Stages of a Revolution: The
Russian Revolution
Stage One Examples
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Small middle class that resented the privileges of the nobles
4/5 or 90% of the population was peasant
20% of population were factory workers known as soviets
Followed feudalism and relied on serfdom
Skyrocketing cost of bread and bread rationing
Food and fuel shortages
Inefficient transportation system
Not industrialized
Loss in the Japanese-Russo War
Enormous losses in World War One
Slogans of “Peace and Bread”, “Peace, Land, and Bread”, “Down with
Autocracy”, “Worker Control of Production”, “All Power to the Soviets”
Czarina Alexandra did not care about workers and peasants….focus on
lifestyle, family, son’s hemophilia, and influence of Rasputin
Weak leadership of Czar Nicholas II
Secret police
Czar Nicholas tried to crush the Duma (Parliament)
Russian failures in
the First World War
The weakness
of Tsar Nicholas
II
The
discontent of
the peasants
The
discontent of
the workers
Factors that led to the
Communist revolution
in 1917.
Rasputin and
scandal
The
failure
of the
Duma
Opposition
of the
Communists
The February
Revolution 1917
Stage Two Examples
• Lenin: led the Bolsheviks, communist, followers
were the soviets who were like the sans-culottes,
slogans of “Bread, Peace, and Freedom” and “All
Power to the Soviets”
• Trotsky: part of the Bolsheviks, forms the Red
Guard and is similar to Marquis de Lafeyette and
the National Guard—develops the Red Guard into
the Red Army of 5 million men
• Marxism
• Censorship of all anti-government activities
Stage Three Examples
• 1905-Bloody Sunday: a peaceful protest of
200,000, but guards open fire and kill 1000
• February/March Revolution: March 8, 1917,
10,000 working class women led a series of strikes
in Petrograd/St. Peterburg chanting “Peace and
Bread” and “Down with Autocracy”---similar to
Women’s Bread March on Versailles
• March 10, 1917: All factories shut down and go on
strike in Petrograd and soldiers join in---similar to
the Storming of the Bastille
• Assassination attempts and final assassination of
Rasputin
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1905)
Stage Four Examples
• Duma met on March 12, 1917 to establish a
Provisional Government made up mostly of the
middle class like the National Assembly and later
the Legislative Assembly
• Had Czar Nicholas II step down and got rid of the
monarchy like at the end of the Legislative
Assembly
• Provisional Government led by Alexsandr
Kerensky---it is a moderate republic
• Development of Soviets---workers’ councils to
give the working class a voice because they feel
the Provisional Government does not represent
them
Stage Five Examples
• Adopt a new calendar like rest of Western world
in 1918
• Establish civil rights like the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen and the Constitution of
1791
• Promised free elections
• But involvement in World War One is made
number one priority and alienates a large portion
of the population who want out of the war like
what the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and
limited voting rights did in France
Stage Six Examples
• Civil War in Russia-brought on primarily over continued
involvement in World War One
• Whites: anti-communists and supporters of the
Provisional Government like the Girondins
• Reds: communists-Bolsheviks like the Jacobins
• Liberals: made up of the middle class and wanted a
constitutional monarchy
• Socialists: more democratic, did not follow Lenin,
mostly peasants who wanted more land rights
• Communists: radicals and followers of Lenin
• Communists broken into Bolsheviks led by Lenin and
Mensheviks led by Trotsky
• Kornilov Affair
Kornilov Affair
• General Kornilov attempted
to overthrow Provisional
Government with military
takeover
• To prevent this takeover,
Kerensky freed many
Bolshevik leaders from
prison and supplied arms to
many revolutionaries
Whites and their supporters fleeing abroad after defeat in the Civil War
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
Russia
Estonia
Germany
.
Latvia
Lithuania
Ukraine
Brest-Litovsk
Russian territory ceded to Germany
Reaction to Treaty
• Bolsheviks’ acceptance of peace treaty angered many Russians
• Bolsheviks’ opponents organized the White Army
• White Army included army leaders, political opponents, wealthy Russians
opposed to Communist system
Civil War
• White Army received military help from France, U.S.
