The Russian Revolution

1
The Russian Revolution

• ?

• Scott Masters
• Crestwood College

2

• Russia industrializes, but not fast enough
• Russian Marxists start to form Revolutionary
  groups
• LENIN and Bolsheviks
• Russia lost the Russo-Japanese Waranger!
• Autocracy absolutism with Nicholas II

3
The Revolution of 1905

• working class are discontented (land, famine,
  autocratic rule)
• Bloody Sunday 200,000 march on St. Petersburg
  asking for reforms.army fires on crowd and kills
  1,000

4
WWI

• ill-trained, ineffective officers, poorly
  equipped chaos!
• Result? mass desertions and 4 million casualties
  by 1915
• Nicholas moves to the front to rally the troops
  leaves his wife behind to rule

5
Alexandra Power Behind the Throne

• under the influence of Rasputin (holy man) who
  was corrupt
• Claimed he could heal son Alexis of hemophilia
• Rasputin scandals discredit monarchy

6
The Collapse of the Imperial Government

• Nicholas left for the FrontSeptember, 1915
• Alexandra and Rasputin throw the government into
  chaos
• Alexandra and other high government officials
  accused of treason

7
The Revolutions of 1917

• MARCH workers strike - protest war
• Soldiers ordered to fire they join protests!
• Czar Nicholas steps down (executed w. family)
• Provisional govt.

8
Founder of Bolshevism Vladimir Lenin

• His Early Years
• --Exiled to Siberia in 1897, brother hanged for
  plotting to kill Czar
• Committed to Class Struggle and Revolution
• Charismatic personality

9
Marxism vs Russian Communism

• MARX believed
• History was the story of class struggle
• Capitalists vs. proletariat
• Proletariat s would increase and condition
  decrease that revolution would occur
  spontaneously
• Revolution would end with a dictatorship of
  proletariat the communal ownership of wealth

• LENIN believed
• History was the story of class struggle
• Capitalists vs. proletariat and peasants
• Proletariat peasants incapable of leading a
  revolution need professional revolutionaries
• After revolution, state needed to be run by a
  party with disciplined leaders to ensure its goals

10
Lenin Steps into Power Vacuum

• Peace, Land, Bread
• WWI capitalist/imperialist war offered no
  rewards for peasants/workers
• classes are led by parties and parties are led
  by individualsthe will of a class is sometimes
  fulfilled by a dictator
• Bolshevik Red Guards take power in November

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The November Revolution

• private property was abolished divided among
  peasantry (no compensation)
• Industrial factories nationalized (Cheka)
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed (lost land)
• Civil War- 1918-192014 mill died Reds vs.
  Whites Trotsky breakdown of economy

12
Interpreting the Russian Revolution

• Bolsheviks become COMMUNIST PARTY
• Russia is USSR
• NOT about a dictatorship of the people as Marx
  wanted dictatorship of the party!
• Ruined economy w. famine and fighting
• Oil fields and new Republics of Georgia, Armenia,
  Azerbaijan join

13
RUSSIA AFTER THE WAR

• Lenin and New Economic Policy (NEP) allow
  peasants to own some land crops
• Production up, food goods available
• BUT Lenin wanted modern economy w/o private
  property
• Invest in heavy industry, move farmers to cities
  peasants are paying highest price!

14
STALIN TAKES POWER - 1922

• Lenin didnt like him
• Concentrates TOTAL POWER through Totalitarianism
• - police state, censorship, indoctrination
• - state control of business, education,
  propaganda
• - Does not allow religion, one-party rule-
  enemies of the state scapegoats
• Women and men considered equal

15
STALIN (cont)

• Five Year Plan increase industrialization!
• Industries cities from scratch!
• Collectivization of agriculture (small farms to
  big govt. farms w. quotas) outdoor factories
• Kulaks (better-off peasants) fight it burn
  farms, equipment, livestock
• GREAT PURGE Stalin kills off peasants and
  detractors 8-13 million dead!
• Enemies of state went to labor camps (gulags)
  millions die

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USSR industrialized faster than any other country
by 19303d largest industrial power Signed a
NON-AGGRESSION pact with Hitler Hitler avoids a
two-front war, Stalin avoids war.he is
eventually betrayed Stalin joins allies alone
in fighting Hitler in the east! The allies
cannot put up a second front until 1944
D-DAY! At the end of the war, the USSR and
US/Europeans are racing across Europe trying to
liberate countries in the name of Democracy or
Communism dividing line is Berlin BERLIN
WALL COLD WAR BEGINS WARSAW PACT vs.
NATO Nuclear build-up, Truman Doctrine, Korean
War, Cuba, Vietnam, SALT
17
CHINESE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION

• Chiang Kai Shek (nationalists) vs. Mao Zedong
  (communists)
• Mao wanted a PEASANT revolution
• LONG MARCH Guomingdong chased Communists
• Fought the Japanese together
• After WWII, US funded Guomingdong, but they were
  greedy inept looted, taxed, stole
• 1949 China becomes COMMUNIST Chiang Kai Shek
  goes to Taiwan