AOS1 History - Russia

Tsar Nicholas II backstory

Tsar Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, reigning from 1894 until his abdication in 1917. He faced immense challenges, including political unrest and World War I, which ultimately led to the fall of the Romanov dynasty.

He was married to Tsarina Alexandra, and he was shy, conservative and devout in his beliefs.

Tsar Nicholas II Quotes

“I never wanted to become one”

“I know nothing of this business of ruling”

“I wish I could pour my will into your veins”

Tsar Nicholas II leadership style

1) Autocratic Rule

• He wanted absolute power, and this caused political unrest

2) Conservatism

• Did not want to modernise Russia, and this weakened his leadership

3) No Delegation

• Inefficiency in his governance

• Preferred administrative tasks

• Liked to make his own decisions and not rely on those of his advisors.

What was the 1905 Revolution

Often referred to as “Bloody Sunday”, It was a strike in St. Petersburg that occurred on the 7th of January after four workers were fired from a steelworks. It was led by Father Gapon, and they had a petition that consisted of their demands, such as;

• equal and secret suffrage

• improved work conditions

What caused the 1905 Revolution?

1) The economy

• international recession

• rising unemployment and falling wages

  • Caused strikes

2) Russo-Japanese War

• assumed victory

  • nationalism and country pride were hurt.

3) Lack of Infrastructure

• Urban facilities delayed for population

What were the consequences of the 1905 Revolution

1) Mass execution

• est.a few thousand lost their lives

2) Strikes

• they became commonplace

• bond between T.N & the people was broken

4) Attempts at Reform from the Tsar

• October Manifesto to liberate Russian Politics

• Duma Parliament

Define Marxism

It is an ideology that wanted to bring out a classless human society that is based off the means of production, distribution and exchange

What were three aims of the Marxism Ideologies

1) No private property

2) Free education and no child labour

3) A single central bank

Who was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Karl Marx was the “Father of communism” who worked with Friedrich Engels to produce the Communist Manifesto 1848. These two believed that history was driven by a class struggle for control of the economy.

What was the Dual Authority?

Following the February Revolution and the abdication of the Tsar in 1917, the Dual authority refers to the shared power between the Petrograd soviet and the Provisional Government.

Who was the Provisional Government

It was a government formed in 1917 comprised of members of the Duma who were mostly Octoberists and bourgeois. They had control over the food and the army.

Who was the Petrograd soviet

Formed in 1917 after the February revolution, It was made up of soldiers and workers who controlled food and soldiers.

Who were the social democrats?

Bolsheviks

• supported by industrial workers

  - They wanted a centralised party to lead the proletrariats and peasants to overthrow the Tsar

Mensheviks

• supported by workers in inudstrial urban

  - They believed the middle class should lead the bourgeoisie’s in a revolution to overthrow the Tsar

Who were the social revolutionaries?

Left wing

• peasants

  - Terror tactics and assassinations to roll out radical land reforms = redistributing land to peasants

Right wing

• peasants

  - Persuasion to redistribute land to peasants

Who were the Right wing Moderates (Liberals)

Kadets

• professional class and land owners

  - constitutional monarchy, keep Tsar but free speech

Octoberists

• wealthy, pro Tsar industrialists

  - 1905 October Manifesto, keep Tsar but legislative reform

Define Class Consciousness

The awareness of one’s social or economic class in relation to others.

What were the impacts on the peasants as a result of WW1

• So many were recruited = 13 million dead

  • no one was able to take care of the farms and crops

• They became more radicalised and began to support the bolsheviks because they were sick of the war.

What were the impacts on the workers as a result of WW1

• Recruited in war = 13 million died

  • severe shortage of workers

• Peasants and Workers grow in resentment towards the government’s continued interference in their lives

• Factories faced material shortages as the war drained them = unemployement and reduced wages

What were the impacts on the bourgoiesies as a result of WW1

• Economic loss

  • many of their factories closed or were shifted to war producers

• Loss of influence

  • they supported the P.G which fell and propaganda was being released about them by the Bolsheviks

What were the impacts on the Royals as a result of WW1

• tsar's support wavers because he has not done well in the war for his country

  • he decided to take control of the military despite his lack of knowledge and exp

• Gov is demoralised

  • as a result of putting the mad monk in charge whilst he went off to fight the war

What were the impacts on the Russia as a whole as a result of WW1

• Inflation

  • 1914 5 rubies = 2 bags of flour but in 1917 5 rubies - 1/3 bag of flour, up 300%

• Social unrest

  • Strikes and protests such as the Feb and Oct revolutions

• Political instability

  • Between the P.G. and the Bolsheviks, they created a power vacuum after the war due to the strain the war posed on the Tsar’s leadership and resources.

