09:12,266 --> 00:09:14,233 Lenin's elder brother, like Lenin himself, 156 00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:18,266 brilliant intellectually, covered in gold medals from school and university, 157 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:22,100 and he joined a student group, and they decided to make a bomb, 158 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:24,500 and attempted to kill Alexander III. 159 00:09:30,566 --> 00:09:36,000 The plan is to assassinate Alexander II's heir, Alexander III, 160 00:09:36,066 --> 00:09:40,166 when Alexander III is going to be attending a ceremony 161 00:09:40,233 --> 00:09:42,366 to commemorate the assassination of his father. 162 00:09:42,433 --> 00:09:46,733 And Aleksandr Ulyanov, he's the kind of, you know, master bomb maker. 163 00:09:48,666 --> 00:09:50,100 The People's Will 164 00:09:50,166 --> 00:09:52,633 was more of a mystic than an ideological association. 165 00:09:52,700 --> 00:09:55,133 The idea if we bring down the very top, 166 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,166 they'll all be so terrified that the system will disintegrate 167 00:09:59,233 --> 00:10:03,233 and they'll be a sort of peasant uprising out of which a new order will arise, 168 00:10:03,300 --> 00:10:06,700 but they had begun to read Marx. The trouble with reading Marx, of course, 169 00:10:06,766 --> 00:10:10,233 is Marx predicted the last place there'd be a revolution would be Russia. 170 00:10:10,300 --> 00:10:13,700 So, it was still that romantic idea of kill the tsar 171 00:10:13,766 --> 00:10:16,000 and everything will naturally reform. 172 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,400 A bomb that's packed with pieces of metal 173 00:10:19,466 --> 00:10:24,133 that have been dipped in strychnine to inflict maximum number of fatalities. 174 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,500 I mean, that's worth remembering. But the plan is undone by the Okhrana, 175 00:10:27,566 --> 00:10:31,633 and they have wind of the attempt on the tsar's life, 176 00:10:31,700 --> 00:10:35,800 and the terrorists are arrested and rounded up within a matter of days. 177 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,800 Of course they were sentenced to death. 178 00:10:40,033 --> 00:10:41,666 Alexander III very generously said, 179 00:10:41,733 --> 00:10:45,733 "Those that repent, I will reprieve. Those that don't repent, I will hang." 180 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:49,466 Sasha said, "That would be going against my principles to ask for a reprieve." 181 00:10:49,533 --> 00:10:51,066 His mother begged him to. 182 00:10:51,133 --> 00:10:55,000 The hanging of Sasha, that is often seen as what motivated Lenin. 183 00:10:57,166 --> 00:10:59,500 Often these things are personal, not political. 184 00:10:59,566 --> 00:11:03,200 When his brother was arrested, his mother rushed to the city. 185 00:11:03,266 --> 00:11:06,633 Vladimir, the future Lenin, tried to organize transport 186 00:11:06,700 --> 00:11:11,133 to get her to the nearest train station, and he traced around bourgeois Simbirsk 187 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:14,033 to try and get someone who would go with his mother. 188 00:11:14,100 --> 00:11:15,600 Absolutely all of them refused, 189 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,266 and that changed his entire perspective about bourgeois liberals 190 00:11:19,333 --> 00:11:22,500 and the other middle class, and it was-- That was overnight. 191 00:11:22,566 --> 00:11:25,600 And from then on, he just abused the liberals, 192 00:11:25,666 --> 00:11:28,633 and the way the family were snubbed because of this 193 00:11:28,700 --> 00:11:32,100 changed him as much as any other politics. 194 00:11:36,100 --> 00:11:41,266 Sasha Ulyanov was hanged on the 20th of May, 1887. 195 00:11:47,133 --> 00:11:50,000 Lenin entered the underground revolutionary movements 196 00:11:50,066 --> 00:11:52,166 following the path laid out by his brother, 197 00:11:52,566 --> 00:11:55,133 and just like Sasha, Lenin would be tracked 198 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,533 by the secret police of the Russian Empire, the Okhrana. 199 00:12:00,566 --> 00:12:03,166 Every country had a spy organization, of course, 200 00:12:03,233 --> 00:12:07,533 but Russia was the first one that had an entire massive organization 201 00:12:07,700 --> 00:12:11,133 to suppress dissent wherever they seemed to find it. 202 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,166 They had a vast operation to open people's mail. 203 00:12:15,033 --> 00:12:18,300 The Russian secret police had agents everywhere. 204 00:12:18,666 --> 00:12:21,666 It not only had departments in Saint Petersburg and Moscow 205 00:12:21,733 --> 00:12:24,733 and most of the main cities, it had a French department, as well, 206 00:12:26,266 --> 00:12:27,666 keeping an eye on the exiles. 207 00:12:27,733 --> 00:12:31,466 The Okhrana always kept an eye on them, tailing them round Europe. 208 00:12:33,033 --> 00:12:35,066 You had to stay one move ahead. 209 00:12:35,133 --> 00:12:40,100 So, you spent 16 years effectively going from one bolt-hole to another, 210 00:12:40,166 --> 00:12:43,233 always one step ahead of the secret police. 211 00:12:43,300 --> 00:12:46,800 On the biggest influences on Lenin, before he read Marx, 212 00:12:47,033 --> 00:12:50,533 was a novel by a guy called Nikolay Chernyshevsky 213 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:52,166 called What Is to be Done? 214 00:12:52,233 --> 00:12:53,600 It's a pretty lousy novel, 215 00:12:53,666 --> 00:12:57,200 but the hero is a selfless, devoted revolutionary 216 00:12:57,266 --> 00:13:01,433 who gives himself up to the cause and walks 20 miles a day, 217 00:13:01,500 --> 00:13:05,333 does 150 press-ups, abstains from alcohol. 218 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:09,400 And he modeled himself on this character quite deliberately. 219 00:13:09,466 --> 00:13:12,766 Lenin always said this book, which he'd read one summer five times, 220 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,066 influenced him more than anything by Marx. 221 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:17,766 Lenin was forced to cover his tracks 222 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:19,366 as he traveled around the country, 223 00:13:19,433 --> 00:13:23,066 trying his best avoid the attention of the authorities. 224 00:13:23,466 --> 00:13:26,300 At the same time, Nicholas, the heir to the throne, 225 00:13:26,366 --> 00:13:30,300 was also on his travels around the Russian Empire and beyond. 226 00:13:30,733 --> 00:13:36,166 It was a voyage of great fanfare, but it came to a shocking end in Japan. 227 00:13:43,333 --> 00:13:45,633 His father tried to give him some responsibility, 228 00:13:45,700 --> 00:13:49,333 decided it wouldn't do any harm to put him in charge of the Trans-Siberian Railway. 229 00:13:49,633 --> 00:13:52,366 So, he'd crossed Siberia, went all the way to Vladivostok, 230 00:13:52,433 --> 00:13:54,600 and then he was sent on a mission to Japan, 231 00:13:55,333 --> 00:13:59,500 which ended disastrously, because Nicholas was suddenly attacked 232 00:13:59,566 --> 00:14:01,200 by a Japanese policeman... 233 00:14:02,366 --> 00:14:06,633 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.