Russian Revolution Important Events

New Economic Policy (NEP)

created by Lenin after his idea of war communism quickly went south.

allowed capitalist thoughts but the state kept control of banks, foreign trade, and large industries.

Peasants were allowed to keep small plots of land and freely sell their surplus crops

The NEP was a temporary retreat from communism but including capitalism helped the Soviet economy recover

Everything went back to pre-WW1 levels

Five Year Plans

3 plans (1928,1932,1937)

Aimed at building heavy industry, improving transportation, and increasing farm output (also producing a surplus)

Production workers were punished if their targets were not achieved and if they were, then their targets would be increased.

These plans caused problems with wastage and Inefficiency

Collectivation`

Stalin’s idea of modernizing agriculture

He wanted to sell grain abroad to raise the money needed to invest in industry.

Stalin took control of all farms and made them larger and more productive. All peasants were to work on the farms and were not payed.

They were required to hand over most of their produce to the government and in return they would be rewarded with tools, tractors, and taught how to produce more.

Any peasants who refused to do so were ordered to be killed or were sent to labor camps in the Urals or Siberia and worked to death

Kulaks

peasants who owned land and employed workers

Told they had to give up land and sell their crops at the states low prices.

They resisted by killing farm animals, destroying tools, and burning crops

Stalin believed the Kulaks were behind the revolt.

He declared liquidation (murder) on the Kulaks in 1929

They were also sent to labor camps and many were killed or worked to death

Gulag

They were a system of hundreds of forced labor camps.

They held criminals, but sometimes political officials, all thee way to ordinary people as well.

People were sent to these prisons if they didn’t meet their targets.

From 1929-1932 the numbers of prisoners being sent increased greatly

5-7 million people were in these camps at one time. The prisoners were put tot work; they built the Belomor Canal by hand.

They would be executed if they refused to work, 10% of workers died every year because they worked in poor conditions, weren’t paid, and went unfed.

Great Purge/Terror

1934-1938 is known as the Great Terror because of widespread campaign arrests, known as purges, used by Stalin to take complete control of the Soviet Society

The communist party falsely accused millions of Soviet citizens of committing crimes against the government.

The communist party and talin’s secret policed, called the NKVD, arrested, improvised, tortured, and killed millions of suspected traitors in order to carry out Stalin’s will.

By the late 1930s, 15 million people experienced being arrested, exiled, starved, and even death. The purges increased Stalin’s power.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Vladimir Lenin signed the treaty with Germany. This treaty was not equal because Russia had to give up a huge chunk of their territory and population

Russian Civil War

Fought between the “Reds” (communists) and the “Whites” (counterrevolutionaries). The White armies were made up of the Czarist imperial officers, mensheviks, democrats, and those who wanted to defeat the Bolsheviks.

Britain, France, and the United States supported the White army. But was not much help

The Reds appealed to nationalism and urged Russians to drive out the foreigners.

Russia turned to a communist country so the Red army won.

Cheka

The cheka was a secret police force much like the czars

They executed ordinary citizens, even if they were only suspected of taking action against the Revolution.

War Communism

this was went the communists took over banks, mines, factories, and railroads.

peasants in the countryside were forced to deliver almost all of their crops to feed the army+hungry people in the cities.

peasants laborers were drafted into the military or forced to work in factories

Leon Trotsky

turned the Red army into an effective fighting force

he used former czarist officers under the close watch of commissars

communist party officials assigned to the army to teach party principles and ensure party loyalty

Czar Nicholas II Incompetence

Czar Nicholas II wanted never to abandon Serbia to the ultimatum of Austria-Hungary, or to provoke a general war.

Nicholas demanded that Russia’s mobilization should be only against the Austrian Border to also prevent war from the German Empire.

The Czar wasn’t aware that Austria and Germany had mutual defense treaties in place, which lead to the outbreak of World War 1 all because Russia started general mobilization.

October/November Revolution

Alexander Kerensky, new leader of the provisional government, refused to end WW1, and his commitment to continue the war upset groups in Russia that were against the war.

2 million men left the army in fall of 1917

On the Eastern front, soldiers were dismayed at the news and regiments began to refuse to move to the front line.

Kerensky ordered for the arrest of the Bolsheviks and Lenin.

