1 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,040 Russia, October 1917. 2 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,080 From Petrograd, a shockwave pulsed and widened 3 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,520 through all this vast land which had once been an empire. 4 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,600 The billows beat in every quarter of the world. 5 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:37,360 Let everyone remember that in this war there are no reverses 6 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:42,200 of the Russians, of the English, or of the French alone 7 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,760 and that success or failure is one and the same thing for all. 8 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:53,800 The fervent hopes once expressed by a Russian politician, now, in the winter of 1917, sounded ominous. 9 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:58,640 In the east, a spectre more awful than all the shapes of death itself 10 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,400 had appeared upon the battlefield, 11 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:05,760 a spectre that had long haunted the war leaders' minds. 12 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:12,480 For here was the most dreaded casualty of all - the will to war itself. 13 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:15,920 Russia could go on no longer. Hindenburg said, 14 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:19,720 Hitherto, the unwieldy Russian colossus 15 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:25,040 had hung over the whole European and Asiatic world like a nightmare. 16 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:31,160 Time and time again, her efforts had produced considerable crises for us. 17 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,800 Tannenberg, August 1914. 18 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:39,480 The enemy losses were extremely heavy, 19 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:44,640 but our high command believed themselves compelled prematurely 20 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,400 to draw away to the east strong forces from the west 21 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:54,240 where they were trying to secure a rapid decision. 22 00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,120 Masurian Lakes, February 1915. 23 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:07,840 Mighty masses rolled up against us, 24 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:12,720 overwhelming masses, each one larger than our whole force, 25 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:16,080 but German resolution bore this load 26 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,440 and Russian blood flowed in streams. 27 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,240 Galicia, May 1915. 28 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:42,840 The fearful, continuous tension of the situation in the Carpathians, 29 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:46,360 and its reaction on the political situation, 30 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,080 imperiously demanded some solution. 31 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:55,040 We found ourselves compelled to send large forces there 32 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,720 to keep up our pressure upon the enemy. 33 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,200 Gorlice-Tarnow, 1915. 34 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:20,440 There was something unsatisfactory about the encounters of this year. 35 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,960 The Russian bear had escaped our clutches, 36 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:31,720 bleeding, no doubt, from more than one wound, but still not stricken to death. 37 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:36,480 Did he have enough life force left to make things hard for us again? 38 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:42,400 Her casualties are the highest of all the combatant nations. 39 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:46,880 No-one knows the figures - five or eight million. 40 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:51,760 All we know is, sometimes in our battles with the Russian, 41 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:57,000 we had to move the mounds of enemy corpses from before our trenches 42 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000 in order to get a fresh field of fire against assaulting waves. 43 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:12,040 Yet in 1916, the Russians had won a great victory over the Austrians in Galicia. 44 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:18,280 The Germans and Austrians had had to stretch their manpower resources to the utmost to resist this blow. 45 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:52,360 In January 1917, an Allied delegation arrived in Russia 46 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:57,280 to develop efficiency for the planned offensive of that year. 47 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,040 The British military attache in Russia wrote, 48 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:06,000 The prospects for the 1917 campaign were brighter than in 1916. 49 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,200 The Russian infantry was tired, but less tired than 12 months earlier. 50 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,520 The stocks of arms and equipment were larger 51 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:19,320 and supplies from overseas were arriving in appreciable quantities. 52 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:24,800 In fact, desertions from the front ran into hundreds of thousands. 53 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:29,840 Russia had lost as many dead as the British and French put together. 54 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,360 She had suffered literally beyond endurance. 55 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,760 She had reached her limit. 56 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,400 Her soldiers, once so brave, had had enough. 57 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,200 Now they were getting out of the trenches 58 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:50,520 to fraternise with the Germans, man to man. 59 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:02,200 In the rear, industrialisation had changed the face of Tsarist Russia, 60 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,800 drawing peasants into the towns 61 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:10,640 and creating a new, incoherent proletariat. 62 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:17,040 The economy functioned in a welter of administrative confusion, 63 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,480 but committees set up to organise production, 64 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:26,440 after the appalling breakdowns of the early days of the war, had begun to have some effect. 65 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:30,880 By the end of 1916, great improvements had been achieved. 