The Russian Revolution - OverSimplified (Part 1)

this video was made possible by nordvpn

click on the link in the description below to get an amazing 68%

off at 2-year plan

also commemorating the weirdest Bromance

in history get your new character pins and Russian Revolution merch

available now link down

below hey Jimmy it's the 1800s

an exciting time to be alive

why don't you get out there and explore

the world G wiiz Mom

thanks this place is amazing

where am I why you're in France

my boy here we come up with wacky new ways of running a country

Liberty egality fraternity wo

welcome to the United Kingdom

Here we invented the

aboard holy smokes you're in a German Factory my friend here we harness

fire and cold to create all these sexy leader h

this is incredible I can't wait to see where I'll end up

next where am I

you're in Russia have

I gone back in time

no this is just how it is are you a farmer

worse technically my landlord owns me which makes me a

surf I'm scared you should be because I haven't eaten in 4 days and

you look pretty tasty

hey Jimmy how are your

travels I hate you

Russia in the 19th

century feudal underdeveloped and stuck in the past

while the rest of Europe had been modernizing and improving their citizens

lives Russia's rulers were taking a different approach

my Lord we're falling behind the rest of Europe it's time to industrialize

give the people rights and share your power

Russian Zars had no time for pathetic ideas like Liberty and modernization

because they were too busy having the time of their lives

while the Surfs were breaking their backs in the fields

the Zars held all the power and they didn't have to listen to anyone

want to run the country like a backwards feudal Kingdom while the rest of

Europe outpaces you militarily and economically

go right ahead want to keep the people uneducated

so they don't get any ideas

there's no one to stop you want to keep exporting grain even when there's

a massive famine causing hundreds of thousands to die

that is your god-given

right while all of this was great for the Zar if you were literally

anybody else it probably sucked

because Russia was falling behind

if they were to keep up with Europe they'd need a strong ruler

with some big Ideas

oh look here comes one now

hey everyone it's me Zar Alexander

II and I've got some big news

I'm releasing you all from your surfd

you're all free yes

yep I'm the best oh there is one thing though I spoke to your

local Lords and they weren't happy about losing all their Free Labor

so as a compromise

you're all going to have to pay them back a near impossible amount of

money for the next 49

years expect your lives to barely

change okay bye now I know what you're thinking

this Zar Alexander II seems like a pretty cool guy he's trying to reform

the country and get Russia on the right path everyone must love this guy

right wrong why does one man get to decide the fate of everyone in

the country this whole system is dumb

somebody should do something

like what like kill the Zar you're going to kill the Zar

well me no I'm busy

I was kind of hoping you'd do

it okay see the people love me they're throwing flowers

confetti and high-grade explosives

okay Nicholas your grandfather has a mild case of being blown up by a

terrorist and he's not looking too hot so we're going to go say our

goodbyes okay no it'll be too scary for him nonsense it won't be scary

at all we're just going to say a quick

boy look at me

the people did this to me

and one day they'll do it to you

see wasn't scary at all so Alexander II was dead but luckily they had

another Alexander lying around Alexander

thei and he felt his dad's reforms had weakened the Zars Authority

Russia was massive and as a result had many ethnic minorities

non-russians more interested in their own cultural heritage than in loving me isn't it

great so much beautiful culture and diversity in our great nation

Alexander thought all these minorities should be a little more Russian

and thereby loyal to him so he repressed

religious minorities he repressed non-russians

he introduced the Okana

a secret police force that repressed anybody who thought having AAR

was dumb if Alexander II was the great reformer

Alexander II was the great repressor

now that's how you run a country

hey Dad G great

it's my son Nicholas who I like to call a girly girl because he's

so weak and pathetic

when are you going to grow up

eh you still look like a girly girl to me but Dad I grew

a beard yeah an ugly girly girl

beard if Nicholas was to one day bizar

he needed his dad to teach him how to run the country

but his dad instead suggested that Nicholas goes somewhere else so Nicholas went to

