Russian Revolution

Causes of the Revolution1) end Czarist absolutism & repression (pol)

2) Middle Class & workers wanted a voice in the government (pol)

3) peasants wanted the Nobles’ fertile land (econ)

4) city workers wanted better economic conditions (econ)

5) end of discrimination and Russification (social)

Wartime Incompetence1) soldiers received inadequate food, clothing,

equipment, etc

2) officers lacked ability

3) Army met with defeat after defeat

4) High casualties

5) Factories were unable to meet civilian or military needs

6) cities faced food shortages

7) Prices soared

•After a peaceful protest turns into a bloody attack, the Tsar agrees to share his power with an elected congress

•Lenin later called Bloody Sunday a “dress rehearsal for the revolution”

The March Revolution

•When 200,000 workers in Petrograd go on strike it sparks a country-wide revolution

New Provisional Government• Czar Nicholas II abdicates

the throne in March 1917

• provisional government is headed by Kerensky

• he guaranteed civil liberties, freed political prisoners

• Tried to establish a democratic regime

Weaknesses of the Provisional Government

1) insisted upon continuing the war

2) proved unable to provide the cities with food

3) refused to approve land seizures by the peasants

4) November 1917, the Bolsheviks toppled the provisional government

5) Bolsheviks were lead by Lenin(Head of Party) and Trotsky (organizer)

Lenin 1917-1924

• Promised “Peace, Bread, and Land”

• took Russia out of the war-Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)

• organized the workers to take over the factories and then nationalized industry

• directed the peasants to seize the nobles’ estates and then nationalize all land

Russia under Lenin1) 1922-the Bolsheviks (Communists) merged

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or the Soviet Union

2) U.S. does not diplomatically recognize the Soviet Union until 1933

3) Lenin dies in 1924 as a result of several strokes

4) leads to a struggle of power between Trotsky & Stalin

Communist Economic SystemCommunism: when the government exercised total

control over the production of the nation’s resources

War Communism (1917-1921):

• government nationalized mines, factories, railroads, land, prohibits most private ownership-leads to economic chaos

New Economic Policy (1921-1928):

• allowed private ownership of retail stores & small factories, sale of surplus crops, foreign investment

USSR under Stalin

1924-1953

• Stalin wins the power struggle

• Trotsky is sent into exile in 1929, eventually assassinated in Mexico City in 1940

• Stalin becomes dictator

• destroyed internal opposition by brutality & terror including secret arrests, fake trials, forced labor-camps, mass executions

• revived militarism, sought territorial expansion, & extolled Russian nationalism

• transformed Russia from agricultural nation to industrial state

Five Year Plans 1928-1990

• Industry concentrated on heavy industry (iron & steel) in order to produce weapons to strengthen the military

• lowered priority given to light industry

• agriculture-forced farmers into collectives which polled land, livestock, and equipment in order to work the total area together

• Kulaks(prosperous farmer) resisted & were eliminated, several million killed

Accomplishments of Communism1) transformed Russia from an

agricultural society into an industrialized society

2) largely avoided problems such as unemployment, inflation, and depressions

3) became the world’s second largest industrial power

Weaknesses of Communism1) centralized planning resulted in

bureaucracy, waste and error

2) costs of production were high

3) Goods were often of poor quality

4) Consumer goods were scarce

5) housing shortage existed

6) Labor productivity was low