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The Russian Revolution
- CAUSES OF THE MARCH [FEBRUARY] REVOLUTION OF 1917 [Why Was There A Revolution In February]?
- Weakness of Russia (7 things)
- Size
- Peasants
- Poverty
- Corrupt autocracy
- Okhrana
- Censorship
- = lack of support.
- War (4 things)
- army badly led
- army poorly equipped
- huge defeats at (2 battles):
- Tannenberg
- Masurian Lakes
- = anger and unrest.
- Tsar and Tsarina unpopular (6 things)
- hated after Bloody Sunday 1905
- Tsar blamed for WWI defeats
- Tsarina left in charge while Tsar commanded army
- Tsarina gave great power to Rasputin
- incompetent government
- = Nicholas and Alexandra hated.
- Attacks and opposition (3 points)
- Duma [The Cadets]
- angry over lack of power
- = Duma didn’t support Government.
- Social Revolutionary Party
- Social and Democratic Labour Party
split into (2 parties)
- Mensheviks
- Bolsheviks
- = wanted Communist government
- Reforms failed
(3 things)
- Prime Minister Stolypin had tried reform (2 reforms)
- let kulaks buy own land
- tried to improve conditions for workers
- but was murdered 1911
- = last chance to reform was lost.
- Industrialisation (3 things)
- created huge urban workforce
- terrible conditions
- = disaffection in Petrograd.
- Famine (5 things)
- Trains diverted to war effort so fewer supplies to cities
- 15 million men joined army
- high prices
- bad winter 1916-17
- = demonstrations and bread riots.
- EVENTS OF THE MARCH [FEBRUARY] REVOLUTION OF 1917
- 7 March
- 8 March
- International Women’s Day – bread riots.
- 10 March (2 things)
- Half workforce on strike
- Tsarina orders army to stop them.
- 11 March (2 things)
- Troops fired on crowds
- Tsar dissolves Duma.
- 12 March (3 things)
- Soldiers joined riots
- Duma sets up 12-man ‘ Provisional Government’ led by Kerensky.
- Soldiers and workers set up ‘Petrograd Soviet’.
- 15 March
- THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT [Government That’s Provisional Will Be Killed]
- Government (2 things)
- Petrograd Soviet issues Order Number 1
- workers and soldiers only obey Provisional Government if Soviet agrees
- = government has little power.
- Terrible conditions (2 things)
- Continuing war led to worse inflation and food shortages
- = people feel let down.
- Peasants (3 things)
- Took nobles land
- Provisional Government sent in troops
- = anger.
- War (3 things)
- Russian defeat in Austria
- deserters executed
- = naval mutiny, desertions increased.
- Bolsheviks (5 things)
- Lenin returned
- Lenin Published his ‘April Theses’:
- ‘July Days’ riots,
- Provisional arrested leaders but allowed Bolshevik Party to continue
- = continued power for Bolsheviks.
- Kornilov (3 things)
- Attempted right-wing coup August 1917
- Provisional Government had to ask Bolsheviks to help
- = appeared weak.
- EVENTS OF THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION OF NOVEMBER [OCTOBER] 1917
- Nov. 6
- Red Guards take over bridges/telephone exchanges.
- Nov. 7 (3 things)
- Red Guards take over banks, government buildings, railway stations,
- Winter Palace [shelled by Cruiser Aurora]
- Provisional Government leaders arrested.
- Nov. 8
- New Communist Government declared.
- WHY THE BOLSHEVIKS SUCCEEDED [Perhaps Seven Powers Gave Lenin An Opportunity]
- Provisional Government weak (see: Government That’s Provisional Will Be Killed).
- Government
- Terrible Conditions
- Peasants
- War
- Bolsheviks
- Kornilov
- Slogans appealed to people (2 slogans):
- ‘Peace Bread Land’
- ‘All Power to the soviets’.
- Propaganda
- Party newspaper Pravda [means ‘Truth’]
- German Money
- financed publicity campaigns
- the Germans supported Lenin to remove Russia from the war.
- Lenin (3 things)
- brilliant leader
- brilliant organiser
- single-minded (to overthrow government).
- Army (3 things)
- Red Guards
- well trained
- dedicated.
- Organisation (2 things)
- Central committee sent orders to soviets who sent them to factories.
- Demanded total obedience.
Lenin's Russia
- ESTABLISHING COMMUNIST RULE [Great Big Changes Create Terrible War]
- Government changes (3 things)
- election Nov. 1917 results:
- Bolshevik=175 seats, Social Revolutionaries = 370 seats
- Lenin did (3 things):
- closed Assembly
- killed objectors
- ruled by decree.
- Brest-Litovsk (3 things)
- Bolsheviks ended war 1917
- Treaty gave good agricultural and industrial land to Germany
- Russia lost (4 regions):
- Ukraine
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania.