How did the Tsar’s leadership play a role in causing the Feb Rev?

1) Tsar Leadership

• Leaving his wife incharge

  • unpopular and distrusted, partly due to her German heritage

  • Damaged the Tsar’s credibility as people saw the government as corrupt, weakening support for the Tsar.

• taking control of the army

  • no military experience massive casualties.

  • directly blamed for military failures, further damaging his reputation and morale

• ignoring the Duma and the P.G. they set up

  • Alienated potential allies and left the monarchy isolated.

How did the Tsar’s leadership play a role in causing the Feb Rev? p2

• strikes and protests

  • hundreds of thousands of workers protesting.

  • strikes and protests overwhelmed the authorities, even the police and soldiers began siding with the protestors.

• assasinations (pyotr stolypin)

  • end of meaningful reform efforts

  • The failure to continue reforms after Stolypin’s death left Russia more vulnerable to unrest and revolutionary movements.

• Marxism and Nordism

  • As the economic and social situation worsened, Marxism gained traction

  • These radical ideas laid the ideological groundwork

Consequences of the Feb rev?

1) Abdication of the Tsar

• March 15, 1917, ending over 300 years of Romanov rule, marking the collapse of the autocratic monarchy.

2) Dual Authority

• Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government

3) Rise of the Bolsheviks

• Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917 and rallied support with slogans like "Peace, Land, and Bread" and capitalised on the government’s failures, leading to the October Revolution just a few months later.

What was life like for Peasants under the Tsarist rule?

• 80% of Russian pop

• They were becoming increasingly frustrated with the land reforms of Pyotr Stolypin and their exploitative landlords.

They lived in ‘obshchiny’ (communes) that lacked hygiene and caused disease to spread.

“We are … treated as slaves who must bear their fate and be silent” - Father Gapon.

What was life like for Bougioesies under the Tsarist rule?

• They were a small class that consisted of

  • merchants, industrialists and professionals

• They wanted land reforms to secure their property rights

• They made up less than 5% of the Russian pop

What was agricultur like under the Tsarist rule?

-Land was mostly owned by nobels

-Farming methods were outdated and ineffcicent resulting in less production and famine.

What was religion like under the Tsarist rule?

• Across Russia, the Tsar was forcibly trying to enforce russification over at least 20 different nationalities such as Asians and Slavs.

• Most people were Eastern Orthodox 69.34%.

What was the eonomy like under the Tsarist rule?

• Predominatory agranian

• Lagging behind Western Europe due to their lack of industrialisation

• They depended on foreign investment from countries such as France, Britain and Germany

  • inflation.

What was the october Revolution?

It took place on the 25th of October 1917, when the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace, and it marked the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin.

Causes of the October Revolution

1) Failure of the provisional government - wanted to continue WW1, and the poeple were growing weary of it

2) Land reforms - peasants wanted to seize lands from their lords

3) No election that the Provisional Government promised - gave the Bolsheviks an excuse to seize power as the promised “peace, land and bread”

What were the consequences of the October Revolution

1) End of the provisional gov - bolsheviks assumed full control

2) Communist state - Russia was now following communist policies

3) Civil war - sparked the war between the reds and the whites

What was the Civil war?

A brutal conflict between the Bolshevik Red Army and the anti-Bolshevik forces, such as the White Army and their foreign interventionists. It occurred after the October Revolution in 1917 after the Bolsheviks assumed power.

What caused the Civil war?

1) Opposition to Bolshevik rules

2) Foreign intervention - opposed communism

3) Broken promises - The Bolsheviks’ promises, such as land reforms, were harder to keep, fuelling discontent amongst the peasants.

What were the consequences of the Civil War?

1) UNion of Soviet Scoialist Republics in 1922(USSR) - built a socialist society , one-party state

2) Massive loss of life - More than half a million Russians died due to famine and another million from disease.

3)Economic devastation - factories were ruined and the economy was in shambles because the agricultural output plummetted.

Who were the Reds?

Founded amidst the Civil war in 1918

• an army that consisted of Bolsheviks, soliders, peasants and other tsarist soldiers

• led by Trotsky

aimed to preserve the revolution of russia

Who were the whites?

• made up of Mencheviks, former tsarists, social revolutionaries, nationalistes and foreign interventionists.

• Different views on what they wanted to achieve

• glue holding them togwether was destroying the bolsheviks

Who were the greens?

