2. Lenin
• Leader of the
Bolsheviks. Exiled in
Europe to avoid the
Tsar’s persecution.
• Returned to Russia on a
special train provided by
the German government
in 1917.
• His April theses:
– All power to the soviets.
– Peace, land and bread.
3. The Bolshevik’s Revolution: October 1917
• The Provisional Goverment
had lost support because of
the failures in the war.
The Provisional Government has been
Dessertions increased. overthrown. The cause for which the
• The Bolsheviks obtained people have fought has been made
support after Lennin’s April safe: the inmediate proposal of a
theses. democratic peace, the end of land
owner’s rights, worker’s control over
• October 1917, the Bolsheviks production, the creation of a Soviet
Red Guard, led by Leon government. Long live the revolution
Trotstky overthrew the of workers, soldiers and peasants.
government.
Proclamation of the Petrograd Soviet, 8
November 1917
4. Lennin’s Government
Bread and Land Peace
• Peasants obtained • Treaty of Brest-
the Tsar and the Litovsk:
Church land • Russia lost land and
• Factories were put with it a 34% of its
into the hands of the population and a
workers 26% of the
coalmines
• Fine of 300 millions
gold roubles.
5. Elections to the Constituent Assembly
• Free elections in late • Lenin sent the Red
1917. Guard to close down the
• Bolsheviks (supported assembly and instituted
by workers mainly) did the government of the
not gain a majority. Congress of Soviets
• The Socialist mainly formed by
Revolutionaries Bolsheviks.
(supported by peasants • The Bolsheviks
mainly) were the Dictatorship: led by
biggest party in the Lenin
Assembly.
6. The Civil War: Politics
• Government in the hands of the • By 1921 the Bolsheviks had
Congress of Soviets (mainly controlled Russia.
Bolsheviks). • They won the war because:
• Civil War: – They forced peasants to hand
– The Whites (a coallition of over food to the army and the
oppositors of the Revolution) factories and rationed supplies.
– The Red Army – The Red Terror developed by the
Cheka (secret police) mantained
strict control over the population.
– Propaganda convinced the
population that the Whites’
victory would mean a return to
the Tsar, the landlords and the
Old Regime.
– They were united while the
Whites were a coalition with
different aims.
– The Tsar and his family were
executed.
7. The Civil War’s Economy: War
Communism
• War Communism: harsh
economic measures
adopted by the Bolsheviks
during the Civil War.
• Objectives:
– To put Communist theories
into practice by sharing out
the wealth among Russian
people.
– To supply the Red Army
during the Civil War.
8. The Government
Large factories are controls productive
Large faries are
controlled by the means and
controlled by the
government organizes labour
government
An autarkic policy is Production is
developed to avoid planned and
the external War Communism organized by the
blockade government
Food is rationed and
agricultural production Free enterprise is
has to be taken to the illegal and all
cities so that the production and trade
government can No strikes allowed is controlled by the
distribute it. government
9. The End of the Civil War
• The Bolsheviks won the
war.
• Peasants didn’t want to
produce more as the
surplus was taken by the
government.
• Food shortages + bad
weather = Famines
• 1920-21 Famines: 7
million died
• Mutiny in the Kronstadt
naval base.
• Lenin stops War
Communism.
10. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
• 1921: Lenin decides to
bring back capitalism for
some sections.
• Peasants are allowed to
sell surplus grain for
profit but paying a tax on
what they produce.
• Small factories were
handed back into private
ownership.
• The most important
industries were still
controlled by the state.
“The Russia of the NEP will
• Production increased. become Socialist Russia” (Lenin)
11.
12. 1924: After Lenin’s death there is a problem of
leadership between
Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Stalin, Trotsky
Leon Trotsky Joseph Stalin
- Brilliant speaker and the -General Secretary of the
Communist Party’s best thinker Communist party: put his
- Hero of the Bolshevik supporters into important
Revolution positions and his enemies in
remote posts
- Main Objetive: Spread
Communism through the world - Main objective: Socialism in
one country
-Arrogant. Offended senior party
members - Flattered the senior party
members as he was getting rid of
- Understimated Stalin his opponents.
13. The Stalin Era:
• Stalin gets rid of his opponents by accusing them of
treason and killing them.
• Power is held only by Stalin.
• No opposition is allowed
• Socialism in One Country before expanding it all over
the world
14. 1936 Constitution
• The USSR: federation of
11 republics.
• The Union has the power
to declare war, plan the
economy, control the
army…
• The Republics have
autonomy in
administration and
culture
• The Union is controlled by
the Communist Party and A cartoon published by Russian exiles in
the Soviets (elected every Paris in 1936. The Title of the cartoon is
4 years by universal "The Stalinist Constitution (Law)".
suffrage over candidates
proposed by the party).
16. Economy: Industrialization / Collectivization
The victory of revolution in the cooperation of workers and
peasants
17. Economy: Industrialization
• The Government
establishes the targets:
propaganda, fines and
punishments if they were
not achieved.
• Unemployment was non-
existent. Women into
industry.
• Forced work for political
opponents (canal, roads…)
• Education was free and
compulsory.
• Housing was provided by
the state.
19. Public Works were mainly done by forced labour of Stalin’s opponents
20. Economy: Collectivization
• Kolhoz: joint farm formed by
all the lands put together.
• Animals and tools are put
together. Machines are
provided by the government.
• 90% of production is sold to
the state and the profits are
shared among the farmers;
only 10% of production is
allowed to be used to feed the
kolhoz’s farmers.
• Food production fell. Famine
between 1932-33
(Holodomor)
22. Domestic Policy
• Controlling people so
that they would be
afraid even to think of
opposing Stalin.
• Secret police (OGPU /
NKVD) crushes
opposition inside the
party, the army or the
country.
• Gulag: government
system that
administered forced
labour camps
23. Domestic Policy: The Purges
The Communist Party: The Great Purges
• 1934-39: 500.000 party members were accused of anti-Soviet
activities and deported to Siberia, to the Gulag (labour camps
system) or executed. Moscow Trials.
The Army
• 25.000 officers were removed (1 in 5)
Population
• 1937: 18 million people were sent to the Gulags in 1937. 10 million died.
24. The Cult to Stalin
• Stalin was shown to the
people as a winner and a
leader who cared for the
people.
25. The Cult to Stalin
• The history of the Soviet Union was rewritten so that Lenin
and Stalin were the only real heroes of the Revolution
Lenin and Trotsky celebrate the
2nd anniversary of the Russian
Revolution in Red Square
Lenin celebrates but Trotsky has
been airbrushed out
26. Propaganda
Stalin and Yehoz in the Moscow- Stalin in the Moscow-Volga Canal.
Volga Canal Yehoz has been removed
