Russian Revolution and Soviet Union: Key Events and Ideologies

1905 Revolution/ Bloody Sunday

Jan 22, 1905 massacre from tsarist troops destroyed faith in the tsar; exposed regime's fragility

Period of widespread social and political unrest in Russia, triggered by economic hardship, poor labor conditions, and losses in the Russo-Japanese War

October Revolution, 1917

Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government

Beginnings of one-party rule and the Soviet state

Triggered Civil War, creation of the Cheka, and restructuring of power

Bolshevik Party

Was a socialist-marxist Party using democratic slogans like "Peace, Land, Bread" & "All Power to the Soviets"

Built organs of control (Cheka), Red Army

After 1918 eliminated rivals; became CPSU -> mechanism for Stalin's dictatorship and purges

Mensheviks

Faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

Critiqued Bolshevik dictatorship;

Repressed/banned by early 1920s

Their elimination cemented one-party rule

Marxist

Core ideology: all history is class struggle between owners (bourgeoisie) and workers (proletariat)

dictatorship of the proletariat to establish a classless society

Absolutism

Political system where a monarch/ dictator holds complete power

Pre-1917: Tsarist autocracy

Failed modernization/war defeats bred opposition and revolutionary culture

Tsars

Title for supreme ruler pre 1917

ex. Nicholas II

mismanagement of 1905, WWI, and reform failures

Abdication in Feb 1917 ended monarchy and opened path to Soviet power

Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs)

Agrarian-socialist party; championed peasant land socialization

Suppression removed last mass rival, tightening Bolshevik monopoly

New Economic Plan (NEP)

1921 partial retreat from War Communism

Relax central economic control

No more grain requisition

peasant keep food and sell for profit

NEP restored mixed econ -> capitalism and socialism

The Whites

Anti-Bolshevik grp in Civil War (monarchists, liberals, SRs, foreign aid)

Disunity and weak social program → defeat helped legitimize Bolshevik rule

The Red Army

Trotsky's creation; conscription, discipline, former tsarist officers

Victory in Civil War secured Bolshevik survival

Coercion

Cheka/NKVD, censorship, requisitions, hostage-taking

Used to crush opposition (Civil War, peasant uprisings, party rivals)

Industrialization

Shift to heavy industry as foundation of socialist power

Duma

1906 assembly with limited power; failure hurt tsarist legitimacy → 1917

Kronstadt Rebellion

March 1921 Sailors demand "Soviets without Bolsheviks"

Got crushed

Shock → helped trigger NEP

Cheka

1917

first series of secret police organizations

Red Terror, camps

April Theses

1917

ideological speech that laid out Lenin's priorities for the revolution and the establishment of a new state

Lenin: end war, land to peasants, "All Power to Soviets"

Patronage

Appointments network (party posts, promotions) → loyalty to Stalin

Show Trials

Public Show Trials: exposing "saboteurs"- those accused of damaging the program

Purges

Systematic removals across party, state, army, society

Eliminated rivals; spread fear/obedience

The Great Terror

3 stages

The Purge of the Party

1936, 14 leading Bolsheviks were tried and executed;

1937, 17 Bolsheviks; Kamenev and Zionov among them

Purge of the armed services

All 11 War Commissars were removed

Crippled the Soviet military, seemed irrational but wanted it under his control

Purge of the people

Gulag

Gulag

Gulag, a network of prison and labour camps, was established across the USSR

Socialism in One Country

Political theory - argued possible to build/maintain a socialist society within a single country, without global revolution

Ideological cover for Five-Year Plans/collectivization

Five-Year Plan (First)

Laid down what was to be achieved but did not say how it was to be done

Heavy industry + collectivization; big gains, chaos/famine

Five Year Plan (Second)

goals more realistic

More transport/defence

uneven results

Five Year Plan (Third)

Arms focus; disrupted by war/purges

1941, German invasion destroyed the Third FYP

Collectivization

Kolkhoz or collective farms were established to replace the peasants' individual farms.

The Kulaks

Stalin identified them as the group that needed to be removed as a class who benefited under the NEP, hoarded grains and exposed peasants

Alexei Stakhanov

Workers were urged to be like the hero Alexsei Stakhanov, a coal miner from the Donbass region who:

mined in one shift, fifteen times the average amount of coal.

created unrealistic expectations of workers

1936 Stalin Constitution

Redesigned the government of the Soviet Union Promised rights/democratic procedures/elections on paper;

reality = one-party rule

Socialist Realism

Party-approved art/literature; reshape values; glorify leader/industry

The nomenklatura

The Soviet establishment- privileged officials who ran the party and government

core of party dominance

The Great Retreat

Pro-family turn: tougher divorce/abortion limits; reward motherhoo

Aimed at stability + workforce growth

Comintern

Comintern setup to aid communist parties around the world

Very active, supported China

Encouraged the Communists to challenge the Social Democrats

Soviet Satellite States

Satellites primary purpose was to serve the needs of the Soviet Union

Looked to gain defence from future German attacks

Took control of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and adopted them as Satellite States

The Anti-Comintern Pact, 1936

Formed by Germany, Italy and Japan

USSR seeks security elsewhere

The Munich Agreement, 1938

Western appeasement/exclusion of USSR → deepened Soviet distrust

The Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939-41

ended the German threat, through alliance

led to the division of land in Eastern Europe, specifically Poland

broken 1941

Treaty of Rapolo, April 1922

Normalized relations again between Germany and the Soviet Union

early end to isolation; trade/military cooperation

Intelligentsia

Educated elite

opposed new social policies as they saw the Russian Revolution as a step towards female liberation