The Russian Revolution came after Russia's failed efforts in World War I. The country, and the monarchy, were weak and ripe for a divisive, political leader to disrupt the political life of the nation. The dynasty was over 300 years old at the time Lenin's maneuvering for power began. Russia was home to a sizeable Jewish population, and the monarchy, as well as Lenin, were not kind to that group. Pogroms were normal in the nation, which were violent, brutal massacres of Jews in their homes and villages. Many Jews fled Russia to the rest of Europe or to the US.
The Revolution, Neff said, "almost comes out of nowhere." Czar Nicholas II received a telegram saying that the government in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, was being overthrown. The czar didn't believe it, he thought it was implausible that a workers revolution, backed by soldiers, would be happening. Riots int he streets gave way to a complete overthrow, the czar abdicated, and those who backed the czar formed the Russian Army. Their main goal was to free the royal family from the Bolsheviks.
"All of the ruling families of Europe at this point are interrelated," Posobiec said, noting that Nicholas II asked his cousin the British king for help, who declined to get involved of help in any way. The revolution was underway by 1917, and "soviets," or workers councils, were formed. This became the basis of Lenin's establishment of a new government, with the Bolsheviks at the center. "All power to the soviets," Lenin said.
"The Bolsheviks are a tiny faction," Neff said, and it's only through Lenin's political genius that they were able to gain power. He encouraged his followers to take over the Winter Palace in Petrograd. The "organ of government" was taken over essentially overnight. They had enough soviet support to maintain control of the city. From there, they were able to take over the rest of the government. The revolutionaries gain support of the peasants by giving them land and letting them keep any land they gain by massacring the landowners.
The Bolsheviks were the ones who, essentially, set up Antifa in Germany in 1930. The communists spawned by the Russian Revolution spread their ethos to Germany. Antifa, the shock troops of the left, are still with us today. Posobiec and Neff made it clear that weakness, soft leadership, were the conditions that allowed the Bolshevik Revolution to take place.
Those targeted in the Russian Revolution were the same class of people targeted by BLM and Antifa in the George Floyd riots of 2020—the middle class, landowners, and small business owners.
Two more episodes in the series are set to air this week.
