GENERAL NOTES

● Russian empire in 1900

○ Vast and diverse
○ 40% Russians
○ Russia was behind in industrialisation
● 1914
○ Peasants
■ 77% were peasants
■ Freed from virtual slavery in 1861
■ Large proportion had to feed themselves
■ Agriculture was outdated
● Many died because of famine and illnesses during bad harvests
○ Tsar
■ Ruled by the Romanovs- Nicholas II
■ Inherited throne in 1894
● Didn’t want democracy
■ Had to manage his people
● Growing middle class that wanted representation in the parliament
■ Didn’t want to modernise Russia with his own power and money
■ People worshipped the Romanovs
● Believed that they were god- appointed
○ Nationalities
■ 200 nationalities
● Majority were slaves
■ Russification
● Brought widespread dissatisfaction
● Nationalities were forced to speak russian
● Nationalities wanted regional control
○ Led to tensions
○ Languages
■ 60% non- russians that were forced to speak Russian because of
russification
■ Ignored by many
● Especially in the rural areas
○ Industry
■ Beginning to grow in the 1900s
■ Attention moved from agriculture to industry
■ Railway
● Improved communications
● Jobs
 ● Raw materials
■ Industry needed workers
● Peasants had to move into the city
○ Political opposition
■ Ruled by an autocracy
■ Relatively easy to control
● Localised disturbances
■ Illiterate peasants
● Unlikely for an organised revolt
■ Modernise russia means more contact between people
● More educated
● Aware of their rights
● Bigger chance of a revolt
● 1904
○ Russia lost the war against Japan
○ Blamed Nicholas II
● Bloody sunday
○ Got together to sign a petition/ peaceful protest
○ Nicholas sent troops to massacre
○ Killed 96
■ According to official figures
○ Killed more than 500 people
■ According to opposition
○ More than 300 injured
● October 1905
○ Duma
○ October manifesto
○ 2 weeks
■ Nicholas dissolve the Duma because the people that were voted in the
Duma were all against him
● June 1905
○ Workers were all on strike
○ Army and navy were throwing officers overboard
○ Railwaymen
■ Paralyzed the whole railway system
● First Duma meeting- May 1906
○ Nicholas II would nominate the members
○ Controls the church and duma
○ Can declare war
○ After demands in the first meeting
 ■ Rejected them and dissolved the Duma
● April 1906
○ Replaced the head of Duma with Peter Stolypin
■ Supported the Tsar
○ February 1907- next Duma
■ Lasted 3 months and then it was dissolved again
○ Gapon called for strike alongside 9000 members

Why was there a Communist revolution- 1917

● Factors that lead to the revolution

○ Nicholas II’s weakness
○ Discontent of peasants
○ Discontent of workers
○ Rasputin and scandal
○ February revolution
○ Opposition of communists
○ Failure of Duma
○ Russia's failure in WW1
● Nicholas II
○ Became Tsar in 1884
○ Only autocracy in europe
■ No political institution
○ Believed he was god appointed
○ Won't listen to call for reform
● Social structure (bottom to top)
○ Peasants and workers
○ Nobles
○ Army
○ Church
○ Advisors
○ Tsars
● Control and repression
○ Okhrana - secret police
■ Prosecute opponents
■ Send thousands to prison or exile in siberia
○ Cossacks backed the army
● Books and newspapers were censored
● Church supported the Tsar
○ Called him the ‘little father’
● Russia was medieval in comparison to other countries
○ 2% in industry
○ 80% in agriculture
○ 80% illiteracy rate
● Russification
○ By Alexander (Nicholas II father )
○ 40% speaking russian as first language
○ 60% forced to speak russian
● Population
○ 80% of population peasants
■ Terrible working conditions
■ Little to no education
■ Hunger and disease were common
○ Industrial workers
■ Terrible working
conditions
■ Live in slums
■ Workers suffered
from illness,
alcoholism and
low pay
○ Early 1900s
■ Rising middle
class that wants
democracy
■ Duma like the british parliament
● Political opposition
○ Many oppositions
■ Biggest: socialist revolutionaries
● Strongest in countryside
● Supported by peasants
■ Bolsheviks- part of social democrats
■ Mensheviks- other part of it
● All used violence
● Loss of Russo- Japanese war
○ Lead to political instability
■ A reason for the 1905 revolution
● 1905- 1907
○ January 1905
○ Defeat of the russian army in war with Japan
 ■ Triggered discontent over socioeconomic conditions
○ January 22nd
■ Bloody sunday
■ 200,000 workers lead by the priest
● Petition asking for reform
■ Troops fire the crowds
● 1905 revolution
○ Demonstrations
○ Strikes(most political)
○ Takeovers of farmland
○ Armed Revolts
○ Mutinies in the armed force
○ Political self organization
■ Creation of political parties- from left(communist parties) to right(non-
communist parties)
■ Creation of labour unions, independent professional associations
● Effect of strikes
○ Sailor’s mutiny
○ Peasants of strike
○ Closed universities
○ No working railways
○ Potemkin
■ Sailors threw their officers overboard
● Being served rotten meat
● October Manifesto

●
○ Protests throughout the year
■ Nicholas was saved
● Army was loyal
● Did not learn his lesson
○ After threats to overthrow him
■ October manifesto was promised
● Civil rights
○ Freedom from arrest
○ Freedom of conscience
■ Speech
■ Assembly
 ■ Association
○ Duma
■ Universal suffrage for the election of Duma
● Bolsheviks and mensheviks- socialist parties against the Tsar
● Failure of Duma
○ Duma met
■ Began to criticize the Tsar and demanded changes
○ Nicholas II did not like this at all
○ The Duma was dismissed and new elections
■ Controlled by Tsar
○ It became clear that the Duma would be shut down (and it did) if it criticised the
Tsar
○ As long as the Tsar had the control of the army his power could not be broken
■ Only reasons that he survived- because the military was loyal to him
● How the army restored the tsarist rule
○ Made peace with Japan and brought back his troops
○ Promised better pay and conditions
○ December 1905
■ St. Petersburg and Moscow soviets arrested
■ Led to fighting but it was crushed by the military
○ To bring the peasants unrest under control
■ Tsar promised them a bank to help them buy land
■ Force won
● Thousands were executed and imprisoned.
