• “The czar is a father, his subjects are his children, and children ought
never to question their parents….”
• Nicholas I
• What does this quote tell you about how Russian czars dealt with their subjects?
Pre-Revolutionary Russia
• Only true autocracy left in
Europe
• No type of representative
political institutions
• Nicholas II became Tsar in
1884
• Believed he was the absolute
ruler anointed by God
• Revolution broke out in 1905
--Russo-Japanese War (1904)
The Romanov Family
• Ruled Russia for 300
years
• Czar Nicholas II
• Wife of Nicholas II
(Alexandra) was German
born
“Bloody Sunday”
• January 22, 1905
• Large procession of workers, bearing a petition to the czar, were fired upon
by troops in St. Petersburg
• Several hundred unarmed workers were killed
• Spontaneous wave of strikes broke out
The Revolution of 1905
• The discontented working
class
• Vast majority of workers
concentrated in St.
Petersburg and Moscow
• Help from the countryside:
poor peasants
• No individual land ownership
Revolution of 1905 (cont)
• Russia industrialized on the
backs of the peasants
• Tremendous historic land
hunger among peasants
--Duma
• Soviets
Duma
• National Parliament
• Under constitution in Oct 1905
• October Manifesto
• Restricted in power
• Met briefly in 1906, dismissed because of aggressive demands for reform
• Similar fate to 1907 Duma, same in third and fourth Duma
Conservatism Continues:
1905-1917
• Tsar paid no attention to the
Duma
• Duma harassed and political
parties suppressed
• Nicholas was personally a
very weak man
• Tsar became increasingly
remote as a ruler
Alexandra: The Power Behind the Throne
• Even more blindly committed
to autocracy than her
husband
• The influence of Rasputin
over Alexandra
• Origins of Rasputin’s power
• Scandals surrounding
Rasputin served to discredit
the monarchy
Alexis: Alexandra’s Son with
Hemophilia
Leading to Revolution- Summary
• 1905 October General Strike sweeps Russia which
ends when the Tsar promises a constitution.
• 1905 December In response to the suppression of
the St Petersburg Soviet, the Moscow Soviet
organizes a disastrous insurrection that the
government suppresses after five days
• 1906 The promised parliament, the Duma, is
dissolved when it produces an anti government
majority even though elected on a narrow
franchise.
• 1911-1914 A new wave of workers unrest ends
with the outbreak of the First World War
World War I: “The Last Straw”
 War revealed the
ineptitude and arrogance
of the country’s aristocratic
elite
 The Russian “Steam Roller”
 Corrupt military leadership
and contempt for ordinary
Russian people
 Average peasant has very
little invested in the War
World War I (cont)
• Poorly supplied troops
• Result: Chaos and
Disintegration of the
Russian Army
--Battle of Tannenberg
(August, 1914)
• Spreading Discontent
The Collapse of the Imperial Government
• Nicholas leaves for the
Front—September, 1915
• Alexandra and Rasputin
throw the government
into chaos
• Alexandra and other high
government officials
accused of treason
The Collapse of the Imperial Government
(cont)
• Rasputin assassinated in
December of 1916
• Refusal to receive
assistance of the Russian
Middle Class
• Complete
mismanagement of the
wartime economy
The February Revolution
• The Women’s March
•
•
•
•
•
February 23
International Women’s Day
“bread and peace”
Soldiers and sailors joined factory workers and even some palace guards
Marched on the Duma
• “down with the monarchy”, “peace now”, and “bread for all”
The Two Revolutions of 1917
• The March Revolution
(March 12)
• The November
Revolution (November 6)
The March Revolution
• Origins: Food riots and strikes
• Duma declared itself a
Provisional Government on
March12th
• Tsar abdicated on March 17th
• Composition of the
Provisional Government
--Alexander Kerensky
• Very Popular Revolution
• The Petrograd Soviet
Alexander Kerensky
• Dominated the Provisional Government
• Decided to keep Russia in the war
• Hope to gain land from the allies
• Alienated him
• Lost popularity with the Petrograd Soviet
Soviet Political Ideology
