The Russian revolution 1917

1. The Russian revolution 1917 • Causes similar to 1905 but more serious • Long-term causes • Frustration of • middle class liberals: lack of politacal rights • Peasants: landhunger and conscription • Working class: appalling living conditions • Short-term causes • The war is not going well • The Tsar is loosing support (Rasputin) • Food shortage and inflation

2. February revolution • Strikes and mutinies in St. Petersburg lead to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II • The Power vacuum was filled by the Provisional government and the Petrograd soviet. • Soviet: Council “ráð” • Petrograd: St. Petersburg (later Leningrad)

3. Bolsheviks take power 25. october 1917

4. Another forgery

5. Provisional government first controlled by liberal parties (cadets and octobrists) but later by Social revolutionaries and Menshevicks under the leadership of Kerensky. Saw itself as a caretaker government and did not propose any dramatic changes Showed strength during the july days but discredited after the Kornilov affair Petrograd soviet assembly of workers and soldiers under influence of SR and Menshevicks in the beginning but later Bolsheviks take control. Lenins April thesis gathers support to the Bolsheviks and Lenin sets the course on a second revolution. The Kornilov affair convinces Lenin that Bolsheviks should try to seize power The “dual” government

6. The October revolution • Lenin gave the signal but Trotski controlled the operation • Was it a popular uprising or a coup d´etat? • Did a small group of extremist and organized political adventurers grasp power in the vacuum created by the weakness of the provisional government

7. Elections Nov. 1917

8. First actions of the government • The Decree of Workers Control (Nov 1917) • The Land Decree (Nov 1917) • Constituent assembly disbanded in january 1918 • Bolsheviks gain control of soviets across the country • The treaty of Brest-Litovsk 3 march 1918 • Peace agreement with Germany resulting in heavy losses of land, people and resources • How did these call for a civil war? • What was the reaction of the allies?

9. Rollsinn hans Leníns

10. Questions • Was revolution inevitable, even without the war • What is the strength of the bolsheviks, compared to mensjeviks and Social revolutionaries • What difference did Lenins arrival on the scene en have?

11. War communism 1918-20 • Attack from whites and foreign nations brought about “emergency” measures: • Trotsky founded the red army • Cheka directed the red terror agains political opponents • War communism: • State control of industry • One-man management of factories • grain extracted from peasants • rationing of food

12. Why did the bolsheviks win the Civil war • “objective factors:” • Bolsheviks held the most populated area (more manpower • armaments industry was in their area • Bolsheviks controlled the core of the railway network • The Whites didnt get support because they wanted to take the land back from the peasants and did not listen to separatists.

13. New Economic Policy 1921 • Unrest spreads after the end of the civil war • peasants - workers - Kronstadt soldiers • Lenin has to respond: • NEP created a mixed economy • grain tax, private small businesses, free market for food and consumer goods, state control of heavy industry, railways and export. • to silence critics the rule and discipline of the party was tightened.

14. The proletarian state survived • We have a state that has experienced a social and political revolution and survived a civil war. • What kind of state is this? • What are the prospects of this state?