Russian Revolution

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Russian Revolution

• 1917-1939

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Causes for March 1917 Revolution

• Czars had reformed too little
• Peasants extremely poor
• Revolutionaries hatched radical plans
• WWI Disaster
• Rasputins role in government weakened respect
  for it

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Czar Nicholas II
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Russian Peasants
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Rasputin
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Ingredients there for a November Revolution

• Lenin adapted Marxist Ideas for Russia
• Called for an elite group to rise up and create a
  dictatorship of the proletariat
• Conditions were at hand for Lenin and Bolsheviks
  to make their move
• Provisional Govt. still in war, Problems with
  land reform
• Summer 1917 launched a terrible offensive against
  Germany
• The army was in terrible shape and growing number
  of troops mutinied
• Peasants seized land and drove off landlords

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Karl Marx
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Vladimir Lenin (2004 photo)
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Bolsheviks?
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Russian Civil War

• How did Communists quickly defeat their enemies?
• Lenin quickly made peace with Germany
• Could focus all of energy on defeating enemies at
  home
• War Communism
• Policy in which the communists took control of
  the banks, mines, factories and railroads. Also
  took control of food made by peasants and either
  drafted them into the military or factory work.
• Trotsky turned the Red Army into a great fighting
  force
• When allies intervened to support Whites, the
  Communists used nationalism as a driving force to
  fight off the foreigners

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Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
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Wrong Red Army
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Trotsky
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Timeline of Revolution

• 1914
• WWI Begins
• 1917
• March- Revolution forces Czar to Abdicate,
  Provisional Govt. takes over
• April- Lenin returns to Russia
• July- Russia suffers more than 50,000 in
  casualties in one battle
• November- A second revolution takes place and
  results in the Bolsheviks taking power
• December- Bolsheviks seek peace with Germany

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Lenin 1917
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Bolshevik Revolution
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Timeline of Revolution

• 1918
• March- Russia signs the treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
  ending the war, but losing a lot of territory
• July- Civil war breaks out between the Reds and
  the Whites, The Czar and his family are executed
• August- American, British, Japanese among others
  intervene in Russia
• 1921
• March- Communist government is victorious and
  only sporadic fighting continues

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Brest-Litovsk
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Czar and his Family
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Communist State under Lenin

• New Communist Constitution
• Set up elected legislature called the Supreme
  Soviet
• Gave all citizens over 18 the right to vote
• Placed all political power, resources, and means
  of production in the hands of the peasants and
  workers
• The new government united much of the old Russian
  empire to form the Soviet Union or U.S.S.R. (The
  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
• Lenin set up the NEP or New Economic Policy
• Allowed some capitalist ventures (small business)
• State controlled everything else

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Soviet Union 1917-1938
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Stalins Five Year Plans

• Stalin took over after Lenins Death
• He put into place his Five year plans, aimed at
  making USSR into a industrial power
• Stalin brought all industry under govt. control
  developing a command economy
• Stalin also brought all agriculture under
  government control forcing all peasants to give
  their land into a state run farm or collectives
  (which were large farms run by peasants)
• Overall standard of living remained poor, wages
  were low and consumer goods were scarce.

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Propaganda Poster for Five Year Plans
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The Great Purge

• Stalin always had great fear that rival party
  leaders were plotting against him
• The Great Purge
• Launched in 1934
• At least 4 million people purged
• Increased Stalins power
• Most of military leadership purged
• Weakened military (WWII right around the corner)

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A prisoner about to be executed during the Great
Purge
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Soviet Foreign Policy

• 1917-1939 two very different goals pursued in
  foreign policy
• As communists Lenin and Stalin wanted to bring
  about the worldwide revolution that Marx had
  envisioned
• Lenin formed the Communist International of
  Comintern, which helped revolutionary groups
  around the world
• Their propaganda made other nations highly
  suspicious of the Soviet Union
• They wanted to win the support of other nations,
  so they tried to join the League of Nations

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World Wide Propaganda
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Comintern
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Life under Totalitarianism

• Stalin ran the Soviet Union like a Totalitarian
  state
• Single party dictatorship attempts to control
  every aspect of peoples lives
• Stalin used
• Secret Police, Censorship, Purges, Terror
• Replaced Religion with their own ideology
• Used relentless propaganda

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Novel about life in a Stalin prison camp
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Changes in Soviet Society

• Few elite groups emerged as the ruling class
• Granted free education, day care, health care,
  inexpensive housing and public recreation
• Women were granted equality under the law

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Equality in Soviet Union
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Arts

• Stalin forced artists to use Socialist Realism
• It focused on showing Socialism in a positive
  light
• The govt. controlled what books were published,
  works displayed and music listened to
• Writers, Musicians and Artists faced public
  persecution

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Censorship