All language subtitles for 1917.One.Year.Two.Revolutions.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

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[narrator] In the pandemonium
of the First World War,

the Russia of the Tsars
that had seemed to be eternal,

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now bled dry by battles
and tortured by hunger,

is gripped by revolution.

For an entire people, hope is reborn.

But the dream will not last.

As chaos spreads across the country

a handful of men seize power

and change the destiny of mankind.

Posterity only remembers
the October Revolution,

but has forgotten that the one
that took place in February

could have led Russia
to a different destiny.

Men make history,
but they don't know the history they make.

For nearly three years,

the Great War
has cast its shadow over Europe.

On the Eastern Front,

Imperial Russia is fighting Germany
and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Enemy offensives have wiped out
many of Russia's troops.

There are hundreds of thousands
of casualties.

The army of the Tsar,
long believed to be invincible,

soon shows signs of weakness.

There are shortages of shells,
ammunition and equipment.

In London and in Paris,
the Allies are beginning to doubt

whether Russia can hold out
in these conditions.

Then, one morning,

news from the Russian capital
only increases their anxiety.

[man] Petrograd, 19th of February.

These last few days there have been
endless queues at the bakeries.

There's a shortage of flour.

You can hear the crowds complaining.

The women are shivering with cold,

the children are passing out.

[narrator] Since the start
of the conflict,

Claude Anet, the correspond
to the newspaper Le Petit Parisien,

has been describing in his columns
the mood of the city of the Tsars.

Witness to these alarming scenes,

the French journalist
hasn't the slightest inkling

that they are the precursors to
the greatest upheaval of the 20th century.

Only yesterday,

foreign observers
were speaking of Imperial Russia

as an invulnerable giant.

With 14 million men under arms,

she stood as a rock for her allies.

In a Europe swept by war,

the Romanov dynasty,
in power for three centuries,

manifested complete confidence
in the face of adversity.

Power and stability
had attracted investors.

Day after day, with the influx of capital,

factories sprang from the earth.

In just a few years,

Russia had entered the modern era.

-[wind howling]
-[coughing]

But this sudden development
conceals hidden realities.

-[baby crying]
-[bell tolling]

[women chattering]

Despite the colossal production
of the agricultural land,

the farmers can barely survive.

Having just emerged from centuries
of serfdom,

they slave away in filth,
poverty, and cholera.

Nicholas II, Tsar of all the Russias,

is lord and master
of his 160 million subjects.

His only concession to the times
is the creation of a parliament,

the Duma.

An assembly of prominent citizens
devoid of power in the face of his,

which has no bounds.

The Tsar has deprived his country
of any political life.

[gunfire]

He systematically uses violent means
to put down popular uprisings.

[people screaming]

His will is law.

[gunfire continues]

At the beginning of 1917,

those opposing the regime

waged their political struggle
from abroad.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein,

whose nom de guerre was Leon Trotsky,

has escaped from Siberia.

Deported from several European countries

because of his pacifist convictions,

he has settled in the United States.

He tirelessly militates

for the union of proletariats
throughout the world.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov,

known as Lenin,
has found haven in Switzerland.

An international figure
of Marxist philosophy,

he has been fighting autocracy
for 30 years.

His entire being is devoted
to a single aim,

a single idea, a single passion:

revolution.

And yet, it is in the imperial capital,

the St. Petersburg of today,

that history is about to change.

From either side of the River Neva,

two worlds confront each other.

On the south side,
beats the heart of the power,

while the workers' suburbs
are on the north.

Revolutions begin with bread.

Petrograd has enough supplies
for just another ten days.

The time for rationing is at hand.

[Anet] Petrograd, 20th of February.

Things are going no better.

In the early hours of an icy dawn,

my cook waited four hours
to get two bread rolls.

Following the severe transport crisis,

not enough coal is getting through.

The factories working for national defense

have had to cut production or close down.

[narrator] It is the fear of the future
that lights the powder keg.

