Russian Revolution

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Background Russia was the largest regime (land and population) in Europe.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

ECONOMY - SOCIETY

- Weak, based on agriculture, slow industrial development opposite to others.

- Lack of social mobility (semi-feudal regime)

- Increase in industry creates low wages, child labor, miserable working conditions.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

POLITICAL SITUATION

1894-Nicholas II, autocratic rule, poor decisions.

Absolutism-repression of the czars; lack of enlightened ideas.

Duma (congress) rarely met

often disbanded by czars.

Russification-forcing many

nationalities of the empire to have

the same language (Russian),

customs, and traditions.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Several political parties

– Democratic Constitutional Party (bourgois – Liberal)

– Social – Revolutionary Party (peasant revolution) Esers

– Russian Democratic Party (Marxist)

1912 Mensheviks

Bolsheviks

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Rasputin. Too much influence on royal family. Corrupt.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)-humiliating loss.

“Bloody Sunday”-workers march peacefully, shot at.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Revolution of 1905 (fails). Soviets will appear (assemblies of soldiers, peasants and workers) Strikes, violence,

demostrations….

Unfulfilled promises :universal sufrage, agricultural reform…

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

REVOLUTION 1917 Immediate Cause—World War I

Russia’s poor showing (military disasters)

Lack of supplies, millions in casualties, desertions …

Revolution 1917 – Feb : bourgeois revolution

– Provisional Government

– October : Soviet Revolution

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Events of Revolution

February 1917

Social and economic crisis: inflation, lack of raw materials….

Military crisis

Development

23rd February , big demonstration in Saint Petersburg “peace and bread”

25th General strike

26th soldiers refused to shoot at people. Motinies in the quarters

27th _ Provisional Governmenl Luov + Kerensky Isabel Torralbo Talavera

March. Czar Nicholas abdicates

Republic

Lenin back from exile.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Provisional Government

Kerensky and the Mensheviks (moderate) still support WWI crisis

continued

April thesis Lenin “All power for the

soviets”

- Condemns the Provisional Government

as bourgeois and urges "no support" for it

-Calls for a parliamentary republic not to be established and calls this a "retrograde step." He calls for "a republic of Soviets of Workers‘

-Asserts that Russia is "passing from the first stage of the revolution —which placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie—to its second stage, which must place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the peasants.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

TRUE OR FALSE? LENIN

Lenin’s brother was hanged for plotting to kill the czar.

Lenin was kicked out of college.

Lenin was exiled to Siberia for three years

Lenin was not his real name.

Lenin was mummified following his death.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

October / November Revolution

The Bolsheviks with the “Red Guard” take the Winter Palace (October 1917) Provisional

Government overthrown.

A workers´government was proclaimed led by Lenin. The revolution has succeded.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

First measures of the new government

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk—out of WWI. (very hard conditions for Russia)

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Land was expropiated and divided up between the peasants

Factories were taken over by workers´ comittees

November 1917 Elections for the Constituent Assembly

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

PartyOt Votes Percent Deputies

Socialist-Revolutionary Party (SRs)

17,100,000 41.0 380

Bolsheviks

9,800,000 23.5 168

Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets)

2,000,000 4.8 17

Mensheviks

1,360,000 3.3 18

Others

11,140,000 26.7 120

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Civil war—Reds vs. Whites (1918-1921).

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Civil War 1918 - 1921

Combatant: – Bolsheviks (Red Army) led by Trotski

vs

– Mix of liberals and supporters of Tsarism (White Army)

Victory of the bosheviks: – Popular support

– Lack of coordination among the different armies

– Trotsky.

Moscow capital (1918)—U.S.S.R. (Union of Socialist Soviet Republics 1922)

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

After Civil War

- 1922 Federal

State: Union of Socialist Soviet Republics 1922

- Economy (1921-1928) NEP system of

mixed economy which allowed private individuals to own small enterprises

1924 Constitution

– Supreme Soviet (legislative power)

– Presidium ( head of State)

– Council of Peolple´s Commissars (Government

CPSU (Communist

Party of the Soviet Union

(book

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

After Lenin’s death power struggle

Trotsky / Stalin

Trotsky export the

revolution

Stalin “socialism

in one country”

Josef Stalin becomes the leader of the Soviet Union. Isabel Torralbo Talavera

Forced Russia into a modern industrialized nation.

Totalitarianism.

5 year plans—collective farms

Purges out all his enemies.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

USSR is a super power.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2z0nrsQ8o

What characters can you recognize in the video?

What vision (good, bad…) does it give from each one of them? Give specific examples.

Isabel Torralbo Talavera