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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