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
Different Approach
• Karl Marx
predicted
state would
wither away
under
communism.
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.
http://www.history.com/videos/military-blunders-stalins-purges#military-blunders-stalins-pu
• 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.
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
"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.