Lenin ordered the Bolshevik army to stop the revolting generals at the front of Petrograd and not grant them any help.

On Oct. 22nd, Kerensky ordered the rest of the military Revolutionary Committee. He managed to escape from the city.

Bolsheviks began to open fire on the palace and the Red army arrested the cabinet ministers.

Lenin was elected chairman on October 26,1917.

February/March Revolution

The 1st World War devastated Russia’s economy, causing food shortages and strikes

protests in Petrograd grew w/ soldiers joining workers

Nicholas II ordered suppression, but troops mutinied

The Duma defied him and formed Provisional Government

facing the revolution, Nicholas abdicated on March 1, 1917 ending centuries of czarist rule

Alexander I: (1801-1825)

He eased censorship and promoted education

Supported liberal ideas, but then joined conservative powers

Alexander II: (1818-1881) *Uncle is Alexander I

son of emperor Nicholas 1

became the Czar in 1855

Gained power in the middle of the Crimean War, which revealed Russia’s “backwardness”

He instituted broad modernizing reforms, including emancipating the serfs in 1861

assassinated in 1881

introduced the growth of industry in Russia

trial by jury

eased censorship

his reforms failed to satisfy many Russians

Crimean War

War fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Turks from 1853-1856

Emancipation

granting freedom to serfs or enslaved people

Soviet Foreign Policy

Lenin and Stalin wanted to guarantee their nations security by winning the support of other countries.

unsuccessful foreign policy

Lenin formed Communist International which urged colonial peoples to rise up against imperialist powers

Soviet Union sought to improve relations with western governments

they slowly won recognition from western powers and increased trade with capitalist countries

totalitarian state

a one party dictatorship that attempts to regulate every aspect of the lives of its citizens

follows : single party dictatorship w/ blind obedience to a single party leader, state control of the economy, use of police spies and terror to enforce the will of the state, government control of the media to indoctrinate and mobilize citizens through propaganda, use of schools to spread ideology to children, strict censorship of artists+intellectuals with dissenting opinions.

zemstvo

local elected assembly set up in Russia under Alexander II

Pogrom

violent attack on a Jewish community

Refugee

a person that flees from home or country to seek refugee elsewhere, often because of political upheaval or famine

duma

elected national legislature in Russia

Peter Stolypin: (1862-1911)

Russian statesman under Czar Nicholas II

served as a minister of the interior and president of council of ministers

made enemies on both sides of the political spectrum

assassinated 1911

Alexander III

caused Russia to enter the industrial age

insisted on one language and one Church, Russian and Russian orthodox

RUSSIFICATION- purification of Russia

exiled those who didn't follow his rule

Jewish refugees moved to the U.S

increased secret police, exiled people to Siberia, strict censorship

one language, one religion

Nicholas II

son of Alexander III

government focused on economic development

military disaster after Russo-Japanese War (embarrassing defeat)

started industrialization

Bloody Sunday- storming the winter palace, January 22, 1905 b/c they wanted more rights

Bloody Sunday lead to October manifesto and the duma because people lost faith in the czars

“faith, Czar, Fatherland”

Count Serge White, financial minister to Nicholas II

serfs

In medieval Europe, a peasant bound to the lord's land

proletariat

working class

Hemophilia

a disease where your blood will not clot

soviets

a council of workers and soldiers set up by Russian Revolutionists

commissars

communist party official assigned to the army to teach party principles and ensure party loyalty

Gregory Rasputin

Nicholas II wife, Alexandra, relied heavily on him while Nicholas was off at war

called “the holy man”

helped ease the suffering of Nicholas II son who had hemophilia

killed by the Russian nobles

Vladimir Lenin (ilyich ulyanov)

his brother was hanged for plotting to kill the Czar

became radical Revolutionary

hated Czarist country

supported Marxist ideas exiled to Siberia

lead the Bolsheviks

Bolsheviks

means majority

lead by Lenin

eventually renamed communists

Karl Marx

wrote communist manifesto

said there will always be a conflict between working class and business owners

predicted that the industrial working class would overthrow the capitalist ideas

Red Guards

armed factory workers

Reds

known as the communist during the Russian Civil War

Whites

known as counter-revolutionaries during Russian Civil War