The Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 2)

0:00 (ominous sound)- [Narrator] While Nicholas had been

0:04 busy playing with his new best friend, tensions in Europe had been rising.

0:08 It just so happened that in 1914,

0:10 one Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary,

0:12 went for a drive with the top-down in Sarajevo.

0:14 One thing leads to another and suddenly Russia

0:16 found itself at war with half of Europe.

0:18 A wave of patriotism swept through Russia.

0:21 The capital was renamed to Petrograd because St.

0:23 Petersburg sounded a bit too German.

0:25 Even revolutionaries were getting on board.

0:27 To them, World War One was a big stinky imperialist war

0:30 but they didn't want their big stinky imperialist replaced by a foreign one.

0:33 So pretty much everyone wanted Russia to win.

0:36 "I hope Russia loses." "Geez, read the room Lenin.

0:40 Lenin hoped Russia would lose because that would help him over through the Tsar.

0:43 As long as he did that, who cares if Germany blows up half the country.

0:46 And blow up half the country they did.

0:49 An inefficient Tsarist government,

0:50 meant there were shortages of just about everything you need to fight a war.

0:53 And if losing a teensy-weensy war with Japan upset the people,

0:56 losing a giant war like this was much worse.

0:59 Soldiers were deserting.

1:00 The economy was imploding and in no time, Russia was starving.

1:04 The peasants were getting more peasanty, the workers were getting more workery,

1:07 all the while Germany was getting more Germanery.

1:09 "Dimitri, we need to win this war.

1:11 I need someone with a great military mind

1:13 to step in and take control." "You're right.

1:15 How about general Hickelooper?" "How about me?" "You can't run the war.

1:19 Who'll be in charge of the country while you're

1:21 gone?" "Obviously my German wife and a homeless wizard.

1:24 Duh" Nicholas declared himself Commander in Chief and went to the front lines,

1:28 leaving his German wife in charge while they were fighting the Germans.

1:31 It wasn't a good look.

1:32 And because Alexandra was so close to Rasputin,

1:34 people believe that he was actually calling the shots and secretly

1:37 destroying Russia and maybe even blinking her, an even worser look.

1:41 At this point, a bunch of nobles just couldn't take it anymore.

1:44 "Rasputin is destroying the country,

1:45 we have to break his magic spell over the Tsar." "But how?

1:48 He's magic." "Hmm." (humming) "Dude, very cool.

1:56 Hey, it's Rasputin." "The sexy party is

1:58 running a little late but in the meantime,

1:59 why don't you try one of these totally not poisoned cakes." "Dude,

2:02 why'd you say it like that?

2:04 He's totally gonna know they're poisoned now." "Shut up!

2:07 I said, they're not poisoned." (cutlery clacking) "Dude,

2:11 he just ate so much poison, how is he still alive?" "It must be the magic.

2:16 Go with plan B." (gunshots) "Is he

2:20 dead?" (Rasputin howling and gunshots) "See Boris?

2:23 I told you he was the antichrist and you didn't believe me."

2:26 "Can you shut up for one minute and help me roll him up.

2:29 (grunting) "Are you sure he's dead?" "I don't know,

2:32 but I'm supposed to be hosting a charity auction right now.

2:34 Can we get this over with?" (water splashing and upbeat sound) "Okay.

2:40 Now he's dead" The murder of Rasputin,

2:42 just like his life is shrouded in mystery and speculation.

2:45 He probably didn't really die like

2:46 that but he also probably didn't really heal people.

2:49 He probably didn't influence Tsar as much as people thought,

2:51 he probably wasn't secretly destroying the country.

2:53 But what he definitely did do,

2:55 even in his death was ruined the Tsar's reputation.

2:57 Russian autocracy looked outdated than ever.

3:00 And the Russian people were taking notice.

3:02 "Come on man.

3:03 Remember what we're fighting for." (upbeat sound) "Yeah, no.

3:07 We're out" World War One left Russia broke, hungry and exhausted.

3:12 And with Nicholas acting as Commander in Chief, he was getting even more blame.

3:15 For the second time, Russia was on the brink of revolution.

