SOCIALISM IN

EUROPE AND
RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
HISTORY – CHAPTER: 2
 THE AGE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Inspired by the French Revolution, new ideas about individual rights
and societal changes began to be discussed in Europe and Asia

For Example: Rajaram Mohan Roy and Derozio discussed the

importance of French Revolution

Opened up the possibilities for changing the society

New authority for social power began to be discussed

Development in the colonies reshaped the ideas of societal change

Responses varies from different groups: Conservatives, radicals and

liberals

With Russian Revolution socialism became one of the most significant

and powerful ideas to shape society in the 20 th Century
 LIBERAL
Favoured Secularism S
Opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers

Wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals

Argued for elected parliamentary government and

independent judiciary

Not democrats and did not believe n Universal Adult

Franchise
RADICALS Wanted a
government
on majority
of population

Disliked the
Supported
concentratio
the women’s
n of property
suffrage
in the hands
movement
of few

Opposed the
Not against privileges of
the great
existence of landowners
private and wealthy
property factory
owners
 CONSERVATIVES
After the
French
Opposed to Revolution
liberals and opened their
radicals minds to the
need for
change

Changes
Believed that
adopted
past has to
through a
be respected
slow process
 INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETY AND
SOCIAL CHANGE
 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

● Time of profound social and

economic changes
● New cities came up and new
industrialized regions developed
● Railways expanded and Industrial
Revolution Occurred
EFFECTS OF INDUSTRAIL REVOLUTION

● Industrialization brought men, women

and children to factories.
● Work hours were often long, and
wages were poor.
● Unemployment was common,
particularly during times of low
demand for industrial goods.
● Housing and sanitation problems
since towns were growing rapidly.
 LIBERALS AND RADICALS ON INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Liberals and radicals searched for solutions to these issues.

Opposed to the privileges the old aristocracy had by birth, they firmly believed in
the value of individual effort, labour and enterprise.

They encouraged the workforce in the economy to be healthy and citizens to be

educated

If freedom of individuals was ensured, if the poor could labour, and those with
capital could operate without restraint, they believed that societies would develop.

Many working men and women who wanted changes in the world rallied around
liberal and radical groups and parties in the early nineteenth century.
 Some nationalists, lib
erals and radicals wan
an end to the kind of ted revolutions to put
governments establis
hed in Europe in
1815.
In France, Italy, Germ
any and Russia, they
and worked to overth became revolutionari
row existing monarch es
Nationalists talked of s.
revolutions that wou
all citizens would have ld create ‘nations’ where
equal rights.
After 1815, Giuseppe
Mazzini, an Italian
with others to achieve nationalist, conspired
this in Italy.
Nationalists elsewhere
– including India – re
ad his writings.

REVOLUTION
S…
 THE
COMING OF
SOCIALISM
TO EUROPE
WHAT IS SOCIALISM? SOCIALISM WHO WERE SOCIALISTS?

A system or condition of
society in which the means of People who are against Private
production are owned and Property
controlled by the state

WHY AGAINST PRIVATE PROPERTY?

Individuals owned the property concerned only with personal gain and not with
the welfare of those who made the property productive. if society as a
whole rather than single individuals-controlled property, more attention
would be paid to collective social interests.

WHAT WAS THE SOLUTION THEY GAVE FOR THE PROBLEM ?

COOPERATIVES
 DIFFERENT VISIONS OF THE
SOCIALISTS
ROBERT OWEN (1771- 1858)
A Leading English Manufacturer
 Sought to build a cooperative community – New Harmony in Indiana
(USA)

LOUIS BLANC (1813- 1882)

A French Politician

 Wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace

capitalist enterprises.
 Cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced goods
together and divided the profits according to the work done by
members.
 DIFFERENT VISIONS OF THE
SOCIALISTS
 Industrial society was ‘capitalist’. Capitalists owned the
capital invested in factories, and the profit of capitalists
was produced by workers.
 The conditions of workers could not improve as long as
this profit was accumulated by private capitalists
 Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of
private property.
 Marx believed that to free themselves from capitalist
exploitation, workers had to construct a radically
socialist society where all property was socially
controlled. This would be a communist society .
 He was convinced that workers would triumph in their
conflict with capitalists. A communist society was the
natural society of the future.
KARL MARX (1818-1883)
German Philosopher
 SUPPORT FOR SOCIALISM
● By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe. To coordinate
their efforts, socialists formed an international body – namely, the
Second International. Workers in England and Germany began
forming associations to fight for better living and working conditions.

● They set up funds to help members in times of distress and

demanded a reduction of working hours and the right to vote. In
Germany, these associations worked closely with the Social
Democratic Party (SPD) and helped it win parliamentary seats.