• More radical and
revolutionary than the
Provisional Government
• Most influenced by Marxist
socialism
• Emulated western socialism
• Two Factions
-- “Mensheviks”
-- “Bolsheviks”
Founder of Bolshevism:
Vladimir Lenin
• His Early Years
--Exiled to Siberia in 1898
• Committed to Class Struggle
and Revolution
• Moved to London in 1902
and befriended Leon Trotsky
• What is to be Done? Tract
Lenin (cont)
• Key role of the Party in the
revolution
-- “Dictatorship of the
Proletariat”
• Bolsheviks split from the
Russian Socialist Party in
1912
• Character of the Bolshevik
Party
--Joseph Stalin
--Pravda
Vacuum of Leadership in Russia
• Petrograd Soviet dominated
by Mensheviks
• Failure of the Provisional
Government
• Workers refusing to work and
soldiers refusing to fight
• Peasants were expropriating
the land outright
• Power was literally lying in
the streets of Petrograd
Lenin Steps into This Vacuum
• Amnesty granted to all
political prisoners in March of
1917
• Lenin’s arrival in Petrograd
• A tremendously charismatic
personality
• “Peace, Land, Bread”
• “All Power to the Soviets”
• Bolshevik party membership
exploded
• Consolidation of Bolshevik
power
The November Revolution
• The events of November 6
• Council of People’s
Commissars
• All private property of
wealthy was abolished and
divided among the peasantry
• Largest industrial enterprises
nationalized
November Revolution (cont)
• Political Police organized:
CHEKA
• Revolutionary army
created with Trotsky in
charge
-- “Red Army” or “Red
Guard”
• Civil War fought between
1917-1920
-- “Reds” versus “Whites”
• Complete breakdown of
Russian economy and society
The Russian Revolution
• Began October 25, 1917
• Kerensky and the Provisional Government thought they could
easily put down the Bolshevik uprising
• Civilians were tired of the political confusion, the war, and the sense that
nothing was happening
• Most people were relieved when the Bolsheviks stages their takeover
• By nightfall Lenin proclaimed a Bolshevik state
The Civil War
• Lenin:
• Nationalized all land, making private
ownership of property an obsolete
concept
• Soviet of People’s Commissars –
named to run the country
• Anti-Bolshevik forces were forming
(Whites)
• Fighting between the Reds and
Whites lasted until 1921
Winning the war
• War Communism
• Seizing grain from the countryside to feed workers and troops in the cities
• State had the right to take anything to help the war effort
• Secret police
• Arrested and killed
all enemies of the
revolution
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Cease-fire
• March 3, 1918
• Lost 1/3 of population, ¼ of its territory, 1/3 of its crop, ¼ of income,
and ½ of its industry
• Brought peace
• By 1922 – the Bolsheviks won the war
Chaos in Russia by 1922
• Wanted to transform Russia into a modern industrialized nation
• Model of Marxist society, free of poverty, unemployment and
homelessness
• By 1921 – wages dropped and suffered huge losses due to war
• Western nations opposed communist rule – blockade
• Factories stood silent – ghost towns
The New Economic Policy
• Peasants had the right to sell food in open markets
• Private retail shops were reopened
• Entrepreneurs were encouraged to produce consumer goods
• Foreign investors were enticed to invest
• Private theater and publishing were allowed
• Central government retained major industries like mining, steel
production, and transportation
The Communist Party
• Passed laws to insure the equality of men and women, gave the right to
vote to all citizens, and disallowed noble titles and ranks
• Church was stripped of its land, money, and influence in education and
government
• Communist party undertook a broad school-building campaign to
educate the peasants
• Built hospitals and clinics across the country
Stalin Comes to Power
Russian Revolution
Lenin’s Death
• Lenin suffers stroke in 1922
• Dies in 1924
• Competition for new leader of the Communist Party
• Joseph Stalin
• Leon Trotsky
Stalin Climbs to Power
• 1922-27 Stalin was general secretary of the Communist Party.