[man] Comrades, if we cannot obtain

an honest loaf of bread,

we will solve our problem
by force, if necessary.

[narrator] The unrest spreads.

And very soon overwhelms the district.

The gray hordes from the suburbs

surge toward the heart of the city,

demanding emergency measures.

[train chugging]

Everyone is expecting a reaction
from the Tsar,

but the Tsar is in Mogilev,

more than 700 kilometers from Petrograd.

Nicholas II has taken over command
of military operations,

to inspire his troops.

He believes that war can still unite
his people around the Crown,

whereas, in fact,
it stirs up tension and rancor.

In his absence,

the Empress Alexandra deluges
her husband with reassuring letters.

The unrest does not concern her
in the slightest.

But in the capital,

new disturbances are brewing.

To stem them,

the bridges that link the two parts
of the city are raised.

The working-class suburbs
are cut off from the town center.

But the authorities have overlooked
one detail,

at this time of year,
the Neva freezes over.

And on International Women's Day,

thousands of wives, mothers, and daughters

walk across the frozen river

to parade
through the upper-class districts.

The next day, the 24th of February,
the demonstrations swell.

Factories go on strike,

more than 200,000 people
take to the streets.

The protests take on
a decidedly political tone.

[typewriter keys clacking]

[Anet] Hundreds of groups are gathering,

meetings are improvised.

[shouting]

Outside the station
orators harangue the crowd,

shouting, "Down with the government!"

"Down with the war!"

I'm even hearing, "Down with the Tsar."

The situation can change at any minute
and become serious.

[narrator] The revolution is underway.

Far from Petrograd,
in the headquarters of the armed forces,

Nicholas II has just received
an irate letter from the Tsarina.

[Alexandra] My love,
what frightful times we live in!

Lowborn girls are running around
shouting that they have no bread,

simply to create a disturbance.

At the same time, some workers
are preventing others from working.

God has given you
a very heavy cross to bear,

but stand firm.

Show your authority.
That's what the Russians need.

Let them feel the weight of your fist.

[narrator] The Tsar is determined
to settle the problem from a distance.

His telegram is categorical.

[Nicholas II] I have ordered
the disturbances

to be put down by force before tomorrow.

[narrator] So the army and the police
now resist the demonstrators

who refuse to disperse.

The soldiers open fire.

The crowds panic and run.

[gunfire]

There are many dead and wounded.

Very quickly, the center of Petrograd
takes on the appearance

of a camp under siege.

That night,

in Petrograd's barracks,
feelings are running high.

Most of the soldiers are
small farmers or laborers,

forced by the war to serve
under the banner of the Tsar.

One after another,

shocked at having been ordered
to fire at their brothers,

they mutiny and join the ranks
of the insurgents.

[chattering]

Cut off from the real world,

the Tsar disregards the alarming telegrams

that his general staff receive
from the capital.

[all cheering]

On the morning of the 27th of February,

the French journalist is transfixed
by the scenes in the street.

[Anet] There is nonstop shooting.

The soldiers are firing in the air.

-[all shouting]
-[gunfire]

They're heading for the nearby arsenal
and I'm following them.

They're laying siege to it.

I can see them giving guns to the workers.

[narrator] Around 40,000 rifles
and 30,000 revolvers are handed out.

[train whistle blowing]

The same day,

Nicholas II at last makes up his mind
to return to the capital,

determined to quell the rebellion.

But the imperial train can't get through.

Using destroyed bridges
and unusable tracks as a pretext,

the railway workers
keep re-routing the train.

Meanwhile, in Petrograd,
Nicholas II's power is crumbling.

Beneath the golden tints
of the Tauride Palace,

the members of the Duma
rise up against the Tsar.

During an extraordinary session,

they declare their autonomy.

In a neighboring hall,
soldiers and workers form an assembly.

As an emergency measure,

they elect 600 delegates
to represent them,

the Petrograd Soviet.

That evening, in a wave of enthusiasm,

all these men forge their destiny.