● Beatings and rape terrified peasants into submissions
○ Most of 1906
○ No revolution if army was loyal
● The troubled years- 1905-14
○ Nicholas II needed to reform Russia
○ Had to satisfy the discontented groups and people from the 1905 revolution
○ 1906 Duma was hopeful that they could help Russia develop
■ Soon disappointed when it was shut down
○ First 2 Duma’s lasted less than a year before it was shut
○ 1907
■ Tsar changed the voting procedures so that the opponents were not elected
to the Duma
○ Third Duma
■ Lasted till 1912
● Stolypin's reforms
○ In 1906
 ■ Tsar appointed a new prime minister- Peter Stolypin
○ The stick
■ Came down hard on strikers, protesters and revolutionaries
● 20,000 exiled
● 1000 hanged
■ Noose became known as ‘Stolypin's necktie’
■ Brutal suppression effectively killed the opposition to the regime in the
countryside until after 1914
○ The carrot
■ Win over the peasants with ‘carrot’
● they had always wanted
■ He allowed wealthier peasants (kulaks)
● To opt out of the mir communes and buy land
■ Kulaks prospered and in process better farms were produced and
production increased
■ 90% of the land in the fertile west of Russia were still run by inefficient
communes in 1916
■ Peasants still lived in poor conditions and remained discontented
○ Tried to boost Russia’s industries
■ Impressive economic growth between 1908-11
■ Still far behind Britain, Germany and the US
○ Stolypin was assassinated in 1911
■ Tsar was going to sack him
● Worried that Stolypin was changing Russia too much
■ Nicholas already blocked some of his plans for basic education for the
people and regulations to protect factory workers
○ Tsar influenced landlords and members of the court
■ Saw Stolypin's reforms as a threat to the traditional russian society in
which everyone knew their place
● Rising discontent
○ Relations between Tsar and his people were getting worse
○ 1913
■ Huge celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs rule in
Russia
○ Discontent among industrial workers in cities
■ Industrial growth not helping
● The profits were going to the capitalists
○ Or paid to the banks in Russia
■ Loaned the money for Russia’s industrial growth
● Their wages were still low
 ○ Cost of food and housing were rising
● Strikes were on the rise
○ Highly publicised Lena goldfield strike where troops
opened fire on striking miners
● Rasputin and Tsarina
○ Some of the tsar’s supporters were alarmed by the dangerous and strange figure
■ Gregory Yefimovich AKA Rasputin
■ Tsar’s son- Alexis
● Very ill with Haemophilia
● Through hypnosis- appeared that Rasputin could control the
disease
○ Greeted by the Tsarina as a miracle workers
○ Soon, started giving the Tsar and Tsarina advice on how to run the country
○ People of Russia
■ Suspicious of Rasputin
■ Said to be a drinker and womaniser
■ Name means
● Disreputable
■ Tsars opponents seized Rasputin as a sign of the Tsars weakness and
unfitness to rule Russia
○ The fact that the tsar didn’t notice the discontent or concern showed how out of
touch he was
● Impact of the war
○ War left many people starving
○ Angry at the government for taking surplus grain
○ Revealed failings of the Tsar
■ His decision was exposed to the poor
Russia and Communism
● Why did Tsar Nicholas become unpopular in the years leading to 1914
○ Rasputin's influence grew from 1905
■ Important when Tsar made himself Commander-in-Chief of the army
■ Left petrograd and never returned
○ Alexandra (Tsarina)
■ Stupid and short-sighted
■ Unpopular because she was German and suspected of being a German spy
■ Gave Nicholas a misleading picture of events in Petrograd in 1916, 1917
● Rasputin and scandal
○ Left control to Tsarina
■ Rasputin influenced Tsar through Tsarina
● Asked him to dismiss ministers and change military tactics
 ■ Rumours spread about the influence of Rasputin and their relationship
○ Eventually he was murdered in December 1916 by the Russian nobles
○ The unpopularity of Royal Family and Rasputin was strongest in Petrograd
● More blindly committed to autocracy than her husband
○ Under Rasputin's influence
○ Didn’t listen to people
● WW1 impact
○ Army
■ Russia believed they would win against Germany easily
● Didn’t realise how powerful they were
■ Russian army was poorly equipped and old-fashioned
■ In August all messages were sent by radio
● The Germans were able to listen in and find out what the Russians
were doing
■ Suffered series of disastrous defeats by the Germans
● Few machine guns and no proper trained soldiers
■ Russian industry were not able to keep the army supplies
● There were 6,000,000 men and 4,500,000 rifles
■ Went into action without riffles
● Told to take them from dead German soldiers
■ Inadequate medical supplies
● Thousands unattended casualties
● 18000 left on petrograd station for a week
● WW1- “The Last Straw”
○ People are sick of there being no reform
○ Role of Nicholas
■ Tried to make things right by becoming Commander-in-chief
■ He had no military experience
● No commander
■ He also left Petrograd never to return
■ He had to rely on Alexandra for information
■ Petrograd broke down, Nicholas not involved about any events
○ Inflation and shortage
■ Railway network was poor and broke down
● Plenty food but not enough locomotives to pull the trains
■ Trains were diverted to carry food and munitions to the army
● Shortage of food
○ Worst in Petrograd and Moscow
○ Petrograd
■ Prices rose by 30%
 ■ War meant that more people went into the city to work in the munitions
factories
■ Lives squashed together in districts near the city center
■ Most severe in Petrograd
● Population had grown very quickly and the city was relatively
isolated
● Fall of the tsar
○ February revolution
■ January 1917- increasing unrest in Petrograd
■ 22nd February- weather improved
■ International women’s day was held on 7th March
● There were parades and demonstrations
● This led to strikes
● By 7-10 march
○ 250,000 people were on strike
■ Tsar was kept informed by his wife and Rodzianko (chairman of the
Duma)
■ Tsarina said that all was well and there were only minor disturbances
■ Rodzianko said that there was a serious crisis and that new government
should be formed
● But Tsar believed his wife
○ He thought that Rodzianko was just trying to be prime
minister
○ 12th March
■ Many demonstrations by the workers and when troops were sent to stop
the unrest (Garrison of Petrograd supported the strikers)
● Many workers shot their officers
■ 340,000 troops in the city but mostly recruits
○ Tsar returned on the 14th of march
■ Too late
■ Forced to abdicate on 15 March to his brother
● Michael abdicated on 3rd march (didn’t want to do it)
■ March 1917
● Provisional government was formed by the members of the Duma
● First Prime Minister was Prince Louv
● Effectiveness of the provisional government rule russia in 1917?