• Worked to move supporters into positions of power
• Lenin believed Stalin to be dangerous
• By 1928 gained total command of Communist Party
• Trotsky forced into exile in 1929
Government of Total Control
• Stalin determined to make Soviet Union become political and
economic power in world
• Tactics designed to rid opposition to himself
• Police Terror
• Indoctrination
• Worked to gain control of all aspects of life (Totalitarianism)
• Government
• Economy
• Citizen’s private lives
Control of the Economy
• Command economy
• Government makes all economic decisions
• Five-Year Plans
• Collective farms
• Large government run farms
Centralized Economy
• Stalin decide the state would control economy
• Gov’t decided what would be produced and by whom in 5 year plans
• Plan called for massive industrial centers to produce materials for
tractors, tanks, and ships
The Socialist ideal
• All Soviet Citizens worked not for individual gain but for the overall
good of the working class
Stalin’s plan to industrialize
• Wanted to catch up to West
• Wanted to transform USSR from agricultural to industrial power
• Wanted it done QUICKLY!
• Supported military buildup
Agricultural production
• Needed to increase food production to support workers in growing
cities and industrial centers
• Grain was needed to trade abroad for tools and money
• Peasants were forced to give up small plots and were collectivized
onto state-owned farms
• Farms were subject to quota in five-year plans
Revolution in China
Fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty
• Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908)
De facto Chinese monarch (1861-1908)
“Make me unhappy for a day and I will make you unhappy for a
lifetime.”
Conservative and anti-foreign
Blamed by many Chinese for foreign imperialist power in China
Fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty
• Emperor Puyi – the “Last Emperor”
Lived 1906-1967
Ruled China 1908-1912, and as a puppet for 12 days in
1917
Puppet emperor of Manchukuo (Japanese-ruled
Manchuria), 1932-1945
Spent ten years in a Soviet prison after WWII
Lived a quiet life as a regular citizen in communist
China
Died of disease during the Cultural Revolution (1967)
Republican Revolution (1912)
• Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian)
Founded Kuomintang (KMT) – Nationalist party
○ Overthrew Manchu (Qing) dynasty
○ Established a republic
○ President of Chinese Republic who succeeded him –
Yuan Shih-k’ai
Kuomintang symbol
Republic of China: Weaknesses
• Disunity
Local warlords fought Kuomintang for control
Wars raged between 1912 and 1928
• Foreign imperialists
Americans, Europeans, and Japanese
• Poor transportation
1914 – only 6,000 miles of railroad track
○ 225,000 miles in the smaller United States
Few decent roads
Foreign Imperialists
• Twenty-One Demands (1915)
Japan attempted to make China a Japanese protectorate
Action condemned and stopped by other leading world powers
• World War I and the Treaty of Versailles
China attempted to abolish concessions and extraterritoriality
○ Attempt failed
China did not sign the Treaty of Versailles
Japan gained mandate over most of Germany’s Asian possessions and rights
Three Principles of the People
• Book published by Sun Yat-sen before his death in 1925
1.
Principle of Mínquán
○
2.
Democracy – the people are sovereign
Principle of Mínzú
○
3.
Nationalism – an end to foreign imperialism
Principle of Mínshēng
○
Livelihood – economic development, industrialization, land reform, and social welfare –
elements of progressivism and socialism
Growth of Communism
• Sun Yat-sen appealed for Russian (Soviet) aid following the Versailles
Conference
1921-1925 – China received advisors, arms, communist propaganda, and
loans
Russia revoked its imperialist rights in China
Chinese flag, 1912-1928
The Kuomintang (KMT) is Split
• Right wing
Business people
Politicians
• Left wing
Communists
Intellectuals
Radicals
Students
Nationalist Revolution
• Sun Yat-sen succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek
• Communists expelled by Kuomintang
• 1926-1928 – war to control the warlords
• Capital moved from Peiping (a.k.a. Peking, today’s Beijing) to Nanking
(Nanjing)
Presidential Palace under Kuomintang Government in Nanjing
Civil War in China
• 1927-1932 and 1933-1937 – war between Communists and
Nationalists
• Communists – Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong)
• Nationalists – Chiang Kai-shek
• War halted 1932-1933 and 1937-1945 to fight Japanese aggression
• Communists were victorious in 1949
• Nationalists retreated to Formosa (Taiwan)
• End of imperialism in China
Hong Kong returned to China in 1997
Japanese Aggression
• Japan was a threat to China – 1894-1941
• 1937 – Japanese invasion
Japanese took control of north and areas along the coast
Rape of Nanking
