lenin’s russia lenin seizes power & builds an empire 1917-1924
TRANSCRIPT
Lenin’s Russia
Lenin Seizes power & builds an Empire
1917-1924
Reform Movement in Russia
• Existed long before the Revolution began in 1917– 1891-92 famine produced “social awakening” among educated classes
– People, however, did not agree on the type of change needed
• Duma included “moderates” seeking a constitutional monarchy
• Czar rule was destined to change => yet the outcome of the revolution was unpredictable in 1917
Bolsheviks• What: Russian Marxist group
• Leader: Vladimir Lenin
• Goal: communist revolution in Russia
• How: have a small group of committed revolutionaries force radical social/political change on Russia
What is Marxism? (Reading…)
Means of production
Private Property
Fall of Czar Rule
March 1917: Nicholas II steps down, family executed 1918
March 1917: Textile workers strike in Petrograd
Leaders of Duma form Provisional Government
Soviets are formed (local councils consisting of workers, peasants & soldiers)
April 1917 Lenin returns to Russia
“All Power to Soviets”
Lenin promises a new way to govern:
Lenin Seizes Power
• Lenin and his Bolsheviks seize power in November 1917– Lenin seizes power through violence (at gunpoint)
– He then moved to ruthlessly destroy opposition
• Lenin distributes land to peasants and factories to workers– Will Marxism work?
What is to be done?
• Primary Source Reading
Lenin takes power in 1917
Russia falls into Civil War 1918-20
Signs treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
TIMELINE
15 million people die! (war, famine, disease)
Economy destroyed!
Economic Reforms
New Economic Policy 1921
Encouraged foreign investment
Allowed some Capitalism
Lenin is victorious in Civil War 1920
Political Reforms
1922 named Russia the USSR
Organized Russia into self-ruling Republics
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
Bolsheviks rename party the Communist Party
Became a dictatorship of the Communist Party
Lenin dies in 1924
53-Years old
Who would take his place?
Joseph Stalin
Power StruggleLeon Trotsky
Lenin Video Analysis