Russian Revolution: Study Guide Part I

B. Bergey, 2007

Before the Revolution

Question 1: Fill in the Blank

1a. The Russian Empire in 1861 stretched _______________ miles from east to west.

1b. The Russian Empire had a population of _______________.

1c. More than ______________ languages were spoken.

Question 1: Fill in the Blank

1a. The Russian Empire in 1861 stretched 7,000 miles from east to west.

1b. The Russian Empire had a population of 74 million.

1c. More than 100 languages were spoken.

How was Russia governed?

Tsar; Romanov family since 1613

Nobles and Clergy: Landowning class

Serfs: 90%, lived in 750,000 small villages

No political parties No legislator No constitution

What were the political groups struggling for? Largely supportive of the Tsar Generations of repression and

suffering left intellectual groups seeking change

Non-Russian minorities (Poles, Jews, Finns, Ukrainians) wanted to free themselves from tsar

Groups roughly divided into two categories:

Liberal Reformers Socialists

Q2: List the general goals of the:

Liberal Reformers: Implement Enlightenment ideas Emphasize individual freedom Protect individual right Rule of law through constitutional practices

Q2: List the general goals of the:

Socialists: End exploitation of peasants and workers By giving “means of production” to workers Dismantle capitalism Create a classless society

Marx’s Ideas German philosopher Communist Manifesto, 1848; Capital,

1867 History is struggle between class

struggle Fundamental crisis between property

owners and those who labor on that property

Stages of economic development; industrial capitalism is last stage

In each stage, oppressed class rises up against owners,

Eventually, private property abolished and collectively owned

Q3: List three characteristics of serfs

Poor Uneducated Average life

expectancy: 35 years Lived in communes of

4-8 households Used out-dated farming

techniques Little communication

with world outside their village

Volga Barge Haulers

Q4: List four reforms of Alexander II

Land transference (starting 1861) Jury trials Relaxed censorship laws Elected assembles (zemstvos) for local issues

(e.g., roads, primary education, taxation) State-support industries (e.g., rail construction) Encouraged foreign & domestic entrepreneurs

Q5: Why did the populists go “to the people” in 1873-1874?

Established personal connection with downtrodden

Convince “simple folk” of revolutionary ideas

Q6: List two consequences of the famine of 1891

Small-scale revolts Land seizures Banned newspaper reports of famine “Crystallized political and social awakening of the

educated class”

Q7: Why was Karl Marx important to Russian intellectuals

Criticized changes that came with industrialization and that Russia was experiencing

Explained the social world systematically

Explained the famine Socially and economically

optimistic

Problems in the cities Peasants flocked to cities to

work industrial jobs Urban pop. From 7 to 21

million Overcrowded cities Unsanitary housing Low pay Unsafe work conditions Hostility of workers grows Workers banded together Increasingly large-scale strikes

Discontent Groups

Middle-class liberals Repressed minorities Landless peasants Industrial workers

Q8: Political groups & goals/methods

Liberals W. European style gov; individual liberty; individual rights; private property; gradual, peaceful change

Social Revolutionaries

Party for the peasants; most radical of 3; socialize all land and transfer to peasants; monarchy with democratic republic; political terrorism

Socialist Democrats

Help workers; overthrow capitalism; gradual change; Mensheviks (masses participate)

Bolsheviks (elite, intellectual leadership)

Growth of Russia

Permafrost in Russia

Peasant Unrest

Agricultural Areas in Russia

1905 Revolution

1905 Revolution Sunday Jan. 9, 1905 Bloody Sunday 150,000 workers,

women and children Peaceful march on

Tsar’s Winter Palace, St. Petersburg

Forty killed, hundreds wounded

Clashes elsewhere in city, 200 dead

Q9: How did Bloody Sunday change people’s attitudes toward the Tsar?