[Anet] 28th of February,
outside the entrance to the Tauride Palace

the crowd is so dense
that I can hardly get through.

[crowd cheers]

Here I am at the center
of the Russian Revolution.

Armed soldiers everywhere,
a few civilians.

One of them said to me,

"Do you see all that we've done
in one day?"

[gunfire]

-[all cheering]
-[Anet] Immense joy everywhere.

[narrator] From now on, there is no longer
any support for the Tsar.

He is still blocked in his train
in the middle of the steppes.

Worse still, aware that a page
has been turned,

his general staff encourage him
to abdicate for the good of Russia.

Resigned to the situation,
Nicholas II gives up the throne.

It's a triumph for the revolution.

[all cheering]

The will of the people
has just made history.

In New York, for Leon Trotsky,
revolution means amnesty.

He enthusiastically sets sail
to go back home.

But his return to war-torn Europe
will take longer than expected.

And on the banks of Lake Zurich,
where he takes his stroll everyday,

Lenin exclaims when he hears the news.

[Lenin] Amazing! Incredible!

So unexpected.

[narrator] Convinced that this first stage
of the Revolution will not be the last,

he decides he must return home
at all costs,

but who is expecting him in Russia?

[narrator] For now,
Petrograd is mourning its dead.

[bell tolls]

February's victims are buried
in the heart of the capital.

One million people have come
to pay their last respects.

On this first public holiday
of the new Russia,

all the actors of the revolution
have answered the call.

Conservatives and socialists,

aristocrats and commoners,

have all contributed
to overturning a regime

that thought itself eternal.

But now they have to govern.

And under the dome of the Tauride Palace,

reconcile two visions of the future.

On one side, there are the members
of the Duma

who want a Russia
that is capitalist and liberal.

On the other, there is the new assembly

that has come out of the revolution,
the Soviet.

With a socialist majority,

its delegates aspire
to a world of justice and equality.

After lengthy negotiations,
the two sides agreed to form

a provisional government
with a liberal majority.

Alexander Kerensky, a moderate-socialist

is the main architect of this compromise.

Named Minister of Justice,

he is the man that the revolution
throws up out of the ranks.

His ambition will do the rest.

This government's primary aim is simple:

to establish liberty.

Decree number one is immediately enacted.

The abolition of corporal punishment
in the army

gives back the soldier his dignity.

From being a subject,
he becomes a full citizen.

On the front, the men celebrate
their new status.

In a few weeks,
spectacular measures are put into place.

They break definitively with the old ways.

Freedom of association, of expression,

of the press, a general amnesty,

abolition of the death penalty,

universal suffrage.

Everywhere, people's councils are set up.

There is no town in Russia
without its Soviet

where the population expresses
its grievances

and sets out its demands.

The country dreams
of being the freest in the world.

The mosaic of oppressed peoples
that had composed the empire

are now demanding autonomy.

In the countryside, the peasants rejoice.

They claimed the right to a plot of land

large enough to feed
the mouths living on it.

The promise of a better life
is emerging for the working class too.

Soon, wages would no longer be miserable,

40 hours of work a week
will become the rule,

and job security would be guaranteed.

In the spring of 1917,

the banners proclaim,

"For a democratic republic,

for peace,

for the land and power to the people."

Hope is boundless.

At the end of March,

a train leaves Zurich,
carrying a man toward his destiny.

Onboard, Lenin.

He is firmly opposed to war,

this imperialist war that was massacring

the proletariat of the entire world
with its machine guns.

His forced exile has fed his doctrine,

forged his patience
and hardened his determination.

The hour has finally come

for him to enter the arena.

[Anet] The famous Lenin
arrived last night in Petrograd.

He is the reddest of the reds.

Lenin wants peace

without delay

and under any conditions.

This is the idea he has come
to defend in Russia.

[narrator] The very next day,
Lenin presents his program to the Soviet.

Although his prestige is great,

his party, the Bolshevik Party,
is in a minority.

