Russia 1894-1941

Witte becomes minister of finance

• 1892 (-1903)

  • aimed to significantly develop Russias economy - ‘Great Spurt’

  • Industry growth 96.8%

  • Invested in transport revolution - Trans Siberian Railway (but sections still incomplete)

  • Gold Standard - created financial stability + attracted investment

Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia

• 1894

  • ‘Bloody Nicholas’

  • Took autocracy very seriously - Dogma - divine right of kings

  • Lacked imagination that underdeveloped Russia needed

  • Romanov dynasty

  • Abdicated 1917 - Feb Revolution

Social Democrats form

• 1898

  • aimed to achieve revolution, overthrowing tsarist autocracy

• 1903 SPLIT

  • Bolsheviks - Lenin, no cooperation with other parties, revolution needed, violent, ‘democratic centralism’

  • Mensheviks - Plekhanov, alliance w others, needed bourgeois stage before proletarian revolution, legal methods, open democratic votes

Social Revolutionaries form

• 1901

  • intended to widen concept of the ‘people’ - all those wanted to end tssardom

  • Power with the peasants

  • Weakened by internal divisions - Left SRs (violent), Right SRs (moderate, cooperation)

  • 200 political assassinations in first 4 years

  • Outlawed by Bol 1917 revolution

Russo- Japanese War

• 1904 - major cause of 1905 revolution

  • WHY - expand empire (resources), unite Russians + raise morale

  • WHAT - underestimated ‘inferior’ Japanese ; better equipped + trained, lack of transport, military commanders w/o experience

  • CONSEQUENCES - National humiliation, 120,000 Russian soldiers dead, loss of Port Arthur, ^ opposition

Bloody Sunday

• 1905 - cause of 1905 revolution

  • peaceful March led by Priest Gapon to Winter Palace - aimed to present petition on plight of workers

  • Police force panicked → 200 unarmed petitioners massacred

  • Tsar no longer seen as ‘Little Father’ → traditional image damaged

1st Revolution

• 1905

  • Long term causes (poverty 80% - industrial + agriculture) short term causes (RJ war + Bloody S)

  • General strike - 2.7 mil industrial workers striking

  • Potemkin mutiny - sailors revolt after killing after food complaint - authorities vulnerable as can’t rely on armed forces

  • St Petersburg Soviet - workers elected representatives

October Manifesto

• 1905 - consequence of revolution, from Tsar of Witte advice

  • Creation of legislative Duma

  • Legalising of trade unions

  • Right of political parties to exist, freedom of speech

  - SRs, Bol, Men critical - no power given to peasants + workers

  - Kadets wanted reform to go further

  - Divided opposition ^ Tsar security

Fundamental Laws

• 1906 April

  • Tsar regained position as supreme leader

  • Right to dissolve Duma at any point

  • Power to appoint ministers he wanted in council

Creation of the Dumas

• 1906 (-1914) - 4 Dumas

  • all members elected + couldn’t issue laws unless support of upper house and tsar - ‘bicameral’

  • After 1st Duma - Vyborg Appeal - Kadets urged people to disobey passively (eg refuse tax) → but lead to scattered violence crushed by Stolypin (martial law) → kadets lost ½ seats in 2nd Duma

  • Progressive work in state welfare

  • Tsar kept them as image of democratic nation

  • ‘Curse the Duma’ Tsar

Stolypin becomes Prime Minister

• 1906 (-1911)

  • Agrarian reforms - ‘wager on the strong’ - abandon strip system + use efficient fenced fields

  • Land bank - funds for peasants to buy land

  • Grain production ^ 34mil tonnes

  • Stolypins ‘neckties’ - 2500 executions (opposition)

Lena Goldfields strikes + killings

• 1912

  • minors demanded better pay + conditions - employers appealed police to arrest strikers