○ Temporary government created by the Duma until a general election could be
held
○ Had no power or authority
 ○ Members believed that they couldn’t take decisions until a government was
elected
■ Continued war with Germany
○ The provisional government had little authority outside of Petrograd
■ Even inside the city it had
● To contend with petrograd soviet(workers council)
● Petrograd soviet
○ Elected by soldiers and workers of Petrograd
■ More authority than the provisional government
■ First controlled by the socialist revolutionaries
○ Issued military number one
■ Provisional government were only obeyed if they were approved by the
Soviet
○ Next 8 months
■ Provisional government had to gain the approval of the soviet
■ Created chaos in Petrograd
● Why did provisional government become unpopular?
○ Didn’t end war
■ Members didn’t believe they had the power to do that
■ Didn’t want to let down Western allies
○ Made no attempt to introduce land reform
■ Which many peasants wanted
○ Did try to tackle the problems of shortages and inflation
■ But in summer 1917
● Rations in Petrograd fell
● 2 million soldiers ran away
● Many soldiers killed their officers instead of fighting
○ Lenin- leader of Bolsheviks
■ Smallest revolutionary parties in Russia
● Russia's involvement in the war
○ Details
■ Anxious not to be associated with the failure and wanting a chance for a
share of the spoils of war
■ Agreed to continue WW1
■ Government launched “Kerensky offensive”
● Attempt to gain territory in the west and push Germans back
● Offensive failed
○ Significance
■ By not removing Russia from war
● The problems increased
 ■ The effects were both on the soldiers and those at home
● Between feb and july
○ 568 factories closed
○ 100000 jobs were lost
● Role of petrograd soviet
○ Details
■ “Dual power” with the provisional government
■ Largely made of workers, Mensheviks and socialists
■ Influence and control
● Railways
● Troops
● Factories
● Power supplies
○ Significance
■ Situation of “dual power”
● There were two voices for the people to listen to
■ The soviet was more powerful but didn’t take power
● Did not feel that russia was ready for a workers’ revolution
● Felt that on a more practical level
○ They would not be able to run Russia as
■ Army leadership and middle class didn’t support
them
● Issue of land
○ Details
■ March revolution- peasants had taken to the seizing of land
■ Some soldiers returned and used weapons to seize land from nobility
■ Manor houses were burnt down and many wealthy landowners were
murdered
■ Provisional government was against this
● The way it was carried out
● Wanted to do it within the framework of law
○ Significance
■ Provisional government failed to control
● Unrest among the people
○ Food shortages
○ Unemployment
○ High prices
○ Lead to the downfall of the Tsar
○ Grain seizures continued in order to feed troops fighting in the war
■ Government increased the price paid by 100%
 ■ Didn’t persuade the peasants to sell as there was little to buy
■ Available things
● Too expensive
● Good stuff
○ Okhrana was disbanded
○ Amnesty was announced for political and religious prisoners
○ Personal freedoms (speech, religion) was granted
○ Death penalty was abolished
Lenin
● March 1917
○ Lenin was living in Switzerland
○ Sent back to russia by the Germans
○ Hoped lenin would create a lot of trouble
○ Lenin returned to Petrograd in April 1917
■ Published ‘April Thesis’
○ Abolition of provisional government
■ All power to the soviets
■ All property and land to be taken over by state
■ All banks united into a National Bank and was put under control of the
soviets
■ All factories
■ The army transformed into national militia
July day 1917
● By mid year
○ The war effort was failing
■ Kerensky becomes minister for war
● Launches great offensive in June
● Conditions at home still bad
○ Food still scarce
○ Sailors, soldiers, factory workers
■ Riots in Petrograd
○ In July
■ Bolsheviks join the rebellion
● Known as ‘July Days’
● Provisional government saved by the army
○ Bolshevik leaders were all either arrested and put in jail
○ Lenin fled to Finland
● After the July days
○ Prince Lvov resigned
○ Alexander Kerensky became prime minister
● Kornilov affair
○ Provisional government becomes more unpopular
○ General Kornilov attempted overthrow Provisional Government
○ To prevent takeover
■ Kerensky freed many Bolsheviks leaders from prison and supplied arms to
revolutionaries
○ Within a few days Bolsheviks enlisted 25000 armed recruits to defend Petrograd
● November/October Revolution
○ Nov 6,1917
■ Coup itself planned by Leon Trotsky who had gained the confidence of the
army(“the red miracle”)
○ Trotsky
■ Been a Menshevik until September
● Became Bolshevik
● Soon became Lenin’s right hand man
○ September and October
■ Lenin was still in hiding
■ Trotsky became leading important Bolshevik in Petrograd
○ Lenin eventually returned
■ Without his beard
● Wearing a wig and in disguise
■ He remained in disguise until after the seizure of power
■ It was Lenin who forced the Bolsheviks to accept the idea of seizure of
power
● Planned events on 24-25 October
○ Cutting telephone wires
○ Seizing control
■ Post offices
■ Railways
■ Other key buildings
■ Isolated the winter palace
● Provisional government was supposed to meet
● Trotsky used his position
○ In the military committee to move army units
■ Local to the Provisional Government out of Petrograd
● Ordered them to defend the city from an advance by the Germans
● 24/25 October
○ Bolsheviks attacked the winter palace
○ Kerensky sent repeated messages to the army appealing for help
○ Only a few hundred assorted troops came
 ■ Some students
■ 140 women
■ 40 soldiers had been crippled by wounds
● A few thousand bolsheviks and it took them 2 days to win control of the winter palace
○ Petrograd Garrison could have easily stopped them
■ But it didn’t
● Abandoning the constituent assembly
○ After october revolution 1917
○ Lenin promised to hold elections for a parliament to be known as the Constituent
Assembly
■ Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party
■ Communist party to win wider support
■ Communists won 175/700
○ So Lenin shut down the Constituent assembly after only one day
■ Lenin was not ready to share power
● First step in setting up a communist dictatorship
● Imposing bolshevik control 1917-21
○ Lenin issued the Peace Decree and Land Decree