● By 1905, socialists and trade unionists formed a Labour Party in

Britain and a Socialist Party in France. However, till 1914, socialists
never succeeded in forming a government in Europe.

● Represented by strong figures in parliamentary politics, their ideas

did shape legislation, but governments continued to be run by
conservatives, liberals and radicals.
 RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
 RUSSIAN
EMPIRE IN
1914
COMPOSITION OF RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Territory around Moscow

Present Day Finland, Latvia,

Lithuania, Estonia, parts of
Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.

It stretched to the Pacific and

comprised today’s Central Asian
states, as well as Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
RULER AND THE PEOPLE

Empire also
Tsar Majority included
Nicholas II Religion – Catholics,
ruled Russian Protestants,
Russia and Orthodox Muslims
its Empire Christianity and
Buddhists
 ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

85% of
Majority – population
Agriculturalis earned living
ts from
Agriculture

Cultivators
produced for
Major
the Market
exporter of
as well as
Grain
for their own
needs
ECONOMY AND SOCIETY….
Industries was found in pockets

St. Petersburg and Moscow – Prominent Industrial Ares

Craftsmen were also present

1890s – Many factories were set up

Foreign Investment increased

Railway Network extended

Coal production doubled

Iron and Steel output quadrupled

 INDUSTRIES
Most industry - private property of industrialists.

Government supervised large factories to ensure minimum wages and limited

hours of work.

But factory inspectors could not prevent rules being broken.

In craft units and small workshops, the working day was sometimes 15 hours,
compared with 10 or 12 hours in factories.

Accommodation varied from rooms to dormitories.

 INDUSTRY LABOUR FORCE
A divided Social groups of Workers – Rural and Urban

Divided by skills

Divided by Gender – 31% of factory workforce – Paid less than men

Divisions among workers showed themselves in dress and manners too.

Few associations formed by workers to help members in times of

unemployment or financial hardship
Despite divisions, workers united to strike work when they disagreed with
employers about dismissals or work conditions.
These strikes took place frequently in the textile industry during

1896-1897, and in the metal industry during 1902.

 COUNTRYSIDE PEASANTS
● Peasants cultivated most of the land but the it was owned
by nobility, the crown and the Orthodox Church
● Like workers, peasants too were divided.
● They were deeply religious
● They had no respect for the nobility – Nobles got power
and position through their services to Tsar, not through
local popularity
● Russia peasants wanted the land to be given to them
● Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered
landlords.
● In 1902, this occurred on a large scale in south Russia
and in 1905, such incidents took place all over Russia.
● Russian peasants were different from other European
peasants in another way.
● They pooled their land together periodically and their
commune (mir) divided it according to the needs of
individual families.
SOCIALISM
IN
RUSSIA
 POLITICAL PARTIES IN RUSSIA
All political parties before 1914 were illegal
THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC WORKERS PARTY

● Founded in 1898 by socialists who respected Marx’s

ideas
● Operated as an illegal organization due to government
policing
● It set up a newspaper, mobilized workers and organized
strikes
● Lenin felt that peasants were not one united group.
● Some were poor and others rich, some worked as
labourers while others were capitalists who employed
workers.
● Given this ‘differentiation’ within them, they could not all
be part of a socialist movement.
 POLITICAL PARTIES IN RUSSIA
SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

● Founded in 1900 by a group of socialists

● Believed that peasants would be the main
force of the revolution, and Russia could
become socialist more quickly than other
countries
● Struggled for peasants’ rights and
demanded that land belonging to nobles be
transferred to peasants.
THE BOLSHEVIK AND MENSHEVIKS
SPLIT
 BOLSHEVIK
• Majority group Led by Vladimir
Lenin
• Disciplined Party believed in
highly centralized party of
professional revolutionaries
• To control the number and quality
of its members – not willing to
work with middle class
• Drew less public attention than
the Mensheviks
• Scorned other party’s ideologies
• Believed in rapid progress
directly from absolute monarchy
to communist
MENSHEVIK
• Minority group led by Julius
Martov
• Believed in a more democratic
party structure that allowed
disagreements
• Party to be opened to all –willing
to work with middle class for
their revolutionary ends
• Drew more public attention due
to their inclusive approach
• Inclusive in their approach
• Believed in slow progress to
make the country communist
 BOLSHEVIK
The Bolsheviks under their leader Lenin
constituted a majority of the socialists.
They wanted to work for Revolution.
They favoured a disciplined party, to
control the members and quality of its
members.
They wanted to make the party an
instrument for bringing about the
Revolution.
MENSHEVIK
The Mensheviks represented a minority
group under the leadership of Alexander
Kerenskii.
They believed in gradual change and
establishment of a parliamentary form of
government like that of France and
Britain.
They favoured a party which was open
to all and to work within the system.
A TURBULENT
TIME:
THE 1905
REVOLUTION
1905 REVOLUTION: DEMANDED A CONSTITUTION
20TH Century : Russia was under autocracy as Tsar was not subject to
Parliament

