1917-1930s

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1861- Tsar Alexander II liberated the serfs
The state gave land to the peasant communities and required the peasants to pay for the land through 49 years mortgages
Ex-serf holders (lords) were compensated by the state and kept the best land for themselves
Expansion of the railway system industrialization

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 Alexander IIIpolicy of “Russification” which aimed assimilation of non-Russian peoples
1891-92- famine
Ideas of Karl Marx appealed to Russian intellectuals- Marx believed that ultimately, through the efforts of the working class, a socialist, classless society would develop that would end exploitation and provide for al members of society

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Two of Marx’s most important works were
“The Communist Manifesto (1848, written with F. Engels) and “Capital” (1867)
Marx viewed human history as a series of struggles between social classes. These struggles involved a conflict between owners of property and those who labor on that property. In each of a series of historical stages, the oppressed lower classes eventually rise up against the propertyowning class and overthrow it

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According to Marx, industrial capitalism will be the final stage. This stage pits factory owners against factory workers. In a revolution, workers would seize power from factory owners.
Marx believed that capitalism would be succeeded by an economic systemsocialism- in which the people themselves control the means of production

 Russian intellectuals knew that would have to rally the peasant and working classesthe “masses”- to their cause through education and organization

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Believed in absolute rule; lacked the intelligence and strong personality to provide strong leadership; relied on the secret police
Peasants moved to the cities and took jobs in the factories
Two political groups emerged in Russia in the early years of the 20 th century- liberals, who supported a more western form of government; and socialists, who worked to gather the support of workers and peasants for revolutionary change in Russia

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Social Revolutionaries (SRs)- slogan was “land and liberty”- the party of the peasants
Goals- to socialize all land and transfer it to the communes and replace the monarchy with a democratic republic
1902SRs assassinated the tsar’s minister of the interior

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Marxist Social Democrats (SDs)- Vladimir
Lenin insisted that a successful revolution depended on revolutionary intellectuals building a stronger sense of working-class consciousness among workers. Lenin spent many years in exile because of his revolutionary activity
1903- SDs split in two: Mensheviks and
Bolsheviks

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1904- Russo-Japanese Warcompetition over Korea and Manchuria
Russian army fought with outdated weapons and was poorly supplied
Japan was the victor

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1905 Revolution- January 9 th , 150,000 workers marched to the tsar’s Winter Palace to bring him a petition of economic grievances
Troops fired on the demonstrators, killing
40; there were other clashes around the city
“Bloody Sunday”- there were calls for a constitution and other reforms

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September- first general strike in Russian history
Strike was led by a workers’ council (soviet) which was led by Leon Trotsky
October Manifesto (1905)- limited monarchy, legislature elected by universal suffrage and legalization of trade unions and political parties
The tsar reluctantly signed the manifesto

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Political unrest continued to divide the country: conservatives vs. revolutionaries
The Constitutional Democrats (Kadets) won the largest number of seats in the first Duma (April 1906)
Nicholas dissolved Duma

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Ill-trained, ineffective officers, poorly equipped soldiers- the result was mass desertions and 2 million casualties by 1915
Chaos and disintegration of the Russian Army
Battle of Tannenburg- massive defeat of Russians by Germany
Nicholas II left for the Eastern Front in September
1915
Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos

 Alexandrathe “power behind the throne”
 Rasputin

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“The Royal
Family”
Rasputin:
Documentary on the Evil
Reign of
Rasputin

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Rasputin was assassinated in
December, 1916
Inflation and starvation; cities were overflowing with refugees
Cities became a hotbed for political activism and this was ignited by serious food shortages in March 1917, especially in St. Petersburg

 The March Revolution (March 12)
 The November Revolution (November
6)

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Origins: Food riots/strike
Duma declares itself a Provisional
Government on March 12
Tsar ordered soldiers to intervene; instead they joined the rebellion…the tsar abdicated on March 17
Alexander Kerensky headed the Provisional
Government with Prince Lvov

