1. Revolution & Civil War in Russia

2. Essential Questions What does USSR stand for?
How does Tsarism in Russia Come to an End?
How did the Communist Party—not the people have all the power in the Soviet Union?

5. Landowning nobles, priests & the autocratic Tsar controlled the government & economy

6. The majority of Russian citizens were peasants
The were very poor

7. As Russia started to industrialize a small urban middle & working class began to emerge

8. The Revolution of 1905 Rapid growth of (discontented) working class
Vast majority of workers concentrated in St. Petersburg and Moscow
Impoverished peasants
No individual land ownership
Rural Famine

9. The Unrest Deepens Nicholas II became tsar in 1884
Believed he was the absolute ruler anointed by God
After the Revolution of 1905 Nicholas failed to solve Russia’s problems

10. Conservatism Continues: 1905-1917
The elected Duma has no real power
Nicholas II is a weak leader
He paid no attention to the Duma; Used secret police to impose his will
Revolutionaries plotted to overthrow the tsarist regime
Numerous Marxists began to appear
Tried to start a revolution among the proletariat or working class.
Conservatism Continues:

11. World War I: “The Last Straw”
War revealed the ineptitude and arrogance of the country’s aristocratic elite
Corrupt military leadership had contempt for ordinary Russian people
Average peasants had very little invested in the War

12. World War I
ill-trained, ineffective officers, poorly equipped (Russ. was not ready for ind. war) – the result was mass desertions and 2 million casualties by 1915
Result: Chaos and Disintegration of the Russian Army
Battle of Tannenberg (August, 1914) – massive defeat at hands of the Germans

13. Nicholas II went to the front lines to boost morale--has opposite effect (September, 1915)
The Tsar was more incompetent than is generals
Left the Tsarina Alexandra in charge of domestic affairs

14. Alexandra: The Power Behind the Throne
Even more blindly committed to autocracy than her husband
Relies on advice of Gregory Rasputin
Illiterate peasant
Believes he is a holy man
Rasputin helps the Tsarina’s son with his hemophilia

15. Alexis: Alexandra’s Son with Hemophilia

16. The Collapse of the Imperial Government
Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into chaos
Alexandra and other high government officials accused of treason

17. The Collapse of the Imperial Government
Rasputin assassinated on December 29, 1916

18. The Revolution Heats Up
Complete mismanagement of the wartime economy
Industrial production plummeted, inflation and starvation were rampant, and the cities were overflowing w/ refugees
March 1917, Cities became a hotbed for pol. activism, ignited by serious food shortages
Workers were going on strike (St. Petersburg-then called Petrograd)
The government is helpless

19. The Two Revolutions of 1917 The March Revolution (March 12)
The November Revolution (November 6)

20. The March Revolution Origins: Food riots/strikes
Duma declared itself a Provisional Government on March 12
Tsar ordered soldiers to intervene; instead they joined the rebellion…the Tsar abdicated on March 17
Alexander Kerensky headed the Provisional Government, along w/ Prince Lvov
Very Popular Revolution
Kerensky favored gradual socialist reform/ saw the war effort as #1 priority

21. The Petrograd Soviet-Councils of Workers & Soldiers
leftists in St. Petersburg formed the Petrograd Soviet, which they claimed to be the legit. gov’t
Ger. was aware of the Russ. situation and began to concentrate on the W. Front
Ger. even played a role in returning Lenin to Russia, so he could help the rev.
Having been granted “safe passage”, Lenin returned in April 1917

22. The Provisional Government
1. A 12 member government led by Kerensky
2. Planned to rule until elections could be held
Dual Government
The Petrograd Soviet
A council of 2,500 deputies.
Determined to share power with the Provisional Government

23. Soviet Political Ideology
More radical and revolutionary than the Provisional Government
Most influenced by Marxist socialism
Two Factions
-- “Mensheviks”—conservative-democrats
-- “Bolsheviks”

24. Founder of Bolshevism: Vladimir Lenin
Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in 1870
At age 17 his brother was hanged for plotting to kill the tsar
Adopted the name Lenin when he became a revolutionary
Committed to Class Struggle and Revolution

25. As a young he man read Karl Marx & participated in student demonstrations
1895 was arrested & sent to Siberia w/ future wife Nadezhda Krupskaya
After release exiled to Switzerland
Moved to London in 1902
and befriended Leon Trotsky

26. Marx collaborated w/ FRIEDRICH ENGELS – Both were German but lived and wrote in England, esp. in the industrial city of Birmingham
1848 – Communist Manifesto is published for the Communist League
Marx chose the term “communist” since it sounded radical: it implied the abolition of private property & the reorg. of society based on a workers’ revolution

27. Marx thought history was cyclical and that the time for comm
Marx thought history was cyclical and that the time for comm. had arrived – he advocated achieving comm. in a violent rev. where the workers (PROLETARIAT) would overthrow the capitalist/owners (BOURGEOISIE)