- Communist state
(2 things)
- Land taken from nobles and given to peasants
- Elected committees of workers controlled factories.
- Communist society (4 things)
- Religion banned (= 2 things)
- churches destroyed
- priests killed
- Labour Law (=3 things):
- 8 hour day
- unemployment pay
- pensions.
- Education (=3 things):
- Science encouraged
- History and Latin banned
- people taught to read.
- Communist morals = (3 things):
- Divorce allowed
- abortion allowed
- greater equality for women.
- Terror (3 things)
- CHEKA [secret police] arrested and killed opponents
- Censorship
- Lenin said a ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ was needed until Russia was fully Communist.
- War Communism (6 things)
- introduced during Civil War, very harsh:
- large factories taken over by government
- strikes illegal
- strikers shot
- rationing
- peasants forced to give surplus food to government.
- CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR [Causes Civil War]
- Challenge to Bolsheviks (8 groups):
- Political opponents
- Social Revolutionaries
- Mensheviks
- Tsarists
- former army officers
- former landlords
- ‘White’ armies led by generals Yudenich and Deniken attacked from west,
- Admiral Kolchak attacked from east.
- Czech Legion (3 things):
- Czech prisoners of war mutinied as they were being taken across Russia
- took control of Trans - Siberian railway
- supported Kolchak.
- World Revolution (2 things):
- Comintern set up with stated aim to cause communist revolutions across the world
- Britain, America, France supported ‘whites’ against Bolsheviks.
- EVENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1918–1921
- 1918
- Tsar and family put to death
- 1919 (2 things):
- Red Army defeated Admiral Kolchak
- British, French, Americans went home.
- 1920
- Last White army defeated in Crimea.
- 1921 (3 things):
- Red Army invaded Poland, defeated.
- Famine, disease and atrocities throughout
- Millions died.
- WHY THE BOLSHEVIKS WON [Why The Bolsheviks Won The War]
- Whites' armies (3 things):
- Were disunited
- Thousands of miles apart
- = easy to fight one by one.
- Trotsky (3 things):
- brilliant leader of Red Army
- excellent war strategist
- = clever tactics.
- Beliefs (3 things):
- Many Russians believed they were fighting for a better world
- others hated foreign armies
- = army enthusiastic and determined.
- War Communism (6 things):
- factories nationalised
- military discipline in factories
- strikes illegal
- surplus food handed over to government
- rationing
- = sufficient army supplies.
- Terror (2 things):
- Cheka murdered Whites,
- terror was used to ensure loyalty and unity.
- Wherewithal (3 things):
- Bolsheviks held Moscow/Petrograd = factories/supplies
- Controlled railways = communication/supplies
- Army of 300,000 men.
- THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
- Causes
- 1921 Kronstadt Mutiny (2 things)
- Sailors at Kronstadt naval mutinied
- They demanded (4 things):
- free speech
- free elections
- free trade unions
- end to War Communism.
- Bolsheviks concerned, brought in NEP (2 things):
- It was opposed by some members of government as capitalism,
- but it restored some prosperity.
- The New Economic Policy (NEP)
- New Small businesses (2 things):
- Small factories returned to owners
- small private businesses allowed.
- Experts
- brought in to increase production in the nationalised industries (4 industries):
- coal
- iron
- steel
- railways.
- Peasants (2 things):
- allowed to sell surplus and pay tax
- Some peasants became rich [the Kulaks].
Stalin's Russia
- The STRUGGLE FOR POWER AFTER LENIN DIED IN 1924 [Stalin Takes Power]
- Secretary
- as General Secretary of Com. Party installed supporters in important positions.
- Trotsky was unpopular (3 things):
- brilliant but big-headed.
- missed Lenin’s funeral (Stalin told him wrong date).
- ideas of world revolution worried some Russians - too soon.
- Played off 2 sides of Politburo against each other (3 steps):
- First (2 things):
- Stalin allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev [Leftists]
- = got Trotsky dismissed 1925.
- Next (3 things):
- he called for ‘Socialism in one country’
- allied with Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky [Rightists]
- = got Zinoviev and Kamenev dismissed 1927.
- Then (2 things):
- he said the NEP wasn’t socialist
- = got supporters of it [Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky] dismissed 1929.
- STALIN'S TERROR
- The Purges (Stalin Takes Total Control)
- Secret police (2 things):
- The Cheka became OGPU in 1924
- became NKVD in 1934.
- The First Purges 1930-1933 (2 victims):
- anyone who opposed industrialisation
- anyone who opposed collectivisation.