Japan got an edgy Dragon Tattoo had his head sliced off by a policeman

and then came home now will you teach me how to rule

I suppose it's time

okay there's a lot you need to know before becoming Z

uh-oh what I've got kidney

inflammation oh no upon his father's death a totally unprepared

Nicholas thei ascended to the Russian Throne he wasn't a reformer like his grandfather

nor was he a repressor

like his dad Nicholas

was Nicholas timid easily swayed

and more interested in doing whatever the hell this is

or this or this

he wasn't ready to rule and he himself admitted it saying

I'm not yet ready to bear

I know nothing of the business of

ruling bit of an

time to bring it up however Nicholas firmly believed that he was chosen by

God to be Russia's Big Daddy and while he doubted his ability to rule

he was going to give it his best shot and hey who knows maybe

he wouldn't be so bad after all to get things off to a good

start Nicholas promised free pretzels and beer to a huge crowd in Moscow to

celebrate his coronation so enticing a proposition to starving peasants that the ensuing Stampede

left nearly 1500 people dead

what the hell happened we're not sure but you're scheduled to go party with

the French at 8:00

shouldn't I stay here out of respect for the people

when of R Zars ever respected the people

hm Nicholas's decision to go party with the French immediately tarnished His Image some

were calling him Nicholas

the bloody the Zars had been partying hard at the expense of the people

for long enough they emancipated

the Surfs but failed to lift them out of poverty

they used their secret police to crack down on anyone who might criticize

them and they' failed to modernize

and give the people rights something the rest of Europe had begun doing over

a century ago the rule of the Zars was quickly becoming outdated

and more and more Russians

began wondering if there was a better way

for many the solution was simple

just look to the West

republics democracies and constitutional

monarchies Galore but a small growing group rejected

that for an even better idea a little something they called

communism take Vladimir lennin an intelligent member of Russia's middle class

and also a massive ill-tempered

jerk if you disagreed with him about anything

he wasn't afraid to call you out

you faded simple-minded vapid

cockeyed imbecile tenderheart bear is a far superior

ha bear to bedtime

bear and he was no stranger to political unrest either his older brother was

executed for plotting to kill the Zar and Lenin himself is expelled from University

for participating in a student protest

but how did lennin go from being a middle class nerd to the Arbiter

of socialist Divinity well to tell that story we first need to go back

a few decades to when a man named Karl Marx S A Manifesto

explaining how capitalism is a system whereby the stinky biris

oppressed and exploited the working masses and that only through class Warfare could the

workers rise up and inate a communist Utopia

now go back forward a few decades to Lenin reading that

Manifesto and loving it

but publicly admitting you loved Marx and not Russ's Big Daddy would get you

the cruestv communism was

now today you might hear the word communism

and think of this

but that's not how intellectuals

living under a tough zarus regime s

to them communism promised a land where all were equal

where workers weren't exploited

and even people like you could get a girlfriend

so lenon joined a party of Russian Communists living in Europe and he founded

a communist newsletter that was smuggled into Russia to try to radicalize

the people however not everyone in the Socialist Party agreed with lenon

in fact they disagreed with him on a lot of issues

and lenon was so uncompromising

that he caused a split in the party

during one conference a heated debate broke up and lenon was unwilling to give

an inch you pig ignorant

half-witted fatuous morons cereal

is a soup listen Lennon you're a smart guy but you have no idea

what you're talking about we're out of

here all in favor of cereal being a

soup hey would you look at that we're in the majority

so Lennon set up his own faction within the party he called the majority

or bull if you're speaking Russian and the other faction became known as the

minority or menik and oddly the majority were often in the minority

and the minority in the majority

the menik were less radical whereas lenon wanted the bulvik

to be loyal to him and his uncompromising

ideas and if you weren't loyal well then you're going to get a big

braing feat down menix

worried that Lennon's attitude could lead to a one-man dictatorship

but come on does this guy look like a dictator to

you for now lenon remained in Europe writing his socialist newspaper

and impatiently awaiting an opportunity to overthrow the Zar and bring Comm

Utopia Russia cool a free

hat who the heck are you

I'm definitely not a Russian secret police officer spying on marxists

oh crap I don't want secret police watching me then you my friend

should use nordvpn do you like having your identity stolen

if yes you need therapy

if no you need nordvpn

nordvpn has thousands of super fast servers in 62 countries that you can connect

to to keep you and your data secure when using the web it comes

with a 30-day money back guarantee

and is now faster and more secure than ever with its brand new Nord

links technology have you quarantine binged all of your favorite shows on Netflix