  • 500 unarmed strikers killed

  • Led to more strikes and disorder throughout country

Tercentenary celebration of Romanov dynasty

• 1913

  • Great celebration - popularity of royal family

  • BUT also how long they’d been in power - ^ frustration w monarchy system

Russia enters WW1

• 1914 - collapse of stardom

  • Govt spending ^ 26 mil roubles

  • Russia still behind economically - industry + agri

  • Series of defeats - poorly equipped, generals appointed by status, low morale - desertions

  • IMPACTS

    • inflation

    • Worsened living conditions

    • Shortages - transport disruption - Petrograd receiving ¼ than usual

Nicholas takes charge of armed forces

• 1915

  • lack of realism - after series of defeats hoped to secure victory - but little military training → blamed for military failure

  • Treated military headquarters as retreat from politics

  • Created power vacuum - left wife Alexandra in charge + Rasputin seemed to gain influence (v unpopular)

  • Duma set up Progressive Bloc to support government - Tsar rejected

Rasputin murdered

• 1916

  • by aristocratic conspirators (Prince Yuspor) → royal family corruption

  • When alive encouraged tsarist opposition

Strike breaks out in Petrograd

• Feb 1917

  • range of opposition + speed turned from protest → revolution

  • Strike at Putilov factory → international women’s day → general strike → desertion of Petrograd Garrison (control lost w/o army)

  • During striking event Tsars at military headquarters Mogliev

Petrograd Soviet + Provisional Duma Committee established

• Feb 1917 - Beginning of dual authority

  • close cooperation initially following overthrow of tsar

  • Petrograd Soviet

    • distrustful of PG, elected members, Soviet Order No1, working men/soldiers

  • Prov Duma Committee ( later Prov Govt)

    • temporary, breakaway members of Duma, moderate, legal but weak

Soviet Order No.1

• March 1st 1917

  • by Petrograd Soviet - took control over military

  • Each army unit to elect committee + send representatives to Soviet

  • Showed PG sis t have all the power

Tsar abdicates, PG officially forms

• March 2nd 1917

  • Prov Committee → Provisional govt, now responsible for governing Russia (led by Prince Lvov)

    • allowed return of political exiles

    • Carried on war (unpopular)

  • Prevented from entering Petrograd, revolution proclaimed

Lenin returns to Petrograd (1st time)

• Apr 1917

  • Bol absent since 1905 revolution

  • Issued April Thesis

    • abandon cooperation w other parties

    • Overthrow PG

    • Support peasantry + oppose war

    • Work for true revolution

  • ‘Peace, Land and Bread’ + ‘All power to the Soviets’

July Days

• July 1917

  • Demonstrations against govt

  • Failure → disorderly + divisions - easy for PG to crush

    • CONSEQUENCES - realised Bol long ways from being dominant + PG had sufficient strength → Bol leaders Trotsky + Kamenev arrested - Lenin fled

  • PG facing problems prior

    • had to carry in war - supply reliance, unpopular

    • Ministerial crisis - rift between PG + P Soviet

    • Emergence of Kerensky - war minister, encouraged war, major influence

Kornilov Affair

• Aug 1917

  • General Kornilov attempted military coup - wanted top impose militant rule, believing socialist enemies must be destroyed before defeating Germany

  • Kerensky called for citizen help + armed release of Bolshevik prisoners → coup failed - didn’t need support

  • MASSIVE BOLSHEVIK BENEFIT → image of defenders of Petrograd (divert attention from failed July Days) , PG seen with political weakness

Lenin returns to Petrograd (2nd time)

• October 1917

  • believed it was the right time for revolution

    • growth in support from Kornilov affair, political shift in Petrograd- had majority

  • But before

    • All Russian Congress of Soviets → if under ‘All Power to Soviets’ Bol could present their new authority as a situation that couldn’t be changed

    • Election for constituent assembly → Lenin unsure how Bol would do, Bol would have to be in power before they could undermine votes

October Revolution

• 26/27th October 1917 - failure of provisional government

• STEPS

  • ‘pre parliament’ - authority body to advise govt as Kerensky tries to prevent Bol takeover → Lenin condemned it + Bol walked out of it

