Russian revolution

1. The Russian
Revolution

2. Review- Russia
• Russia is the largest country in the world with a variety of geographic
features and struggles
• Harsh winters
• Widely dispersed population
• Napoleon, Caesar, and many others fail to conquer Russia

3. Review- Russia
What we already know:
• Russia was ruled by Czar Nicholas II- an absolute ruler
• Russification enforced Russian language and Orthodox Christianity
• Pogroms had forced millions of Jews to flee
• Russia was not industrialized (lost the Russo-Japanese war as a result)
• Majority of the peasant population lived in stark poverty
• Bloody Sunday (1905)- massacre of peaceful protestors

4. WWI Intensifies Discontent
• Outbreak of WWI fueled national pride and united Russians, but it was
short-lived
• Russian involvement in WWI made many preexisting problems worse:
• Soldiers were poorly trained and dying- 2M in 1915 alone
• Incompetent military leadership
• Lack of industrialization- factories weren’t producing enough supplies,
transportation broke down

5. March Revolution (1917)
• By 1917, peasants and workers are fed up with disastrous
battle losses and food/fuel shortages at home
• Workers strike, march through the streets shouting
“Bread! Bread! Bread!”
• Troops refuse to fire on protestors- join them instead
• Czar Nicholas II abdicates (gives up) the throne, and the Duma creates a
provisional (temporary) government
Note- in
Russia,
known as
February
Revolution

6. Soviets
• Outside of the provisional government, soviets are
created in most cities
• Soviets were more powerful and had more
support than the provisional government
• At first, soviets worked democratically within the
government
• Over time, the communist-leaning Bolsheviks took
charge
Soviets-
councils of
workers and
soldiers set up by
revolutionaries

7. Review- Communism
• During the Industrial Revolution, Karl Marx developed the idea of
communism
• A communist society has no class structure because everyone is equal
and all property is shared.
• Marx believed the masses would rise up to overthrow the Bourgeoisie
• History has been the struggle of the Proletariat against Bourgeoisie
• Government controls the means of production (factories, resources)

8. Vladimir Lenin
• Vladimir Lenin was a socialist who adapted Marxist
ideas to fit Russian conditions
• Because Russia did not have a large urban
proletariat, he called for an elite group to lead
the revolution into communism
• Called his group the Bolsheviks, which means
“majority” (even though they only represented
a small number of socialists)
• Lenin had been exiled but was smuggled back in to
Russia by the Germans during WWI to spread
revolution and force Russia out of the war
Bolsheviks =
Communists

9. Peace, Land, Bread
• Lenin’s goals were summed up in the slogan that gained him support:
“Peace, Land, Bread”
Get Russia out of WWI
End serfdom, give
peasants land
Increase food supply

10. November Revolution (1917)
• In November 1917, Red Guards (armed factory workers)
attacked and overtook the provisional government
• Bolsheviks quickly seized power in other cities- made
Moscow their capital and the Kremlin their headquarters
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks ended private land ownership
and redistributed land to peasants, gave workers control
of factories
Also known
as the
Bolshevik
Revolution
New flag symbolizing union between
workers (hammer) and peasants (sickle)

11. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin
wanted to get Russia out of WWI ASAP
• Signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which
negotiated peace between Russia and
Germany
• However, Germany punished Russia by
forcing them to surrender huge
amounts of territory

12. Civil War
• Once Lenin gained control, civil war began in Russia
• The Red Army- Bolsheviks/Communists
• The White Army- Tsar loyalists, Allied powers
• Brutality was common- White Army attempts to assassinate Lenin
and slaughtered communist prisoners; The Red Army kills former
Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family
• Millions die from starvation as the
civil war drags on for 3 years

13. War Communism
• Communist forces also used terror to control their own people
• Organized the Cheka- secret police force that executed
citizens accused of taking action against the revolution
• Adopted a policy known as “war communism”
• Took over banks, mines, factories, railroads
• Peasant farmers deliver crops to feed soldiers/hungry people
in cities
• Peasant laborers drafted into army or
forced to work in factories
• Red Army becomes highly effective
(every 10th man is shot if they fail)

14. Civil War
In 1921, the Communist Red Army defeats the White Army

15. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
• In 1922, Lenin’s communist government united much of the old Russian
empire into the USSR/Soviet Union, a multinational state made up of
European and Asian peoples
• Theoretically, all member republics shared certain equal rights. In
actuality, the Communist Party held all the power and used the army
and secret police to enforce its will.

