THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (1917) 1. Introduction 2. Background to the revolution 3. The rise of Lenin and the Bolsheviks 4. Civil War 5. Triumph of the communists 6. Lenin s succession 7. The terror and the purges of Stalin 8. Conclusion 1. INTRODUCTION The Romanov dynasty of Russia ended when Tsar Nicholas II stepped down and a provisional government was put in power. The instability in the government and the participation of Russia in WWI offered an opportunity to the Bolsheviks, who under Lenin overthrew the provisional government. By 1921, the Communists were in total command of Russia. 2. BACKGROUND TO THE REVOLUTION In 1900 Russia was a poor country compared with Western Europe. The peasants were no longer serfs, but their life was still poor and primitive. Tsar Nicolas II had absolute power in Russia; he had all the state powers and a complete control over the government. Educated people believed that big reforms were necessary in Russia. They wanted to say in policy. In 1905 Russia was defeated in a war with Japan (both of them wanted to expand their territories in Manchuria) and this provoked rebellion, riots and economic crisis. Rebellion broke out after troops fired on striking workers in the capital, St. Petersburg. People went in a demonstration to Tsar s Winter Palace asking for bread and political reforms or improvements; it is known as Bloody Sunday or Red Sunday, because the Tsar sent its soldiers to shoot the people. After that, the Tsar created a parliament, the Duma with the promise of a more democratic government, but this did not happen. The Tsar has the right of veto (the last decision). 1
RUSSIA AND WORLD WAR I - Russia was not prepared for World War I. There were no competent military leaders in Russia. Tsar Nicholas II was in charge of the armed forces, but he had no training or ability for this. Russian industry was not able to produce the weapons needed for the army. Because of these problems, the Russian army suffered heavy losses. Between 1914 and 1916, two million soldiers were killed. There were also hunger and food shortages along the country. A POOR LEADERSHIP - While the Tsar was at the battlefront, his wife Alexandra made all of the important decisions. She consulted Rasputin,a Siberian peasant who claimed to be a holy man. She was influenced by him because he seemed to be able to stop the bleeding of her son Alexis, who had hemophilia. Because of his influence, Rasputin became an important power in Russia. With such poor leadership, the Russian people suffered through a series of military and economic disasters. The people became more and more upset with the rule of the tsar. Even the conservative aristocrats, who supported the tsar, felt that something has to be done. They assassinated Rasputin in December 1916. THE STRIKES - In March 1917, working women led a series of strikes in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg). The government had begun rationing bread. The same women who were working 12-hour days in the factories were now forced to wait in long lines to get bread to feed their children. On March 8th, 1917, about 10,000 women marched through the city of Petrograd. Other workers soon joined them. They called for a general strike, which shut down factories in the city on March 10th. Czar Nicholas ordered troops to break up the crowds by shooting them if necessary. But large numbers of soldiers soon joined the demonstrators and refused to fire on the crowds. THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF KERENSKY - The Duma, or legislative body, which the tsar had tried to dissolve, met anyway. On March 12th, it set up a provisional government. This government asked the tsar to abdicate because Nicholas II had no support from the army or even from the wealthy aristocrats; he gave up the throne on March 15th. The provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky, decided to remain in the war to preserve Russia s honour, but Workers and peasants no longer supported the war. The provisional government was also faced with a challenge to its authority the soviets. The soviets were councils in Russia composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers. They were largely made up of socialists. One group, the Bolsheviks, began to play a crucial role. 2
3. THE RISE OF LENIN AND THE BOLSHEVIKS The provisional government was going to have opposition from the revolutionaries who wanted power for themselves. Among them was the SDLP (Social Democratic Labour Party), a Marxist party: They wanted to set up a communist state based on the ideas of the 19 th century political thinker Karl Marx (Marxism). The party split into Bolsheviks (the majority) who wanted a small party and were led by Lenin; and Mensheviks (the minority) led by Martov, who wanted a mass party. Lenin believed that violent revolution was the only way to destroy the capitalist system. He believed that a small group of welldisciplined revolutionaries could accomplish this. From 1900 to 1917, Lenin spent most of his time abroad. During the war, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland. When the provisional government was formed, he saw this as