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Leftists in St. Petersburg formed the
Petrograd Soviet, which they claimed to be the legitimate government
Germany was aware of the Russian situation and began to concentrate on the
Western Front
Germany played a role in returning Lenin to
Russia so he could foment revolution
Having been granted “safe passage” Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917

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Radical and revolutionary
Influenced by Marxist socialism
Two factions:
Mensheviks
Bolsheviks

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He was exiled to Siberia in 1897 for political activities
Committed to the class struggle and revolution
Wrote “What is to Be Done?”
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- a small elite is required to lead the communist revolution
1900- went to Switzerland where many Russian socialists were living in exile

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 April Theses: called for Russia to withdraw from the war, for the soviets to seize power on behalf of workers and peasants, and for all private land to be nationalized
“Peace, bread and land”
By the fall of 1917, the Provisional
Government had failed

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Armed factory workers overthrow the provisional government- they want food and they want the government to leave the war
The factory workers are led by Leon
Trotsky, one of the leaders of the
Bolshevik Communist Party
Lenin consolidates his power in
January, 1918 when he disbands the
Constituent Assembly

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Tsar, his wife and children were arrested after the abdication
April, 1917: they were sent to Siberia
April, 1918:They were moved to
Ekaterinburg, where they were executed and their bodies burned in
July, 1918

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Workers were given control over the factories
Lenin made peace with Germany- Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk was signed in March , 1918
Civil War broke out in Russia- the Reds
(Communists) fought the Whites, who remained loyal to the tsar; ends in 1922
Lenin rules Russia until his death in 1924

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Abolished private property and allowed peasants to work the land they had seized in the first year of the revolution
Factories were nationalized
Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik commissar of war, built a highly disciplined army
Lenin set up the CHEKA or secret police to arrest political opponents
The civil war ended in 1922 with the Bolsheviks in power

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Lenin- New Economic Policy (NEP) imposed a tax on production of grain rather than confiscating it
Lenin died in 1924; power struggle between
Trotsky and Stalin
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) became the new leader of the USSR
Stalin had Trotsky sent to Siberia and then exiled; Stalin sent a KGB agent to assassinate Trotsky (in Mexico City)

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Stalin became the unquestioned leader of a single-party state, while more than ten million people, starved, were executed, or were worked to death in labor camps during the 1930s
In 1929, Stalin presented the first of several five-year plans to the
Communist Party congress
He established central economic planning

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Between 1928 and 1940, the number of Soviet workers in industry, construction and transport grew from 4 million to 12 million
Central planning helped create a new elite of bureaucrats and industrial officials
Stalin demanded more grain from the peasants to feed the urban workforce and to export

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Peasants resisted government demands by cutting production or withholding produce from the market
Stalin called for the “liquidation of the kulaks.”
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Winter of 1929-30- communist party workers went to the villages in search of grain
Anyone who refused was executed or imprisoned; Confiscated kulak land formed the basis of the “kolkhoz,” or collective farm where peasants were to create a communist agricultural system

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Collectivization was a disaster; soviet citizens starved as the grain harvest declined from 83 million tons in 1930 to 67 million in 1934
Stalin blamed the failure on “wreckers” of communism and he instituted purges- state violence in the form of arrests, imprisonments in labor camps, and executions

“Show trials”- 1936-38- former Bolsheviks were forced to confess to being a part of a conspiracy against Stalin
Most of those found guilty were shot
Purges occurred in every part of society, including the military
A system of prison camps was established over several thousand miles stretching from
Moscow to Siberia

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Camps were called the “Gulag”
8 million prisoners were held in any one year during the 1930s
Harsh conditions, beatings, murder led to the death of about 1 million prisoners a year
Arrests, imprisonment and executions eliminated any opposition to Stalin’s power

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To ensure obedience, Stalin used secret police, censorship and terror
Propaganda- Stalin and Communism
Atheism was the official policy of the state
Art and literature were subject to state approval
Totalitarian government