- Russia under the Tsars was an immense but backwards empire ruled by an absolute monarch with no democratic institutions. Growing unrest led to the 1905 revolution in response to the Russo-Japanese War and Bloody Sunday massacre. - World War I was a disaster for Russia that further increased unrest, leading to the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew the Tsar. However, the provisional government continued the unpopular war, leading Lenin and the Bolsheviks to seize power in the October Revolution. - The Bolsheviks consolidated power through the Russian Civil War, establishing a one-party totalitarian Soviet state based on communist ideology. Stalin came to power in 1927 and instituted collectivization and rapid industrialization, leading to famine and mass repression through

1. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

2. RUSSIA UNDER THE TSARS
NICHOLAS II, THE TSAR
AND HIS FAMILY
- Immense Empire, but politically,
economically and socially backwards
with respect to Western Europe
- Autocracy: the tsar ruled as an absolute
monarch: he concentrated a lot of powers,
there was not a Parliament and there were
no elections. He was supported by the
Orthodox Church, bureaucracy (police, civil
servants) and the army.
-Political parties were forbidden
-Most of the population were peasants,
their living conditions were very hard and
most of them were illiterate.
-Only in some cities (Moscow, Saint
Petersburg) there were industries
and workers

3. POLITICAL PARTIES
PLEJANOV
RUSSIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY
SOCIALIST-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
KERENSKYCHERNOV
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
(KADETS)
MILIUKOV
LENIN
All the political parties were forbidden
Marxist ideology
Liberal ideology

4. THE 1905 REVOLUTION
Demonstration to the Winter Palace
Bloody Sunday (9th January 1905)
Battleship Potemkin
The Russian defeat against Japan in the Russo-
Japanese War (1904-1905), showed Russia´s
backwardness and encouraged protests.
-January 1905: a demonstration of workers
asking for better working conditions was brutally
repressed by the army: 200 people were killed
-The revolt extended to other parts of the
country.
-Soviets (councils of workers ,peasants and
soldiers) appeared and tried to coordinate
protests.
-The Tsar promised to make some reforms (a
Constitution, a representative Parliament,
universal suffrage), but he didn´t keep his
promises.

5. RUSSIA DURING WORLD WAR 1
- Total disaster for the Russian army:
they suffered continuous defeats against
the Germans (Tannenberg, Masurian
Lakes in 1914), who conquered a large
amount of Russian territory.
-The Tsar took personal command of
the army and he was considered to be
responsible for the disaster
-At least two million Russian soldiers
and two million civilians were killed
during the war.
-The mobilization of millions of peasants
reduced the harvests and provoked a
shortage of food, an increase of prices
and hunger.
- Increasing desertions in the army and
strikes in cities. Soviets reappeared
and organized protests.
Orange line: Eastern front in 1915
Red squares: Russian army
Yellow squares: German army
Blue squares: Austro-Hungarian army

6. 1917: THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION (24th- 27th February)
Strikes increased, calling for:
- the end of the war
- bread
- the abdication of the tsar
Finally Nicholas II abdicated, the
Republic was proclaimed and a
Provisional Government was formed
by Liberals, Social-Revolutionaries and
Mensheviks.
This government decided to continue
war and make reforms to transform
Russia into a democracy (write a
Constitution). This meant postponing
land reform (the peasants´ greatest
hope). Deception spread and
desertions in the army increased.
Demostrations in February 1917

7. 1917: APRIL
Lenin coming back to Russia from Stockholm
The Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP, led
by Lenin, opposed to continue war. The
Germans facilitated Lenin´s comeback to
Russian from Switzerland, where he was
exiled.
In April 1917 Lenin issued The April
Theses:
-No support to the Provisional Government
(a bourgeois government)
-All the power to the Soviets
-Confiscation and nationalization of the
lands of the country
- Collectivization of factories
- Bolshevik slogan: Peace, bread and land.

8. 1917: JULY AND AUGUST
General Kornilov
Bolsheviks
-The Bolsheviks tried to seize power in
Petrograd, but they failed. Lenin fled to
Finland.
-Some days later, in August General
Kornilov tried to depose the
Provisional Government. The
Bolsheviks (Trotski´s Red Guard)
organized the defense of the city and
contributed to stop Kornilov´s thread.
This increased the Bolsheviks´
popularity and in September they took
control of the Petrograd Soviet.

