socialism in europe

1. SOCIALISM IN EUROPE
AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

2. FACTORS LEADING TO SOCIALISM IN EUROPE

3. INEQUALITY AND CONCENTRATION OF POWER
 Socialists were against private property ,they saw it
as root cause of all the problems at that time.
Because the owners used the property only for
personal gain and not for public welfare.
 The conditions of poor workers did not improve as
the profit was accumulated by the private
capitalists.
 Karl Marx believed that the workers had to
construct a radical socialist society for unity and
where all property was socially controlled.

4.  By 1870s socialist ideas spread throughout Europe
and the socialists formed an international body –
namely the Second International.
 Workers started forming associations for better
living and working conditions.
 They demanded Rights to vote and Equality.

5.  Not everyone in Europe wanted complete
transformation of society.
 The people are mainly divided as ‘conservatives’ ,
‘liberals’ and ‘radicals’ .
Europe
Conservatives
Liberals
Radicals

6. CONSERVATIVES
The conservatives thought that change was inevitable
but believed that the past had to be respected and
change had to be brought about through slow
process.

7. LIBERALS
Liberals wanted nation which tolerated all religions
and opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic
rulers.
o They argued for representative, elected
parliamentary government and well trained judiciary,
independent of rulers and officials.

8. RADICALS
 Radicals wanted nation in which government was
based on the majority of a country’s population.
 Many supported suffragette movements.
 They disliked the concentration of property in few
hands.

9. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

10. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN 1914
THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
 Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia in 1914.
 The majority religion in Russia was Russian
Orthodox Christianity.
 About 85% of Russian population earned their living
from agriculture.
 Setting up of many factories led to establishment of
railway network, Doubling of coal production and
the Iron and steel output quadrupled.
 Workers were divided by their skills. This division
showed themselves in dresses and manners too.
 In countryside, peasants cultivated most of the
land. But the nobility , the Orthodox church and the
crown owned large properties.

11. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

12.  In Russia the peasants wanted the lands of nobles
to be given to them. They refused to pay the rents
frequently and eventually murdered the landlords.
 All political parties were illegal in Russia before
1914.
 Some socialists thought that peasants, not the
workers would be the main force of revolution.
 In an incident known as Bloody Sunday, 100
workers were killed and 300 were wounded. This
started a series of events that came to be known as
1905 revolution.
 Strikes took place all over the country complaining
about the lack of civil liberties.

13.  In the First world War the Tsar Nicholas II refused to
discuss the matters with the main parties in the
Duma.
 The casualties of more then 7 million soldiers,
addition of 3 million refugees in Russia led to
discredit to the government and Tsar.
 All the Able-bodied labourers and workers led to
shutdown of small workshops producing essential
commodities.
 By the winter of 1916 riots at bakeries for bread
were common. The railway lines started to
disintegrate.

14. THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

15.  In the winter of 1917, the conditions in Russia
worsened. The workers started many strikes.
 The capital city of Petrograd got divided, on the left
side of the River Neva were the fashionable areas
and on the right side there were all the workers and
factories.
 On 22nd February workers in fifty factories called
strike.
 On 25th February the government suspended the
Duma. The police Headquarters were ransacked.

16. AFTER FEBRUARY

17.  Army officials, landowners and industrialists were
influential in the Provisional Government formed. The
liberals as well as socialists worked towards an elected
government.
 Vladimir Lenin returned from his exile. He and the
Bolsheviks declared war to be closed, land to be
transferred to peasants and the banks to be nationalized.
 Through the summer workers’ movement spread.
 Traders unions grew in number. Soldiers, committees
were formed in the army.
 In June 500 Soviets sent their representatives to all
Russia Congress of Soviets.
 The Provisional government started to arrest groups’,
strikes’ and unions’ leaders.
 The Bolsheviks and the Petrograd Soviet agreed to a
socialist seizure of power. They led seizure of power of
Russia.

18. AFTER OCTOBER

19.  The private property, banks and most of the
industry were nationalized.
 The trade unions were kept under party control.
 In the years followed, the Bolsheviks became the
one party to participate the elections, making
Russia one-party state.
 The All Russia Congress became the parliament of
the country.