3:20 By 1917, Russia had been fighting a war it couldn't afford for three years.

3:24 They were running out of many things, most worryingly, food.

3:28 On International Women's Day,

3:29 1917 thousands of hungry women in Petrograd were so

3:32 sick of being hungry that they took to the streets.

3:34 And it turns out it's not just women who experienced hunger, but men too.

3:38 So the next day they joined in as well.

3:40 Gatherings on the streets were forbidden but I'm

3:42 not sure how you'd arrest 250,000 people.

3:44 The crowds demanded an end to the war,

3:46 an end to food rationing and even an end to the Tsar autocracy.

3:50 Now normally the troops would deal with this kind of thing but as it turns out,

3:53 soldiers get hungry too.

3:54 And they were also tired of having to kill their fellow Russian so much.

3:57 So entire regiments mutinied in the Capitol and they joined the crowd as well,

4:00 trashing symbols of the Tsar and his autocratic regime.

4:03 Things were escalating very quickly.

4:05 Liberal politicians watching the riots in the streets

4:07 had long been dissatisfied with the Tsar

4:09 since he would shut their parliament down

4:11 anytime they did something he didn't like.

4:12 They believed the only way to bring stability back

4:15 to the streets was for Nicholas the Second to abdicate.

4:18 The riots continued.

4:19 The police fired on soldiers.

4:21 Soldiers fired on soldiers.

4:22 The workers reestablished the Petrograd Soviet,

4:24 politicians began arresting the Tsar's ministers.

4:26 He may have been an autocrat but he

4:28 just lost complete control of his capital city.

4:31 Talk about embarrassing.

4:32 "Nicholas, the troops have turned against us.

4:34 The people who have taken over the city they've even cut my phone line." "Hello?

4:38 Hello?

4:39 The phones are down.

4:40 Things must be bad.

4:41 I'd better go back there." Nicholas hopped on the next train

4:44 back to Petrograd but he never made it to the city.

4:47 His train was met by military generals and other politicians.

4:50 "What's going on?" "Nicholas, look man, we need to talk.

4:54 It's not you it's us.

4:57 Oh, who am I kidding?

4:58 No, it's definitely you." During the whole crisis in Petrograd,

5:01 the liberals convinced the generals that if Nicholas abdicated,

5:04 the people would come down and the generals were onboard.

5:07 They didn't have time to quilt the chaos because don't forget,

5:09 they were still losing a global oil encompassing war against the Germans.

5:13 And with the military no longer on his side,

5:15 Nicholas had no choice but to step down.

5:18 Throughout his entire reign, he had done everything he could to keep

5:22 all the power for himself and in the end,

5:24 that's exactly what left him with none.

5:27 But then there was a big question, who would replace Nicholas?

5:30 Well, his son Alexei was next in line.

5:32 "Hey buddy, daddy couldn't handle the complex socioeconomic problems of a giant

5:36 multinational multiethnic empire that's engaged in total war with all of Europe.

5:39 You think you could give it a shot?"

5:41 (sprinkling) Alexei just wasn't ready to be Tsar.

5:44 Nicholas did have a brother,

5:46 but given the state of the empire, he wasn't keen either.

5:48 And so 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia just kind of came to an end.

5:54 The earlier 1905 Revolution hadn't changed much but this new revolution had

5:58 left Russia without a Tsar and still before the year was over,

6:02 there would be one more revolution left to come.

6:05 Nicholas's failure as Commander of The Armed Forces

6:08 was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

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7:32 (upbeat music) Now, where was I?

7:36 Oh yeah.

7:37 Hungry woman, absolute chaos and the end of the Tsar.

7:41 "Oh, hey guys.

7:43 Says here there's been a revolution and the reign

7:45 of the Tsars is ended." "Oh, come on.

7:46 I missed another one?

7:47 Why am I even in this video?" "Well, it's not like you could have done anything.

7:51 As long as there's a World War, you can't get back to Russia." (shattering) "Who

7:54 wants to start a rebubublution?" I mean rebublu, revolution.

7:58 Dangit" Despite getting Nick, Russia was still at war with half of Europe.

