Russian Revolution Podcast Hi this is _______, ________, and _______, and today we are going to discuss The Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution happened in 1917 - right in the middle of World War I. There were several reasons for the Revolution. First - The Russian people were tired of their leader, Czar Nicholas II. Secondly - Russia had entered WW I and the ill-prepared and poorly armed Russian Soldiers were being slaughtered by the German army. Many Russian soldiers simply quit the war and went home. Thirdly - many Russian peasants and farmers were starving. Food was scarce, and hungry people are more likely to revolt. Things got so bad that Czar Nicholas II stepped down, abdicating his throne. He was later executed by revolutionaries. At this time Vladimir Lenin - who was the leader of the Bolshevik, or communist party, returned from exile in Europe to Russia. Lenin wanted to make Russia the worlds first Communist nation. His slogan of "Peace, Land, and Bread" appealed to the Russian people. Lenin and the Bolsheviks took control of the government, making Russia a communist country. Remember Communism was the vision of Karl Marx - who came up with the idea in 1848. Marx envisioned a world where the workers - not the owners - controlled everything. He thought that everyone should make the same amount of money and that no one should own anything. He wanted all wealth and property to be shared equally by all citizens. Once in control, Lenin and the Bolsheviks changed their name to The Communist Party and gave Russia a new name. They called it "The Union of  Soviet Socialist Republics", or USSR for short. The new flag was Red - which is the color of Communism - and displayed a "Hammer and Sickle". The new flag was a tribute to the workers; the hammer represented the factory workers. The sickle, which is used to harvest wheat, represented the farmers. Lenin died shortly after the creation of the USSR and a new leader named Joseph Stalin took control and became dictator. Under true communism; the communism envisioned by Karl Marx, there was not supposed to be a dictator. The people were supposed to govern themselves. But the USSR turned into a nation controlled by a series of dictators. So in review - The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought Karl Marx's system of Communism to one of the worlds most populated nations. Russia remained communist until about 1991 - when the communist system proved to be ineffective. It could simply not compete with Capitalism - which has evolved into the worlds dominant economic system.