04/19/23
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION & VLADIMIR ILICH ULYANOV
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Revolution of 1917
Fundamental causes
A. Political gov’t was autocratic; inefficient and corrupt;
– privileged noble class that paid few taxes;– opposition was thwarted by spies and secret police
B. Economic - conditions kept peasantry poor; factory workers were poorly paid
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Fundamental causes
Social - little social freedom; minority rights not respected; censorship
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Immediate Causes
A. disastrous defeats on the war front; soldiers were demoralized
B. food shortages; men taken from farms to the war
C. transportation system collapsed making it difficult to move troops, food
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Communists seize power
1. Severe food shortages caused riots in St.Petersburg in March 1917
2. March 15, 1917 Duma persuaded Czar to abdicate
3. Provisional Government is established; rules from March to November; led first by Lvov and then Kerensky
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Communists seize power
4. communists seize power in Nov; revolution led by Lenin and Trotsky; take Russia out of war by signing Brest-Litovsk Treaty
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Major Events 1917-1921
1. Civil Wara) Red Army, led by Trotsky fought the White armiesb) Civil war broke out in 1918 and ended in 1921
2. Anti-communists are arrested, exiled or executed by the Cheka(secret police);
3. Lenin attempts to establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat” following Marx’s plan of the establishment of
Communism
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Major Events 1917-1921
4. Much discontent
5. gov’t seized crops to supply Red Army and city workers
6. inflation
7. crop failures in 1921 - famine
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2 Main opposing Groups
Reformers - change gradually, democratic ways - Mensheviks
Revolutionaries - change quickly - Bolsheviks
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CIVIL WAR
Whites Mensheviks wanted a constitutional
monarchy mixed economy
Reds Bolsheviks autocratic planned economy communists
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KEY IDEAS OF LENIN
Bolshevik - Communist Russia USSR
– Establish a communist society– Established 1918
War Communism– Nationalism– collectivization of industry and
agriculture
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KEY IDEAS OF LENIN
Influencial in the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - got Russia out of the WWI(substantial loss of land)
Lenin’s Slogan - Peace, Land, Bread, All power to Soviets
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Following the Revolution
Lenin’s policy of war communism did not succeed
Lenin soon had to establish his New Economic Policy
This allowed limited private ownership of key industries and specific industry
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Although Lenin was A Marxist he differed from the political ideology in several important aspects– No revolution can endure without a stable
organization of leaders– A revolution must consist mainly of small number of
professional revolutionaries
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Authoritarian Nature of the USSR
During the Civil war Lenin and his supporters became increasing intolerant of any opposition
By 1922 the CPSU was the only legal party in the USSR– This continued with all communist party leaders
from 1918 - 1989
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Authoritarian Nature of the USSR
Marxist-Leninists argued that such autocratic rule was justified because:– Political parties represent the interests of economic
classes (bourgeoisie)– A state with only a proletariat requires only one
party– Lenin viewed the communist party as the “vanguard
of the proletariat” (protector of communism ideology)
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