well with nordvpn you can watch the Australian

version or is one of the greatest videos on YouTube still banned in your

country I think you get the point you can now get nordvpn

with 68% off at 2-year plan for only 371

per month plus 1 month free

so click on nordvpn.com

oversimplified in the description below and get protected now that's nordvpn

or something hm won't that change the social fabric of Russia

maybe hey Isn't it past your bedtime

but I haven't had my milk and snuggles

yet will you snuggle

me um Nicholas thought modernization

was boring but he let Sergey do his thing

and do his thing he did he borrowed some money and got rush to

some sexy factories and you know what sexy factories means

sexy workers dirt poor

sexy workers long hours

low wages filthy disease ridden factories

sleep in overcrowded dormitories

with all your stinky worker friends

get your arms ripped off in a freak Russian Dole accident

conditions were terrible but this growing work in class wasn't about to take it

ly down they started to do what workers do best

strike despite sergey's efforts people in Russia still weren't happy peasants were still poor

liberals still wanted reform

and now the workers wanted better working

conditions and the problem with being an autocrat is that when everyone's unhappy

there's only one person to blame

you the people hate me what do I do

ooh I know why don't we find a weak atic Nation to go to

war with we'll win easily

and everyone will love me again why don't we just try treating the people

better as luck would have it an opportunity for war was forming in the

Far East Russia wanted to expand its sphere of influence into northern China and

coincidentally so did Japan

but Japan didn't really want war so they proposed an idea to reduce the

tension hey man we'll let you do your thing in Manchuria

if you let us do our thing in Korea

I don't think so we've got the largest army in the world what do

you have I'm the emperor of Japan

I have a giant meca suit

wa cool Nicholas and the boys didn't see Japan as a threat so they

felt they could push Japan around but little did they know Japan had been

rapidly militarizing and when they launched a surprise attack on a Russian Fleet of

Port Arthur everyone was shocked

Nicholas hoped it was an opportunity

to win a quick war and regain the support of the people

nobody seriously thought a puny Asian country could defeat a European superpower

and the Russian people were filled with patriotic

spunk hey everyone we're at war with Japan

the war hey everyone

we're losing the war

the Japanese won an embarrassing defeat for Zar Nicholas

Russia had enough problems

but now it had been internationally

humiliated the public were outraged

unrest increased Nicholas needed snuggles

now more than ever the tension was Rising rapidly

and Russia was on the verge

of Revolution all it needed was one disaster to push it over the edge

and that disaster would come in January 1905

from an unlikely source

a handsome Orthodox priest named father gapon

father gapon was leading workers in their families to The Winter Palace

but this wasn't some violent Uprising

it was a peaceful

protest they wanted to deliver a petition to Nicholas

which simply asked for more freedom and better working

conditions the protest was actually so peaceful and respectful

that the marxists thought it was a big waste of time

hey Nicholas some priest is leading a peaceful protest

says here they want to give you a petition

a peaceful petitioning priest

I better get out of here

Nicholas had actually left the Winter Palace days earlier

and in his place they brought in a truckload of troops ordered to stop

father gapon from reaching the palace

hello good sir and long live the Zar

please allow me to pass this simple petition to our dear father Nicholas II

good day to you too

please allow us to respond

by opening fire what began as a peaceful protest

ended in tragedy Imperial soldiers

opened fire on the crowd

around 200 civilians died 800 more were wounded

all they wanted was the opportunity

to ask Nicholas to improve their lives

instead they were met with bullets

Nicholas didn't personally order the troops to fire

but as an autocrat

he got the blame

the event became known as Bloody Sunday

and Nicholas's reputation plummeted

strikes erupted across the Empire

workers demands increased liberals demanded political power peasants demanded land

the country was out of control

and the 1905 revolution

had begun listen Nicholas

peasants seizing my land and murdering my family I can tolerate but illegally chopping

