Russian Rev Religion and Violence DBQ

Doc 1: Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, 1896

Doc 2: Bloody Sunday, 1905

There was much activity and many reports. Fredericks came to lunch. Went for a long walk. Since yesterday all the factories and workshops in St. Petersburg have been on strike. Troops have been brought in from the surroundings to strengthen the garrison. The workers have conducted themselves calmly hitherto. Their number is estimated at 120,000. At the head of the workers' union some priest-socialist Gapon. Mirsky came in the evening with a report of the measures taken.... A heavy day! In Petersburg there were serious disorders as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The guard had to shoot in various areas of the city, and there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and heavy!

Doc 3: The Story of My Life, 1906

We were not more than thirty yards from the soldiers, being separated from them only by the bridge over the Tarakanovskii Canal, which here masks the border of the city, when suddenly, without any warning and without a moment's delay, was heard the dry crack of many rifle-shots. Vasiliev, with whom I was walking hand in hand, suddenly left hold of my arm and sank upon the snow. One of the workmen who carried the banners fell also. Immediately one of the two police officers shouted out "What are you doing? How dare you fire upon the portrait of the Tsar?"

An old man named Lavrentiev, who was carrying the Tsar's portrait, had been one of the first victims. Another old man caught the portrait as it fell from his hands and carried it till he too was killed by the next volley. With his last gasp the old man said "I may die, but I will see the Tsar".

Both the blacksmiths who had guarded me were killed, as well as all these who were carrying the ikons and banners; and all these emblems now lay scattered on the snow. The soldiers were actually shooting into the courtyards at the adjoining houses, where the crowd tried to find refuge and, as I learned afterwards, bullets even struck persons inside, through the windows.

At last the firing ceased. I stood up with a few others who remained uninjured and looked down at the bodies that lay prostrate around me. Horror crept into my heart. The thought flashed through my mind, And this is the work of our “Little Father, the Tsar". Perhaps the anger saved me, for now I knew in very truth that a new chapter was opened in the book of history of our people.

Doc 4: Telegram to Comrades, 1918

To Penza To Comrades Kuraev, Bosh, Minkin and other Penza communists.

Comrades! The uprising by the five kulak volosts must be mercilessly suppressed. The interest of the entire revolution demands this, for we are now facing everywhere the “final decisive battle” with the kulaks. We need to set an example.

1. You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the people see) no fewer than 100 of the notorious kulaks, the rich and the bloodsuckers.
2. Publish their names.
3. Take all their grain from them.
4. Appoint the hostages — in accordance with yesterday’s telegram.

This needs to be done in such a way that the people for hundreds of versts around will see, tremble, know and shout: they are throttling and will throttle the bloodsucking kulaks.

Telegraph us concerning receipt and implementation.

Yours, Lenin. PS. Find tougher people.

Doc 5: The House of Government, 2017

Violence generally made good theoretical sense. All Bolsheviks expected it as part of the revolution, and no one could possibly object to it in principle. Marxism was an apocalyptic movement that looked forward to the times of woe on the eve of the millennium, and the Bolsheviks, of all Marxists, defined themselves in opposition to appeasement… Lenin called for civil war long before October; and, in June 1918, urged the workers to launch “that special war that has always accompanied not only great revolutions but every more or less significant revolution in history, a war that is uniquely legitimate and just, a holy war from the point of view of the interests of the toiling, oppressed, and exploited masses.”

Doc 6: Life under the Lord God, 1926

Doc 7: A Saga of Russian Revolution, 2017

[Upon Lenin’s death, January 21, 1924]: According to the Central Committee obituary, “everything truly great and heroic that the proletariat possesses… finds its magnificent embodiment in Lenin, whose name has become a symbol of the new world from east to west and from north to south…” This meant that Lenin was, by definition, immortal:

Lenin lives in the soul of every member of our party. Lenin lives in the heart of every honest worker. Lenin lives in the heart of every poor peasant. Lenin lives among the millions of colonial slaves. Lenin lives in the hatred that our enemies have for Leninism, Communism, and Bolshevism.”

But Lenin was immortal in another sense, too. He was immortal because he had suffered and died for mankind in order to be resurrected with the coming of Communism.