66 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:33,520 Patriotic spirit ran high. 67 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:39,880 Victory over the Germans was the simple aim of most of the population. 68 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,920 Pressure for more efficient management of the war 69 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:56,760 was exerted by liberal politicians through the parliament, or Duma. 70 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:01,680 But Tsar Nicholas II had no use for constitutional government. 71 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:04,200 At his coronation he said, 72 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,760 I shall maintain the principle of autocracy 73 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,800 just as firmly and unflinchingly as it was preserved by my dead father. 74 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:17,000 But Nicholas II was gentler, weaker than his father. 75 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,640 Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, wrote, 76 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:26,600 He would never have been chosen by a responsible board of directors 77 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,960 to manage any business of any magnitude, 78 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:34,960 and certainly not a business confronted with a serious emergency. 79 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:40,320 He was a devoted family man, deeply fond of his son, the tsarevitch, 80 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,160 who suffered from haemophilia, 81 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:47,840 a blood disease which made every scratch dangerous. 82 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:04,880 There was nothing the Tsar liked better 83 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:08,360 than to be with his soldiers and sailors. 84 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:13,040 In 1915, he had made himself Supreme Commander. 85 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,920 He loved the simple link, as he saw it, 86 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:21,120 that bound him to his wider family - 87 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,200 the 170 million people of Russia. 88 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:29,320 Emotional faith in a paternal Tsar and the mystery of their religion 89 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:33,400 were the simple guiding principles of their lives. 90 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:50,640 The peasants' lives were miserable. 91 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:55,160 Often, they lodged in the same single-room hovel as their animals 92 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:59,560 on earthen floors with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. 93 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:04,600 Their diet was poor and the gross mishandling of wartime distribution 94 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:09,360 meant that, though food was there, many went hungry. 95 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:18,920 Chaos was aggravated by hundreds of thousands of refugees who poured into Russia in the early defeats. 96 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:23,640 A British member of parliament observed their misery. 97 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:27,680 Serried ranks of emaciated, huddled humanity, 98 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:32,640 brutalised by their abject surroundings, corroded by disease. 99 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:37,280 Men, women and children of different races and languages, 100 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:41,040 crowded and congested like litters of pigs 101 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:43,840 in an asphyxiating sty. 102 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:54,880 In the towns and factories, too, there was misery. 103 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,480 Strikes had been increasing sharply just before 1914. 104 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:04,200 War, with its shortages and inflation, aggravated the unrest. 105 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:31,880 The Tsar himself left affairs more and more to the Tsarina, 106 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:36,920 a German-born but English-educated niece of Queen Victoria. 107 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:56,400 The Tsarina's close friendship with her spiritual adviser, a lecherous and drunken monk, Rasputin, 108 00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:01,560 led to a widespread campaign against the entire Tsarist regime. 109 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:06,280 To the public, this relationship assumed vast dimensions. 110 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,680 It became the symbol of all Russia's ills. 111 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:14,680 Rasputin's murder was hailed as an act of the highest patriotism. 112 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:26,280 The winter of 1916-17 was particularly severe. 113 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:41,560 Fuel was short. 114 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,400 Food queues lengthened. 115 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:55,280 Pressures on the Tsar to change incompetent ministers continued from all sides. 116 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:57,800 His own cousin wrote to him, 117 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:02,840 Shall Russia be a great state, free and capable of developing strong, 118 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:06,960 or shall she submit to the iron German fist? 119 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:11,680 Certain forces are leading you, and thus Russia, to inevitable ruin. 120 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:17,880 It is absolutely indispensable that the ministers and the legislative chambers should work together. 121 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:24,920 The existing situation, with the whole responsibility resting on you and you alone, 122 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:26,960 is unthinkable. 123 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:33,000 The British Ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, doing what he could to keep Russia in the war, 124 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:38,040 told the Tsar he must regain the people's confidence. HE replied, 125 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:43,040 Do you mean that I am to regain the confidence of my people 126 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:47,080 or that THEY are to regain MY confidence? 127 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,720 Suddenly, in the early days of March 1917, 128 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:56,800 frustration in the Petrograd food queues spilled over into revolt. 129 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:02,480 People came out to protest, found many others there and took courage. 130 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:07,320 For the first time, there was doubt about the troops. 