• Group of peasant armies

• The goal was to protect what was theirs ie. land

• fought against reds and the whites but occailionally alongside them

• regarded as dangerous by other armies

Some terror tactics implememted by teh bolsheviks during the Civil war

Mainly used the Cheka to carry out their heinous acts of war

• Wholesale shootings and hangings in public are widespread across Russia

• Tactics designed to bring the victim to mental disintegration.

What was the New Economic Policy, and what did it cause

Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in 1921 and began to reap dividends as the economy recovered towards the end of the Civil War.

• Provide “breathing space” for Russia’s depleted and war-ravaged economy. a step back from communism and into capitalism.

1. End grain requisitioning and replace it with tax

2. Bring back the Rubel by allowing people to buy and sell things

3. Bring back Market forces to encourage peasants to grow more crops and sell it to cities

NEP vs War communism

W.C

• Peaqsant grows 10 tons

• Gov takes 9 tons

• Peasant left with 1 ton

NEP - encourages production by a surplus

• Peasant grows 10 tons

• Gove takes 50%, 5 tons

• Peasant sells four tones and keeps 1 ton and the cash

What impact did Lenin’s death have on Russia’s political instability?

Died on the 21st Jan 1924

1) Power vacuum

• no clear successor

2) Factionalism

• w/o Lenin’s uniying skills, the party split into factions

How did Stalin rise to power?

1) Manipulation of alliances

• Kamenev and Zinoviev (triumvirate) - exiles trotsky

• Bukharin - Kamenev and Zinoviev

• Stalin - Bukahrin

2) Control of party apparatus

• As general secretary he controlled who was hired which allowed hi to build a loyal support base

3) Cult of personality

• Stalin portrayed himself as Lenin’s true disciple, despite lenin’s critical stance towrads him.

Quotes from Lenin’s last Will and Testement

“Stalin is too rude”

“think about a way of removing Stalin”

“outstanding ability” - Trotskey

“Excessive self-assurance” - Stalin

“theoretical views . . . doubt be regarded as fully Marxist” - Bukharin

“most valuable” - Pyatakov

What was the first 5 year plan + 3

NEP lasted from 1921 to 1928, Then, the first 5-year plan was introduced to create socialism. It was a government plan to quickly industrialise the country and turn it from mostly farmers into a major industrial nation.

• Bipedal

  • focused on controlling the countryside (agriculture) and the industry(heavy industry ie. mining coal)

• Collectivize private farms

• Peasants targeted for grain shortages

  • Holomodor

Quotes about the five year plan

“We are going to liquidate the Kulaks as a class” - Stalin

“Death of one person is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic)

What positive and negative impacts did the 5 year plan have?

1) Industilisation and agriculutre rapidly improved

2) Enthusiasm towards workers inspired them to produce more

3) reasserted communist parties control over countryside

1) Unrealistic quotas

2) 5-10 million dead

3)Growing discontent in cities and among workers

What was life like for African Americans 1920s-30s?

1. Racism
   - Segregation through Jim Crow Laws 1877-1960s
   - Red Summer 1919
   - Ku Klux Klan

2. WW1

   • The Great Migration 1916-1930

   • Job opportunities

3. Roaring Twenties

   • Harlem Renaissance

   • The vote 1920

What were the Jim Crow Laws?

Named after the Black Face minstrel show character, it was a collection of state and local statutes that legalised racial segregation
- Implemented 1877-1960s
- Approximately 90% of Americans were living under these laws
- “it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school” - Missouri, 1929

What was the Red summer of 1919?

After WWI, African American soldiers came back expecting to have earned their citizenship for their service and sacrifices, aswell as teh liberty bonds the y contributed to despite their eco status

• Competition with jobs

• Many whites ransacked Black homes

On June 27th in Chicago, a Black teenager drowned from being stoned after drifting to the white side of the beach, then there was a riot where there were 38 fatalities and 1000 black families were left homeless.

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

A white supremacist group that targeted African Americans and catholics. KKK exploited racist attitudes held in small towns in both the North and the South.

• Their emphasis on Mortality appealed to many conservatives of un-American ideas

• 5 million members by 1925, and then in 1930, there were fewer than 50,000 due to internal conflicts

What was the Great Migration?

From 1916-1930, 1.6 million A.A from rural south moved to urban north.

• Wanted to escape discrimination

• Encouraged by the economic boom and the job opportunities

HOWEVER

• Informal discrimination was widely spread with race riots in 25 cities in 1919 (R.S)

• 60% of A.A.W in Milawke were employed as domestic servants

• Paid considerably less than white people
  - This led to concentrated ghettos.

