CHAPTER 23THE BEGINNING OF THE

TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRISIS: Revolution & Depression

War and revolution

• Q: What were the causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and why did the Bolsheviks prevail in the civil war and gain control of Russia?

Collapse of Old Order

• Tsars reliance on military power to uphold regime– Industry ill equipped to arm soldiers led to

devastating losses in war• 2 million dead/4-6 million killed or captured

– Failed to address declining conditions of peasants and workers

– Invested in war rather than the people

The Women’s March in Petrograd

•“Peace & Bread” March 8, 1917, Petrograd© Bettmann/CORBIS

Internal unrest, 1917

• Series of strikes in capital of Petrograd

• Bread rationing imposed– Tsar sent military to repress the movements,

soldiers joined instead

• Workers continued to join and called for a General Strike– Total shut down of factories

Struggle for power

• Duma (legislative body) met and declared power, tsar abdicated– New Provisional government led by Alexander

Kerensky– Soviets (councils of workers and soldier

deputies) formed in army units, factory towns and rural areas.

• Represented interests of working classes• Many socialists• One were the Marxist-socialist democrats

Marxist Socialist Democrats

• Established in 1898, Split in 1903• Mensheviks

– goal to create a mass electoral socialist party based on the western model

• Bolsheviks: – Russian social democrats led by Vladimir Lenin

(lawyer)• Dedicated to violent overthrow of capitalist system• Vanguard – small party of disciplined professional

revolutionaries to lead the masses

Vladamir Lenin

•November 8, 1917

•Announced the new government at The Council of People’s Commissar’s

•With himself as leader

© Getty Images

Factors of Success of Bolsheviks

• “Peace, land & Bread”– Land reform redistributed land to peasants

• “Worker control of Production”– Transfer of factories & industry to committees

of workers

• “All power to the soviets”– Relegation of power from provisional

government to soviets

“Peace” with Germany

• Treaty of Brest-Litvok, march 3, 1918

• Ceded East Poland, Ukraine, Baltic Provinces to Germany– Ended war externally– Civil war ensued as a result of opposition to

new government• Opponents

– Loyal Tsarists– Bourgeois & aristocratic liberals– Anti-leninists

Civil War, 1918 - 1921

Anti-Bolshevik (Whites) forces attacked to be defeated by Red Army (Bolsheviks)

Bolshevik or “communist regime” expanded into Georgia, Russian Armenia & Azerbaijan

Tsar family killed

Leon Trotsky

•Red Army well disciplined & Organized by Trotsky

–Reinstated draft–Rigid discipline–No tolerance for desertion or lack of obedience

© Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS

War Communism Policy

• Nationalization of Banks & Industry

• Compulsory requisition of grain from peasants

• Centralized Bolshevik Control

• Use of Revolutionary Terror

• Cheka – secret police- to destroy opponents

Russia, 1921

• Creation of a centralized state & Single-Party political system

• Economic collapse as a result of Industrial decline and agricultural disaster

• NEP New Economic Policy– Modified version of capitalism instituted by

Lenin to create rapid economic recovery• Considered a temporary tactical retreat from goal

of communism

USSR, 1922• Union of Soviet Socialist Republic• Alexandra Kollantai – social reform program

of Bolsheviks– Women’s rights & Social welfare programs

• “Palaces for protection and maternity for women” established healthcare for women & children

• Marriage established as a civil act and divorce legalized

• Decree on equity between the sexes• Permitted Abortions• Zhenotdel – women & men sent out to explain new

social order

Politburo & Power struggle

• Lenin’s death, 1924– 7 member Politburo divided

• Trotsky wanted to end NEP & Launch rapid Industrialization at expense of peasants & continued revolution & spread of communism

• Others rejected cause of world revolution & wanted to construct a socialist state

Joseph Stalin• Gained control of Communist Party• Expelled Trotsky by 1927• Eliminated Bolsheviks• Established a dictatorship

– Form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations.

– Tyranny: resorts to force or fraud to gain despotic political power, maintained through use of intimidation, terror and Suppression of basic civil rights

Aftermath of WarThe Great Depression

• What was the aftermath of the Great War? What problems did Europe and the United States face in the 1920s?

1. Global Issues at the end of WWI

• A. Economic concerns over “peace”

• John Maynard Keynes infuriated by terms of Treaty of Versailles

• Failure of victors to develop adequate economic rehabilitation plan for Europe

Economic Consequences of Peace

• Dangers of governments not dealing more directly with economic recovery in Europe.– Internal Productivity – Falling dramatically– Internal transport & exchange broken down

• Markets, supply & demand non-functional

Predictions

• Last phase of war and afterwards– Governments responded incorrectly to inflation

• printing more paper money, failed to regulate supply of essential commodities

– Conditions persisted • Only rich would have purchasing power

– Consequence:• “An inefficient, unemployed, disorganized Europe faces us,

torn by internal strife and international hate, fighting, starving, pillaging and Lying”

B. Economic Outcomes of Europe’s predicament

• Western World began to work on credit– U.S. Europe’s creditor

• Potential investors began to lose confidence in the economic system– High levels of credit & slow-to-recover

productive capacity

Creditor Relationship

• Germany found it impossible to recover economically

• U.S. loans to Germany to pay reparations to Britain and France– Dawes Plan: stabilized Germany’s ability to

pay (1924-29)– 200 million loan for recovery

C. Political Outcomes

• Uncertainty & political discontent

• What model to follow in Europe – capitalist or socialist?