131 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:14,440 The Tsar, true to character, 132 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:19,480 washed his hands of the awkward situation and went to the front, 133 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:24,520 leaving matters to the palace guard and the Petrograd garrison. 134 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:32,880 Now turbulent forces suddenly broke the surface of Russian life. 135 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:37,640 The French Ambassador watched from the safety of his room. 136 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,920 A strange and prolonged din seemed to come from the Alexander Bridge. 137 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:48,320 Almost immediately, a disorderly mob carrying red flags appeared at the end on the right bank of the Neva 138 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,880 and a regiment came towards it from the other end. 139 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:56,160 It looked as if they would collide, but the two bodies coalesced. 140 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,720 The army was fraternising with the revolt. 141 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:04,120 The vast Petrograd garrison of some 200,000 men 142 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,640 was not typical of the army as a whole. 143 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:12,400 It consisted of raw recruits, war-weary reserves, convalescents 144 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,320 and even punishment battalions. 145 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:22,680 Many deserters from the front had drifted to the capital's streets. 146 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:27,080 Before long, the whole garrison had joined the mob. 147 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:32,080 In a desperate move to get the Tsar to introduce the necessary reforms, 148 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:38,200 the President of the Duma, Rodzianko, sent him a telegram. The Tsar received it at his HQ. 149 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,640 This fat Rodzianko has sent me some nonsense 150 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,000 to which I will not even reply. 151 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:51,040 Nothing could stop the sudden upsurge against the monarchy, symbol of the country's sufferings. 152 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:57,840 Within days, the Tsar was forced to abdicate and a 300-year-old dynasty came crashing to the ground. 153 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:16,040 A general amnesty was declared 154 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:20,880 and political prisoners were set free among the jubilant crowds. 155 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:34,520 The Tsar's unpopular ministers were arrested. 156 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:04,680 It is difficult to say how many died in the bloodless revolution, 157 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,200 but most accounts say under a thousand. 158 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:12,920 Petrograd, thanks to the measures taken by the government, 159 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:17,560 rapidly resumed its normal aspect and order generally prevailed. 160 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:24,000 This was especially noticeable at the burial of the victims of the revolution on April the 5th 161 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,400 when a never-ending procession filed past in perfect order 162 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:32,520 from ten in the morning till late in the evening. 163 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,800 There were in all but some 200 coffins 164 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:39,240 and as each one was lowered into the grave, 165 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:42,680 a salute was fired from the fortress, 166 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:49,720 but no priests officiated at the ceremony which was divested of any religious character. 167 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:53,680 Somewhat dazed with the success of the revolution, 168 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:59,040 Russia had to face the bleak task of deciding where she would go. 169 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:06,000 The rising in the streets had been AGAINST something. Now the people had to decide what it had been FOR. 170 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:10,360 The wish to run the war better had given the revolution its spark, 171 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:14,000 but hatred of the war had given it momentum. 172 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,360 In the confusion that followed, responsibility fell upon the Duma, 173 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:23,160 responsibility to make good their implied promises. 174 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,920 Now they had to do better than the autocracy they had so criticised. 175 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:34,240 A Provisional Government was formed with a liberal, Prince Lvov, as the first Prime Minister. 176 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:39,200 A young socialist lawyer, Kerenski, became Minister of Justice. 177 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:43,640 In the Allied capitals, where the events in Russia looked simple, 178 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,760 the revolution was hailed as a triumph for the Allied cause. 179 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,320 The London Times commented, 180 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:56,120 The army and people joined hands to overthrow the forces of reaction 181 00:18:56,120 --> 00:19:01,600 which were stifling national aspirations and strangling national efforts. 182 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,840 Lloyd George declared in the House of Commons, 183 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,600 We believe that the revolution 184 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:12,440 is the greatest service the Russian people have yet made 185 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:17,480 to the cause for which the Allied peoples have been fighting. 186 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:25,160 In America, herself about to enter the war on the Allied side, the revolution seemed providential. 187 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,800 The Secretary of State declared, 188 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,840 The revolution in Russia has removed the one objection to affirming 189 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:35,920 that the European war was a war between democracy and absolutism. 190 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:40,440 In Petrograd, one of the Provisional Government's first acts 191 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:44,640 was to declare that it would loyally maintain its alliances 192 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,960 and endeavour to carry the war to a victorious conclusion. 