Lenin’s Russia

Lenin Seizes power & builds an Empire

1917-1924

Reform Movement in Russia

• Existed long before the Revolution began in 1917– 1891-92 famine produced “social awakening” among educated classes

– People, however, did not agree on the type of change needed

• Duma included “moderates” seeking a constitutional monarchy

• Czar rule was destined to change => yet the outcome of the revolution was unpredictable in 1917

Bolsheviks• What: Russian Marxist group

• Leader: Vladimir Lenin

• Goal: communist revolution in Russia

• How: have a small group of committed revolutionaries force radical social/political change on Russia

What is Marxism? (Reading…)

Means of production

Private Property

Fall of Czar Rule

March 1917: Nicholas II steps down, family executed 1918

March 1917: Textile workers strike in Petrograd

Leaders of Duma form Provisional Government

Soviets are formed (local councils consisting of workers, peasants & soldiers)

April 1917 Lenin returns to Russia

“All Power to Soviets”

Lenin promises a new way to govern:

Lenin Seizes Power

• Lenin and his Bolsheviks seize power in November 1917– Lenin seizes power through violence (at gunpoint)

– He then moved to ruthlessly destroy opposition

• Lenin distributes land to peasants and factories to workers– Will Marxism work?

What is to be done?

• Primary Source Reading

Lenin takes power in 1917

Russia falls into Civil War 1918-20

Signs treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918

TIMELINE

15 million people die! (war, famine, disease)

Economy destroyed!

Economic Reforms

New Economic Policy 1921

Encouraged foreign investment

Allowed some Capitalism

Lenin is victorious in Civil War 1920

Political Reforms

1922 named Russia the USSR

Organized Russia into self-ruling Republics

(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

Bolsheviks rename party the Communist Party

Became a dictatorship of the Communist Party

Lenin dies in 1924

53-Years old

Who would take his place?

Joseph Stalin

Power StruggleLeon Trotsky

Lenin Video Analysis