8:01 The Germans however, had an idea.

8:03 They thought that if they helped Lenin get back,

8:05 he'd cause trouble for the new Russian government.

8:07 So they put them on a train destination Petrograd.

8:10 It was a long journey and while Lenin was cooked up in his train,

8:13 things in Russia were changing.

8:15 Workers were taking control of their factories,

8:17 soldiers were socking it to their mean old officers.

8:19 Without a Tsar, a big old power vacuum

8:21 had opened up and someone needed to fill it.

8:23 The liberals proposed they be in charge

8:25 and they set up the provisional government.

8:27 The workers however, had already begun establishing local Soviets largely

8:30 controlled by the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks.

8:33 And since neither felt like they had the power to ask the other,

8:35 Russia ended up in a classic dual power conundrum.

8:38 The two co-existed with the provisional

8:40 government becoming the official government

8:41 and the elected Soviets issuing orders to the workers and soldiers.

8:45 This power balance was delicate and all it would take is one

8:48 bold revolutionary to come along and give everyone a big brain beat down.

8:51 "Oh boy, Lenin's coming home.

8:52 I can't wait for them to see all the great

8:54 things we've accomplished." "And I'm gonna show him my fan art.

8:57 Oh look, here he comes now." (crowd cheering and applauding) Shut up!

9:01 Shut up!

9:02 You all suck.

9:03 The provisional government sucks, the Soviet sucks, even your fan art sucks.

9:07 (crowd sobbing) "Why does he have to be so mean?" In case you couldn't tell,

9:13 Lenin wasn't a fan of everything that had been happening.

9:15 In his April thesis,

9:16 he called the provisional government and the Soviets a bunch

9:19 of big bourgeois bozos and he kind of had a point.

9:21 There was still a lot for the Russian people to be mad about.

9:24 The provisional government hadn't got rush out of the war,

9:26 the people were still hungry and the peasants

9:28 were still hoping to get more land.

9:29 Meanwhile, the Soviets hadn't done much to change

9:31 things either but even though they weren't perfect,

9:33 a lot of people did like what the new government had been doing.

9:36 There was progress.

9:37 The secret police were disbanded.

9:39 The death penalty abolished.

9:40 They even planned to hold elections, meaning for the first time ever

9:43 the Russian people could choose their own government.

9:45 To many, Lenin seemed like some out of touch weirdo.

9:48 If Linden wanted to go from whiny irrelevant zero to a hunky communist hero,

9:52 he'd need to shake things up a bit.

9:53 So he and the Bolsheviks came up with a hot new slogan

9:56 that promised to give the people

9:57 what the provisional government wouldn't, peace.

10:00 Don't like war?

10:01 Well end it.

10:02 Land.

10:03 You want land?

10:04 We'll give it to you.

10:05 Bread.

10:06 Hungry?

10:07 Scooby Dooby Doo.

10:08 Linen also called for all power to the Soviets which meant getting rid

10:12 of the provisional government and having

10:13 the Soviets run the place, a communist dream.

10:15 The people like these slogans and bit by bit,

10:18 the Bolsheviks became more popular.

10:19 Some Mensheviks even began switching sides but even

10:22 though the people thought Lenin slogans rocked,

10:24 as long as the provisional government didn't mess up,

10:26 they'd continue to support it.

10:27 So let's check in on the provisional government.

10:29 (fire crackling and people sobbing) Oh,

10:32 provisional government, you've made a big mess.

10:34 The provisional government lasted for just nine

10:36 months but those nine months were chaos.

10:39 The people wanted Russia out of World War One but Minister of War,

10:42 Alexander Kerensky thought instead of doing that, why not do the exact opposite?

10:45 If the people saw more Russian victories,

10:47 they'd have to support the new government and that one

10:49 just about as well as you might expect.

10:51 These heavy defeats worsened the Russian

10:53 economy and made the hungry people hungrier.

10:56 And by now I think, you know what comes next.

10:57 They trashed the place.

10:59 More looting, more riots, more violence.

11:02 It was like the Tsar had never abdicated.