193 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,200 The French Ambassador reported, 194 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:55,080 Patriotism, intelligence and honesty is on every face, 195 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:59,880 but the task they have undertaken is patently beyond their powers. 196 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:03,920 Heaven grant that they do not collapse under it too soon. 197 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:11,120 Their task was complicated by the fact that a separate revolutionary body convened in the same offices - 198 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:17,600 the Soviet. The Soviet, or council, claimed to represent factory workers and soldiers. 199 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:22,120 Its majority wanted to continue the war to defend the revolution. 200 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:26,720 One of its first acts was to issue Order Number 1 to the army, 201 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:32,440 directed against the powers of officers and setting up soldiers' councils. 202 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:39,600 In this uneasy alliance, the Provisional Government had to accept the Soviet's order. 203 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:45,120 A struggle for the soul of Russia now began. A French observer noted, 204 00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:50,000 Groups were constantly forming with no actual reason in the streets. 205 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,920 One man would have a discussion with another and passers-by would listen. 206 00:20:54,920 --> 00:21:02,680 People thus witnessed exchanges of political opinions where opposing ideas were set against each other. 207 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,320 Groups were constantly forming and dispersing. 208 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,520 At first sight, the crowd appeared to be full of unrest. 209 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,240 Actually, it was only idle. 210 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:19,680 The Germans had always regarded a revolution as their best hope for an early defeat of Russia. 211 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,920 Now was the time to ensure the outcome. 212 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:29,440 They saw as their instrument, Lenin, head of the Bolshevik group among the Russian revolutionaries. 213 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:35,120 Lenin had spent the war years in Switzerland with his wife, Krupskaya. 214 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:41,880 The Germans had so far made little contact with them, finding other revolutionaries more cooperative. 215 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,040 Lenin himself was no pro-German. Pitilessly single-minded, 216 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:50,920 he saw all the warring nations as capitalist imperialists. 217 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:55,960 He wanted peace and worldwide revolution against capitalism. 218 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,560 As late as January 1917, he said, 219 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:05,680 We of the older generation may not live to see the decisive battle of this coming revolution. 220 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:10,560 When revolution came, only two months later, he was unimpressed. 221 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,120 The militant monarchy in Russia 222 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:16,440 has been followed by a militant republic - 223 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,280 capitalists who want to continue the imperialist war 224 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:24,560 and to adhere to the robber treaties of the Tsarist monarchy. 225 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:31,720 Lenin's aim of peace at any price was at variance with the Petrograd Soviets and even many Bolsheviks. 226 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:36,000 Now, in Churchill's words, the Germans transported Lenin 227 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,040 "like a plague bacillus" from Switzerland into Russia. 228 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:50,520 He arrived in Petrograd on April the 16th, determined to capture control of the revolution, 229 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,680 but his moment was not quite yet. 230 00:22:53,680 --> 00:23:00,520 The man of the moment was Kerenski. Unlike Lenin, this socialist lawyer - a compelling orator, 231 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:05,440 honest, shrewd, energetic - wanted to continue the war. 232 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,920 His efforts to reinvigorate Russian society 233 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:13,240 in defence of the revolution against German imperialism 234 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:17,320 found a response among the Petrograd crowds. 235 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:22,200 A freedom loan, launched to support the revolution, had great success. 236 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:35,200 Patriotic fellow socialists from Allied countries, like the French socialist minister, Albert Thomas, 237 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,720 were welcomed on goodwill visits to cement Allied solidarity. 238 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:47,080 Thomas was very impressed. Eyes sparkling as he glanced about him, he said to the French Ambassador, 239 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,880 Now we see the revolution in all its grandeur and beauty. 240 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:56,920 The strength of Russian democracy lies in its revolutionary fervour. 241 00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:03,680 Kerenski alone is capable of establishing, with the Soviet's aid, a government worthy of confidence. 242 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:08,440 Soon Kerenski was Minister of War in a new government, 243 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,960 which included members of the Soviet, and with dynamic confidence 244 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:18,720 he went ahead with his plans for the Russian army's summer campaign. 245 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:23,280 As in 1916, it was to take place in Galicia. 246 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:28,280 But in the army, the virus of revolution had spread. 247 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,800 The cracks in discipline were widening. 248 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,200 An English observer wrote, 249 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,720 Desertion had set in wholesale. 250 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:44,120 Few men left the front trenches, but as soon as they were moved into the reserves they decamped in a body. 251 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,720 The movement was something elemental. 252 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:55,240 They packed even the roofs of railway carriages. 