Liberals + Social
Democratic +
Social
Revolutionaries +
Workers +
Peasants +
Vs Tsar
Nationalists of
Poland + Jadidists
 REASONS FOR 1905 REVOLUTION
1904 – A BAD YEAR FOR RUSSIAN WORKERS
● Prices of essential goods increased and real wages declined b 20%
● Membership of Workers Associations rose dramatically
● Four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers(1904) were dismissed at the Putilov
Iron Works
● Called for an Industrial Strike
BLOODY SUNDAY
● Over the next few days over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike
● Went on a procession led by Father Gapon, reached the Winter palace
● Demanded a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages
● Attacked by the Police and the Cossacks
● 100 workers killed, 300 wounded
● Strikes all over the country and Universities closed down
● Lawyers, doctors, engineers and other middle class formed the Union of Unions and
demanded a constituent assembly
BLOODY SUNDAY
 CREATION OF PARLIAMENT/ DUMA
After 1905, most The Tsar dismissed
committees and the first Duma within
Creation of an Severe restrictions
unions worked 75 days and the re-
elected consultative were placed on
unofficially, since elected second
Parliament or Duma political activity.
they were declared Duma within three
illegal. months.

He changed the
He did not want any
questioning of his
voting laws and Liberals and
packed the third
authority or any
Duma with revolutionaries
reduction in his
power.
conservative were kept out.
politicians.
THE FIRST WORLD
WAR AND THE
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
 THE FIRST WORLD WAR
THE FIRST
WORLD WAR
(1914)

CENTRAL ALLIED
POWERS POWERS

France,
Germany,
Britain, Russia
Austria,
(later Italy and
Turkey
Roman)
 THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
Russia – The war was initially popular, and people rallied
around Tsar Nicholas II

Tsar refused to consult the main parties in the Duma

Anti-German sentiments ran high – St. Petersburg – a

German word – renamed as Petrograd

The Tsarina Alexandra’s German origins and poor

advisers, especially a monk called Raspitin, made the
autocracy unpopular
THE FIRST WORLD WAR ON THE ‘EASTERN AND
THE WESTERN FRONT’ DIFFERED

WEST: Armies fought from EAST: Armies moved a

trenches stretched along good deal and fought battles
Defeats were shocking
eastern France leaving large causalities and demoralising
 RUSSIA’S CONDITION
Russia’s army lost badly in Germany and Austria between 1914 and 1916

Destruction led to 3 million refugees in Russia

Over 7 million casualities by 1917

Russian army destroyed crops and buildings to prevent the enemy from being able to live off
the land

Situation discredited the government and Tsar

Soldiers did not wish to fight such a war

 Shortage of food –
Russia’s own industries In cities – scarcity of
Large supply of grains
– few in number bread and flour
sent to feed army

Shortage of labour –
Country was cut off able bodies men were
from other suppliers of called up to the war – 1916 – riots at bread
industrial goods by small workshops shops became common
German producing essentials
shut down

Industrial equipment
1916- Railway lines
IMPACT ON
disintegrated more
rapidly in Russia
began to breakdown
INDUSTRIE
S
 THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION IN
THE PETROGRAD
 THE WINTER OF
1917
The layout of the city seemed to
emphasise the divisions among its people

Winter of 1917 –
Conditions in
The Right bank The Left bank of Petrograd - Serious
of the River Neva the River Neva

Winter Palace, fashionable

areas, and official
The workers’ quarters and
buildings(including the
factories were located
palace where the Duma
met) were located
PROBLEMS – FEBRUARY 1917

Food Elected
Winter was
shortages government
very cold –
were deeply opposed
extreme frost
felt in the Tsar’s desire
and heavy
workers’ to dissolve
snow
quarters the Duma
 THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION
22nd • A lock out took place at a factory on the right bank

February
• Workers in 50 factories strikes –Women led the

23rd
strikes – International Women’s Day
• No political party actively organized the
movements

February
• Demonstrating workers surrounded the official
buildings
• The government imposed a curfew and dispersed
the workers by the evening
 THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION….
• Demonstrators came back for agitation
24th February • The government called out the cavalry and police
to keep an eye on them