It has barely 5,000 militants in Petrograd

for two million inhabitants.

Before the assembly,
his slogans strike a blow.

[Lenin] Down with the war.

[narrator] Because it's a capitalist war.

[Lenin] Down
with the provisional government.

[narrator] It is a bourgeois government.

[Lenin] All power to the Soviets.

[narrator] Therefore, to the people.

The audience is stunned,

including his own followers.

Lenin is alone.

And for good reason.

His program, too radical,
frightens people.

The members of the Soviet

want first to implement
the democratic project

they and the liberals
have committed themselves to.

And of course, the war has to continue.

But not under any conditions.

The Soviet wants to force the government

to renegotiate the treaties
drawn up between the Tsar and the Allies,

so that they respected the
right of peoples to self-determination.

The crisis is so violent

that it results in the creation
of a new government.

An unprecedented cohabitation

between socialists and liberals
is created to lead Russia.

Appointed Minister of War,

the ambitious Alexander Kerensky
continues his rise.

And to reassure the Allies,
he takes a risky gamble.

Faced with a doubtful general staff,

he decides to launch
a major offensive against the Germans.

On the 18th of June,
the Russian army attacks.

But the enthusiasm is short-lived.

The Russian army is humiliated.

The resounding defeat
paralyzes the government.

Helpless,
the ministers undertake no reforms

and merely deal with urgent matters.

For the impatient population,

this longed for revolution
is proving slow to keep its promises.

In Petrograd, revolt is in the air.

[crowd clamoring]

The most diverse convictions
are expressed from one quarter to another.

On Nevsky Prospekt,

the anarchists are exhorting people
to loot the banks.

Farther away, Ukrainian nationalists
are demanding independence.

In Vyborg,
cradle of the February Revolution,

the workers who have imposed
an eight-hour working day

now want to control hiring and firing.

[shouting in Russian]

Meanwhile,
at the Bolsheviks' headquarters,

now transformed into a fortress,

Lenin relentlessly harangues the crowds
with conviction.

They thought he was finished,
but he is still combative.

Bourgeois Revolution is at an impasse.

In these troubled days,
Lenin moves his pawns forward.

After numerous incidents,

Lenin manages to escape from the Allies,

who dreaded they would see
this notorious pacifist turn up in Russia.

Almost as soon as he arrives,

Trotsky chooses to rejoin
the Bolshevik radicals.

Trotsky, who could have been
a formidable competitor to Lenin

becomes his brilliant second

and an indispensable ally.

Day after day, the ideas
of this little party gain ground,

as repeatedly proclaimed
by their newspaper, Pravda.

On the front,
Bolshevik beliefs find an echo.

[Anet] Pravda has found a new way
of obtaining the much-desired peace.

This is fraternization of Russian soldiers
with German soldiers.

[whistle blowing]

Leaving the trenches to go over
to the enemy trenches.

Why continue fighting?

Hasn't the war lasted long enough?

Let's embrace. We're brothers.

Let's drink our brandy together
and talk about peace.

This is the touching
and shameful spectacle

which the Bolsheviks
are inviting us to see.

[chattering, laughing]

[narrator] To put a stop
to this subversive movement,

the government decides to act.

But it is to make a mistake, a big one.

At the beginning of July,

the 1st Machine Gun Regiment of Petrograd,

who have been won over by Bolshevik ideas,

are summoned to the front.

Heroes of the February Revolution,

they had, however, been given a guarantee
not to be called into battle again.

Disgusted, the regiment refuses to obey,

and threatens to overthrow the government.

[marching band playing]

Petrograd is feeling the fevers
of February.

Thousands of armed men,
joined by workers' committees,

cross the city, ready to fight.

After months of frustration,

it is time for this revolution
to go into action.

One single word from Lenin,
and the government would fall.

Against all expectations,
Lenin calls for moderation.

In private, he says…

[Lenin] If we were now capable
of taking power,

it would be naive to think
we should be able to keep it.

We must not rush things.

Time is on our side.