16. USSR
the red star and hammer and sickle are symbols of communism and socialism.
The hammer symbolizes urban industrial workers while the sickle symbolizes
agricultural workers (peasants)—who together, as the Proletarian class, form the
state.

17. New Economic Policy
• Lenin’s “war communism” had
plummeted the economy- factory and
mine output had fallen, peasants
stopped producing grain knowing the
gov’t would seize it
• Adapted New Economic Policy (NEP) in
1921- the state kept control of banks,
trade, and large industries, but small
businesses can open for profit and
peasants can sell surplus crops for profit
Is the NEP strict
communism?
Why or why
not?
• Although it successfully revived the Russian
economy, Lenin always saw the NEP as a
temporary retreat from communism. The
Soviet Union would soon return to “pure”
communism.

18. Stalin Comes to Power
• Vladimir Lenin dies suddenly in 1924, and his death leads to a power
struggle in the Communist Party
• Primary contenders are Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky
• Stalin was a shrewd political operator who had many people who
owed him allegiance
• Trotsky had helped Lenin establish the Bolshevik revolution, and was a
well educated and talented leader
Lenin
Trotsky

19. Stalin Comes to Power
• In the end, Stalin out-maneuvers Trotsky and strips him of his party
membership. Trotsky flees to Mexico where he is later assassinated

20. Stalin’s 5-year Plans
• Stalin wanted the Soviet Union to become a
modern industrialized power
• Proposed the first of several “five-year
plans” in 1928 to:
• Build industry
• Improve transportation
• Increase farm production
• To achieve these goals, Stalin set up a
command economy
Command Economy-
government officials
make all basic
economic decisions
and owns means of
production
Summarize in your own words!

21. Collectivization
• Stalin brought the agricultural industry under
government control as well
• Gov’t wanted farmers to produce more grain to feed
city workers
• Peasants worked on large state-owned farms called
collectives
• Government provided tractors, fertilizers, seeds
• Peasants’ farm animals, tools, and machines
were seized by the government
• State set all prices and controlled access to
supplies
Summarize this in
your own words!

22. Resistance to Collectivization
• Peasants tried to resist collectivization by
killing farm animals, destroying tools, and
burning crops, but the government
responded brutally
• Peasants then tried growing just enough
to feed themselves
• Gov’t responded by seizing all of their
grain for cities, purposely leaving them to
starve- 5-8 million died in the Ukraine
alone
• While collectivization did increase Stalin’s
control over the peasantry, it did not
successfully improve farm output

23. Control Through Terror
• Under Stalin, the Soviet Union becomes a totalitarian state
• To ensure obedience, Stalin used secret police, torture, and violent
purges of his enemies
• Anyone who dissented or spoke out against Stalin was sent to the Gulag,
a series of brutal labor camps
• Prisoners were given little food, inadequate shelter and clothing,
and were forced to do extreme physical labor

24. The Great Purge
• Stalin was super paranoid that rival
leaders were plotting against him
• Launched the Great Purge in 1934
• Targeted “Old Bolsheviks”, army
heroes, industrial managers,
academics, and ordinary citizens
• 1936-1938: series of “show trials”
where former Communist leaders
confessed to various crimes after
being tortured or their families
threatened
• Most targets of the Great Purge were simply sent straight to the Gulag
The first five marshals (generals) of the Soviet Union.

25. Impact of the Great Purge
• Purges increased/solidified Stalin’s
power- destroyed the old generation
of revolutionaries and replaced them
with younger party members who
owed Stalin loyalty, plus highlighted
the danger of dissent
• But also destroyed many of the best
and brightest- experts in industry,
economics, engineering, talented
writers and thinkers, most military
leaders and half the military officers
• The loss of so many military
leaders would hurt the Soviet
Union in 1941…

26. “Stalin ruthlessly used terror as a weapon against his
own people. He perpetuated crimes against humanity,
carried out politically motivated mass murders, and
systematically violated his people’s individual rights.
Police spies did not hesitate to open private letters or
plant listening devices. A vast network of internal spies
reported on groups or individuals. Nothing appeared in
print without official approval. There was no free press,
and no safe method of voicing protest.”