11:04 Tens of thousands of armed workers took to the streets

11:06 during some of the worst violence Petrograd had seen yet.

11:09 And in response Kerensky called in the troops

11:11 who opened fire on the demonstrators.

11:13 For now, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders wanted to distance themselves

11:16 from the violence but the crowds marched

11:19 under Bolshevik slogans and as a result, Kerensky now the prime minister took

11:22 the opportunity to step down on the Bolsheviks.

11:25 Their leaders were arrested.

11:26 Lenin was accused of being a German agent

11:28 and he was forced to flee to Finland in disguise.

11:31 "This sucks!

11:32 Now I'll never get to have my revolution." "Why

11:34 are you wearing a dress?" "It's a disguise idiot.

11:39 And it makes me feel pretty." Kerensky had successfully dealt

11:41 with the violence but he just couldn't catch a break.

11:43 This increasing support for more extreme forms of socialism,

11:46 along with the poor handling of the war

11:48 alarmed traditional liberals and bougie business boys.

11:51 To appease them, Kerensky decided to promote a military

11:53 legend to Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

11:56 Someone who hated the revolution,

11:57 loved the death penalty and was devoutly anti-socialist, General Kornilov.

12:02 "Hey man, thanks for the promotion.

12:04 That was real swell of you." "Of course,

12:06 with you by my side who would dare try to overthrow me?"

12:09 "How about me?" "I did not see this coming." Unfortunately for Kerensky,

12:14 Kornilov hated the liberal and socialist reforms of the new government,

12:17 particularly the dumb socialist soldiers committees.

12:20 The army was no place for undisciplined left-wing snowflakes.

12:23 Fearing a Bolshevik takeover was imminent,

12:25 Kornilov ordered his men towards Petrograd to oust the soviet and take over.

12:29 Kerensky freaked out and he needed help.

12:31 Since he knew Trotsky was finger licking good at organizing,

12:34 he and other Bolshevik leaders were released and they,

12:37 along with the Soviet, organized the Defense of Petrograd.

12:39 Kornilov had the power of soldiers but the Soviet had

12:43 the power of workers and they did what workers do best.

12:46 Railroad workers diverted Kornilov's men away.

12:48 Telegraph workers messed with his communications,

12:50 they even infiltrated his forces and encouraged the demoralized men to desert.

12:54 They were also armed on mess,

12:56 but in the end no fighting was necessary because Kornilov's

12:58 coup just fell apart and Kornilov was sent straight to prison.

13:02 Everything was coming up Kerensky.

13:04 "Hey, thanks for the help boys.

13:05 Couldn't have done it without you.

13:06 Now that there's no longer any threat,

13:08 how about you return all those guns I gave you?" "Hmm, no." "Oh,

13:16 no." In order to kill a rat,

13:17 Kerensky had just given a gun to a bear, a Bolshevik bear.

13:21 The whole affair was a huge propaganda win for them.

13:23 They had defended the revolution and their popularity skyrocketed.

13:26 They found themselves elected to the Petrograd in Moscow

13:28 Soviets with Trotsky even becoming chairman in Petrograd.

13:31 They were now in a very powerful position,

13:33 almost powerful enough for Lenin to return home from Finland

13:36 and finally stages along the way to communist, revolution.

13:40 The Bolsheviks began planning their takeover of the Russian government.

13:43 Some got cold feet and began arguing against Lenin's

13:46 armed revolution in favor of a more peaceful approach.

13:49 And they even wrote newspaper articles about it

13:50 which kind of gave the whole scheme away.

13:52 "The Bolsheviks are planning an armed revolution?

13:55 I did not see this coming." Kerensky began arresting Bolsheviks and as a result,

13:59 Lenin and the boys felt they had no

14:01 choice but to commence the revolution right now.

14:03 Lenin was back in Petrograd but was still in hiding.

14:06 So Trotsky got the ball rolling.

14:08 Using his position as Soviet Chairman to organize the Bolshevik militias.

14:11 Now, if you were to ask Soviet artists, the revolution went something like this.

14:15 (upbeat music) As much as they would like you to think it was a glorious,

14:22 violent, heroic takeover, the truth seems to be a little more underwhelming.