■ Peace decree declared that the war with Germany was over
■ Land decree declared that land belonged to the peasants who farmed it
○ General election was held in November and was won by the socialist
revolutionaries
○ Lenin continued to govern Russia
■ Issued a series of decrees
■ CHEKA
● Secret police was set up in December
○ Constituent assembly meeting- 5th January, 18th January 1918
■ Crushed by Lenin
○ He now began to rule as a dictator
■ All businesses were taken over and at first workers were allowed to elect
managers
○ Lands and wealth of the Russian orthodox church was confiscated
○ Ranks in the army were abolished
■ Soldiers were allowed to elect their officers
● CHEKA(secret police)
○ In December 1917
■ Lenin set up a secret police force
○ Spied on the Russian people in factories and villages
■ Anyone suspected of being anti-communist could be… without a trial
● Arrested
 ● Torched
● Executed
○ Opponents tried assassinating Lenin in 1918 (3 attempts)
○ Launched the Red Terror campaign (killed 80,000 in 1990)
■ 50,000 people were arrested and executed
● Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
○ To successfully impose control in Russia
■ Lenin realised that he would have to bring Russia out of WW1
■ Feared that the war might bring an end to communist rule
○ Russian army was weakened by:
■ Poor morale
■ Desertions
■ Break down in discipline
○ March 1918
■ Signed a humiliating peace treaty with Germany
■ Russia lost land in the West
● 34% (60 million people)
■ Lost many things
● 2% farmland
● 54% industry
● 26% railways
● 89% coal mine
● Made them pay 3 hundred million gold rubles
○ Lenin knew that it had to be done and that they could not win against Russia and
Germany
● Why did Lenin accept the treaty
○ He expected a revolution in Germany
■ Workers would seize power and lands would be returned
○ Expected a civil war
■ Couldn’t fight his enemies at the same time
○ Believed that Germany would eventually be defeated and the land would be
recovered
○ Had to keep his promise to the Russians
● Civil war (1918-21)
○ Reds were the communists- whites were their opponents
○ Whites are mixture aristocrats, royalists, churchmen, army officers and many
others
■ Supported by Britain, France, Japan, USA
■ Countries that were alarmed at the possibility of the spread of communism
○ Lenin fought a war with Poland at the same time
 ○ Communists won
■ Whites were divided
■ Reds controlled the key cities, industrial centers and communication links
■ Trotsky’s tough leadership of the new red army
● Decisive in the victory over the whites
○ Trotsky threatened former tsarist army officers’ families as hostage
● Execution of Tsar Nicholas II july 1918
○ After his abdication in March 1917
■ His family was arrested and sent to Siberia
○ July 1918
■ Romanovs were in Ekaterinburg, with white army closing in on the town
■ Local communists were worried that the tsar might be a rallying point for
the whites
● Because of that, the tsar, his wife, and his 5 children were shot and
bayoneted
● War communism
○ To win the Civil War
■ And impose communism in russia
● Lenin needed a strong red army supplied with weapons and food
○ The state took control of the factories
■ And appointed managers to run them
○ Work was hard and long
○ Food was rationed to only those who worked and trade unions banned
○ The requisition squads- CHEKA
○ Civil war meant that few factories were actually producing goods
■ Very little being made- the few things became expensive
○ Russia was suffering from soaring inflation
■ Money became worthless
● Made the peasants reluctant to accept money in return for their
production
● Workers had few possessions that they could exchange with
peasants for food
○ Communists responded by sending out the CHEKA
■ The peasants got upset and cut down the amount they were producing
● Because the peasants weren’t producing enough food
■ They suffered from a terrible famine (1921-22)
● 4-5 million people died
● Problems in the city
○ Workers in the city were discontent
■ Forced to work longer hours and stricter laws
 ■ Included death penalties for striking
○ Rations were inadequate and often there weren’t any at all
○ Some peasants brought food to barter or sell into the city
■ Price for the black-market food was too high
○ People that were caught trading were shot
○ Big cities began to empty out and workers moved to the country in hope for more
food
■ Petrograd lost 70% of its inhabitants
■ Moscow lost 50%
○ Many who remained moved to the extreme left party and people became against
the government
○ Joined the february revolution (1921
● Growing opposition
○ Early 1921- discontent with war communism
■ Countryside- red army had to put down a number full-scale rebellions by
the peasants that cost the army almost a quarter of a million lived in a year
○ Trotsky and Lenin saw the dangers of war communism
■ Tried to have the policy changed
■ Defeated by other communists who thought war communism was
important
○ Final straw
■ Discontent in petrograd spread to soldiers at the Kronstadt naval base

Kronstadt Revolt 1921

● War communism made Lenin’s government very unpopular
○ Discontent among the peasants led to violence in the cities
○ Workers went on strike
■ In spite of death penalty for striking
● The most serious opposition to lenin’s government came in march 1921
○ Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base near Petrograd revolted
■ One of his most loyal supporters
○ They accused Lenin of breaking his promise to help the workers
● Constant Revolt demanded bolsheviks change their strategy.
○ New elections, freedom of speech, equal rations.
○ Stop the cheka from taking the peasants.
■ Trotsky fought against the naval base.
● Heavy fighting
● thousands died
● thousands were imprisoned and executed
○ Trotsky sent the red army against the naval base
 ■ Revolt was crushed
○ Both sides suffered from many casualties
■ Clear the trotsky and lenin were right
● If communism wanted to survive they needed a policy that would
strengthen their economy
● Result = new economic policy
The New Economic Policy
What is it?
● Lenin abandoned War Communism
○ Introduced the New Economic Policy(NEP)
■ Reduced government’s control on the economy
■ Some people were allowed to work for themselves and earn a
profit
■ Aimed to boost the economy
● Remove opposition of the workers and peasants
○ To communist rule by easing their problems
Was it successful?
