8/18/2015 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION & VLADIMIR ILICH ULYANOV This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button Select “Meeting Minder” Select the “Action Items” tab Type in action items as they come up Click OK to dismiss this box This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered.

Social 30/2006 Revolution of 1917 Fundamental causes A. Political gov’t was autocratic; inefficient and corrupt; – privileged noble class that paid few taxes; – opposition was thwarted by spies and secret police B. Economic - conditions kept peasantry poor; factory workers were poorly paid

Social 30/2006 Fundamental causes Social - little social freedom; minority rights not respected; censorship

Social 30/2006 Immediate Causes A. disastrous defeats on the war front; soldiers were demoralized B. food shortages; men taken from farms to the war C. transportation system collapsed making it difficult to move troops, food

Social 30/2006 Communists seize power 1. Severe food shortages caused riots in St.Petersburg in March March 15, 1917 Duma persuaded Czar to abdicate 3. Provisional Government is established; rules from March to November; led first by Lvov and then Kerensky

Social 30/2006 Communists seize power 4. communists seize power in Nov; revolution led by Lenin and Trotsky; take Russia out of war by signing Brest-Litovsk Treaty

Social 30/2006 Major Events Civil War a) Red Army, led by Trotsky fought the White armies b) Civil war broke out in 1918 and ended in Anti-communists are arrested, exiled or executed by the Cheka(secret police); 3. Lenin attempts to establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat” following Marx’s plan of the establishment of Communism

Social 30/2006 Major Events Much discontent 5. gov’t seized crops to supply Red Army and city workers 6. inflation 7. crop failures in famine

Social 30/ Main opposing Groups Reformers - change gradually, democratic ways - Mensheviks Revolutionaries - change quickly - Bolsheviks

Social 30/2006 CIVIL WAR Whites Mensheviks wanted a constitutional monarchy mixed economy Reds Bolsheviks autocratic planned economy communists

Social 30/2006 KEY IDEAS OF LENIN Bolshevik - Communist Russia USSR – Establish a communist society – Established 1918 War Communism – Nationalism – collectivization of industry and agriculture

Social 30/2006 KEY IDEAS OF LENIN Influencial in the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - got Russia out of the WWI(substantial loss of land) Lenin’s Slogan - Peace, Land, Bread, All power to Soviets

Social 30/2006 Following the Revolution Lenin’s policy of war communism did not succeed Lenin soon had to establish his New Economic Policy This allowed limited private ownership of key industries and specific industry

Social 30/2006 Although Lenin was A Marxist he differed from the political ideology in several important aspects – No revolution can endure without a stable organization of leaders – A revolution must consist mainly of small number of professional revolutionaries

Social 30/2006 Authoritarian Nature of the USSR During the Civil war Lenin and his supporters became increasing intolerant of any opposition By 1922 the CPSU was the only legal party in the USSR – This continued with all communist party leaders from

Social 30/2006 Authoritarian Nature of the USSR Marxist-Leninists argued that such autocratic rule was justified because: – Political parties represent the interests of economic classes (bourgeoisie) – A state with only a proletariat requires only one party – Lenin viewed the communist party as the “vanguard of the proletariat” (protector of communism ideology)

Social 30/2006