14:26 The Bolsheviks just kind of walked into key

14:28 buildings in the city and to control.

14:30 Bolshevik supporting sailors,

14:31 even brought in a huge battleship but there wasn't really any fighting.

14:34 Nobody really tried to stop them.

14:36 In just one day, they took control of the city.

14:38 Next, Kerensky just managed to escape before the Bolsheviks surrendered

14:42 the Winter Palace placing the provisional government under siege inside.

14:45 "Is it safe to come out yet?" "I think so."

14:48 "Fear my revolutionary might." "Give me that that." That night,

14:53 Lenin came out of hiding to play a bigger role in the revolution.

14:55 With him back at the helm, they had one more job to do,

14:58 storm the Winter Palace and arrest the provisional government.

15:00 And here comes the final showdown.

15:02 The palace was defended by a force known as the Battalion

15:06 of Death who immediately gave up and just like that, Lenin had won.

15:10 As far as violent bloody revolutionary uprisings go,

15:13 this wasn't really one of them.

15:14 But Lenin was finally in charge of Russia.

15:16 He had spent his whole life dreaming of this moment.

15:19 He set up the first council of People's Commissars,

15:21 his own cabinet with him in charge.

15:23 This was it.

15:24 His chance to finally make his communist

15:26 utopia with equality and freedoms beyond compare.

15:29 "Hey linen, before we took power, they were planning on holding elections,

15:32 shall we go ahead with those?" "Of course, you can't have a communist utopia

15:36 without high levels of political participation.

15:38 "The proletariat should be free to." "We

15:40 lost." "What?" "The social revolutionaries won,

15:43 we lost." "Those don't count." Lenin claimed the elections

15:47 were unfair and the constituent assembly they created was counterrevolutionary.

15:50 He presented the new assembly with a motion that basically said,

15:53 "sign here and give up your power." And when the assembly was like,

15:56 "No Lenin said." "See,

15:58 they're disobeying me, proof they're counterrevolutionary.

16:01 Shut it down boys" Moderate Socialists and others weren't

16:05 happy when Lenin had the assembly closed by force.

16:07 And when computers began taking to the streets, they were fired upon.

16:11 For Lenin, setting up a communist utopia

16:13 was looking suspiciously like setting up a dictatorship.

16:16 While he was implementing many of the communists policies you'd expect,

16:19 he was also refusing to work with other

16:21 political parties and cracking down on opposition.

16:23 "Hey Linen, are you setting up a dictatorship?

16:25 I'll shoot you if you are." "Of course not.

16:27 What a crazy theory.

16:29 Anyway, I'm pleased to announce I'm setting up a secret

16:31 police force to repress and kill traitors and by traitors,

16:34 I of course mean anyone not loyal to me." (Gunshots and Linen crying out)

16:38 The assassination attempt made on Lenin's life

16:40 in August 1918 failed but in response,

16:42 the Bolsheviks ramped up their oppression.

16:44 But while all of this chaos was erupting back home,

16:46 Linen and the boys were also distracted by another problem.

16:49 They were still at war with the Germans

16:50 and they had promised to give the people peace.

16:53 So Linen made Trotsky Commissar for Foreign Affairs and sent

16:56 him off to negotiate a peace deal with the Germans.

16:58 The Germans offered Trotsky really harsh terms,

17:00 you know, cause they were winning the war.

17:02 They demanded Russia, give up a butt ton of land,

17:04 something that would be devastating to the economy.

17:06 "Look, I know it's not great but I think we have to accept it." "Are you insane?

17:10 This will ruin us." "Hey Trotsky, you got a big brain,

17:13 what do you think?" "How about no war, no peace." "What's that Mr Trotsky,

17:17 sir?" "It's simple, no war means we'll stop fighting the Germans

17:21 but no peace means we won't sign the peace treaty either.

17:23 Then when the Germans see we've just stopped fighting,

17:25 they'll have to leave us alone or something." "Trotsky, that's genius.

17:29 I could kiss you." "Do you want me to kiss you?" "Stop

17:33 asking me that." Trotsky's no war no peace plan was a huge success.