● In order to persuade the peasants to grow more food and end the widespread rebellion in
the countryside
○ Lenin decided to put an end to the requisition squads
○ Government put a small tax on the goods the peasants produced
■ Peasants began to produce more because they knew that they could still
make a profit
● They could sell their surplus on the open market
○ Return to capitalism and competition
○ Lenin allowed small- scale businesses to be set up to get industry and trade
moving again
■ Return to a limited form of capitalism
● Big improvement to the war communism policy
○ Food production increased and industry began to recover
○ Value of money began to stabilize and the variety of goods on sale increased
○ Policy was so huge political success
■ CHEKA stopped raiding towns
● Majority of peasants lost in interest in rebellion
○ Fewer strikes
■ No repeat of naval mutiny seen in 1921
● NEP did create some problems
○ Some peasants(Kulaks) became rich
■ Other peasants(Nepman) made a profit in the towns
○ Some saw NEP as a betrayal of communism and return to old system
 ● Danger 1
○ Communists saw NEP as the return of capitalism and betrayal of communist
ideals and jokingly called it the ‘The New Exploitation of the Proletariat’
■ Lenin had to convince them otherwise
● Argued that the NEP was a temporary policy to get the country
back on its feet
● Slogan changed to: 2 steps forward, 1 step back
○ Pointed out that the government kept control of all major industries like transport
and power (‘Commanding Heights)
○ Not everyone was convinced
■ Lenin introduced a ban on all organised fractions of the party
● Set a dangerous example for the future
● Danger 2
○ Lenin believed he needed to allow a limited amount of private industry to restore
the country’s wealth
○ If capitalism was brought back
■ Chances of a new capitalist opposition that could threaten the bolsheviks
○ Determined that his party should have complete power
○ During this period
■ Economic freedom- made sure that political freedom was restricted
○ Gave CHEKA more powers so they became as feared as the old Tsarist Police
○ New network of labour camps for political dissidents began to open in remote
parts of the country
○ 1924
■ Country formalled renamed the soviet union

Russian Revolution 1917 Effects and problems

- Lenin died in 1924
- He had been successful in imposing communist dictatorship in Russia
- He had defeated all of his opponents and established a strong communist
government
- Lenin failed to provide clear successor on his death
- Led to 4 years of bitter struggle
______________________________________________________________________________

Stalin or Trotsky?
● When Lenin died there were several communists who were possible candidates to take
his place
○ The main struggle was between the two candidates- Stalin and Trotsky
■ Until 1929
Lenin’s testament
● When Lenin lay dying in bed
○ Trotsky seemed like to win
■ Brilliant speaker
■ Man who had organised the bolshevik revolution
■ Hero of the civil war
● Leader of the red army
● Lenin thought that
○ Stalin had unlimited authority in his hands
■ But was unsure that he would use it with great caution
○ On the other hand, he remarked Trotsky and was sure that he would be an
excellent Tsar
■ Although this document wasn’t published in Russia as it would present
Stalin in a bad way
Trotsky’s mistakes
● Trotsky was arrogant and high-handed
○ He used to insult other senior party members
○ He failed to take the opposition seriously
○ He made little effort to build up any support in the ranks of the party
○ He underestimated Stalin
■ He didn’t think that he was a threat
● Stalin kept in the shadows
○ Not taking clear position
○ Seeming to be the friend and ally of different groups
■ This allowed him to become steadily more powerful
without the others realising it
○ He also frightened many people in the USSR(soviet union)
■ They were worried that he might become a dictator
● Since he had a great deal of support in the army
○ He argued that USSR’s security lay
■ In starting a permanent revolution world wide
● Till everyone is communist
○ Many people were worried that
■ Trotsky would involve USSR in new conflicts
● His radical policies might split the party
Luck
● When Lenin was dying
○ Trotsky had malaria like infection
■ When he should have been the most active
Stalin’s cunning
 ● Stalin made great efforts to associate himself with Lenin as much as possible
○ Lenin’s funeral was his jackpot
■ Stalin told Trotsky that the funeral is on the 26th January instead of the 27.
● Trotsky was in the south of Russia and couldn’t make it on the 26
but would have gotten there by 27
○ Stalin appeared as the chief mourner and Lenin’s closest
comrade and follower
● He was clever with using his powers within Communist Party
○ He took out many boring but important jobs such as General Secretary
■ He used these positions to put his own supporters into important posts
● Removed people likely to support his opponents from the party
● He was good at political manoeuvring
○ He allied himself with Zinoviev and Kamanev (candidates for Tsar’s position)
■ To take out Trotsky
○ He then allied himself with Bukharin in the debate about NEP
■ To defeat Zinoviev and Kamanev and get all three of them out of the party
○ He was building his own power base
■ Bringing his supporters to the Party Congress and Central Committee
● To make sure he was the chosen one
○ He finally turned on Bukharin and his supporters
■ Removing them from important positions
● His policies were great as well
○ He proposed that in future the party tries to establish “Socialism in One Country”
rather than try to spread revolution worldwide
■ The idea that they could achieve socialism appealed to the Russian sense
of nationalism
● Stalin appeared to be Georgian peasant- much more a man of the people than his
intellectual rivals
○ To soviet Stalin seemed to be a man who understood their feelings

Why did Stalin launch the purges

● 1930s
○ Stalin ran a campaign of terror throughout Russia
● Sergey Kirov
○ Stalin's friend
■ People began to like him and Stalin realised that Kirov could be a rival
○ December 1st 1934
■ Stalin killed Kirov because he became too popular
○ Stalin blamed Lev Kamanev for the murder of Kirov
■ Needed a confession
 ■ Stalin made them a deal to not hurt their family and took them on trial
● Kamanev confessed and stalin got rid of his rivals
● “I won’t hurt your family if you confess”
Stalin’s terror
● This grew from his own paranoia and desire to be an autocrat
○ Enforced it through the NKVD (secret police) and public ‘show trials’
○ Terrifying system of labour camps called ‘gulags’ where he sent people that he
purged from the USSR
■ It eventually developed into a centrally-enforced ‘cult of Stalin-worship’
● Reasons for terror
○ Unify the country
■ Stalin believed Russia had to be united with him as leader if it wanted to
be strong
■ Some people doubted that he was doing what was best for the country
○ Urgency
■ Stalin believed that Russia had just 10 years before Germany invaded
○ Paranoia
■ Paranoid and power-mad
● He was paranoid because he got this position by political
maneuvering and killing people
○ He think he is going to have the same fate as them
● Demanded praise and applause everytime he walked into a room
■ 1935
● Wife killed herself because she couldn’t take his mood swings
● Official announcement said that she died due to appendicitis
● Apparatus of his terror
○ Secret Police
■ CHEKA became the OGPU (1922) then the NKVD (1934)
○ First purges
■ 1930s-33
● Including anyone who opposed industrialisation and the
kulaks(rich farmers)who opposed collectivitsations(get all the
farms together-more money)
○ The Great Purges
■ 1934- 39
○ What was happening
● Secret police were spying on each other
○ Didn’t trust anyone
○ Nobody knew who to trust/ talk to
 ● The law was changed to the execution of 12 years olds and older
was legal now
● Killed rivals’ families
● Key aspects of the Terror
○ Political opponents
■ 1934
● Kirov was Stalin's rival and was murdered
● Stalin ‘probably’ ordered the assassination but used the
assassination as a chance to purge his opponents from the USSR
because he felt threatened
■ 1934-39
● Political opponents put on ‘Show Trials’
○ Kamenev and Zinoviev 14 more
■ Plead guilty to impossible and illegal charges of
treason
● 1936
○ Kamenev and Zinoviev trial
● 1938
○ Bukharin and 500,000 other party members trials
○ The army
■ 1937
● Stalin ordered the commander in chief of the red army & 7
generals to be shot in case they rebelled against him
■ 1938- 1939
● Ordered the execution of all Navy admirals and 50% (25,000) of
the army's officers
○ The church
■ Stalin ordered the imprisonment of all religious leaders
● Had all Soviet churches closed down
○ Ethnic groups
■ Stalin enforced Russification all over the soviet union
○ Ordinary people- lived in fear
■ Stalin had ordinary people arrested and sent them to the Gulags (Siberian
labour camps)
■ 20 million Russians were sent to the gulags and half of them died
■ Anyone who stood in the way of industrialization was
executed/imprisoned
■ Anyone who was proved to be disloyal faced the same faith
● Neighbours turned on each other to prove their loyalty
● What effects did the Purges have?