- The Great Purges 1934-1939
- Triggered by murder of Kirov
- Political Opponents (2 things):
- thousands arrested/found guilty of treason
- at ‘Show trials’ (2 examples):
- Zinoviev/Kamenev 1936
- Bukharin/Tomsky/Rykov 1938
- Army (2 things):
- Commander-in-Chief of Red Army shot
- dozens of other generals admirals and officers executed or imprisoned
- Church (2 things):
- leaders imprisoned
- churches closed
- Ethnic groups (2 things):
- ‘Russification’
- mosques closed
- Ordinary people (3 things):
- tens of thousands arrested, sent to Gulag [labour camps]
- 20 million died
- Apparatchiks [loyal supporters] given new homes.
- Cult of Stalin (4 examples):
- pictures
- statues
- constant applause
- history books changed
- Reasons For The Purges (Why Unnecessary Purges?)
- Whole country
- belief in ‘strength in unity’.
- Urgency
- Stalin said Russia had 10 years to catch up the west before Germany invaded
- Paranoia
- Stalin saw plots everywhere and became power-mad.
- Results (Result Of The Terror – Insane Stalin Grabs All The Power)
- Russification
- Orthodox Church attacked
- Twenty million dead
- Terror & fear
- Industry-affected by loss of top scientists & engineers
- Stalin cult
- Gulag
- Army and navy lost leading officers
- Purges
- COLLECTIVISATION
- Why? [Six Factors Now To Collectivise Kolkhoz]
- Soviet agriculture backward (4 problems):
- subsistence farming
- no machinery
- too small
- inefficient.
- Food was needed for workers in towns
- essential for success of 5 year plans
- NEP not working
- by 1928 20 million tons of grain short to feed towns.
- Town workers were needed
- peasants needed to work in industry in towns.
- Cash crops were needed
- for export to raise money to buy foreign machinery and expertise.
- Kulaks (3 problems):
- not Communists
- had private wealth
- Stalin wanted to destroy them.
- Enforcement (5 key dates):
- 1927 (2 things):
- voluntary scheme ignored
- = food shortages
- 1929 (3 things):
- compulsory collectivisation
- peasants burned crops
- = famine
- 1932-33 (6 things):
- two-thirds of villages collectivised
- more resistance
- government took food for towns
- = more famine [5 million died in Kazakstan and Ukraine]
- Stalin blamed Kulaks
- = shot/sent to labour camps in Siberia/land taken.
- 1934
- all 7 million Kulaks ‘eliminated’
- 1939 (2 things):
- 99% of land collectivised
- ¼ million Kolkhoz.
- Results [Quite Modern Govt Technology Encourages Collectivisation - Poor Foolish Kulaks]
- Quarter of million Kolkhoz
- More modern methods (3 things):
- machinery
- modern farming methods/ideas
- large-scale
- Grain
- by 1937, 97 million tons plus cash crops
- Town workers
- 17 million peasants moved to work in towns
- End of nobles
- Complete Communist control
- BUT
- Production fell at first
- Famine
- Kulaks destroyed
- INDUSTRIALISATION
- Reasons (Make And Catch Up)
- Many regions of the USSR were backward
- Machinery was needed to mechanise agriculture
- Armaments (3 points)
- would be needed to defend Russia
- Stalin believed Germany would invade
- ‘Either we make good the difference in 10 years or they crush us’.
- Compete with Western world (3 points):
- Stalin believed the USSR should ‘overtake the capitalist countries’
- then the USSR would take over the rest of the world.
- (=‘Socialism in one country’)
- Useful propaganda
- for Communism and for Stalin.
- 5 Year Plans
- 1928 – 32
- 1933 – 37
- agricultural machinery + mining, transport
- The Plans (9 elements):
- Targets set by GOSPLAN for every industry
- Foreign experts brought in
- Propaganda (4 things):
- Posters
- Slogans
- Bonuses
- encouraged to be Stakhanovites
- Fines for not meeting targets
- Women encouraged to work (2 points):
- Crèches set up
- 1932-37 4 out 5 new workrs recruited were women
- Slave labour used
- Education and training
- Harsh conditions
- Industry not consumer goods.
- Successes
- The USSR was turned into a modern state.
- There was genuine Communist enthusiasm among the young ‘Pioneers’.
- Huge increases in production, 1927–1937 (3 industries):
- Many achievements (13 things):
- new cities
- dam/ hydroelectric power
- transport & communications
- the Moscow Underground
- farm machinery
- electricity
- coal
- steel
- fertilisers
- plastic
- no unemployment
- doctors & medicine
- education.
- Failures/Criticims
- Poorly organised (3 problems):
- Inefficiency
- duplication of effort
- waste.
- Appalling human cost (9 problems):
- discipline (sacked if late)
- secret police
- slave labour
- labour camps (for those who made mistakes)
- accidents & deaths (100000 workers died building the BelomorCanal)
- few consumer goods
- poor housing
- wages FELL
- no human rights
- Some historians claim the tsars set up the basis for industrialisation.
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Russia 1917-1941 Revision