Russian Revolution

Ch. 15 Sec. 5

Ch. 16 Sec. 4

Terms

• Proletariat: Working Class• Soviet: council of workers and soldiers

set up by Russian revolutionaries in 1917

• Cheka: early Soviet secret police force• Commissar: Communist party officials

assigned to the army to teach party principles and ensure party loyalty during the Russian Revolution

March Revolution• Bloody Sunday- Jan. 22, 1905

– Protesters march on the Palace and petitioned for justice and freedom

– Tsar sets up a weak Duma under Peter Stolypin • March 1917: disasters on battlefront & food and

fuel shortages brought monarchy to collapse• Revolutionaries hatched radical plots

– Marxists tried to ignite revolution among proletariat

• Tsar left to go to front lines of war- left tsarina Alexandra in charge who relied on Rasputin

• Marchers protested/ troops refused to fire upon protestors - government helpless

• Duma set up provisional government/ revolutionary socialists plotted as well– Set up Socialists– V.I. Lenin- leader of

Bolsheviks took charge

• Karl Marx predicted state would wither away under communism.

Different Approach

Lenin and the Bolsheviks• Lenin hated tsarist government after

brother’s execution• Spread Marxist ideas among factory

workers• Met and was arrested with wife

Nadezhda Krupskaya and sent into exile together to Switzerland

• Karl Marx predicted the industrial working class would rise to overthrow capitalism– Lenin called on the elite class (Bolseviks)

• Germany saw an opportunity to further weaken its enemy- Russia– Lenin returned from exile – July 1917 Kerensky offensive led to their downfall– Provisional Government continued to fail to deal

with the reforms• November Revolution brings the Bolsheviks to

Power– Lenin helped lead the revolution with help of Leon

Trotsky

Bolshevik Takeover• November 1917 Red Guards (Armed

factory workers) with help of mutinous sailors overthrew provisional government

• Moscow became Bolshevik capital and Kremlin their headquarters

• Ended private ownership of land and distributed to peasants

• Workers given control of factories/ mines

• Bolsheviks took new name of Communist with hammer and sickle flag as representation

Russia plunges into Civil War

• Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 1918

• Civil war raged between “Reds” (Communists) and “Whites” (Counterrevolutionaries)– Whites: imperial officers, Mensheviks,

democrats, and others united to defeat communists

• July 1918 Tsar and family assassinated

War under Communism

• Reds used terror to control all people– Organized the Cheka- executed even

suspicious people even without evidence– Set up a network of forced labor camps

which grew under Stalin– Adopted “war communism”- took control of

banks, mines, factories, and railroads– Trotsky turned Red Army into a strong

force under commissars

Communist Soviet Union

• 1922 Russia became USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

• New Government, same problems– Reality differed from democratic theory– Communist party, not the people reigned

supreme• 1924 Lenin died at age 54- his death set

off power struggles between Trotsky and Joseph Stalin throughout USSR

• Tens of thousands lined up around Red Square to view Lenin.

• Communist party officials preserve his body and put it on permanent display.

Trotsky vs Stalin

• Trotsky wanted support for a world-wide revolution

• Stalin wanted to concentrate on building socialism at home

• Stalin isolated Trotsky within the party and stripped him of party membership

• 1929 Trotsky fled the country/ 1940 was killed • Stalin used ruthless measure to win

dictatorial power

Leon Trotsky• Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in, Ukraine, the son of a prosperous Jewish farmer.

Joseph Stalin• After a power

struggle with in the Party, Stalin is named General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on April 3, 1924.

Later Soviet propaganda – such as this 1936 poster – portrayed Stalin as the natural successor to the great Communist heroes Marx, Engels and Lenin.

•Stalin took different approach, worked to return Soviet Union to totalitarian state, controlling all Soviet life.

The Five-Year Plans• Major part of Stalin’s plan to

strengthen communism, modernization of economy.

• reflected Soviet system of central planning.

• Government makes major decisions about production of goods.

• First Five-Year Plan began 1928, factories and mines had production goals.

• Differs from capitalist economic system, where market forces are major influences on production.

• Plans did lead to increases in Soviet industrial output.

• During first two Five-Year Plans, oil production doubled, coal and steel production quadrupled.

• Demands on Soviet workers were high.

• All children were required to attend state run schools and outside activities.

• State also provided free medical, day care for children, inexpensive housing and public recreation.

• Even with all this people lacked vital necessities. Housing was scarce even though massive apartment complexes were built, entire families were crammed into one room.

• Bread was plentiful, but there was little meat, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Collectivization and Famine• Stalin believed millions of

small, individually owned Soviet farms would be more productive if combined into larger, mechanized farms called Collectives.

• He tried to take land back given to peasants after Russian Revolution.

• Executed thousands, sent more to Siberian system of labor camps, called the Gulag.

• Resistance continued, particularly in the Ukraine.

• Terror Famine, Stalin refused to send food during 1932 famine; millions starved to death.

http://www.history.com/videos/military-blunders-stalins-purges#military-blunders-stalins-purges

Peasant Reaction• Peasants resisted by killing

animals, destroying tools and burning crops.

• Stalin responded violently.• Stalin blamed the kulaks or the wealthy farmers, in 1929 he declared that he would liquidate the entire class.

Political Purges• Stalin, absolute power, but

feared people plotting against him.

• In 1934 he campaign called Great Purge, to get rid of people, things undesirable.

• During Great Purge, thousands executed, sent to the Gulag.

• The purges increased his power. Everyone was aware of the consequences of disloyalty.

• He purged many experts and some of the most talented writers and thinkers. Also included most of the military leaders and half of its military officers.

• This will weigh heavily on him in 1941 with Germany's invasion.

Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Stalin to his left in this photo from the 1930s, was shot in 1940. Following his death, he was edited out of the photo by Soviet censors. Such retouching was a common occurrence during Stalin's reign.

War on Religion• They felt the Russian

Orthodox Church had supported the Tsar.

• 15 Roman Catholic priest were charged with teaching counter-revolutionary ideas to the youth.

• They seized Jewish synagogues and banned the use of Hebrew.

• Islam was strongly discouraged.

• Churches were turned into offices or museums

• According to the ideas of Marx’s atheism or the believe that there is no God.

• Communist replaced religion with its own ideology

• Sacred writings were Marx and Lenin

• Shrines, such as the tomb of Lenin

Cathedral St. Basil's, Red Square, Moscow

http://www.belarusguide.com/images/people/USSR_1945_Victory_Parad.jpg

"Double-faced Stalin" cartoon. Stalin going to church keep his lecture. Stalin had suddenly become a great friend of religion when he allowed to open churches for religious use during war.

Soviet Foreign Policy• Unlike Fascism, Communist tried to spread their political doctrine worldwide

• In 1919, Lenin formed Communist International or Comintern, its purpose aide revolutionary groups around the world and to rise up against imperialist powers.

• Propaganda against capitalism and western powers made other countries highly suspicious.

• In the 1920’s fear of Bolshevik plots and Communism led to the “Red Scare” in the United States.

• In 1926, Britain broke off relations after a strike tried to turn into a revolution.

• In 1934, the Soviets joined the League of Nations, however mistrust still poisoned relations especially after the Great Purge.