Group Investigation

Group Investigation • Create a short lecture that will help summarize the key events/ideas in your particular VIP’s life. • Focus on changes within lifetime • Focus on explaining core ideas and actions • Visuals and more slides with brief notes are better than less slides with lots of writing on them. • Students will NOT be copying your notes.

Do Now Grab a “Strive for a 5” Open to p. 345 Describe how Leninism revised Marxism, and analyze how that helped the Bolsheviks to take power in Russia.

In-class FRQ • Compare and contrast the extent to which the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Russian Revolution (1917-1924) changed the status of women.

The Russian Revolution 

The Petrograd Soviet • leftists in St. Petersburg formed the Petrograd Soviet, which they claimed to be the legit. gov’t • Soviets were workers councils that drew democratic power and voted in order to reach decisions • No political parties • No official ideologies • “grassroots” • Taken over by the Bolsheviks eventually

Lenin Steps into This Vacuum • Amnesty granted to all political prisoners in March of 1917 • Lenin’s arrival in Petrograd • A tremendously charismatic personality • “Peace, Land, Bread” • “All Power to the Soviets” • He preached that the war was a capitalist/imperialist war that offered no rewards for the peasants/workers; he also felt the war was over w/ the czar’s abdication • Bolshevik party membership exploded; their power was consolidated

The October Revolution • coup planned by Leon Trotsky, who had gained the confidence of the army (= the “Red Miracle”) • October 26, the Bolsheviks, who controlled the Central Committee of the Congress of Soviets, officially took control of the government.

Lenin’s Reforms • Lenin consolidated power in Jan. 1918 by disbanding the Constituent Assembly (had replaced the Duma) • Russ. dem. thus terminated • a Council of People’s Commissars was created • Lenin gave land to peasants (although peasants already had taken it, much like the “Great Fear” of the French Revolution) • This move was shrewd in that Lenin had no real control over lands in the countryside but was now perceived as a friend of the peasantry • Lenin gave direct control of individual factories by local workers’ committees.

November Revolution • Political Police organized: CHEKA • Revolutionary army created with Trotsky in charge = “Red Army” • Bolshevik Party renamed Communist Party in March of 1918

October Revolution (cont) • The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk • Huge chunk of Russian land to Germany • Poland, Ukraine independent • Lenin: focus on internal control • Civil War followed, 1917-1920 “Reds” versus “Whites” • Complete breakdown of Russian economy and society

Civil War • White Army received limited help from the western powers. • Disorganized • “White Terror” • The Reds won the civil war. • Appealed to Russian nationalism after Western invasion • ORGANIZED • Used “Red Terror” after to get rid of political enemies

War Communism • Earliest form of socialism in the Soviet Union • Applied a "total war" concept to the civil war • Declared that all land was nationalized • State took control of heavy industries and ended private trade • Resulted in huge decline in production • Forced peasants to deliver food to towns • Cheka(secret police) hunted down and executed thousands of opponents, such as the tsar and his family and other enemies of the proletariat

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY • The USSR faced serious eco. issues w/ the conclusion of the wars • W. nations refused to trade w/ them, and Lenin was at 1st determined to apply his Marxist principles, which failed • In Mar. 1921 Lenin relented and intro’d the NEP • attempt to rebuild agri. and industry thru a free market system • many dissidentswere shipped off to the gulags • The NEP did work; Lenin was presumably ready to return to Marxist principles • But his health deteriorated after a 1922 stroke, and Lenin died in 1924: this created a power vacuum and a struggle b/n Trotsky and Stalin

Leon Trotsky • intellectual, head of the Red Army • favoured the doctrine of World Revolution • felt that the USSR could not survive as the sole comm. state • the USSR must therefore seek to export rev. • as a doctrinaire comm., he opposed the NEP

Josef Stalin • favored “Socialism in One Country” • the USSR should strengthen itself and lead the comm. world by ex. • as a pragmatist, he supported the NEP • experienced as a bureaucrat, he became the Party’s General Secretary in 1922: here he appointed many apparatchiks(these allies were crucial to Stalin’s rise) • power struggle lasted until 1928, when Stalin’s complex system of alliances and ability w/ realpolitik allowed him to succeed

STALIN AND THE FIVE YEAR PLANS • the Dec. 1927 Party Congress saw the end of the NEP • the 5 Yr. Plans were Stalin’s own vision – they were intended to re-org. Soviet ind./agri. and to overhaul the eco. and catch up w/ the West • unrealistic production quotas were set, and tremendous sacrifices and ruthless methods were used to reach them • in agri., collectivization was implemented – w/ the state taking the proceeds from the collective farms • peasant opposition was crushed/starved • after some protest, the kulaks were liquidated, starved in order to feed urban workers (the “terror famine”) • by WWII, the peasants were largely regimented

Significant industrial growth • Decline in citizen consumption & living standards • the plans did not emphasize consumer goods; preference was given to megaprojects • workers were praised as “heroes of Sov. labour”, dealing w/ long hours and horrid conditions • living conditions also deteriorated: overcrowding, food and housing shortages (and women who had gained status following the rev. again lost their freedoms – the Zhenotdel was abolished)

Stalin was able to do this, unlike Lenin, b/c the gov’t was firmly in place and all threats had been eliminated/reduced thru state terror/propaganda • Stalin combined communism and dictatorship in this time, setting the tone for future comm. leaders • By 1941, the USSR was among the top 3 eco. powers

Stalin’s paranoia still wouldn’t rest…The Great Purges • They began in 1934 when Stalin’s deputy Sergei Kirov was murdered • Stalin ordered the NKVD to crack down on potential opposition – this soon penetrated all levels of Soviet society • Anyone perceived as a threat was forced to confess in public trials and then executed/shipped to a gulag • Millions disappeared during this time; the party leadership and army officer corps was esp. affected

Group Investigation