253 00:24:55,240 --> 00:25:01,440 A photograph of this was published in England entitled, "Russian Soldiers Hasten To The Front." 254 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,200 The Germans purposely left the front inactive 255 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,880 to encourage this crumbling of Russian discipline. 256 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:17,120 General Brusilov, victor of last year's campaign, 257 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:23,360 had to spend hours arguing with soldiers, delegates and committees who had their own strategic ideas. 258 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,440 However, Brusilov was optimistic. So was Kerenski, 259 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,080 who issued the order of the day - 260 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:43,000 I call on the army, fortified by the strength and spirit of the revolution, to take the offensive. 261 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,800 Kerenski's offensive was launched on July the 1st. 262 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:11,960 There were some initial gains. The Provisional Government issued an intoxicating communique. 263 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,960 July 1st has shown the whole world the might of a revolutionary army, 264 00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,640 organised on democratic lines 265 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:24,480 and inspired by a firm belief in the ideas of the revolution. 266 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,880 It was a pipe dream. After a few days of partial breakthroughs, 267 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,800 the Russian offensive petered out. 268 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,800 The British military attache reported, 269 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:10,320 They had lost many officers and had no incentive to further effort. 270 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,320 They knew they could retire without being punished. 271 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,520 As a Russian artillery general expressed it, 272 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:22,000 "They felt lonely out in front, and went to their dugouts to sleep." 273 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:32,080 Then the Germans and Austrians counter-attacked. The rout of the Russian army was overwhelming. 274 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:12,800 The real meaning of the revolution now made itself felt. 275 00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:19,720 It had meant a breakdown, not just of the Tsarist regime, but of Russia herself. 276 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:26,880 Solitary, helpless and dismayed, the individual Russian was looking for direction. 277 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:30,600 This was a chaos which anyone might exploit, 278 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:35,120 provided he was ruthless and single-minded enough. 279 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:39,920 Lenin was such a man. He constantly attacked the Provisional Government 280 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:47,040 and when the news of the disasters at the front reached Petrograd, it seemed that his moment had come. 281 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:51,440 Crowds flooded the streets, calling for peace, bread and freedom 282 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,880 and for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. 283 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,600 To foment an armed uprising, 284 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:05,400 the Bolsheviks called in sailors from the naval base at Kronstadt 285 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,880 Everything now depended on the loyalty of the army. 286 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:11,920 An observer wrote, 287 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:16,200 Looking onto the square, I saw an endless multitude 288 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,600 packing the entire space as far as the eye could reach. 289 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:25,120 A mass of placards and banners with Bolshevik slogans rose above them. 290 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:29,720 To the left, the black, ugly masses of armoured cars loomed up. 291 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,360 A French correspondent reported, 292 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:39,040 Suddenly a shot rang out. Whence had it come from? By whom and against whom had it been fired? 293 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,400 Nobody seemed to know, but it was immediately followed by other shots, 294 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:49,800 which soon increased to a wild fusillade, dominated by the sinister rattle of machine guns. 295 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:54,560 The bullets whizzed through the wildly fleeing crowd. 296 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:59,200 The army stood by the Provisional Government 297 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:05,440 and when it was announced that the Bolsheviks had been receiving funds from German sources 298 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:09,280 Lenin had to flee to Finland on a forged passport. 299 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,920 Other Bolsheviks, including Trotsky, were briefly arrested. 300 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,000 General Kornilov, the commander in chief, 301 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:22,640 unsatisfied with the Government's efforts to restore order and continue the war, 302 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,680 marched, with his troops, on Petrograd. 303 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:30,480 But Kerenski, afraid of being branded as a counter-revolutionary, 304 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,240 refused to accept his support. 305 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:37,480 He even enlisted Bolshevik aid to stop Kornilov 306 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,280 and thus armed his worst enemies. 307 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:45,040 Trotsky drilled the workers into a Bolshevik army - the Red Guard. 308 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:51,760 They were to act as shock troops when the moment came for the Bolsheviks to strike 309 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,280 and that moment was now not far off. 310 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,600 The Germans did their best to hasten it. 311 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:10,200 They launched an offensive in the north towards Petrograd, 312 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:17,680 turning the Russian flank above Riga by an amphibious landing on an island in the Gulf of Finland. 313 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,840 Hindenburg described the operation as, 314 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:27,000 The one completely successful enterprise on either side in which an army and a fleet cooperated. 