[narrator] Confused, demonstrators spread
in disorder through the city center.

On Nevsky Prospekt,

gunfire from the rooftops fired by troops
loyal to the government,

provokes panic.

[gunfire]

The government recovers

and begins looking for the troublemakers.

[horses whinny]

Bolshevik militants are arrested.

The party has lost its leaders.

Trotsky is imprisoned
in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Accused of high treason and pursued,

Lenin disguises himself
and manages to escape to Finland.

Three months after his return to Russia,

he is in exile once again.

[crowd clamoring]

The chaos propels Kerensky
to the head of a new government.

He still enjoys huge popularity.

But the socialist Kerensky

will now have to deal with
the demands of the liberals.

Order must be reestablished.

At all costs.

To meet these demands,
he instigates authoritarian measures.

Restoration of the death penalty
for deserters,

limitation of the rights
of soldiers' committees.

But to no avail.

The government is unable to enforce them.

[shouting in Russian]

On the front, between July and October,

more than two million starving
and battle-worn soldiers desert.

But if Russian soldiers are leaving
the front in droves

it is also because an insistent rumor
is spreading.

The distribution of land
is about to begin.

From the four corners of the empire,

the peasants who had enlisted in the army,

do not want
to arrive back in their village

too late to get their share.

And yet, the promised agrarian reform
is still not in sight.

So, the villagers decide
to implement it themselves,

in their own way.

Here, they requisition the livestock.

[mooing]

There, they refuse
to hand over the harvest.

The plundering of the great estates
multiplies.

The revolution is turning into anarchy.

Far from Petrograd,
reaction is brewing in Moscow.

The business community,
the industrialists,

the great landowners,
and the union of officers,

all of them consider that the revolution
has gone too far.

It is time to end it.

At the end of August,
it is a military figure who takes charge.

A general with an iron fist,
Lavr Kornilov.

A disciplinarian who masters his troops,

he has had deserters shot

and has abolished soldiers' committees.

He, too, wants order to return--
in order, as he says,

"To save Russia."

The specter of a military dictatorship
is emerging.

Kornilov sends his Cossacks
to the capital.

Addressing the danger,

Kerensky dismisses the general
from his duties.

To retain control, Kerensky mobilizes
all the partisans of the revolution,

including his former rivals,
the Bolsheviks.

[speaking Russian]

Liberated from prison,
they activate their clandestine networks.

Railroad workers divert military trains
and dismantle rails.

Switchboard operators
block communications.

[lines ringing]

The troops in Petrograd take up
their positions to defend the city.

But the confrontation never takes place.

Kornilov's troops refuse to fight
their brothers in arms

and eventually lay down their weapons.

In a few days, the movement
has been reduced to nothing.

The counter-revolution has had its day.

By the late summer of 1917,

Russia is gradually sinking.

The economy is practically
at a standstill.

What now remains of the hopes of February?

[Anet] Discouragement is everywhere.

The greater the hopes had been of freedom,

the deeper is the disappointment of seeing
that the country is, at present,

incapable of governing itself.

Eight months of revolution
have left Russia overwhelmed.

[narrator] Among the population,
despair has reached its height.

And another revolution is in the making.

In October, though still wanted
by the police,

Lenin returns secretly to Petrograd.

Until then, he had been playing
against the clock.

But the time has now come to act.

Previously, Leon Trotsky had been made
president of the Soviet of Petrograd.

[all cheering]

For his part, Kerensky is trying
to revive the democratic process.

A council is created to prepare
for the elections.

True to the spirit of February,
all factions are represented.

But at the first meeting, Trotsky,
at the head of the Bolshevik delegation,

refuses to take part in the debates
and walks out of the assembly.

[typewriter keys clacking]

[Anet] Trotsky has broken
with the other socialist factions.

One can feel and one knows
that Lenin is behind him.

Doesn't everyone know that Lenin,
the god Lenin, has returned to Petrograd,

where he is hardly bothering to hide?