an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to take power. In April 1917, German military leaders helped Lenin to return to Russia. They hoped that he would create disorder in Russia. Bolsheviks wanted peace, so Russia would stop fighting in WWI, so Germany could send all its troops to the Western front. Lenin s arrival started a new stage in the Russian Revolution. He adapted Marx s ideas to the Russian context; this was called Marxism- Leninism. He believed that the Bolsheviks should gain control of the soviets and use them to overthrow the provisional government. Lenin wrote a document called the April thesis, promising Peace, bread, land and freedom. The Bolsheviks told the people what they wanted to hear.. They promised an end to the war,. The redistribution of land to the peasants,. The transfer of factories from capitalists to the workers,. The transfer of government power to the soviets Soviets (elected committees of workers, peasants and soldiers) 3
By October 1917, the Bolsheviks held a slight majority in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets. The number of Bolsheviks had grown from 50,000 to 240,000. Leon Trotsky, a dedicated revolutionary, led the Petrograd soviet. This put the Bolsheviks in a position to claim power in the name of the soviets. During the night of November 6th, the Bolsheviks attacked the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, where the provisional government met, and took power. The government quickly collapsed. Lenin turned power over to the Congress of Soviets. But the real power passed to the Council of People s Commissars, headed by Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communists. Now that they were in power, they faced the difficult task of removing Russia from the war. This would mean the loss of much Russian territory, but there was no real choice. Bolsheviks moved the capital to Moscow. Russia gave up the WWI, Bolsheviks made peace with Germany (Treaty of Brest Litovsk (1918) and gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic provinces. He told his critics the spread of the socialist revolution would make the treaty irrelevant. Even with this treaty, real peace did not come, because the country soon sank into civil war. In this map we can see the territories lost by Russia after this treaty 4
4. CIVIL WAR Many people were opposed to the new Communist government. They included groups loyal to the czar, liberals, anti-lenin socialists, and the Allies. The Allies sent troops that gave aid to anti-communist forces. From 1918 to 1921, the Communist ( Red Army) was forced to fight on many fronts against the anti- Communist forces (White Army). In the early part of the civil war, the White Army had several successes. But by 1920, the major White forces had been defeated. Within a year, the Communists regained control of Ukraine, Georgia, Russian Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The royal family was a victim of the civil war. On July 16th, 1918, members of the local soviet murdered Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg, where they were being held captive, including Anastasia, the Tsar s daughter. 5. TRIUMPH OF THE COMMUNISTS The Communists had won the civil war over so many opponents. There were several reasons for their success. Firstly, the Red Army was well disciplined. This was largely due to the efforts of Leon Trotsky, the commissar of war. Secondly, the Whites were not unified. They had no common goal, and the different groups did not trust each other. The Communists, on the other hand, had a clear vision of a new socialist order. Thirdly, the Communists implemented a policy of war communism. This policy was used to ensure regular supplies for the Red Army. This meant government control of banks and industries, the seizing of grain from peasants, and the centralization of state administration under Communist control. The Communists also formed a new secret police, known as the Cheka. The Cheka began a Red Terror aimed at destroying those who opposed the new regime. Finally, the presence of foreign armies on Russian soil was used to stir up Russian patriotism. The Communists were able to call on patriotic Russians to fight foreign attempts to control the country. By 1921, the Communists had total control of Russia. Russia was now a centralized state dominated by a single party. The state was also hostile to the Allies, because the Allies had helped the White Army (the Communists enemies) in the civil war. In 1924 a new constitution established the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Each republic had a government but they all had to be communist, and the system was run centrally by the Politburo. In 1924 Lenin died. 5