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

“Flowering of Black Culture”

• Harlem was home to many migrated African Americans from the G.M

• They were able to explore cultural expression that had been previously closed off.
  -Duke Elliot (jazz singer)
  -Josephine B (dancer)

  • However, many were concerned that this expession was for w.p as books were still published under w.p and so was music.

What was life like for women in America 1920s-30s

Most Urban Middle Class White women enjoyed new liberties but that is no to say for African American of Immigrant Women

• Fashion: Flapper / “New Woman”

• Vote

• Social / Economic independence

Flappers?

“Smart and sophisticated with an air of independence” - Collen Moore

“Lipstick … now … almost universal among women of all ages… even seen it in church.” – The Daily Mirror, 1929
- Challenged the traditional role of women with short hair, skirts and bold makeup and rebellious behaviours

Vote?

The vote had been campaigned for since 1848 in the U.S until 1920 when the 19th Amendment passed
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton who was a leader of the NAWSA.

Social and Economic Independence

With the men at war, there was job opportunities for women to demonstrate their intellectual abilities
- By 1929, 10.6 million in W.F., a 25% increase from 1920
- Have their own money and not rely on a husband

Challenges of Women

1) Despite the increase in employment, women were still paid considerably less than men for the same work.

• Men’s average weekly wage = $30 and a Women’s average weekly wage = $17 in 1927

2) No political representation becase it continued to be male dominated.

• In 1925, women held only 150 out of 7500 seats in state legislatures. 

3) Traditional roles of women still persisted as societal pressures pushed women to focus on getting married

• "Only about 10 percent of women in the 1920s kept their jobs after marriage,” - Collins

Comparison of different women

1) Black women had higher labour force participation than white women but were overwhelmingly confined to low-paying jobs like domestic service, while white women increasingly entered professional fields.

2) Despite the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in 1920, Black women in the South were largely disenfranchised due to discriminatory laws.

• “A white woman has only one handicap to overcome—that of sex. I have two—both sex and race.” – Mary Church Terrell

Roles of women

1) Consumer Influence

• Primary targets for ads with new home appliances such as the vacuum

2) Media Representation

• Films and Mags reflected the perception of modern womanhood such as Clara Bow and The Ladies home Journal

3) Activism

• Like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who campaigned for Women's right to vote

What Caused the Great Depression? (B)

Banking: Unsound practices resulted in widespread collapse

• Laissez Faire (Let do policy): the gov didn’t believe in interfering with the lives of individuals because the free market would naturally produce a solution

• Banks speculated on the stock market and invested directly into the stock exchange with their customers’ life savings, borrowing from banks $25B in 1920 - $80B in 1929.

What caused the Great Depression? I

Industry: overproduction and reduced demand = slowed economy

• Manufacruring technqiues = goods that were not needed, productvity increased 43% 1920s and teh eco boom only sustained if customers buy.

• The tariff war between the US and Europe, overseas goods couldn’t be sold bc it cost Europeans more

What caused the Great Depression (A)

Agriculture: Falling prices, drought and debt

• Improved Tech = more food but demand fell and so did the prices, 1920-1932 114 farms sold

• Tariffs = thousands of farmers suffered from debt and moved to cities.

What caused the Great Depression (S)

Stock/shares: Wall Street Crash

• Easy to make money, so share prices went up as people borrowed from the banks. Americans owned 4M shares in 1920, by 1929, 20M

• 9B given to investors to put directly into the S.E. based on speculation, peaked 3rd Sep 1929, then started to slope, causing panic and bank runs.

• 24th Oct Black Thursday, 29th Oct Black Tuesday, and by Nov 30B wiped off the S.E.

Impacts of the GD

Immediate:

• Bank runs were people tried to wirthdraw their money as soon as possible, thos who waited were left wth nothing bc all cash reserves were gone, 1931 2294 Banks closed and 1700M deposits lot.

Ongoing

• Collapse of Banks as many lost their money and jobs even well-credited people: “ 3 trades, 3 languages, want 1 job”, people stopped spending.

• Unemployment rose to 3.2 M

• Ques for food hit thousands

Hoover V Franklin

Hoover: 1929-1932

• Refused to offer gov aid to the unemployed

Franklin: 1932

• Promised a ‘New Deal’, in 100 days, passed many laws and gov agencies to address the GD.

• Glass Steagall Act 1933

  • Prevented Banks from directly investing in the S.E.

  • Give guaranteed Bank deposits up to $5000.