The Russian Revolution
http://hisvorpal.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/lenin.jpg
Lenin
• First modern dictator of the 20th century
• Had a lifelong hatred for the Czarist
regime
• Formed a revolutionary group based on
the writings of Karl Marx
• Leader of the Bolsheviks (All-Russian
Communist Party)
• Anti-terrorism
The Romanovs
The War & the Tsar
• over ½ all arable land owned by the
aristocrats
• long standing food shortages
• inefficient war effort (politically,
militarily & economically)
• of 15.5 million soldiers, 1.7 mill
dead, 4-5 mill wounded, 2.4 mill
POWs & 1.5 mill deserters
Nicholas II went to the front and left
his wife, the Tsarina, in charge; she
was influenced by Rasputin, a semimad monk; people blamed them for
the deaths and the other problems
March Revolution (Coup d’Etat)
- 200,000
strikers were joined by
women waiting in bread lines
-called for the overthrow of the
Tsar
- The Cossacks (troops of the Tsar)
refused to attack them
- Troops who were sent out to stop
the protestors shot their own
commander and joined the
protestors
-The Tsar abdicated
- The Soviet (council of radical
workers) and the Duma
(parliament) declared a Provisional
Government – temporary
Provisional Government
• Kerensky (socialist revolutionary, rival of Lenin)
was the leader of this provisional government
• Real power was in the hands of the elected
leaders of the Soviet workers & soldiers
• Their goal was to pursue war more effectively,
but the people wanted peace & this gave Lenin
his chance
Provisional Government cont’d
• Peasants were growing tired of waiting
for land reform
• Kerensky mistakenly thought Russians
wanted to be democratic
• Challenged by the army’s commander
General Kornilov; with help of Bolsheviks,
the coup failed
• Kerensky lost even more support
Lenin
• Bolshevik leader comes home from
Switzerland where he was in exile
• Germans smuggled him back to Russia
because they thought he would cause
trouble for Russia; knew he’d pull Russia
out of the war
• His slogan was “Peace, Land, and Bread”
Lenin’s April Thesis
• Communist Revolution
• Immediate peace
• Seizure of land from
aristocrats
• Soviets (councils of workers
a& soldiers) to have all power
• Seizure of factories
October Revolution
“Peace, Bread, Land”
Bolsheviks with Lenin in control take power
without significant government or army
resistance
•
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Kustodiyev_bolshevik.JPG
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Signed
on March 3, 1918; negotiated by Trotsky
(Lenin’s army Lieutenant)
•armistice on the Eastern Front of the First World War - was very humiliating for Russia
•Russia loses 1/3 population, 1/3 agricultural lands &
¾ of its industries (coal & iron ore)
•Germany takes control of Finland, Poland, Baltic &
Ukraine & demands reparations from Russia
http://au.encarta.msn.com/media_1461500646/treaty_of_brest-litovsk.html
The Civil War
Whites vs Reds
• War was unleashed by Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Bolsheviks (Reds) controlled Petrograd,
Moscow and the central Russian Heartland
• Whites (& Cossacks) were hostile forces who
surrounded the Bolsheviks
• Allies supported the Whites with equipment
and some troops. Reds were internationally
isolated.
Civil War
1917-1921
• Reds (Communists) were outnumbered but they
did control transportation lines
• Reds troops had superior morale &
determination
• Trotsky was a good organizer & motivator
• White army suffered lack of unity (generals were
jealous of one another)
• Western support of the Whites made them
appear to be tools of foreign governments while
the Red army was clearly fighting for an
independent Russia
Reds-Victorious in 1922
Russia became the USSR around 1923
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
Bolsheviks became known as the
Communists
Lenin’s Economic Policies
War Communism 1917-1920
• Lenin’s plan to stabilize the economy
• Peasants were forced to give up all surplus crops
to feed the Red Army
• Workers were told where to work & often forcibly
moved hundreds of kilometers to a new factory
• By 1920, 37,000 factories were overtaken by the
state
• There were food shortages & strikes & riots; very
serious dissatisfaction
NEP – New Economic Policy
• Plan to rejuvenate the economy; intended as a
temporary measure
• Return to individual economic initiative &
profit; Peasants were to hand over a fixed
proportion of their crops as tax to the state, but
allowed to keep leftovers for self or sale
• Firms returned to former owners & incentive
schemes were set up to encourage more
production
• Agricultural output increased rapidly
• This threatened communism (ironically)
Lenin’s death & Emergence
of Stalin
• 1924 Lenin died; result of 3 strokes
• power struggle ensued
• Left wing – Trotsky. Opposed to the NEP,
wanted a militant & socialist policy at home to
promote revolution abroad – worldwide
Communism
• Right wing – believed that world revolution did
not have to happen right away. They approved
of the NEP
• Center – believed socialism could be built in
one country. Stalin was the leader. This idea
(communism in one country) appealed to most
Russians
Task – Global Forces p.72-75
in paragraph form, answer these two questions
1. In the five years between March 1917 and the
end of 1921, the Bolsheviks emerged as the
absolute rulers of Russia. Explain the success of
the Bolsheviks during this period.
2. “The Provisional Government’s records combined
remarkable liberalism with an inability to solve
pressing, crucial problems”.
What were the “pressing, crucial problems” which led to
the downfall of the Provisional Government and the
seizing of power by the Bolsheviks?