No longer protective “Little Father”Violent reaction to peaceful protestUnable to meet needs of the people

1905 Revolution Previously, mostly intellectuals

who called for limits to the Tsar’s authority

Increased violence across Russia; Lawlessness increases

Tsar is generally oblivious to the gravity of the situation

Exiled radicals and political dissidents return

Intellectuals/revolutionaries organize soviets (grass-roots councils)

Leon Trotsky

1905 Revolution

Workers struck Soldiers & sailors mutinied Culminates in general strike

Sept/Oct. 1905

October Manifesto

Expansion of civil liberties Limited Monarchy Legislator elected by universal suffrage, called

Duma Legalization of trade unions and political parties

In response to the October general strike

Failure of the October Manifesto

By May 1906, Nicholas had reclaimed almost all autocratic powers

Was able to appoint half of the Duma Shut down 4 Dumas from 1906-1916 Could make laws by decree when Duma not in

session Complete control over army, foreign police and

secret police

October Manifesto

Splits Liberals Octobrists: View manifesto as a good starting point for

cooperation with Tsar; favored limited suffrage and gradual change Kadets: questioned Tsars’ willingness to deliver; worked for

further concessions

Socialist: rejected manifesto, called for radical political and social change

Conservatives: Pro-Tsar groups (Union of the Russian People, Black Hundreds) beat ethnic minorities and those having democratic sympathies

Q1 and Q2: Stolypin’s Reform

Believed Tsar needed: Establish order Genuinely work with Duma Eliminate causes of discontentment

Enacted land reform Land given to millions of peasants,

creating a new prosperous class of farmers

Shut-down radical newspapers and trade unions

Executed, imprisoned or exiled 60,000 political prisoners

Stolypin’s necktie = hangman’s noose

Q3: Fill in the Blank

“Stolypin wanted to drive the poorer and inefficient peasants off the land allowing them to sell to the more productive and wealthier peasants”

Q3: Fill in the Blank

“Stolypin wanted to drive the poorer and inefficient peasants off the land allowing them to sell to the more productive and wealthier peasants”

Q4: Pos/Neg Economic Indicators

Renewed growth of Russian and foreign industry

Iron/coal production Imports/exports World’s leading grain

exporter Capitalists made record

profits

17,000 peasant disturbances

3 million workers participate in 9,000 strikes

Prices triple while wages double

6 million war refugees and new hires in cities

Russia in WWI After initial success,

Russia suffers badly in WWI

Poor transportation left the front lacking guns, ammunition, and materials

By 1915, supply of riffles exhausted; fought with clubs

Peasants drafted Nicholas, though

inexperienced, takes control

Increasing numbers of troops desert the front

Q5: Russia financed WWI by:

Securing foreign loans Increasing taxes Increasing the supply of

paper money

What effects do you think the last two methods had on Russian workers?

Q6: Rasputin

“Cured” Alexi’s hemophilia

Viewed with suspicion Self-proclaimed holy

man Increasingly influential

while Nicholas on the front with Germany

Killed by members of the cabinet

Q7: Workers called for change b/c:

Food shortages Fuel shortages during an especially cold winter

Q8: Important of soldiers’ mutiny

Feb. 27 66,000 soldiers mutinied Military cohesion gone

February Revolution Women, solders,

sailors, workers march on Petrograd “Down with the

Monarchy” “Peace Now” “Bread for All”

Mob violence Duma leaders

vacate Tsar abdicates

Competing Leadership

Socialists:Petrograd Soviet reconvenes

Liberals:Duma leaders set up a provisional government

Q9: Soviet’s gained loyalty by:

“Order Number One” which gave Soviets the ability to overrule the military, thereby absolving the soldiers who had mutinied

