AKS.46a: Russian Revolution Through Stalin

Causes of the Russian Revolution

  • Modernization Under Peter the Great
    • In the 1700s, Czar Peter the Great expanded and modernized Russia
    • Peter introduced Russia into a Western style, navy, fashions, and city-planning
  • But in the 1800s, Russia failed to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in Western Europe
  • Government: Western Europe vs. Russia
    • Europe: The enlightenment led to new democratic reforms throughout Europe
    • Russia, the Romanov czars continued to rule as absolute monarchs
    • Czars like Alexander III used secret police to monitor citizens, censored the media, and sent political prisoner to labor camps in Siberia
    • Czars organized pogroms (violent attacks) against ethnic minorities like Jews and Poles in Russia
  • Industry: Western Europe vs. Russia
    • Europe: The Industrial Revolution made European militaries and economies the strongest in the world
    • Russia industry lagged behind Europe, had few railroads, and most citizens were poor farmers
    • Russia committed to industrialization but it led to poor wages, long hours, and discontent among the Russia people
    • Russia used its industry and built a respectable navy but it had problems mass-producing weapons
  • In 1894, Czar Nicholas II came to power but failed to address major problems from 1904 to 1917
    • When Russian liberals called for democratic reforms, Nicholas ordered his secret police to persecute those calling for reform
    • In 1904, Russia and Japan went to war over Manchuria and Korea
    • Russia’s humiliating loss to Japan exposed weaknesses in the nation’s military and government
    • Losing the Russo-Japanese Wars set a series of riots among commoners who were unhappy with Nicholas’ government
    • Bloody Sunday, 1905
    • In 1905, Russian commoners met outside the czar’s Winter Palace to demand better working conditions, right to form unions, and a democratic constitution
    • The protest became known as “Bloody Sunday” when the czar’s guards fired into the crowd ; Riots broke out across Russia
    • In 1905, Nicholas II agreed to new constitution that created a Duma (parliament) and limited monarchy ; But Nicholas ignored the Duma

Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution

  • The czar’s unpopularity and failure of the government to respond to problems increased calls for socialism
    • Socialism and Communism
    • Socialists demanded that the government control all means of production to create an equal society
    • Karl Marx developed a radical form of socialism called communism in which the working class led a revolution, seized property, and shared all wealth without a government
    • Radical workers, peasants, and soldiers began to form councils called soviets that held meetings and assumed control over local governments
    • The Bolsheviks
    • In 1903, a radical socialist named Vladimir Lenin formed the Bolsheviks, a group that supported a revolutionary overthrow of the Russian government
    • But, Lenin fled Russia to avoid arrest but the czar’s secret police and waited for an opportunity to return and lead his revolution
  • Russia’s involvement in WWi proved to be the fatal blow to Czar Nicholas’ support in Russia
    • The Russian military was no match for the German army
    • Russia had difficulty producing weapons for soldiers on the front, food, shortages were common for troops and civilians, the lack of trains slowed supplied and communication
    • Russia drafted 6 million soldiers and nearly 1 million were killed or wounded ; 1.5 million civilians died
    • Czar Nicholas refused to pull russia out of the war and went t the Eastern Front to personally take command of the army
    • Nicholas left his wife, Alexandra in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Russian Government
    • To help cure her hemophiliac son Alexei, she relied on a mystic named Rasputin
    • Many people feared that Rasputin was controlling the royal family and killed him by drowning
    • By early 1917, citizens were rioting across Russia demanding an end to the monarchy and to WWI
  • In March, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne and the duma created a provisional (temporary) government
  • Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia and led the Bolshevik in the Russian Revolution in November 1917
    • Lenin’s message of “peace, land, and bread” helped him gain popularity among the Russian people
    • Bolshevik Red Guards arrested and killed the Romanovs which ended 300 years of rule by monarchs in Russia

The Soviet Union

  • After the success of the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin announced major reforms for Russia
    • Lenin ordered all farmland to be distributed among the peasants
    • Lenin gave control of the factories to the workers
    • Lenin signed a truce with Germany and gae up huge territories to get Russia out do WWI
  • The Russian Civil War, 1918-1920
    • The Russian Revolution led to a civil war between the Bolshevik Red Army and the White Army (people who wanted a new czar, democracy, or land back)
    • Britain, France, and the US supported the White Army to get Russia back into WWI
    • After 3 years of fighting, the Red Army won and Lenin became the unquestioned leader of Russia
  • In 1922, Lenin renamed Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
  • Lenin created the Communist Party which ruled the Soviet Union as a dictatorship

The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin

  • In 1917, Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks in an overthrow of the Russian government
    • Lenin transformed Russia into the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist government and created the Communist Party to rule the nation
    • In 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke and died in 1924; Lenin’s death led to a struggle for power in the USSR
  • By 1927, Joseph Stalin out maneuvered his rivals and gained control of the Soviet Union
  • ƒStalin quickly created a totalitarian state in which he had total control pf the government and people’s’ lives
  • The Communist Party
    • Stalin was a totalitarian dictator who transformed the USSR into a police state
    • Stalin led the Great Plague to eliminate potential rivals in the Communist Party (He executed 8-13 million people)
    • Stalin used propaganda and censorship to control information ad began education programs to teach communist ideals and loyalty to Russian children
  • The Five Year Plans
    • Stalin created a series of Five Year Plans to overhaul the Soviet Economy
    • Stalin seized control of the economy and set high production quotas on steel, coal, oil, and electricity
    • Stalin’s five Year Plans dramatically improved Soviet industry and helped modernize the military
  • Collectivization
    • Stalin seized 25 million acres of private farms and combined them into large government-controlled collective farms
    • 90% of all peasants lived and worked on collective farms
    • Agricultural production improved in the USSR, but farming was inefficient and peasants resented having their land taken from them
  • Individual Rights
    • Stalin declared men and women equal in the USSR; Women’s rights increased as women could vote and join the Communist party
    • Women were expected to work in factories and on collective farms like men
    • Stalin attacked all religion and created a nation of atheists (no emphasis on religion); Stalin ordered destruction of Orthodox churches and Jewish Synagogues.