The Russian Revolution

Pre-Revolutionary Russia

• Nicholas II became tsar in 1884. Absolute ruler - only true autocrat left in Europe

• No type of representative political institutions

• Defeat in Russo-Japanese War (1904) led to political instability

Earlier Revolution of 1905

• Discontented population• Rapid growth of working class• Workers concentrated in St.

Petersburg and Moscow• Impoverished peasants in

rural areas, hardship and famine

• Strikes, riots and Bloody Sunday led to reform (Duma)

Conservatism Continues

• Tsar paid no attention to recently established Duma

• Members were harassed and political parties repressed – only token land reform was passed

• Nicholas became increasingly remote as a ruler

• Numerous soviets (workers’ councils) began to appear

AlexandraThe Power Behind the Throne

• Even more committed to autocracy than her husband

• She came under the influence of adviser Rasputin

• Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to further discredit the monarchy

Alexis

World War I “The Last Straw”

• The War revealed the ineptitude and arrogance of the aristocratic elite

• Corrupt military leadership had contempt for ordinary Russian people

• Tremendous suffering and deprivation

World War I

• Ill-trained, ineffective officers, soldiers poorly equipped (Russia not ready for an industrial war)

• Mass desertions and over 2 million casualties by 1915

• Chaos and disintegration of the Russian Army

• Battle of Tannenberg (August, 1914) – massive defeat

The Collapse of the Imperial Government

• Nicholas left for the Front September, 1915

• Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos

• Alexandra and other high government officials accused of treason

Collapse of the Imperial Government

• Rasputin assassinated in December of 1916

• Complete mismanagement of the wartime economy

• Industrial production plummeted, inflation and starvation were rampant, and the cities were overflowing with refugees

• Cities became a hotbed for political activism, further ignited by serious food shortages in March 1917

The Two Revolutions of 1917

• The March Revolution (March 12)

• The November Revolution (November 6)

• Russian Revolution

• Russian Revolution Old

The March Revolution

• Strikes and riots led the Duma to declare itself a Provisional Government on March 12

• The Tsar ordered soldiers to intervene; instead they joined the rebellion…the Tsar abdicated on March 17

• The Alexander Kerensky, a Menshevik headed the Provisional Government, along with Prince Lvov– Very popular revolution– Kerensky favored gradual

socialist reform and saw the war effort as #1 priority

Kornilov Affair

• General Kornilov attempted to overthrow the Provisional Government with a military takeover

• To prevent this takeover, Kerensky freed many Bolshevik leaders from prison and supplied arms to many revolutionaries

The Petrograd Soviet

• Leftists in St. Petersburg formed the Petrograd Soviet, which they claimed to be the legitimate government

• Lenin returned in April 1917 (German role)

Soviet Political Ideology

• More radical and revolutionary than the Provisional Government

• Most influenced by Marxist socialism

• Two Factions– Mensheviks– Bolsheviks

Founder of Bolshevism Vladimir Lenin

• Early Years– Committed to class struggle

and revolution– A tremendously charismatic

personality– Exiled to Siberia in 1897

• Moved to London in 1902 and befriended Leon Trotsky

Lenin Arrives

• Amnesty granted to all political prisoners in March of 1917

• Lenin arrives in Petrograd– “Peace, Land, Bread”– “All Power to the Soviets”

• Argued the war was a capitalist/imperialist war that had no rewards for the peasants/workers. War over with the czar’s abdication

• Bolshevik party membership exploded

Ideology

• The Marxian concept of dialectical materialism

• Supports notion of Vanguard of the proletariat necessary to lead the revolution (revolution from above)

• Views split the Socialist Democratic Workers Party in two

The November Revolution • Planned by Leon Trotsky

who had gained the confidence of the army

• Lenin disbanded the Constituent Assembly (had replaced the Duma) in January 1918

• The Bolsheviks had not gained a majority in November elections - end of democracy

November Revolution

• Political Police organized CHEKA

• Revolutionary army created with Trotsky in charge. The “Red Army”

• Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party in March of 1918

November Revolution

• Lenin’s first task was to get Russia out of the war

• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave Germans them much Russian territory, population, and resources

• Civil War followed, 1917-1920 “Reds” versus “Whites”

• Complete breakdown of Russian economy and society

The Russian Revolution

• Official Marxist interpretation– Emphasis on the

importance of a permanent international revolution

– Role of Russian History and Culture

– A complete revolution - social, political and economic

– All private property was seized and divided among the peasantry

– Largest industrial enterprises nationalized

The Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

• Following the Revolution Lenin faced a full-scale civil war

• These opponents were loosely called the Whites, while Lenin’s forces were known as the Reds

• Lenin’s army was able to win this war by 1920-21

Reasons for the Bolshevik/Red victory

• The Reds held the strategic center of the nation; the Whites were on the fringes

• The Whites were ideologically fragmented, including reformists, Mensheviks, Czarists and thus divided

• Trotsky had increased the efficiency of the Red Army, introducing strict military discipline (deserters were shot, e.g.)

Russian Civil War

• Foreign intervention (8, notably France) aided the Whites

• Based mostly on ideological grounds (fear of communism)

• This promoted a sense of nationalism that aided the Reds

• By 1921, the Civil War was over. The Soviet land and economy were devastated, leading Lenin into a program of economic reform known as the NEP. He also re-named the nation the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR)

The New Economic Policy • Serious economic issues at the

conclusion of the war

• In March 1921 Lenin introduced NEP• An attempt to rebuild the economy

through a free market system (a pragmatic measure that caused rifts within the Party)

• Many dissidents were shipped off to the gulags

• The NEP worked; Lenin was ready to return to Marxist principles

• Lenin had a stroke in 1922 and died in 1924: this created a power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin

Leon Trotsky

• Intellectual, head of the Red Army• Favored World Revolution

– USSR could not survive as the sole communist state. Must therefore seek to export revolution

– A doctrinaire communist, he opposed the NEP

Josef Stalin

• A bureaucrat, he became the Party’s General Secretary in 1922: here he appointed many apparatchiks (crucial to Stalin’s rise)

• Power struggle lasted until 1928, when Stalin’s complex system of alliances and realpolitik allowed him to succeed

• Favored “Socialism in One Country”• USSR should strengthen itself and

lead the communist world by example• A pragmatist, he supported the NEP

Trotsky was forced into exile and eventually murdered in Mexico City in 1940

Stalin condemned all deviation from the party line, proclaimed self Vozhd Emergence of

totalitarianism Stalin relied on his

apparatchiks Created a Cult of Lenin

and worked to connect himself to the fallen leader

Josef Stalin

Stalin and the Five Year Plans

• Series of 5 Year Plans intended to reorganize Soviet industry and agriculture and catch up to the West

• Unrealistic production quotas set. Tremendous sacrifices and ruthless methods were used to reach them– Collectivization was

implemented – Peasant opposition was

crushed/starved and kulaks were liquidated

• Industrial and urban growth was stunning

• Huge sacrifices and suffering• Preference was given to

megaprojects• Workers were praised as

“heroes” Conditions horrible• Living conditions declined

overcrowding, food and housing shortages

Stalin and the Five Year Plans

• The Great Purges began in 1934

• Stalin ordered the NKVD to crack down on potential opposition

• Anyone perceived as a threat was forced to confess and then executed or shipped to a gulag

• Millions disappeared. Party leadership and army officer corps was especially affected

Stalinist Russia

• Government was firmly in place and all threats had been eliminated through state terror/ propaganda

– Stalin combined communism and dictatorship. Set standard for future communist leaders

– By 1941, the USSR was among the top 3 economic powers

Stalinist Russia