 ○ The red army
■ Lost all its experienced officers
■ 1941
● Stood no chance against the german army
○ Science and technology
■ Suffered as new inventions were stopped
■ Stalin prevented development in some areas by clinging to outdated ideas
○ Industry
■ Suffered because managers were unwilling to try anything new
○ Literature and music
■ Stifled
■ Stalin’s favourite form of art
● Socialist Realism accepted
■ Showed workers striving to create Soviet Union
○ Eliminating old figures
■ Stalin was able to promote younger men who owed their success to him
■ Made them completely loyal
● Lavrenti Beria became the head of the NKVD
● Stalin set himself up as a Cult
○ Believed that people should worship him as a leader and saviour of Soviet Union
○ Censorship
■ Ordered censorship on anything that reflects badly on him
○ Put up propaganda everywhere
■ Pictures
■ Statuses
■ Demanded continuous praise/ applause
○ Ordered streets, hospitals, towns to be named after him
○ Mothers’ were ordered to teach their children that Stalin was the ‘wisest man of
the age’
○ History books and photographs were rewritten/altered
■ make him the hero of the revolution
■ Obliterate any information about opponents
● Purged from Soviet Union
○ For example- Trotsky
● Control over russians
○ Used propaganda
 ■ persuade people to accept and obey him as the rightful leader
○ Often exaggerated his achievements
and made writers and journalists
portray him as a hero of the people
● Use of propaganda to control
○ False information
■ Stalin lied to make trotsky
look like a bad person
■ During the 5-year plans-
published statistics were made
up to make the economic
situation look good
■ Newspapers, radios and
posters gave out state-
controlled information
■ State censorship of everything
● Writing, art, music and
plays were censored
■ School textbooks were
changed on a regular basis
■ Stalin even had previous allies
airbrushed from their photographs when he no longer had use for them
● Use of propaganda in industrial production
○ 5-year plans encouraged everyone to exceed their targets
○ Alexei Stakhanov
■ Coal Miner who mined 102 tons of coal his work gang in one shift in 1925
○ Posters, newspapers and radio presented him as a Russian hero
■ urging Russians to follow his example
○ Later, Stalin admitted that Stakhanov had been working on an essay seam of coal
with the best equipment
● Cult of stalin
○ Tried to make the Russians worship him as a leader
○ Portrayed himself as cheerful, fatherly and popular
○ Statues, pictures and paintings of him
■ Placed all over Russia
● Government offices to factories to schools to humble homes
● Control over Russians
○ Control over education system and arts
■ Strict discipline was enforced for teachers and students
● Would be purged if anti- stalin
 ■ Authors and artists were forced
● Portray him in a good light
■ Emphasis was placed
● Highlighting and promoting Stalin’s industrialization success
○ As a result, lack of variety in Soviet culture
○ Controlled the education system
■ By centralizing it
● Controlling through the government
○ Schools were forced to teach Marxist and Leninist ideas
■ Instilling complete loyalty among the students
○ His role in important events such as October 1917 was increased
■ His enemies or opponents were unfairly represented or ignored
● Control of the media
○ Reign of Terror
■ Media was under full control and was able to alter people’s opinions on
him
○ Overstated stories of his acts
■ Throughout October 1917
● Revisionist Stalinism
○ Used media to create names and titles
■ Father of Nations
■ Brilliant Genius of Humanity
■ The Gardener of Human Happiness
○ Using media
■ Rewrote the history of October Revolution
● Portrayed a more important role
of involvement at the expense of
Trotsky
● Propaganda
○ Used propaganda through USSR
○ Man of Steel
■ A name he called himself
● A picture of a happy family with
Stalin and the children in awe of
them >
○ Used photos like this to portray a message
■ People in USSR were happy and adored
him
● Results
○ Russification
 ■ Dominated the whole USSR
○ Orthodox
■ Church was attacked
○ 20 million Russians were dead and many imprisoned
○ Terror
■ Lived in fear of secret police
○ Industry
■ May have grown
● Terror provided free slave labour
■ Technology and science was held back by loss of engineers and scientists
○ Stalin
■ Cult was established
○ Gulags
■ Established in Siberia
○ Army and navy
■ Were weakened by purges of leading officers
● Those that were left loyal to Stalin
○ Purges
■ Political opponents eliminated
● Collectivisation
○ Process by which Russian agricultural was reformed
○ Traditionally
■ Peasants worked on small farms with limited technology
● He planned to merge small farms into large farms
○ These farms would pool the labour and resources to operate
efficiently
■ Tractors and fertilisers were provided
● Collectivisation
○ Part of the first five year plan
■ Attempt to get rid of the ownership of land by normal people
■ Attempt to solve the food problem in Soviet Union
○ Food rationing had been introduced in 1928
■ Peasants had begun to hoard grain in an effort to force the price up
○ An attempt to destroy the kulaks
■ Stalin hated and feared
■ Made profits and employed others
■ Independent and resisted central control
○ He hoped that he would be able to sell wheat abroad
■ Raise foreign exchange to buy new technology
○ Wanted to make the best use of machinery
 ■ Machine tractor stations were set up
● Would serve the surrounding farms
○ Two types of farms were formed
■ Sovkhozes (state farms)
● All land was owned by the state
○ All produce went to the state and the workers were paid
wages
● The wages were paid whether the workers worked well or badly
○ These farms were expensive
■ Few were set up
■ Kolkhozes
● Workers kept plots of land for themselves
○ Had a supply fixed of amounts of food to the state at fixed
prices
● The workers kept what was left for themselves
○ If there was nothing was left
■ They starved
● 240,000 of these farms were set up by 1940
● Why was there opposition?