27. Controlling Culture
• Stalin forced artists and writers to follow a
style called “socialist realism” to show the
Soviet Union in a positive light
• Those who ignored these guidelines found
their access to materials and jobs limited, or
worse, faced persecution by the government
• Also had a policy of Russification across the
Soviet Empire
• Atheism became the state policy-
Communists targeted the Russian Orthodox
Church, Roman Catholics, and Jews
• Tried to create their own ideology based
on the writings of Marx and Lenin
Poet Osip Mandelstam, arrested
in 1938 and died in the Gulag

28. Propaganda
• Stalin attempted to improve morale and faith in the
communist system through propaganda What is
propaganda?
Under the leadership of the great Stalin -
forward to Communism!
Gentleness of Stalin shines on
the Future of our children
Stalin in the Kremlin cares
about each one of us!

29. Positives and Negatives of Socialism
Benefits Drawbacks
• Free education
• Low-cost housing
• Basic survival needs met
• Free daycare
• Free healthcare
• Women gain equality under the
law
• Limited housing meant that it was
crowded and poor quality
• Bread was available, but little
supply of meat, fruit, other foods
• Communist party members were
the elite- only a small number of
citizens could join the party

30. Comparing Revolutions
American 1776
-Least Radical
-Set the example
-Democracy
French 1789
-1000s executed
-Middle class gained
representation
Russian 1917
-Seized peasant land
-Government takes
absolute control
-Millions executed,
sent to Gulag
more power
to the
peasants and
middle
classes
Terror
Famine
War

31. Review
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia was caused
in part by
1. a forced famine in Ukraine
2. the failure of Czar Nicholas II to come to Serbia's
aid
3. a shortage of military supplies and food during
WWI
4. the establishment of Lenin's New Economic
Policy (NEP)

32. Review
A key principle of the economic theory of Communism
is
1. restoration of a bartering system
2. organization of workers’ unions
3. government ownership of property
4. privatization of business

33. Review
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was a major turning
point in history because
1. Russia became the first nation with a Communist
economic system
2. it was the last revolution in the 20th century
3. Russia ceased to be an important force in world
affairs
4. the royal family was exiled to Mexico

34. Review
Which statement best describes the political situation
in the Soviet Union immediately after Lenin's death in
1924?
1. The nation adopted a constitutional monarchy.
2. Trotsky and his followers assumed full control of
the Communist Party.
3. Popular elections were held to choose a new
General Secretary.
4. A power struggle developed among Communist
Party leaders.

35. Review
The Bolshevik Party in 1917 gained the support of the
peasant class because they promised them
1. "Peace, Land, and Bread"
2. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
3. abolition of the secret police
4. democratic reforms in all levels of government

36. Review
A major goal of Joseph Stalin’s five-year plans was to
1. encourage communist revolutions in the colonies
of the European powers
2. transform the Soviet Union into an industrial
power
3. expand the Soviet Union’s borders to include
warm-water ports
4. reduce the amount of foreign aid coming from
the Western Hemisphere

37. Review
Totalitarian countries are characterized by
1. free and open discussions of ideas
2. a multiparty system with several candidates for
each office
3. government control of newspapers, radio and
television
4. government protection of people’s civil liberties

38. Review
Which condition was a result of Joseph Stalin’s
command economy?
1. Peasants were encouraged to sell surplus grain
for personal profit.
2. The production of consumer goods increased.
3. National revenue increased allowing for greater
individual spending.
4. The government controlled agriculture through
collective farms.

39. Review
The main purpose of the many purges and public trials
that took place in the Soviet Union in the 1930s was to
1. force the Jewish people to leave the Soviet Union
2. eliminate opposition to Joseph Stalin and his
government
3. establish a free and independent court system in
the Soviet Union
4. reform the outdated and inadequate agricultural
system