29. Lenin’s View of Marx Karl Marx
Spontaneous revolution of the working class
“Let the ruling classes tremble at the prospect of a communist revolution. Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. Proletarians of all lands, unite!”
Vladimir Lenin
Adopted Marxist ideas to fit Russian needs
Planned revolution by professional revolutionaries
Revolution of all oppressed classes of society

30. Lenin’s View of Marx Russia does not have a large urban proletariat
Revolution can occur in non-industrial societies
“Dictatorship of the proletariat”
Small percentage of radical socialists, but “Bolshevik” means “majority” after close election w/ Mensheviks for rule of Russian
Social Democratic
Labour Party

31. Western Europe thought socialism could be achieved through gradual & moderate reforms
Higher wages, increased suffrage, social welfare
The MENSHEVIKS in Russia favored this approach
Bolsheviks reject this---Believe that only revolution could bring about change

32. Leon Trotsky Intellectual, head of the Red Army
Favored the doctrine of World Revolution
felt that Russia could not survive as the sole communist state
Russia must therefore seek to export the revolution.
WW1 was a capitalist war and proletarian brothers lost their chance to unite
Trotsky’s fate: Lenin’s death in 1924 led to a power struggle w/ Stalin
(exile, Mexico City death in 1940)

33. Lenin Steps into This Vacuum
Lenin arrives in Petrograd 1917
“Peace, Land, Bread”
“All Power to the Soviets”
He preached that the war was a capitalist/imperialist war that offered no rewards for the peasants/workers; he also felt the war was over w/ the Tzar’s abdication
Bolshevik party membership exploded; their power was consolidated

34. Bolsheviks take over the Provisional Government
The November Revolution
The Provisional Government fails to end the war and resolve internal problems
Bolsheviks take over the Provisional Government
Moscow becomes their headquarters

35. November Revolution Bolsheviks end private ownership
Workers given control of factories
Renamed Communists in 1918

36. The November Revolution

37. November Revolution
Lenin’s 1st task was to get Russia out of the war so he could concentrate on internal reform…
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated with the Germans, giving them much Russian territory, population, and resources (March 1918)

38. Russian Civil War Civil War followed, 1917-1920
“Reds” versus “Whites”
Complete breakdown of Russian economy and society

39. Civil War 1918-1921 Reds=Communists
Whites=Counterrevolutionaries (Tsarist imperial officers, Mensheviks, democrats)
Allies hoped the Whites would overthrow the Bolsheviks.
Romanovs killed

40. Civil War Political Police organized: CHEKA
Trotsky created a well-organized and disciplined army increasing the size of the Red Army by conscripting thousands of workers and peasants as well as former Tsarist soldiers
Bolsheviks increased their support among workers and peasants by promising land and a brighter future
Used terror against opponents
Bolsheviks had mammoth task of rebuilding country
Feliks Dzerzhinsky

41. Interpreting the Russian Revolution
The official Marxist interpretation
 The importance of a permanent international revolution
A Social Revolution…

43. Building the Communist Soviet Union
Russia is in chaos
Millions of people have died since the beginning of WWI
Famine/Disease
Lenin faces the huge challenge of rebuilding a shattered state and economy

44. New Government, Same Problems
1922-Much of the Russian empire becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR)
Create a constitution with both democratic and socialist principles
Elected legislature (Supreme Soviet)
All citizens over 18 given the right to vote
All political power, means of production & resources would belong to workers and peasants
Multinational state where member republics shared equal rights

45. Soviet Union Map

46. Eventually, the Communist Party, not the people had all the power
Used army & Cheka to enforce their will
Russia dominated all the republics

47. Lenin’s Economic Policy
Under party control, factory and mine output had fallen
Peasants stopped producing grain, knowing the government would seize it
1922- New Economic Policy (NEP)
Allows some capitalist ventures
Gov’t kept control of banks, foreign trade, and large industries
Small businesses were allowed to reopen for private profit

48. NEP Cont… Gov’t stopped seizing peasant grain
Peasants held onto small plots of land & freely sold their surplus crops
Lenin’s “compromise” with capitalism helped the economy recover
Armed resistance to the new gov’t ends
The standard of living improves
But Lenin sees NEP as temporary retreat from Communism

49. Stalin Takes Over
Lenin Dies in age 54

51. Death sets off power struggle among communists Chief condenders:
Joseph Stalin
Leon Trotsky

52. Joseph Stalin Behind-the-scenes political organizer
Trotsky & Stalin differ on their approach to communism
Trotsky=Worldwide communist revolution
Stalin=Build socialist state at home first
Stalin strips Trotsky of party membership and he flees to Mexico
Lenin warns of Stalin’s potential to abuse power and his ruthless behavior

53. Examine American society from a communist perspective.
Charlie Nusser:
"I became a communist because of what I saw around me here in the United States of America. There was misery, there were children going to bed hungry, there was poverty, and there was no reason for it. We were the richest country in the world."
Write an outline of solutions communists might propose to end poverty, hunger, and homelessness in the United States today, and the negative and positive consequences of those solutions. You must come up with two proposals for each.

54. Create a newspaper front page that captures a the significant event in the Russian Revolution & or Civil War