○ Peasants didn’t like that farms were under the control
■ Of local communist leader
○ Peasants were being asked to grow crops like flax for soviet industry
■ Not grain to feed themselves
○ Kulaks who owned the land refused to hand it over
■ Arrested and sent to gulags
● As revenge, many Kulaks burnt their crops and slaughtered their
animals instead of handing it over
○ Another famine in 1930
■ Stalin relaxed the rules for awhile
● He tried to enforce collectivisation in 1931
○ There was resistance and worse famine
■ Stalin blamed Kulaks
● Consequences of collectivisation
○ Famine was a result of government policy
■ Not natural disaster
○ 1931
■ Government issued unrealistic targets to Russian farms
○ Failure to meet the targets
■ Considered sabotage
■ Would be punished severely
 ○ When farmers failed to meet their targets
■ Grains were seized by the Red Army and secret police
■ Peasants caught hiding grains were shot or exiled
○ Much of the grain were seized from the peasant
■ Taken to cities for industrial workers or exported
● Shocking statistics
○ 9,500,000-10,000,000 were exiled
■ Part of dekulakization
○ 1929
■ 150,000 Kulak families were sent to Siberia
● Rose to 240,000 in 1930 and 285,000 in 1931
○ 22.8 million tons of grains had been collected
■ End of 1931
○ 1932- 1934
■ Up to 7 million people died as a result of famine
○ 1932
■ Up to 7.32 million tons of grain were exported
○ End of 1934
■ 70% of peasants households were in collectives
○ 1936
■ 90% of peasants of households were in collectives
● How successful was collectivisation
○ Stalin achieved most of his aims
■ Grain production rose to nearly 100 million tonnes in 1937
■ Numbers of animals never recovered
○ Russia sold large quantities of grain to other countries
■ Around 17 million people left the countryside to go work in towns
■ Kulaks were eliminated
● Peasants were closely under the government's control
○ Human cost was immense
● Industrialisation
○ Stalin believed that the soviet industry and agriculture was 100 years behind the
west
■ Said they must catch up in 10 years
○ Plans
■ On coal, steel, oil, gas, engineering and chemicals
○ Stalin distributed the west
■ He knew that they had to tried to intervene in the Russian civil war
● Suspected that they were supporting Hitler against him in the
1930s
 ○ Wanted to destroy NEP
■ Lenin had intended to be temporary
○ Hated the Kulaks
■ Wanted to destroy them
● Thought they were parasites
○ Wanted to increase his control over the soviet union
■ 5 year- plans would enable him to do this
○ First 5 year plan
■ Increase of 200% in heavy industry
● How did 5 year plans work?
○ Private trade and working for someone else became illegal
○ State planning agency was set up
■ GOSPLAN
● Worked out targets for the production of all goods
● Based in Moscow
● Employed 50,000 people
○ Every factory throughout the soviet union was given targets for each of 5 years
and for the total 5 years
○ New industrial cities were constructed like Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk
■ Built from scratch beyond the Ural mountains
○ Many of the workers were arrested
■ In Purges
● Worked as slave labour
○ Young People from KOMSOMOL
■ Young Communist League
● Volunteered to help
■ 250,000 were sent every summer to create industrial cities
○ Slave Labour
■ People arrested in the purges
■ Gulags and Labour camps were set up
● In the North and siberia
○ Inmates worked to death in appalling conditions
○ ‘Stakhanovites’ were created
■ After Alexei Stakhanov(coal miner)
● Credited with digging more than 100 tonnes of coal
○ In a single shift
■ Others were urged to follow his example
■ A trick of propaganda to make workers work harder
● His record was soon beaten by another miner
○ Dug 300 tonnes of coal
● Why did he want to modernise the soviet industry
○ Security
■ WW1 had shown that a country could only fight a modern war if they had
the industries to produce the weapons and other equipment
● It was impossible to equip the army without uniform or rifles
without any factories
■ Planned for many of the industrial projects to be in the further East of
USSR
● Potentially safer from invasion
○ Power and control
■ 1928
● Allied himself to Bukharin and his supporters
○ Undermined Bukharin and took the power for himself
● Political prisoners were sent to work in appalling conditions in
labour camps
● Anyone who criticised Stalin's programme could be accused of
undermining the country's progress
○ Ideology
■ Communist theory was that most people had to be workers for the
communism
■ 1928
● ⅕ Russians were industrial workers
○ Trying to build a power base of industrial workers
○ Hoped they would benefit from industrialisation and so
support him
○ Personal Reputation
■ Saw modernising as a means of establishing his own personal reputation
■ Lenin made big changes
● Stalin wanted to make changes to prove himself as a great leader
by bringing out greater changes
○ Be able to point to dams, factories, railways, electricity
pylons and take credit
■ Helped by a formidable propaganda machine of
films, posters, painting, music
○ “Socialism in one country”
■ Closely connected to his policy of Socialism in one country
● Had a lot of supporters
■ Saw an opportunity to harness nationalist pride to develop the economy
■ When Stalin took power
● Much of Russia's industrial equipment had to be imported back
 ○ Wanted the USSR to be self- sufficient so it could make
everything it needed itself
■ Wanted USSR to compete on equal terms with the economies of the West
● Hoped to see a time when the West would be importing goods
from the USSR instead of the other way around
● Also wanted to improve the standards in Russia so people would
value communism
○ Better housing
○ Mass education
○ Health care
● What went wrong?