my would that's obscene

and the worse I treat my workers

the more they strike

I don't get it everyone relax

as long as the military is still on my side there's nothing to worry

about Sir the sailors are starting to Mutiny

well my life just sucks

with Russia still losing to the Japanese

unrest was growing in the military

and some Sailors had even taken to killing officers

having the people against you was bad enough but if the military joined in

it would be game over

to make matters worse in October workers and marxists including one Leon Trotsky

began setting up local elected councils called Soviets

that coordinated strikes and supplied the workers

Sergey could see the writing on the wall things were going south fast and

he needed a big idea to save the Zar

and luckily he had just that you see all these angry people from different

parts of society weren't really working

together meaning there was a weakness to exploit

Sergey wrote a Manifesto

that would give the Liberals an elected assembly called the Duma

it took some convincing

but eventually Nicholas agreed to share power and have his laws approved by an

elected assembly hey liberals

here's your stupid Manifesto

happy now we certainly are but what about these guys aren't you going to

give them what they want oh goodness no

I was just going to kill them with the Liberals satisfied

and after ending the war with Japan thear brought thousands of troops home who

then dismantled the Soviets

arrested their leaders and crushed The Peasant uprisings in the countryside

and how about that pesky Parliament Nicholas had agreed to share power with well

he then wrote a bunch of new laws which basically said

hey remember that Manifesto I wrote and how you guys were going to approve

my laws mhm slight change of plan

actually I'm going to do whatever the hell I want and you guys are

going to shut up

what the people won't stand for this

people what people you know this is why people don't like you and just

like that Nicholas had survived the 1905

Revolution but wait a Revolution

in Russia where was lenon

well Lenin and his communist Pals were still in Exile he tried desperately to

radicalize the uprising but all he could do was watch as the movements failed

to organize the Liberals sold out the poor and the zarat played the people

Furious he believed Russia had missed a great chance for a real Revolution

from now on he felt the only way left

was an armed Revolution

by the workers watching the events of 1905

unfold Lon learned a lot thear

however would prove to have learned

nothing after the 1905

revolution had failed daar's new top man was p stapin

and he had big ideas to prevent any more chaos

Step One reform agriculture

this will make the peasants

love you and step two

we'll kill anyone who doesn't to discourage any more revolutionary

ideas stolin began to crack down even harder on thear opponents

and thousands were sentenced to death the news even earned itself a new nickname

stole a pin's necktie

I don't get it

oh I see cuz it goes around my neck

that's so funny but despite the oppression

many positive reforms were also being made and the Russian economy even began to

improve this was a problem for Lenin

if the people weren't suffering

then they wouldn't support a revolution

still in Exile and lacking funds

the Bolsheviks simply weren't in a position to do anything

luckily it was around this time that Lennon met an incredibly

handsome Georgian with your second favorite historical mustache

Joseph Stalin Lennon and Stalin met at a communist convention in Finland and lennin

liked Stalin because he was a real go-getter

and was great at fundraising for the bulvik

and by fundraising I mean kidnapping

robbing extorting bribing ransoming

assassinating prison breaking stealing

Bank rating execution and stealing

again he stent the menics aren't so hot in all this stealing

but we still need money so the next time you do a Big Heist

just do it quietly

okay quietly got it

if this isn't quiet

I don't know what is Stalin's wacky Antics eventually got him exiled to Siberia

but he had established himself as a big bulls bulvik

however no amount of bulvik bulls could stop what was happening the Russian economy

was making a recovery

for the Zar things were looking up this is great Old Nicholas has to

do a sit back and not mess anything up hey everyone

big news I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend

he's a crazy drunken beardy horny Scandal ridden magic wizard man and he smells

like a goat we're screwed

Rasputin a dirt poor peasant from dirt poor nowhere but unlike all the other

dirt poor peasants Rasputin

had holy healing powers and when this holy Mystic wandered into St Petersburg

people began to notice

he quickly became famous and word of this mystery man in his Healing Hands

made its way to the Royal Palace

the appearance of a holy homeless healer was of great interest to the Zar

and his wife as far as whs go they weren't that inbred

but they were just inbred enough for their son Alexi to get him ailia

or in layman's terms

Mama Mia that's a lot of blood knowing rutin

could heal people in 1906

Alexander asked for Rasputin to come and see if he could cure their son

and crazy as it sounds Rasputin

did heal Alexi possibly by taking him off his doctor prescribed

aspirin having seemingly done the impossible

Rasputin became very very close to the royal family

but having a crazy homeless wizard man hanging around wasn't a good look for

the Zar because Rasputin

was freaky Not only was he a big fan of alcohol but he'd also

throw these crazy parties with Russian nobility

where he and all night long and then

he his whole head

hypnotic eyes and nobody knew how the goat got on the roof

initially the Press were banned from talking about rutin

but eventually the ban was lifted

and the tabloids went to town the whole thing was a huge Scandal

and everyone was freaked out that this guy was influencing thear and his wife

Nicholas could have spent this period of relative peace improving His Image

instead he spent it doing this

but as weird as the whole disputant thing was so long as the economy

continued to improve and the people's lives kept getting better

maybe Nick would be okay

maybe there would be no more revolutions

maybe this video could even end right here

or maybe things were about to get worse

a lot worse you see the year is 1914

and that means it's time for World War I