25th
February • The government suspended the Duma
• Politicians spoke out against the measure

26 February
th • Demonstrators returned in force to the streets of left
bank
 THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION…
• The Police Head Quarters ransacked
• People raised slogans about bread, wages, better hours and
democracy
• The government called out the cavalry once again
27th • The cavalry refused to fire the demonstrators
February • An officer was shot at the barracks of the regiments and
three others mutinied and joined the workers
• By evening the soldiers and the striking workers gathered in
the place where the Duma met to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’
– The Petrograd Soviet
 THE FEBRUARY
REVOLUTION…
28th • A delegation went to see the Tsar
• The Military Commanders advised him to abdicate
February

OUTCOMES OF THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

• The Tsar abdicated on 2nd March

• Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the
country
• Russia’s future would be decided by a constituent assembly elected on the basis
of Universal Adult Suffrage
• The February Revolution led by Petrograd brought down the Monarchy in
February 1917
 Under the Provincial
government, army
officials, landowners
AFTER
and industrialists were
influential FEBRUARY..
Liberals and socialists
But no common system
worked towards an
of election was followed
elected government

Restrictions on
‘Soviets’ like the
public meetings
Petrograd was set up
and associations
everywhere
were removed
 RETURN OF VLADIMIR LENIN
● April 1917 – The Bolshevik leader
Lenin returned to Russia from his
exile
● He and his Bolsheviks had opposed
the war since 1914
● He felt it was time for the Soviets to
take over the power

APRIL THESIS (THREE DEMANDS)

● Declare that the war to be brought
to a close
● Land be transferred to the peasants
● Banks be Nationalised
WORKERS’ MOVEMENT
IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
THE REVOLUTION
OF
OCTOBER 1917
EVENTS OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
THE UPRISING 24TH
OCTOBER
Sensing trouble, Prime Minister Kerenskii had left the city to summon troops.

At dawn, military men loyal to the government seized the buildings of two Bolshevik
newspapers.
Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices and
protect the Winter Palace.
In a swift response, the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered its supporters to
seize government offices and arrest ministers.

Late in the day, the ship Aurora shelled the Winter Palace.

Other vessels sailed down the Neva and took over various military points.

By nightfall, the city was under the committee’s control and the ministers had surrendered.
 THE
BOLSHEVIK
ACTION
CHANGE The Bolsheviks were totally opposed to private property.

S AFTER Most industries and banks were nationalised in November

1917.
OCTOBE Land was declared social property and peasants were
R allowed to seize the land of the nobility.

In cities, Bolsheviks enforced the partition of large houses

according to family requirements.

They banned the use of the old titles of aristocracy.

New uniforms were designed for the army and officials,

following a clothing competition organised in 1918 – when
the Soviet hat - budeonovka was chosen.
 CHANGES AFTER OCTOBER…

The Bolshevik Party was renamed as the Russian

Communist Party.

In November 1917 - the Bolsheviks conducted elections to

the Constituent Assembly, but they failed to gain majority

In January 1918 – The Assembly rejected Bolsheviks

measures and Lenin dismissed the Assembly.

All Russian Congress of Soviets was more democratic

than an assembly elected in uncertain conditions.
 CHANGES AFTER OCTOBER…
In March 1918 – The Bolsheviks made a peace treaty with Germany at Brest Litovsk.

The Bolsheviks became the only party in Russia which could contest the elections.

Thus, Russia became a one-party state.

Trade unions were kept under party control.

The secret police (CHEKA) or (OGPU and NKVD) sentenced and punished those people who criticised
the Bolsheviks.