  • Lenin convinced central committee of Bol to plan insurrection

  • Trotsky organised revolution

    • Military Revolutionary Committee - made himself 1/3 on team

    • Directed redguards - seized vantage points

  • Lenin gave orders → red guards seized key points, Kerensky appealed for army (little support), PG drove out of winter palace

  • Bol in power of Petrograd

Cheka established

• 1917

• Security force to suppress Bol opposition - still fragile - became key tool in red terror

• Also suppressed class enemies - Kulaks

• Reflected Lenin’s belief in violence

Closure of the Constituent Assembly

• 1918

  • Bol not happy with results at the end of year - only won 24% vote → asserted election was rigged + didn’t reflect peoples votes

  • Wanted to crush opposition

  • Dissolved at gunpoint by Red Guards

  • Ruthlessness caused unease among own supporters - Gorky compared it to Bloody Sunday

    • criticisms didn’t move Lenin who felt the need for them sternest measures to consolidate Bol power

  • Sovnarkom set up to control country, controlled by Politburo → Lenin chaired both

Treaty of Brest-Litvosk

• 1918

  • peace treaty Bol + Germany which ended Russias involvement in war → so he could focus on consolidating power

  • Huge territorial losses - eg Ukraine - 25% pop

  • Key trigger for civil war

  • Lenin’s brutal decisions to ensure Bol survival

  • Extremely unpopular

Murder of the Romanovs

• 1918

  • Tsar, wife + children

  • At hands of Bolsheviks → fear whites would use them to gain support + justify cause

  • No chance of monarchy restoration

  • Ruthlessness of Bol

  • Shocked outrage abroad

Outbreak of civil war

• 1918

  • CAUSES

    • opposition to Bret Litvosk

    • Opposition to the Bol

    • Economic collapse

    • Foreign intervention - Britain ,US sent troops to support whites

  • REDS - Bol - Lenin + Trotsky, controlled central Russia

  • WHITES - anti-Bol powers, foreign support, disunited

  • GREENS - peasantry armies fought red + whites

Russo-Polish war

• 1920

  • newly independent Poland invades Ukraine → resulted in territory gain Ukraine + Belarus

  • Propaganda blow for Bol who faced military defeat

  • Stopped Lenin’s revolutionary ambitions

Kronstadt rising

• 1921

  • sailors at Kronstadt naval base protested - who had been key supporters of Bol → Trotsky ordered Red Army, brutally crushed

  • WHY

    • war communism - food shortages, grain requisitioning, workers + peasants starving

    • Bol dictatorship - no more democracy

    • Broken revolutionary promises

  • Trigger for NEP, showed even loyal revolutionaries disillusioned, Bol had lost working class support

Introduction of NEP

• 1921

• Aimed to revive economy + reduce opposition after war communism

• FEATURES

  • grain tax instead of requisitioning - peasantry could keep grain surplus

  • Smaller business allowed (development of NEP men - business men who took advantage + made profits ) - state kept control at commanding heights - banks, transport

  • End to rationing + forced labour

  • ECONOMY BEGAN to recover quickly - but caused tensions within party, Trotsky wanted more control

Creation of the USSR

• 1924

  • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - united several republics - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus

  • Centralised control - Bol needed tighter control over outline territory

  • Real power lay in Politburo - dominated by Bol

  • By mid 1920s became dictatorship under Stalin

Lenin’s death

• 1924

• Power vacuum - left no clear successor

• Power struggle - Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zivonev, Bukharin

• Testament controversy - wrote by Lenin before death - criticising leaders ESP Stalin → BUT not published at time + blocked by senior party members - Kam + Zin

• Lenin became symbol of revolution - cult of Lenin

Trotsky discredited by Stalin

• 1925

• After Lenins death - Trotsky widely seen as successor

• Stalin carefully used testament + accused him of being anti-party

• Trotsky sidelined, removed from Comissionar of War → lost power

• Stalin as general secretory used his loyalty support he’d built in power - close alliance with Kam + Zin

• Then turned on Kam + Zin