315 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,800 Our plans were rendered so doubtful by bad weather at the outset 316 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,000 that we were already thinking of disembarking the troops on board. 317 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,320 The arrival of better weather let us proceed with the venture. 318 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,960 From that point, everything went like clockwork. 319 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:54,200 We succeeded in possessing ourselves of Osel 320 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,760 and the neighbouring islands. 321 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,680 One more pressure was thus added to the sense of crisis in the capital. 322 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,480 In Petrograd, and at the front, 323 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,320 Bolsheviks worked tirelessly. 324 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:13,000 Soldiers, do not trust these wolves in sheep's clothing! 325 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,000 They call you to fresh slaughter! Well, follow them if you like. 326 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:22,800 Let them pave the way for the return of the Tsar with your corpses! 327 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:27,160 Let your orphans, your widows and children, deserted by all, 328 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:31,360 pass again into slavery, hunger, beggary and disease! 329 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:37,880 The Bolshevik following multiplied. Lenin himself returned secretly to supervise the insurrection. 330 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:42,560 On November the 7th, in a superb stroke of political bluff, 331 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:49,240 Trotsky simply proclaimed that the Provisional Government had fallen and that the Soviet was in power. 332 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,600 20,000 Red Guards appeared on the streets. 333 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:57,120 Bolshevik oratory and subversion worked among the troops. 334 00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:01,640 During the next few days, Trotsky's statement became a fact. 335 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:08,920 The Bolsheviks besieged the Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was protected 336 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:13,120 only by a few officer cadets and the women's battalion. 337 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:35,320 In a few hours, the Bolsheviks captured the Palace and arrested the Provisional Government. 338 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:41,880 The Provisional Government, like the Tsar before it, had fallen without a struggle. 339 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:47,440 Now Lenin could honour his promise of peace. 340 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:53,760 An armistice was arranged with the Germans, and Russian emissaries went to meet them at Brest Litovsk. 341 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,280 The two sides made a strange contrast. 342 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,800 The Germans - stiff, correct, experienced - 343 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:04,280 apparently with all the cards in their hands. 344 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:10,080 The Russians - nervous, uncertain - but with at least one good card. 345 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:12,880 They could play for time. 346 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:20,840 To counter the stranglehold of the Allied blockade, 347 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:27,880 the Germans and Austrians desperately needed access to the vast granaries of the Ukraine. 348 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:34,400 So they made a separate peace with the independent, anti-Bolshevik government of the Ukraine. 349 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:40,920 A peace treaty with Rumania, now near the end of her tether, followed. 350 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,880 But there was no peace with Russia. 351 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:52,280 The endless Bolshevik delaying tactics enraged the Germans. 352 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,720 They resumed their advance. 353 00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:59,680 The Russian army did not try to fight, but fell back in a rabble. 354 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:04,760 "War is dead in the hearts of men," noted an American observer. 355 00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:10,160 The Bolsheviks were forced to accept the harshest terms of peace. 356 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,800 The eastern front was finished. 357 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,240 Hindenburg said, 358 00:36:23,240 --> 00:36:27,520 In spite of the peace with Russia, it was even now impossible 359 00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:31,520 for us to transfer all our troops from the east. 360 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:36,880 It was necessary for us to leave behind strong German forces. 361 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:41,600 Our operations in the Ukraine were not yet at an end. 362 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:46,440 We had to penetrate into their country to restore order there. 363 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:52,560 Only when this had been done, had we any prospect of securing food from the Ukraine. 364 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,760 Of a very different import was the military assistance 365 00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:03,400 which in the spring we sent to Finland in her war of liberation from Russian domination. 366 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:08,320 The Bolshevik government had not fulfilled the promise it made us 367 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:10,720 to evacuate this country. 368 00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:15,280 We hoped, by assisting Finland, to get her on our side. 369 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:07,680 The rest of our fighting troops which still remained in the east 370 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:12,760 formed the source from which our western armies could be reinforced. 371 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,120 Now the patient, enduring German army 372 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,920 might at last bring off the decisive victory 373 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,440 which had escaped its grasp. 374 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:35,000 The troop trains rumbled across Europe, bearing division after division from east to west. 375 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,440 Every click of their wheels echoed the ticking away of precious time. 376 00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:43,680 For Germany, it was now or never.