○ Most targets were very high
■ Took no account of local conditions
■ Emphasis was quantity not quality
■ 50% of the tractors
● In first five year plan didn’t work
○ Peasants flocked into cities
■ In search of high paid jobs in industry
● Were uneducated and couldn’t work
● Many machinery broke down as a result
○ Managers of factories
■ Tried to ‘cook the books’
● Rather than admit failure
● No criticism of the plans was accepted
○ Plans increased industrial production by about 400% during 1930s
○ 1940
■ Soviet union second industrial power in the world
● USA produced more
● How did life change for the people of the Soviet Union
○ Industrial production rose by 400% in 1930
○ Education and housing improved literacy
■ Increased rapidly
○ Women were given equality for the first time
■ 1940
● 40% of the workers were women
● Creches were set up in factories to allow women to work
○ Number of doctors increased( more than Britain)
■ Medical treatment improved
● Real facts of life in the Soviet Union were different
○ Work
 ■ Five year plans increased production
● Not quality
○ 50% of the tractors broke down
■ Managers of plants cheated whenever they could
● If they did not reach target figures
○ They were shot
■ 7 day week
● Absence from work- crime
● Skilled workers weren’t allowed to leave their jobs
● Standard of living
○ More people crowded to cities to work in industries
■ Pay did not keep up with the rise in prices
○ After 1931
■ Most people paid by piecework
■ Average income was 50% of that in 1928
○ Often severe shortages
■ Queuing was a way of life
● Fresh foods were often not available
○ Most people ate meal in the communal canteens at their place of work instead of
cooking at home
○ Housing was in short supply
■ Low on party’s priorities
■ Overcrowding common
○ Most people lived in part of a flat- sharing kitchen
■ If they were lucky- a bathroom
○ Luxury goods were unavailable
■ Only available in special shops
● For party bureaucrats or managers
● Lives changing for people in the soviet union
○ Results were impressive
■ Industrial production rose by 400% in the 1930s
○ Education and improved literary increased rapidly
○ Women were given equality for the first time
■ 1940
● 40% of the workers were women
● Creches were set up in factories to allow women to work
○ Number of doctors increased and medical treatment improved
● Effect of stalin's control
○ Used secret police to accept his changes
○ Agricultural products suffered
 ■ Kilaks destroyed their crops and animals instead of handing them over
○ 1932-1934
■ Massive famine
● 5,000,000 people killed
○ People who objected found themselves in slave labour camps- gulags
■ Often in Siberia or Northern Russia
● Cold weather
○ People worked with little food
■ For ten years
● Many died from exhaustion
○ 7,000,000 people disappeared
■ In purges
● Maybe twice or thrice the number
○ Forced some ethnic groups to move from their homelands to Siberia
■ Whole populations were transported from Southern Russia to the east

Worksheet Notes
● Impact of industrialisation on the Russians
○ Targets, hardwork and propaganda
■ Programmes like these was bound to carry a cost
● Cost was paid by workers
● Foreign experts and supervisors were called in by Stalin to
supervise the work and
○ Their letters and reports marvel at the toughness of the
Russians
■ Workers were constantly bombarded with propaganda, posters, slogans,
radio broadcasts
● All had strict targets and were fined if they didn’t meet them
■ Most famous work by Alexei Stakhanov
● 1935
○ With 2 helpers and an easy coal seam to work on- managed
to cut 102 tons of coal in one shift
■ 14 times the average for a shift
○ Became a ‘Hero of Socialist labour’
■ Propaganda encouraged soviet workers to be
‘Stakhanovites’
○ Slave labour
■ Great engineering projects
● Dams, canals, etc.
 ● Many of the workers were prisoners who had been sentenced to
hard labour
○ Against stalin, or Kulaks, or jews
■ Working in these conditions were horrible
● Many deaths and accidents
● Estimation 100,000 workers died in the construction of the
Belomor canal
○ Wages and living conditions
■ Towns and cities
● Most housing was provided by the state
○ Overcrowding was a problem
○ Most families lived in flats and were crowded into 2 rooms
■ Used for living, sleeping, eating
○ Wages fell between 1928- 37
■ 1932
● Husband and wife who both earned only has
much as one man/woman had in 1928
■ Concentration on the heavy industry meant that were few consumer goods
● Clothes or radios
○ Women workers
■ Revealed a shortage of workers
● 1930
○ Government concentrated on drafting more women into
industry
○ Set up thousands of new creches and day-care centers so
mothers could work
● 1937
○ 40% were industrial workers
○ 21% building workers
○ 72% health workers
○ ⅘ new workers recruited between 1932- 37
○ Control
■ To escape punishments and harsh conditions
● Try to get better wages and bonuses
○ Get wages and bonuses
● Moved jobs frequently
■ Internal passports were introduced
● To prevent the movement of workers inside the USSR
○ Training
■ By late 1930s
 ● Soviet workers had improved their conditions by acquiring well-
paid skilled jobs
○ Earning bonuses for meeting targets
■ Unemployment was almost non- existent
■ 1940
● The USSR had more doctors per head of population than Britain
○ Education became free and compulsory for all Stalin
invested huge sums in training schemes based in colleges
and in the workplace
○ Repression
■ Stalin was quite prepared to destroy the way of life of the soviet people to
help industrialisation
● For example
○ Republics of central Asia the influence of Islam was
thought to hold back industrialisation
■ Between 1928- 32
● Many Muslim leaders were imprisoned or deported
○ Mosques were closed and pilgrimages to Mecca were
forbidden
○ Punishments and blame
■ Life was very harsh under Stalin
● Factory discipline was strict and punishments were severe
○ Lateness or absenses were punished by sacking and that
often meant losing your flat or house as well
● In the headlong rush to fulfill targets
○ Many products were of poor- quality
■ Some factories over-produced in massive amounts
■ Others had to shut down for short periods because
they could not get raw materials
○ Things did improve under the second- third year five - year
plans
■ Blaming the workers was a good way of excusing mistakes made by
management
● Many workers were unskilled ex-peasants and di sometimes cause
damage to machinery and equipment
1.
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