• Civil War raged for 3 years between Lenin’s Red Army and White Army
• Millions of Russians died in fighting, famines
• Bolsheviks finally triumphed, late 1920
Stage Seven Examples
• October/November Revolution of 1917: Provisional Government and rule
of Kerensky is overthrown
• Bolsheviks win the civil war
• Lenin is in charge---like Robespierre
• Execution of entire royal family without a trial
• Tried to get rid of organized religion
• Red Terror led by the secret police known as Cheka---eliminate all
opponents to Lenin like Reign of Terror and Committee of Public Safety
• Illegal to own private property
• Land given to peasants
• New Economic Policy
• Workers given control of factories
• Gave women equal rights and pay
• Legalized abortions
• Made it easier to divorce
• Took control of Soviets
• Creates a Proletarian Dictatorship
New Economic Policy
Collapsing economy
• Brought on by civil war, pushed Russia to edge of total ruin
• Peasants, workers especially hard hit
• Lenin introduced New Economic Policy, 1921
Key points
• New Economic Policy permitted some capitalist activity
• Peasants could sell food at profit
• Tried to encourage badly needed food production
The Soviet Union
• Russia reunited with several neighboring lands, became Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, dominated by Communist leadership
• Lenin’s death in 1924 led to struggle for control of Soviet Union
The Cheka (or secret police)
In December 1917 Lenin set up a secret
police force known as the Cheka.
Cheka agents spied on the Russian people in
factories and villages.
Anyone suspected of being anti-Communist
could be arrested, tortured and executed
without a trial.
When opponents tried to assassinate Lenin
in 1918, he launched the Red Terror
campaign against his enemies.
It is said that 50,000 people were arrested
and executed in this period.
Stage Eight Examples
• Lenin dies in 1924 by natural causes
• The Politburo is created---a seven member
ruling government from membership of the
Communist Party like the Directory
• Power struggle about who would lead next
between Trotsky and Stalin
Who would
succeed
Lenin?
OR
Trotsky – Red Army
Commander and
Commisar of Foreign
Affairs
Stalin – Commisar for
Nationalities
Leon Trotsky
• intellectual, head of the Red
Army
• favoured the doctrine of
World Revolution
– felt that the USSR could not
survive as the sole comm.
state
– the USSR must therefore seek
to export rev.
– as a doctrinaire comm., he
opposed the NEP
• favoured “Socialism in One Country”
– the USSR should strengthen itself and lead the
comm. world by ex.
• as a pragmatist, he supported the NEP
• experienced as a bureaucrat, he became
the Party’s General Secretary in 1922:
here he appointed many apparatchiks
(these allies were crucial to Stalin’s rise)
• their power struggle lasted until 1928,
when Stalin’s complex system of alliances
and ability w/ realpolitik allowed him to
succeed
• even Lenin’s doubts couldn’t deter Stalin,
and many involved in the party hierarchy
paid more attention to one another than
to Stalin
Josef Stalin
Stage Nine Examples
• Stalin’s Dictatorship like
Napoleon as Emperor
• Built new cities and lakes all
named after Stalin
• Five Year Economic Plans
• Increased oil production
• Increased coal and steel
production
• Established a massive public
school and university system to
create a literate population who
is loyal to Stalin
• Creates an 85% literacy rate
• New middle class of young men
from the working class newly
educated and loyal to Stalin
• Collectivization of agriculture
• Purge of Kulaks
• Creation of Labor Camps and
Gulags
• 8 million people sent to the
camps and gulags
• 5 million were killed
• Virtual slave labor of millions of
peasant to build canals, dams,
and factories
• Complete censorship of all
forms of communication
• Major propaganda campaign
just like Napoleon
Stalin’s Totalitarian State
• State Control of the Economy
– 5 year plan, collective farms
• Police Terror
– Great Purge, crush opposition
• Religious Persecution
– Control of the individual
• Propaganda (socialist realism)
– Molding peoples minds
• Education
– Controlled by the government
Collective Farming:
All farmers are forced to give up their
own farms and work and farm in groups.
It was a huge failure.
We are 50-100 years behind the
advanced countries. We must make up
this gap in ten years. Either we do it or
they crush us.
Stalin 1931
The Five Year Plans
•Stalin believed that industry could only develop through state control. Under
GOSPLAN, three Five Year Plans set targets between 1928-1941 to increase
production.
•Russian industry changed enormously.
•New towns such as Magnitogorsk grew up and large projects such as the Dnieper
hydroelectric dam were developed.
•The USSR became a major industrial country.
•The human cost was high.
•Forced labour killed millions, working conditions were poor and hours of work were
long.
A drawing by Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia, a former Gulag prisoner.
Courtesy of Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia Foundation, Moscow.
The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945
When Germany attacked the USSR in
1941, Stalin used the same ruthlessness
to defend his country.
The defence of the USSR was the
bloodiest war in history and cost the lives
of millions of people and the destruction
of thousands of villages, towns and cities.
The final victory in 1945 was, like
everything else, put down to the personal
leadership of Stalin by the Soviet
propaganda machine.
After the war, Stalin built up the USSR as a
superpower, in opposition to the USA.
This conflict was known as the Cold War.
Stalin died in 1953.