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Unit 6: Between World Wars
Aim 1: Did Lenin deliver the peace, land, and bread he promised?
After the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II’s government in March of 1917, a temporary (provisional) government
led by Alexander Kerensky came to power. However this government refused to get Russia out of WWI and the famine,
bankruptcy, and dead soldiers kept increasing. In October of 1917 Vladimir Lenin led a violent overthrow of this
temporary government. Lenin gained the support of the Russian peasants and factory workers by promising them
peace, land, and bread and preaching the ideas of Karl Marx’s communism. Lenin’s slogan gave the proletariat (poor
peasants and factory workers) hope for a better future under communism. The Bolshevik revolution was the world’s
first communist revolution.
Peace
Russia had performed horribly in the Great War against Germany and Austria-Hungary and, although they were
successful against the weaker Ottoman armies, Russia was suffering greatly by 1917. Russian soldiers lacked weapons,
proper clothing, and food. Part of the reason for the collapse of the Czar’s government was due to the soldiers and
generals abandoning the war and simply going home. With over 3 million people killed, Russia was one of the hardest
hit countries in the Great War.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
After the October 1917 revolution, Vladimir Lenin immediately signed a peace treaty with Germany. In doing so, Lenin
ensured that the German army would not invade Russia any longer but Russia paid a heavy price in land. The treaty
gave Germany significant portions of Russian land, much of it very fertile land and land with access to the Baltic Sea for
trade.
Russian Civil War
Immediately after the Bolsheviks, Lenin’s political party, took power, they were challenged by different political groups.
Some of the groups wanted democracy, others wanted the Czar back, others wanted communism but didn’t trust Lenin.
These groups were collectively known as the White Army even though they often fought each other as well as the
Bolsheviks. Lenin’s group of Bolsheviks became known as the Red Army, as they chose red for the color of communism
and red has been the color of communism ever since. The Russian Civil War raged from 1918 – 1921 and killed over 8
million people, twice the number killed in WWI, with millions dying from starvation, disease, and combat. In the end
Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks, now renamed the Communist Party, had total control of Russia.
1. Did Lenin keep his promise of peace to the Russian people? Explain.
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Land and Bread
Under the absolute monarchy of the Russian Czars, over 90% of the Russian people were poor peasant farmers or
factory workers. Nearly all of the land was owned by the Russian nobility even though the nobles only made up about
2% of the population. The peasants wanted to own their own farms where they could profit off the harvest and have
enough food to feed their families.
War Communism
During the Civil War all of the Red and White armies stole food from peasant villages and left the people to starve to
death. Lenin ordered his soldiers into towns and they took nearly all of the peasant food supplies. Massive famines
resulted during the civil war as peasant villages were left with nothing.
Collective farms or Communes
After the Civil War ended in 1921, Lenin kicked the wealthy peasants and noble landlords off their land and sent them to
the frozen tundra of Siberia deep in the east of Russia. Lenin then combined thousands of huge farms, formerly owned
by the nobles, into hundreds of collective farms or communes owned by the government. Peasants were forced onto
these farms where the food they harvested was combined together and then spread out equally to all peasant families
depending on their size. However, the food was only distributed after the collective farms had met their quota for the
government who technically owned all the farms.
Lenin’s New Economic Plan (NEP)
To increase food production on the communal farms, Lenin allowed individual farmers to keep all of the food they
harvested above the quota. These families could sell, trade, or keep their crops. Also, Lenin allowed some privately
owned small business to function. Large businesses like the banks and railroads were still owned by the government
however. Food production increased rapidly under the NEP and the USSR, as Lenin renamed it, began to recover after
years of famine and war. Lenin however died in 1924 after just 3 years in power as an assassins bullet lodged in his skull
years before led to a series of strokes which eventually killed him.
2. What action did Lenin take during the Russian Civil War?
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3. How might collective farms impact farm productivity? Would peasants tend to work more or less on a
communal farm? Why?
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4. What changes did Lenin make under his New Economic Policy (NEP)? What were the results?
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Political changes
Lenin established a one party communist dictatorship in the Soviet Union (USSR). Political dissidents were
imprisoned or killed. Free speech, fair trials, and worker unions were not allowed.
5. How would Marx feel about the political and economic changes brought about by Lenin?
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