While on one hand, many people supported the Bolsheviks as they stood for socialism, on the other
hand, people were also disillusioned with the party because of the censorship imposed by them.
THE CIVIL WAR
 When the
Bolsheviks Soldiers, mostly
ordered land peasants, wished
redistribution, the to go home for the
Russian army redistribution and
began to break deserted.
up.
CIVIL WAR
Non-Bolshevik Their leaders
socialists, liberals moved to south
and supporters of Russia and
autocracy organised troops
condemned the to fight the
Bolshevik Bolsheviks (the
uprising. ‘reds’)
● During 1918 and 1919 most of the Russian
Empire was controlled by Greens and THE THREE
Whites
● French, American, Britain and Japanese GROUPS DURING
troops were worried at the growth of
socialism in Russia – they supported the
Greens and Whites
1918-19
● A Civil War took place between Reds and
Whites/Greens
● Resulted in looting, banditry, and famine
became common
● Supporters of private property; among
‘whites’; took harsh steps with peasants
who had seized land.
● But such actions led to a loss of popular
support for the non-Bolsheviks.
 BOLSHEVIK’S VICTORY
● By January 1920, the Bolsheviks
controlled most of the former Russian
empire.
● They succeeded due to cooperation
with non-Russian nationalities and
Muslim jadidists.
● Cooperation did not work where
Russian colonists themselves turned
Bolshevik.
● In Khiva, in Central Asia, Bolshevik
colonists brutally massacred local
nationalists in the name of defending
socialism.
● In this situation, many were confused
about what the Bolshevik government
represented.
 FORMATION OF USSR
● To rectify this, most non-Russian nationalities
were given political autonomy in the Soviet
Union (USSR)
● Soviet Union (USSR) is the state the
Bolsheviks created from the Russian empire
in December 1922.
● But since this was combined with unpopular
policies that the Bolsheviks forced the local
government to follow – like the harsh
discouragement of nomadism – attempts to
win over different nationalities were only
partly successful.
MAKING A
SOCIALIST
SOCIETY
 INTRODUCTION OF CENTRALIZED
● PLANNING
During the civil war, the Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised.
● They permitted peasants to cultivate the land that had been socialised.
● Bolsheviks used confiscated land to demonstrate what collective work could
be.
● A process of centralised planning was introduced.
● Officials assessed how the economy could work and set targets for a five-year
period.
● On this basis they made the Five-Year Plans.
● The government fixed all prices to promote industrial growth during the first
two ‘Plans’ (1927-1932 and 1933-1938).
BENEFITS OF CENTALISED PLANNING
● Centralised planning led to economic growth.
● Industrial production increased (between 1929 and 1933 by 100 per cent in
the case of oil, coal and steel).
● New factory cities came into being.
● An extended schooling system developed, and arrangements were made for
factory workers and peasants to enter universities.
● Crèches were established in factories for the children of women workers.
● Cheap public health care was provided.
● Model living quarters were set up for workers.
● The effect of all this was uneven, though, since government resources were
limited.
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE
● CONSTRUCTION
Rapid construction led to poor working
conditions.
● In the city of Magnitogorsk, the
construction of a steel plant was
achieved in three years.
● Workers lived hard lives and the result
was 550 stoppages of work in the first
year alone.
● In living quarters, ‘in the wintertime, at
40 degrees below, people had to climb
down from the fourth floor and dash
across the street in order to go to the
toilet’.
 STALINISM AND
COLLECTIVISATIO
N
COLLECTIVISATION OF AGRICULTURE

By 1927- 1928, the towns in Soviet Russia were

facing an acute problem of grain supplies

The government fixed prices at which grain must

be sold

But the peasants refused to sell their grain to

government buyers at these prices.
JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH STALIN
Stalin - headed the party after the
death of Lenin

Introduced firm emergency

measures.

Believed: rich peasants and traders

in the countryside were holding
stocks in the hope of higher prices.
Speculation had to be stopped and
supplies confiscated.
 ADOPTED MEASURES

Party members toured the grain-producing areas,

supervised and enforced grain collections

Raided ‘kulaks’ and suggested collectivize farms

Argued – grain shortages were partly due to the

small size of holdings

Elimination of ‘kulaks’ necessary – establish

state controlled large farms
STALIN’S COLLECTIVIZATION
PROGRAMME
CRITICIS
M
 THE GLOBAL INFLUENCE OF THE
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE USSR
● Existing socialist parties in Europe did not wholly approve of the way
the Bolsheviks took power – and kept it.
● However, the possibility of a workers’ state fired people’s imagination
across the world.
● In many countries, communist parties were formed – like the
Communist Party of Great Britain.
 SPREAD OF SOCIALISM BY
●
BOLSHEVIKS
The Bolsheviks encouraged colonial peoples to follow their experiment.
● Many non-Russians from outside the USSR participated in the Conference
of the Peoples of the East (1920) and the Bolshevik-founded Comintern (an
international union of pro-Bolshevik socialist parties).
● Some received education in the USSR’s Communist University of the
Workers of the East.
● By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had
● given socialism a global face and world stature.
 WORLD VIEW ON USSR
● The style of government in the USSR was not in keeping with the ideals
of the Russian Revolution.
● In the world socialist movement too, it was recognised that all was not
well in the Soviet Union.
● A backward country had become a great power. Its industries and
agriculture had developed, and the poor were being fed.
● But it had denied the essential freedoms to its citizens and carried out its
developmental projects through repressive policies.
● By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the
USSR as a socialist country had declined though it was recognised that
socialist ideals still enjoyed respect among its people.
● But in each country the ideas of socialism were rethought in a variety of
different ways.