9. OCTOBER: THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
25th
-26th
October
On a planned action led by
Trotsky, the Bolsheviks took the
control of the banks,
communication buildings and
stations in Petrograd and
stormed the Winter Palace and
took it over with no resistance.
The Provisional Government
was deposed and Kerensky
fled.
The Bolsheviks formed a new
government, supported by the
Congress of the Soviets of
Russia.
Bolshevik re-enactment of the storming
of the Winter Palace

10. FIRST DECISIONS OF THE BOLSHEVIKS
-Signature of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with
Germany, in order to take Russia out of war.
-Expropriation of lands to distribute them
among the peasants.
-Factories were put under workers´ control.
- Eight-hour day, unemployment pay and
pensions for workers
-Religion was banned and divorce allowed
-The Constituent Assembly was dissolved and
the “dictatorship of the proletariat” was
proclaimed
-The Cheka (secret police) started arresting,
torturing and killing the considered to be
enemies of the State.
2nd
Congress of the Soviets (26th
October)

11. Russia lost a lot of territories in the West:
the best industrial and agricultural lands in
Poland and Ukraine and the territories of
Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
RUSSIAN TERRITORIAL LOSSES
Brest- Litovsk Treaty

12. PROBLEMS: CIVIL WAR (1918-1921)
The partisans of the tsar (part of the
army, aristocracy and rich peasants)
formed the White Army and declared
war on the Bolsheviks. They received
the support of the UK and France.
The Bolsheviks organized the Red Army
(directed by Trostky), mobilized 5
million soldiers and ordered the total
requisition of food (War Communism)
Execution of Nicholas II and his family in Ekaterinburg, July 1918

13. The Bolsheviks finally won the war, but at a high cost:
-5 million dead by starvation and poverty
-total destruction of the productive system
-development of the black market and shortage of supplies in the official markets
The Bolsheviks managed to get rid of the other parties and control the soviets.

14. CREATION OF THE USSR
-The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
was created in 1922: federal State formed
by 11 republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kirghizstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan
- Totalitarian State:
- One/ Single-party system: the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU), considered to be the
representative of the proletariat. The
Communist Party controlled all the
institutions
- No division of powers: ruled by a
Parliament called Supreme Soviet,
which concentrated both the executive
and the legislative power
- Those who opposed the
government were persecuted and
punished.Flag of the Soviet Union (USSR)

15. SOVIET OF THE
UNION
SOVIET OF THE
NATIONALITIES
SUPREME
SOVIET
PRESIDIUM
TWO CHAMBERS
PEOPLE
ELECTED
The General Secretary of the
Communist Party was normally
the head of the Presidium and
the Head of State of the USSR
EXECUTIVE AND
LEGISLATIVE POWER
STRUCTURE OF POWER IN THE USSR

16. THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
Economic policy launched by Lenin in order
to recover production after the wars and the
awful consequences of food requisition. Lenin
defined it as State capitalism:
-Privatization of lands and small factories
-The State kept the control of the big
industries, banks and foreign trade
Results: economy quickly recovered

17. FIGHT FOR POWER: STALIN AND TROTSKY
In January 1924 Lenin died and a fight for
succession started:
-Trotsky wanted to export revolution to
other countries (proletarian internationalism)
-Stalin wanted to consolidate revolution
in the USSR (socialism in one country)
TROTSKY STALIN
Finally Stalin managed to control the
Communist Party, eliminated his
enemies and became the leader of the
USSR in1927. Trotsky had to exile and
was killed by Stalin´s order in 1940.

18. STALINISM (1927- 1953)
ECONOMY
Period under Stalin´s government.
Stalin changed the orientation of the
economic policy. His priority was to
transform the USSR into an industrial
power. He imposed:
-Collectivization of all the private
properties: lands,factories, transports,
banks became State property.
-Centrally planned economy: the State
controlled and planned economy through the
Gosplan (Ministry of Planning). They
elaborated Five-Year Plans, in which
they decided on all the production of the
USSR. All the producers had to carry out
these plans.
- Priority to heavy industry, to the
detriment of light industry
Former Gosplan (State Committe for Planning)
building in Moscow. At present it´s the State Duma.
Results: quick industrialization of the USSR,
but permanent lack of consumers´ goods and
consolidation of the black market

19. Peasants who resisted collectivization
were sent to Siberia.
All the efforts were focused on
industrialization and food production
was destined to feed industrial workers
and export. Millions of peasants died
from starvation (between 2 and 10
million dead, mainly in Ukraine)

20. CULT OF STALIN´S PERSONALITY
Propaganda presented
Stalin as a big leader and
the USSR savior.

21. STALINIST PURGES
ZINOVIEV
NIKHOLAI YEZHOV (HEAD OF THE NKVD)
CRUSHING THE TRAITORS
Constant repression against anyone
suspected of critizicing the regime. The
Communist Party was purged several times
and many of its leaders were killed. More
than 1.5 million people were arrested and
700,000 were killed in the 1930s.

22. ELIMINATING THE ENEMY
YEZHOV REMOVEDTROTSKI REMOVED
The members of the Communist Party that had fallen from grace were progressively
eliminated from the official pictures

23. http://englishrussia.com/2007/02/22/soviet-russian-photos-correction

24. GULAG (SOVIET FORCED LABOUR AGENCY)
Forced labour camps were created
across the USSR and millions of
people were confined there,
accussed of being enemies of the
country.

25. http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/