Russia at the turn of the 20th. Century

Economically dismal situation

Severe food shortages

Workers crammed into the cities living inmiserable conditions

1894 – Installation of Czar Nicholas II

1904-1905 war with Japan

Russia suffered as many as 70,000 dead, mostly conscripted peasants

Result: the “Revolution” of 1905

Peasants had been given half the land – now they demand all

Workers in the cities strike, demand food, higher wages, improved conditions

Czar responds with repressions, creating outrage and eliminating support

Czar tries to mend fences by creating a “legislature” – the Duma. But he manipulates its membership and retains the final word

Conditions create an opening for emerging socialist parties

Bloody Sunday, 2½ mis.http://youtu.be/RIgU0homwBU

1914 – WWI breaks out, enmeshes Russia. In 2½ yearsmore than 8 million soldiers, mostly peasants, arewounded, captured or killed.

By 1915 hunger and despair renews revolutionary fervor

February 1917 – millions of soldiers in the front, ashattered economy. Food and fuel shortages,bread lines, starvation.

Army, police and the “intelligentsia” abandonthe Czar

Crowds surge through the streets. Workers stage ageneral strike.

The once pliant Duma demands all power from the Czar

He refuses and abdicates in favor of his brother Michael. But Michael refuses.

A “Provisional Government” comprised of landowners, wealthy merchants and liberals takes over. It is beset by dissension and ideological attacks from radicals.

Russia Land of the Czars 19, 2020 min. TT

http://youtu.be/1W1b6j8U46k

http://youtu.be/B-qxWWRcN-4

Socialism

Goals: Fair distribution of goods and services

Means: Government takes lead role in planning, regulatingand directing key service and economic sectors

Decision-making: Achieved and advanced democratically, through the vote. Political parties compete democratically to implement their agendas.

Communism

Goals: Eliminate the exploitation of the working class (i.e., the proletariat); provide goods and services based on need.

Means: Abolish class distinctions; place means of production under government control.

Decision-making: One-party system, supposedly with democracy within. In a truly communist society there is no “state,” government or concept of class. Marx said this can only be reached in stages, with a “vanguard” leading the proletariat from capitalism to socialism, then to communism. It was assumed that capitalists would ultimately have to be forced out.

Heavy war losses prompt replay of 1905 Paralyzing strikes and food riots This time the military and police refuse to move in

Czar abdicates, Provisional Government of non-socialist liberals takes over Comprised of privileged persons, lacks backing of workers and soldiers Powerless to address issues of war, land reform and the “nationalities” issue

Government allows socialist groups (“Soviets”) to form in workplaces and the military

Three socialist factions. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were both Marxist – believers in a passed-in revolution, with capitalism a necessary preliminary step. Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, were the smallest faction, also the best organized and

most ideologically trenchant. Championed workers (“peasants do not make a revolution”), refused to compromise, wanted Russia out of WW-I

Mensheviks were more moderate, cooperated with Provisional Government The third socialist faction, the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SR), opposed

the Bolsheviks. Its ideology was “populist,” mostly concerned with the peasants. SR’s wanted to fight Germany to the death

“Russian Revolution Part I,” 10 mis.http://youtu.be/f0c5Tyw7LDE

Clashes between government and people over the war

Liberals running the Provisional Government and theofficer corps are committed to alliance with the West andwar against Germany

Socialist members of the Soviets not interested in anything beyondRussia’s borders

Workers and peasants, the bulk of the army, want out of the war

Clashes over land reform

Peasant communes, the main authority in the countryside, seize landlordestates and illegally redistribute the land

Not enough land for everyone, nor the ability during wartime to reallocate it

Government fears that if peasants get land they would abandon the army

Tensions between Russia and minority populations – the “nationalities question”

Expansion through conquest meant that 50% of the population is not Russian

Disorder feeds nationalist sentiments. Ukraine set up its own parliament.

April 1917: Lenin returns from exile, presses forimmediate revolution End to war; nationalize land; all power to soviets;

workers to control industry Poor economy radicalizes workers, who flock to Bolsheviks

Prominent socialists Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev,Gregory Zinoviev join in

Bolsheviks gain control of Soviets in factories andmilitary units in Petrograd and Moscow

October 1917 Revolution Lenin convinces Bolshevik central committee that time ripe

for revolt▪ In a journal article Kamenev and Zinoviev argue against it

Bolshevik vanguard supported by military mutineers and some workers takes over key installations throughout Petrograd and Moscow▪ Mostly peaceful. Government officials and soldiers abandon their posts.

Coincides with Congress of Soviets. Some Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries walk out.

Provisional Government dissolved, replaced by Council of Commissars

“October 1917,” 10 mis.http://youtu.be/qoZcpeZm0jw

Russia Land of the Czars 18 – 10 mis.

http://youtu.be/P-x4VcmHfxU

Top-down dictatorship by Lenin and hiscommissars, each in charge of a government function

At first all are Bolsheviks, then a few others are let in

Non-Bolshevik commissars soon leave or are dismissed

Land nationalized, but implementation spotty

Rich peasants emerge who rent land to others; real distribution is limited

November 1917: Constituent Assembly elections proceed as previously scheduled

Socialist revolutionaries take the provinces; Bolsheviks get only ¼ of the vote

Lenin disbands the assembly, moves against a free press

Justice system

First Commissar, Isaac Steinberg, socialist revolutionary, leaves in disgust

Regular courts disbanded, replaced by troikas (three-judge panels)

Lenin creates “Cheka,” forerunner of KGB, forms revolutionary tribunals to deal with “counter-revolutionaries”

Cadet Party declared “enemy of the people,” members arrested, imprisoned

March 1918: Lenin makes peace with Germany,gives up territory Nikolai Bukharin and other left-leaning

Bolsheviks see it as a mistake, splitting the socialists Former Provisional Government officials, Czarist generals and Russian

officers gather in provinces to form “White” army Whites get little popular support, and none from the peasants

Whites depend on well-off landholders for whom peasants still toil Czarist past, can’t articulate an appealing political vision to ordinary

people Bolsheviks promise freedoms to non-Russian nationalities

Bolsheviks control the two major cities – Petrograd and Moscow Trotsky builds a huge army with a large administration and supply corps

“War Communism” Reds and Whites both use terror, but the Reds’ Cheka (political police)

proves fierce Reds nationalize commerce and industry and forcibly expropriate grain

▪ Arms production improves; workers and residents of cities are fed By 1920 the war is won. Surviving White leaders self-exile to Europe.

Compare causes and consequences of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions

What factors led the liberal Provisional Government to fail?

How did the October 1917 Revolution (Marxist takeover) come about?

Why did Lenin and his outnumbered Bolsheviks succeed?