RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

‘…from each according to his ability, to each according to his

need…”’’

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918

Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were given independence

Ukraine was retained

The USSR contained 15 republics

• At the end of WW1 and European countries were

fatigued with war

• Woodrow Wilson supported sovereignty of small nations in his 14 Point Peace Plan in 1919

• Russia was excluded from the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations

• There were nationalistic movements in Poland, Ukraine and Armenia

• They threatened to leave the Russian empire and take valuable land with them

Between 1918-1921 there was foreign

intervention and civil war in Russia

Western Allies entered Russia

Americans and Japanese also had a

presence

40,000 Czech and Slovak Russian POWs

were a force who opposed the Bolsheviks

Whites

The whites never really understood what the revolution was about

The whites also feared their soldiers might find Bolshevism attractive

This opposition gave Russia a wariness about Europe

The Bolsheviks won because of geography

Most of the population was concentrated in the west

Petrograd and Moscow were in the west

There was a lack of unity amongst the enemies of Lenin - they wanted to stay in WW1

7Lenin had always been prepared to be completely ruthless

The Red Terror targeted officers using the Cheka

By the end of 1920 the Red Army had 5m men

AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

War Communism was instituted

Lenin had promised the peasants land

Peasants wanted equal distribution of land

Lenin wanted land to be worked collectively

There was a shortage of raw materials because of the war

Labour force was reduced because men went into the army

People left the cities

1917-1920 Petrograd lost 60% of its population

• Labour armies were formed• Food was taken from the peasants• Kulaks were blamed for food shortages

through hoarding and waiting for prices to rise

• Lenin wanted to turn the richer peasants against the poorer ones.

• Poorer peasants were encouraged to take food from richer ones and hand it over

• Smaller holdings became the norm and food production fell

• There was no surplus – it was a myth• People in towns went hungry

• The peasants did not fight against the Whites• They would lose their land if the Whites had

won and return Russia to the old regime

NEP and the 1921 Kronstadt Mutiny

• Sailors also wanted the peasants to keep their land and produce

• Lenin now realised his vision of paradise would take longer to achieve than he thought. He had hoped everyone would share his vision and change to Utopia very quickly

• He was saddened that other countries had not followed his lead

• To succeed Lenin realised he needed more industrial workers. He had reached a compromise with the peasants by reinstating private enterprise for them. They could now sell their surpluses wherever they wanted.

• He was now criticised for encouraging the kulaks

• 1921 was a year of drought and famine• Lenin accepted American aid.

New Economic Policy

• Lenin encouraged small industry• The state employed 85% of industrial workers• A new state bank was set up to make loans to

upgrade factories

After 1922

• Lenin had a stroke in 1922• He died in 1924• He believed Stalin would succeed him• There was a power struggle• In 1928 Stalin exiled Trotsky to Siberia and in

1929 out of the country

• In order to industrialise Stalin needed funds

• He could only get it from the richer peasants

• But richer peasants were also needed to consume

the goods that the economy needed to produce

• The kulaks were still portrayed as greedy hoarders

• Stalin also realised that other countries were not interested in taking up communism and that they would need to have a peaceful existence with other countries.

• To build socialism the Communists instituted the 5 Year Plans

• Coal, steel, oil and electricity were to be developed and increased

• Large scale collective farms were to be organised (which meant the kulaks would suffer)

• But the grain harvest had still not returned to the levels of 1913

• Kulaks were blamed and systematically destroyed

• Collective farms were to have 75 families• This upheaval is often referred to as the Third

Revolution

• 2 million kulaks were sent to Siberia• Before they went many destroyed their crops

and slaughtered their animals and destroyed their implements

• At the end of the first 5 Year Plan Russia emerged with fewer horses, cows and other animals

• Stalin sent uneducated part members into rural areas to carry out their plans

• He soon realised this was a mistake and wrote an article to avert the looming disaster

• The peasants interpreted the article to mean they did not have to collectivise

• 9m peasants withdrew from the collectives

• But collectivisation did continue:-

• 1931 53% of peasants were collectivised

• 1936 90% of peasants were collectivised

• 1940 97% of peasants were collectivised

• In 1930-31 there was a famine and 10m people

died

• Large collectives needed such things as

tractors but there were none

• The same amount of grain was still required

INDUSTRIALISATION

• The first 5 Year Plan worked better with industry than agriculture

• People in the towns were more enthusiastic about the new way of life

• Stalin urged people to catch up with 100 years of being left behind – in 10 years

• A coal miner – Alexie Stakhanovite shifted 102 tons of coal

• He became the model of success and Stalin used his name for the year 1936 – ‘Stakhanov’

• People who achieved highly were given medals and awards

• Other role models were identified in other areas

• In 1941 Russia was attacked by Germany and caused total devastation for thousands of miles

• Russians did, however, managed to transport machinery to Siberia

• After the war Russia had to rebuild without US help but it did have reparations from defeated nations

• After the war Russia aimed to compete with the United States

• Coal and steel production increased• In the 1920s free schools had been

established to develop the whole child; divorce had been easier; abortion was legal

• Laws became stricter and artists and writers were to serve the state - but with nothing gloomy

• Stalin encouraged patiotism• Then in the 1930s it was all reversed; divorce

was harder to get; abortion was illegal and schooling was tailored to industrial progress

• Historians had to write about Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible – men who were despots and patriots

• After WW2 the population was encouraged to hate other countries

• People were told that the Russian language was superior; Russian scientists were credited with inventing almost everything eg flight and antibiotics

• By the end of 1930s Stalin was in total control

The Great Terror

• 20m Russians died in WW2• 20m Russians died in Stalin’s slave labour camps• Stalin also ran purges• Of the 1900 delegates who attended the Congress of

the Communist Party – 1100 were later liquidated.• 1936-7 hundreds of men were condemned at show

trials• 35,000 men in the Red Army were purged in 1937-8• Stalin had removed all the ‘old Bolsheviks’

The End

The Russian Revolution by P.S. O’Connor