17:37 Oh wait no, just kidding, it went exactly as you'd imagine.

17:40 When the Germans saw the Russians had stopped fighting they

17:43 slammed 700,000 troops deep into Russian territory with no resistance.

17:47 Now the new peace treaty offered by Germans was

17:49 way worse with Russia losing a huge amount of territory,

17:52 population and resources.

17:54 The Bolsheviks had no choice but to accept and Russia was humiliated.

17:58 With Petrograd now in an exposed position,

18:00 Lenin moved the capital to Moscow, just in case.

18:03 Things really weren't going well for Lenin and many,

18:05 many people were extremely unhappy

18:07 with the Bolshevik government and its actions.

18:09 "Linen, you pissed off so many people that they've united against you.

18:12 We're under attack." "Relax,

18:14 we always expected some counter-revolutionary pushback.

18:17 I think we can handle a few angry monopoly men." "But Lenin,

18:19 it's not just the monopoly men." "Okay,

18:21 who are we up against?" "Well, the liberals, the Social Revolutionaries,

18:25 national separatists in Poland Finland and the Ukraine,

18:27 independent warlords setting up chiefdoms,

18:28 anarchist rebels, the Green Peasant Armies,

18:29 the Cossacks, the Caucasian States, the Baltic States the British,

18:32 the French, the Americans and the Japanese.

18:33 Oh, and it legions of Czechoslovakian soldiers seem to have taken

18:36 over the Trans-Siberian railway and stolen

18:37 all the imperial gold reserves." "What?

18:39 How could this get any worse?" "Oh, and it says here your mother-in-law's coming

18:43 to stay." "No." A variety of Bolshevik forces

18:47 had united together to topple Linen's government

18:49 and Russia descended into a full blown civil war.

18:52 Now the Russian civil war was extremely intricate and would really

18:55 need its own video but essentially the Anti Bolshevik White Movement,

18:58 gain control of vast underdeveloped areas while the Bolshevik

19:01 Reds controlled the industrial heartland using this to their advantage,

19:04 along with the surprising military genius of Trotsky

19:06 and the shocking disorganization of the White Army,

19:08 the fortified Red Army gradually came out on top.

19:11 It was an absolutely brutal conflict

19:13 with both sides committing horrendous atrocities.

19:15 To maintain order at home, the Bolsheviks began the Red Terror and the secret

19:19 police would execute tens of thousands of suspected traitors.

19:22 No one was safe from the violence not even Nicholas himself.

19:26 You've probably been wondering what Nicholas has been up to this whole time.

19:29 Well, after his abdication, he and his family were placed under house arrest.

19:33 At first, they were allowed to live

19:35 in their usual luxury but after Lenin took over, their conditions worsened.

19:38 the Bolsheviks were just holding on to Nick until

19:40 they could work out what to do with him.

19:42 But the civil war complicated things.

19:44 The last thing they wanted was for Nick to be freed by the White Armies.

19:47 And so to stop this from happening, Nicholas's Bolshevik guards decided to act.

19:52 It's not entirely certain whether Lenin ordered it or if

19:55 the guards were acting on their own volition but on July 17th,

19:59 1918 with White Armies approaching,

20:01 they woke Nicholas and his family in the middle

20:03 of the night and brought them into the basement.

20:06 There a drunken squad of Bolsheviks murdered the entire family.

20:10 Nicholas, the last Tsar,

20:13 once one of the most powerful men alive had met a brutal end.

20:18 but after years of fighting and millions of deaths,

20:20 Trotsky in his Red Army came out victorious.

20:23 "Wow, that was a close one.

20:25 Okay, back to creating a communist utopia.

20:27 How are we doing on that?" "Well, the civil war helped create a massive famine

20:31 and about 5 million people starved to death,

20:33 there's massive inflation and the Ruble is worthless,

20:35 hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of railway track have been destroyed,

20:37 disease and epidemics have killed 3 million,

20:39 the population in Moscow and Petrograd has collapsed,

20:41 life expectancies has plummeted, sailors in Kronstadt are rebelling,

20:43 people are freezing to death in their own apartments and life

20:45 has been reduced to a constant search for food and shelter." "Whoa,

20:48 well this just means I'll have to work twice as hard,

20:51 day and night to save the country.