What has he to fear from Kerensky?

Lenin and Trotsky have understood
the worthlessness of their opponents.

The uselessness of conferences,
of pre-parliaments,

of the endless chatter in the halls
where the new democracy meets.

[shouting in Russian]

[narrator]
To the soldiers worn out by war,

the Bolsheviks proposed peace.

To the starving peasants,
they promised land.

And to the proletariat,
they offer workers' control of industry.

Promises that would, henceforth,
respond to the aspirations of the masses.

But they still have to find
a way to seize power.

In the utmost secrecy,

Lenin brings together the leadership
of the Bolshevik Party.

[speaking Russian]

He convinces a majority
to launch an armed insurrection.

But time is short.

The congress of all the Soviets of Russia

is due to be held
at the end of October in Petrograd.

And Lenin doesn't want to include
other Socialist factions

in governing the destiny of the country.

[Lenin] It would be naive
to wait until the Bolsheviks

have a formal majority.

No revolution ever waits for that.

History will not forgive us
if we do not take power now.

[narrator] In mid-October,
in spite of the freezing northerly wind,

Nevsky Prospekt is teeming with people.

Among the bustling crowd,

no one pays any attention
to the little groups of workers,

of soldiers, of sailors.

Secretly, they have been carrying out
reconnaissance missions for several days.

Nobody suspects they are rehearsing
a very carefully worked out scenario.

It is no longer a matter of provoking
a popular insurrection,

but of conducting a military operation.

Trotsky has conceived a plan
which relies on speed of execution

to occupy strategic locations
in the capital,

and thus, to seize power in all of Russia.

On October 24th, 1917, operations begin.

Each group knows its objective.

At the agreed time,
they launch the attack.

Postal, telephone,
and telegraphic centers,

banks, rail, and power stations.

One after another,
the targets fall under their control.

No one in Petrograd realizes
what's at stake.

Not even Claude Anet.

[Anet] 11:00 p.m.,
silence reigns over the city.

No one can imagine
what the silence of Petrograd is like.

It's sepulchral, palpable,

alarming,

and in the end,

it overwhelms you.

[narrator] Trotsky's plan is carried out
with the utmost secrecy,

and with no violence.

The capital is in the hands
of the Bolsheviks.

Kerensky has lost the game.

The next day,
disguised as a Serbian officer,

he manages to get out of the capital
in a diplomatic car.

[chattering]

On the other side of the city,

the Congress of the Soviets of Russia
opens session.

[speaking Russian]

The majority of delegates--

socialists, revolutionaries,
Mensheviks, or labor alike--

condemn the overthrow.

They immediately leave the room.

The remaining members of Congress

then validate the creation
of a new government,

the Council of Peoples' Commissars.

[all cheering]

At its head, Lenin.

[Lenin] Starting the worldwide
revolution in Russia

was as easy as picking up a feather.

[all cheering]

[typewriter keys clacking]

[Anet] The great day, I was there.

And of all the surprises
of the revolution,

it showed me the most surprising.

Here is what I saw.

On the corner of the Moyka,
a group of soldiers passed by me.

They were marching in perfect order,
like they used to in the old regime.

Totally calm. Not one gunshot was heard.

I was arrested by soldiers and sailors.

These are Trotsky's
Military Revolutionary Committee troops.

They are masters of the whole city,

and they are imposing an order on it

that we haven't seen
since the beginning of the revolution,

and which takes us back
to the times of the Tsars' autocracy.

Staying in Petrograd seems risky to me.

Freedom being the most precious thing
to own, I'm leaving.

[narrator] In October 1917,

the minority that took power

still represents the aspirations
of the Russian people.

In Petrograd, a new world is being shaped.

All over the world,
it excites the proletariat.

Everyone dreams of breaking their chains.

It engenders a giant,

determined to spread the flame
of revolution to all countries.

In the East, a great light is rising
to illuminate the hope of all peoples.

It will also burn them
in the flames of its passion.

[cheering, whistling]