• National Survival becomes primary goal – no matter what…

Nature of World Economy

• Disparity of Wealth increased

• Unstable monetary & banking system

• Strengthened business cartels & unions

• Reparations, war debts & cost of war damaged post war economy

D. Post-Developments in U.S.

• “Roaring Twenties”

– Optimism & Prosperity prevailed

– 1924-29 veil of 20%

• Reality – longer term pattern emerging– Optimism a shallow veneer

What happened next:

• By mid –1920’s 5% of population received 1/3 of all its income

• Some people getting wealthy quickly• Wages for majority stagnating

– Wages kept low– Unions discouraged

• Repressive political period

• A shortage of purchasing power

II. Results: Great Depression Begins

• A. Downward spiral of Spending– Decline of income – decline in demand &

spending – In response – decline in production– Led to – decline in employment– Income further depressed, spiraling

downward in that pattern

• Affecting investors confidence

B. Stock Market Crash

• October 29, 1929 – Black Tuesday

• 12 million shares traded – prices plummeted – chaos– Loss of 75% of investments

• Suicides began

Keep In Mind

• Crash was not the cause of the depression

• Overall economic situation of the world post WWI

An 18 Year Old Mother in a CampFormer Tenant Farmers at a CampA Refugee Camp Along a Highway

An Ex-Migrant Farmer at HomeAn Ex-Migrant Farmer & Her Son at Home

A Mother & Baby On the WayTo California

IV. Global Effects Devastating

• International banking collapsed

• European Industries shut down

• Britain 1929-1931– Unemployment 25%

• German 1930-1932– Unemployment 50%– 44% decline in production

V. Responses

• A. United States

• Franklin D. Roosevelt elected 1932

• Campaign of “New Deal”– The federal government would intervene to

stop the depression by• Creating jobs to stimulate demand• Raising income taxes on the richest

John Maynard Keynes

• Rejected idea that depression should be left to work them selves out

• Unemployment stems from decline in demand

• Increase demand by putting people back to work– Deficit spending by government– Stimulate the economy– Government investment in domestic economy

Examples:

• Emergency Banking Act– Federal loans available to private bankers

• Economy Act– Committed Government to balancing the budget

• Unemployment Relief Act – Civilian Conservation Core – 2 million single men

• Federal Emergency Relief Act– National Relief System – Civil Works Administration- 4

million/400,000 small scale government projects

B. Populist Critics• Banking Reforms• Agricultural Adjustment Act –

– Reduced cultivation and supply, tenant farmers and laborers out of work

• Public Works Administration– Internal improvements, Infrastructure– 3 large dams constructed

• Favored Large economic interests, not the ordinary citizen– Classic liberal remedy: deflationary policy of “balanced

budgets”– Cut costs by lowering wages and raising tariffs & taxes

C. Rebirth of Labor

• Shared working class experience• Labor Unions: workers fired for joining a

union in violation of laws. Corporation not held accountable.

• Pleas unanswered• Strikes – full scale riots – deaths and

millions of dollars of property damage• Took it to the Polls

Rise of Radical 3rd Parties

• Voters prepared to abandon democrats who refused to endorse a more socialist or at least comprehensive program of reform

• Growing appeal for socialism and communist Party

D. 2nd New Deal

• Roosevelt in response to Labor unrest of 1934 sought to reinvigorate appeal among poorer Americans and turn them away from radical solutions.

• Social Security Act – Foundation of American Welfare state

• National Labor Relations Act – – right to join a union, obligation of employers to

bargain in good faith.

Mobilized voters

• 6 million people voted for the first time– Many of them ethnics – 5 million voted for

Roosevelt– Among the poorest, he received 80% of their

vote– Black voters deserted the Republican party

for the “party of the common man”

Rhetoric Vs. Reality

• Promises radical, legislation conservative and on the side of corporations, the wealthy, and white supremacy– Holding Companies he promised to break up,

remained in tact– Took Considerably less taxes from wealthy and

estates than promised– Little effort to protect basic civil rights or restore black

suffrage

Nations Poor

• Did not benefit from Social Security act or other legislation that promised to help the poor– Farm workers– African American Share croppers– Chicano farm workers

Set Backs for Women

• Job Competition– Women seen as taking jobs

• Legislation against hiring married women• Blamed women for unemployment of men

– Solution: fire 10 million working women

Overall

• Efforts slowed depression, did not stop it• Reinvigorated Democracy• Created beginnings of a welfare state• Broke with Laissez-faire policy• Increased military spending and mobilization for

war • Responses by European countries

– Ultra-nationalistic, fascist, depended on mobilization to create jobs and boost economy

Weimar Republic, Germany

• Inflation & economic devestation

• Pushed middle class to right wing radical parties hostile to republic

• 1924-29 3 mill unemployed grew to 4.4 mill

The Great Depression: Bread Lines in Paris

© Roger Viollet/Getty Images