Q10: Political Reforms by Provisional Government Freedom of assembly, speech, press Universal suffrage Repealed legal restrictions on religion, class, and

race Outlawed capital punishment Brought police under local government

Alexander Kerensky

Socialist Leader in both

provisional government and Petrograd soviet

Believed Russia should stay in the WWI

Lenin

Bolshevik Socialist Believed in elite

leadership Germany grants passage

from Switzerland (1917) Opposed the war on

capitalist grounds

Red Guard Take Over

General Kornilov attempts to take Petrograd, seeking military dictatorship

Provisional gov’t sought help from Red Guard, the Bolshevik militia

Red Guard easily defeats military troops, gains weapons, respect and experience

Three weeks later, Red Guard overtake the provisional gov’t

Little resistance

Civil War

Only Bolsheviks were selected to lead

Anti-Bolshevik forces formed in provinces, called Whites

Civil War Lenin nationalized all land (no private property)

Peasant farmed in the name of the party

War Communism: State could seize grain from peasants to help Red guard and city workers

Harsh police-state tactics Secret police: Cheka

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Signed cease-fire with Germany

Enormous loss 33% population 25% territory 33% crop land 25% income 50% industry

After the Civil War:Chaos in Russia

Civil War ends 1921 Millions of casualties from

WWI Billions of dollars lost in

WWI Wages at 1/10 of pre-war

levels Inflation = 1000% De-urbanization

50% in Moscow 60% in Petrograd

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Reintroduced limited capitalism “One step backwards to take two steps forward” Peasants could sell food on open markets Retail shops allowed Entrepreneurs encouraged to sell consumer goods Gov’t controlled major industries (mining, steel,

transportation) Huge success

Communist Society

With an improved economy, Lenin started to construct the society he envisioned

Equality between men and women Universal suffrage Disallowed titles of mobility and rank Church stripped of land, money and influence in

education and gov’t

Communist Society

Desired to be industrially self-sufficient Needed to educate peasants (literacy campaign) Hospitals and clinics Trained doctors (including women)

Lenin Dies

1924 Series of

rehabilitating strokes Body was preserved

and displayed in Moscow’s Red Square

Building the Communist Soviet Union

1922 Constitution both Democratic and Socialist Elected Legislature All rights to all people Universal suffrage

In reality: Communist Party ruled, not people Army and secret police maintained order Russia—the largest republic of the Union—ruled the

others

Stalin takes power

Stalin = “Man of Steel” Stalin politically

outmaneuvers Trotsky as Lenin’s successor

Trotsky criticizes Stalin and goes into exile

Killed by Stalin supporter in Mexico, 1940

Stalin’s Five-Year Plans

Moved away from Lenin’s New Economic Plan

Command Economy Vs. Capitalist economy

Attempted to: Building up heavy industry Improving transportation Increasing farm output

5 year plans successful?

Yes Incentives to those who met

high expectations; punishment for those who failed

Larger factories Hydorelectric power stations Oil, coal, steel production

grew Mining expanded More railroads built

No Peasants’ and workers’ lives

improved little Wages low Consumer goods scarce Central planning inefficient

Shortages & surpluses

Low quality goods

Revolution in Agriculture

Reclaimed small farming units from Lenin’s NEP

Collectivization Created large collectives Peasants reacted by killing animals,

destroying tools, burning crops Resistance was met with brutality

Collectivization

Huge death toll from famine: 5-8 million in Ukraine alone

Feeding population remained serious problem

The Great Purge

Secret police crack down

Show trials Sent to labor camps 4+ million killed during

Stalin’s rule

Totalitarian Control

Marx said the state would wither away under communism

Under Stalin, it became the ultimate power Totalitarianism:

State controls all aspects of society

Through terror Through propaganda

YouTube: “Propaganda Stalin”

War on Religion

Atheism Marx: Religion is the opiate of the

masses Targeted Russian Orthodox Church Also Jews, and to a lesser extent

Muslims Communist texts became “sacred

texts”

Changes in Society

New Elite

Noble class destroyed Communist Party official become new elite

Industrial managers Military leaders Scientists

Special homes Special stores for consumer goods

Social Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits Free education Free meidacal care Day care Inexpensive housing Gender equality

Drawbacks Standard of living

remained low Continued urbanization Massive apartment

complexes Large families in small

apartments Meat, fruit and other food

shortages