20:53 Nothing will stop me, short of a couple of sudden strokes.

20:57 Get the doctor." One thing you have to keep

20:59 in mind is that everything I've been talking about,

21:00 the civil war, the assassination attempt and Lenin struggle to maintain

21:04 control at home were all happening around the same time.

21:06 And it must have been extremely stressful.

21:08 Lenin began getting headaches, insomnia and in 1922,

21:11 he suffered two separate strokes.

21:13 As the Soviet union was officially declared under a strict one party system,

21:17 Lenin's health continued to decline and his ability

21:19 to lead the communist party went with it.

21:22 Everybody assumed Trotsky would succeed him.

21:24 He was a great speaker, he'd won the civil war and he had a dope train.

21:27 The last person anyone expected to take over was Stalin.

21:31 Stalin wasn't a great intellectual like

21:32 Lenin or charismatic war hero like Trotsky.

21:35 He was as one Menshevik described him a gray blur.

21:38 Someone who operated in the background,

21:40 someone who you might not even notice but it

21:42 was in the background that Stalin would rise to power.

21:45 Here's how it happened.

21:46 After the revolution,

21:47 all the Bolsheviks hoped to get a cool job in the new government.

21:49 "What did you get?" "Commissar for War." "Sweet.

21:52 What'd you get?" "Secretary." (crowd laughing) Stalin

21:59 was made General Secretary for the Communist Party.

22:01 It wasn't what he wanted but Stalin

22:03 quickly realized that even though it wasn't fancy, it was a powerful position.

22:07 As secretary, he had the power to give people jobs within the party.

22:10 So he would give jobs to all of his pals

22:12 who in turn would give them their support.

22:14 The more pals he gave jobs,

22:15 the more power he got the more power he got, the more pals he got.

22:18 Linen may have been having wall-to-wall strokes,

22:20 but he was still involved in the party and he was taking notice.

22:23 He wasn't a fan of Stalin abusing

22:25 his position or insulting his wife to her face.

22:27 Lenin knew he couldn't let Stalin take over.

22:29 But by this stage he was just too sick to fight it.

22:32 "Hey man, tell whoever's in charge of giving people jobs

22:34 not to let that jerk Stalin become the next leader.

22:36 By the way, who did I put in charge

22:38 of giving people jobs?" "That would be Stalin, sir." (groans) "Whoa,

22:44 deja vu." Linens last wish was to not let

22:46 Stalin take over but by the time he died, Stalin was too powerful to remove.

22:50 He had his remaining opponents arrested or killed.

22:53 Trotsky was banished and fled to Europe.

22:55 Eventually he would be assassinated by Soviet spies in 1940.

22:59 "Our dear comrade Lenin has died.

23:01 We should have a state funeral." "No,

23:02 let's mummify him and put them on display so people can

23:05 look at his dead body forever." "That's gross." "Your gross." "Guards,

23:09 kill him." Linen had waited so long to take control

23:13 in Russia but he never got to see his communist utopia.

23:16 His short time in charge was spent dealing with the destroyed

23:18 Russian economy World War One and the civil war.

23:21 He was cruel and merciless,

23:23 but he really did seem to believe communism would make Russia a better place.

23:27 Stalin on the other hand, would take the Soviet Union down a different path.

23:30 If you thought Lenin was a tyrant, well, you ain't seen nothing yet girl.

23:34 A secret police state,

23:35 a rapidly militarizing superpower led by a paranoid man who deeply distrusted

23:39 the West would see the world come to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

23:43 That's right.

23:44 I'm talking about.

23:45 (upbeat sound) Remember to click the link in the description

23:51 below to download Rise of Kingdoms for free.

23:53 Fight alongside allies, conquer their players and use superior tactics

23:57 to emerge victorious in a strategic battle Royale.

24:00 Again, click on the link in the description below and I'll see you there.

24:03 (upbeat music)