Materials

• Overhead or electronic presentation with notes on Russia in 1917
• Video on Tsar Nicholas II

Instructional Activities

1. Conduct a brainstorming session on the reasons that revolution took place in France in 1789. List student responses on the board, and discuss general reasons why people revolt against their government. Also have the students brainstorm on terms or people they know about Russia (answers will probably include communism, Peter the Great, Tsar, Soviet Union, Stalin, Romanov family, Anastasia). Explain how significant World War I was to Russia.
   
   
2. Discuss with students the events and conditions in Russia from 1914-1917, including the following information:
   Tsarist Russia before World War I (1914)
   • The government was an absolute monarchy. (NOTE: Compare to France in 1789.)
   • Sharp class divisions existed between nobility and peasants. (NOTE: Compare to France in 1789.)
   • Peasants were landless.
   • Tsar did not resolve complaints of peasants and workers. (NOTE: Compare to treatment of Third Estate in France.)
   • Tsar lost humiliating war to Japan in 1905.
   
   Tsar Nicolas II during the War
   • Russians dealt major military defeats to Germans.
   • Russian military suffered high casualties, in part because many soldiers did not have weapons.
   • Revolution led to a democratic provisional government (1917).
   


3. Supplement notes with a video detailing the failings of Tsar Nicholas II. Discuss major concepts and events depicted in the presentation.
   
   
4. Instruct students to study notes at home for quiz, or use teacher-preferred assignment.