6. LENIN S SUCCESSION Trotsky was the most able and popular. He led the Red army. But he was too arrogant and he had been a Menshevik. But in the February Revolution of 1917 he puts his talents as an organizer and agitator in the service of the Bolshevik party and was elected president of the Petrograd Soviet. He played a central role in the conquest of power by Lenin; he was primarily responsible for the taking of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks, who established communist rule in Russia (October Revolution of 1917).Although Lenin occupied the pinnacle of power Trotsky played a crucial role in the Soviet government. As the first commissioner of Foreign Affairs of Bolshevik Russia (1917-1918), he negotiated with the German Peace of Brest-Litovsk, which pulled the country out of World War I to respond to the desire for peace of the masses and concentrate on consolidation of the Revolution. He organized the Red Army in very difficult conditions and defeated in a long civil war the White armies (1918-1920). His work was crucial for the survival of the first communist state in the world. Lenin pointed out to him as his successor before his death in 1924; but the ambition of Stalin, which had strong support in the party apparatus, prevented him from coming to power. Stalin was General Secretary of the party and according to Lenin he was too rude and ambitious. Trotsky defended the idea of "permanent revolution" as a means of achieving the Marxist-Leninist ideals (gradually spreading the revolution to Germany and other countries); while Stalin was opposed by the conservative view of consolidating the "socialism in one country '. Ideological differences, however, were little more than a pretext for Stalin to set away Trotsky from the direction in 1925, in 1927 the party expel, deport to Kazakhstan in 1928 and banish the country in 1929. Trotsky did not give up their revolutionary struggle, he wrote from exile in defense of their ideas.stalin made him murder by a Soviet agent (Ramon Mercader). 6
7. THE TERROR AND THE PURGES Joseph Jughashuili changed his name to Stalin (man of steel). He was the leader of Russia by 1930 and was determined to get rid of any rivals. Stalin ordered a purge of people he believed were involved in conspiracies against him. Soon the purges reached ordinary people. Anyone suspected of disloyalty to Stalin was taken away by the NKUD (the new secret police). Most were shot or sent to Labour Camps (gulags). By 1939 approximately 3 million people were dead, 9 million were political prisoners. Trotsky condemned Stalin s purges from his home in Mexico, calling for a new revolution (1937). Stalin ruled as a dictator: He controlled all information. Artists, writers, newspapers, radio, cinema had to follow the Party line and spread propaganda. History was re-written in order to Stalin became more important in the story of the Bolshevik Revolution than he was. Trotsky became a nonperson; his name was removed from history books, articles and even photographs. Under Stalin the state planned the industry and agriculture with a commission called Gosplan. A five year plan set targets for all basic industrial factories and workers. They started in 1928. In 10 years the USSR had almost doubled its industrial output but the price was misery and low living standards for Soviet workers. Private property disappeared totally. It was important to increase food production to supply workers in towns and cities. In 1929 Stalin began forced collectivization in all farms.some peasants refused this change and did not want to give up lands, especially the kulaks (richer peasants). Stalin called them enemies of the people. Around 10 million were shot or sent to Labour Camps, many died from starvation or cold. Many kulaks burned their crops and killed livestock. This caused a big famine and many people died. By 1937 collectivization was almost completed; kulaks had been eliminated and the peasants were afraid of Communist powers. 7
8. CONCLUSION: a) The Communist Party controlled everything in Russia, including the media and education system. Stalin used the state newspaper, Pravda, to control what Russian people learned, heard, read and saw. Stalin killed or deported to Siberia all those who did not agree with him. His secret police also used arbitrary arrests, torture, and mass executions to maintain his dictatorship. Anyone could be a victim of these killings, known as purges for no apparent reason. b) The idealistic ideas of Marx had turned into a system that was in many ways more terrifying than the rule by the tsars. There was no freedom in the new system. Forced labour created wealth for a limited number of people, while the lives of most of the citizens changed very little or got worse. TASKS: 1. How were peasants conditions of life by 1900 in Russia? 2. Was Tsar Nicolas II a democratic leader? Explain your answer. 3. Compare the 1905 and 1917 rebellions. How were they similar and different? 4. Define these words: Tsar, Duma, bolsheviks, cheka, gosplan, kulaks, force collectivization, gulags, dictator. 5. Do you think that, today, Anastasia s mystery could be possible? Explain your answer. 6. What were the main beliefs of the Communists? 7. What important part did Lenin play in the revolution? 8. What happened at Brest Litovsk? 9. Which ideas of Karl Marx were adopted by the Communist in the Russian Revolution? Explain them. 10. What were the main differences in ideas between Stalin and Trotsky? 11. They said: there would have been no revolution in Russia without the First world war. Give the main arguments to support this view. 12. Compare the work and importance of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. 8