Chinese Communists and Nationalists
○ Intermittently were at peace as they united to fight against the Japanese
○ Guerrilla and scorched earth tactics
○ Received American aid against the Japanese
World War II
• U.S. interest in China increased after Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in
1941
• Cairo Conference (1943)
Chiang Kai-shek met with Allied
leaders
Discussed war in eastern Asia
• Westerners gave up imperialist rights in China
• U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 repealed in 1943
Communists in Control – 1949
• Communists and Nationalists resumed civil war following World War II
• Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government wasted foreign economic aid
• Many Kuomintang deserted to Communists
• Manchuria – taken over by Communists in 1948
• December, 1949 -- Communists in control
• Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalists retreated to Formosa (Taiwan)
Geographical Changes
• Communist China gained
control over:
Chinese
Turkestan (Xinjiang)
Inner Mongolia
Manchuria
Tibet
PRC = People’s Republic of China (Communists) / ROC = Republic of China (Nationalists)
Political Changes under Mao
• Communist government on mainland
China
• Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong)
• Chairman Mao – chairman of the Communist
party and leader of China – 1943-1976
Mao Zedong
毛泽东
Economic Changes under Mao
• First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957)
Advances in agriculture and coal,
electricity, iron, and steel production
• Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962)
“Great Leap Forward”
China became a leading industrial
country
Peasants organized into communes
Widespread catastrophe – famine – at
least 14,000,000 deaths
Propaganda Poster for the Great Leap Forward
Foreign Relations
• Russia (Soviet Union)
Growing split between USSR and China
○ “Peaceful coexistence” policy of USSR viewed as surrender
1960 – end of Soviet economic aid
• Tibet
Seized in 1962
• Korea
Aided North Korea in the Korean War (1950-1953)
• Vietnam
Supported North Vietnam and aided Viet Cong during Vietnam War (19591975)
Foreign Relations
• Cold War
Economic aid to Africa, Asia, and Latin America
• “Atomic Club” (1964)
Fifth overall, and first non-white, country to develop nuclear weapons
• United Nations
One of five permanent members of U.N. Security Council (1971, replacing
Taiwan)
• Relations with United States
1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon opened diplomatic relations with China
Mao’s Little Red Book
• The Chinese Communist Party is the core of the
Chinese revolution, and its principles are based on
Marxism-Leninism. Party criticism should be carried
out within the Party.
• The revolution, and the recognition of class and class
struggle, are necessary for peasants and the Chinese
people to overcome both domestic and foreign
enemy elements. This is not a simple, clean, or quick
struggle.
• War is a continuation of politics, and there are at
least two types: just (progressive) and unjust wars,
which only serve bourgeois interests. While no one
likes war, we must remain ready to wage just wars
against imperialist agitations.
Mao’s Little Red Book
• Fighting is unpleasant, and the people of China would prefer not
to do it at all. At the same time, they stand ready to wage a just
struggle of self-preservation against reactionary elements, both
foreign and domestic.
• China's road to modernization will be built on the principles of
diligence and frugality. Nor will it be legitimate to relax if, 50
years later, modernization is realized on a mass scale.
• A communist must be selfless, with the interests of the masses
at heart. He must also possess a largeness of mind, as well as a
practical, far-sighted mindset.
• Women represent a great productive force in China, and equality
among the sexes is one of the goals of communism. The multiple
burdens which women must shoulder are to be eased.
Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)
• “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”
Effort to revive interest in Mao’s ideas (and for Mao
to regain power) after the failed Great Leap Forward
Mao claimed that reactionary bourgeoisie elements
were taking over the party
Call for youths to engage in post-revolutionary class
warfare
Red Guards (consisting of young people) marched
throughout China
Older alleged reactionaries removed from positions
of power
China after Chairman Mao
• Mao died in September, 1976
• “Gang of Four”
Failed at a coup d’état in October, 1976
• China continued to industrialize
• One-Child Policy adopted – 1979
• Tiananmen Square Massacre – 1989
• Today – issues include:
Balancing limited capitalism with communist
ideals
Environmental pollution
Unequal male-to-female ratios resulting from
One-Child Policy
Control of Tibet