Russia- Theme 1- Establishing communist control
Establishing communist party control
Background of the Bolshevik revolution
- 2 revolutions in 1917
- Russia was ruled by emperors- Tsar Nicholas II, emperor from 1894-1917, known to be more
repressive than other rulers
o Example- hundreds of miners who protested for higher wages at the Lena goldmine 1912,
were brutally murdered by Tsarist troops
- Tsar empire- Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Finland and Estonia
- Economy was weak, gov was strong
- Russia had little modern industry
- 1913- only 2.4m out of 140m working people worked in large factories
- Economic growth was encouraged but the growth remained low and people remained poor
- Political oppression and economic inequality led to growth in opposition to the Tsar
- 2 opposition parties
o Russian social-democratic Labour party (RSDLP)
o Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs)
- 1905 Revolution- series of revolts nearly overthrew the Tsar, stopped repression to ensure the
survival of the regime until the first world war
The first world war
- Entered WW1 in 1914
- Economy incapable of providing food
- No war equipment
- Tsar didn’t lead well
- 1917- economic chaos- Feb rev 1917- Petrograd- Overthrew the Tsar and set up the provisional
government
The provisional Government
- Introduced a series of reforms- Tsars despotism was replaced by liberalism
- Liberalism- freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion
- Prov Gov promised democratic elections to elect the new gov
- Prov gov continued to fight the first world war
- Lenin- RSDLP- argued for a second revolution- demanded end to WW1 and redistribution of land to
the peasants- ‘peace, bread and land’
- October 1917- Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government- Lenin and Trotsky
seized power in the Coup d’état which allowed them to take the power
Lenin’s ideology
- Believed global revolution was necessary to replace capitalism and imperialism with socialism
- Based of Marxist view
The Marxist view of history
- Karl Marx- German Philosopher- famous for his idea that workers should destroy capitalism in
revolutions
- He saw history progressed through a series of stages…
o Primitive communism- simple society
o Classical slavery- Society was unequal
o Feudalism- controlled by noble families
, o Capitalism- workers were powerless
- He argued that the stages progressed due to class conflict
- He believed capitalism would come to an end due to workers revolutions
- Lenin thought the chaos from WW1 would allow the revolution to take place \
The state revolution
- Marx’s writings didn’t state how the revolution should be carried out, they were contradictory,
argued that the revolutionary government should be more democratic than a capitalist government
but he also wrote about the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ which uses its power ruthlessly to
destroy capitalism
- Lenin took both ideas seriously
The Lenin State, 1917-1918
Creating a soviet state
- Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets in Oct 1917
- Between feb and October the soviets played a massive role in governing Russia and the small
democratic councils
- Local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian congress of soviets in July which spoke about
the future of Russia
- Met for a second time in October
- Lenin and soviets argued the all congress of Russia should be the basis of the new government
- They elected the council of peoples commissars (Sovnarkom) to govern Russia on a day to day basis
Sovnarkom
- The new Russian cabinet
- 13 peoples commissars
- Lenin was the chairman
- All commissars were revolutionaries
- Decrees passed by Lenin
o The Decree on land (Oct 1917) peasants could seize land from the nobility and church
o The Decree on peace (October 1917) new government withdrew from the first world war
o Workers Decrees (November 1917) 8 hour max working say and min wage
o The Decree of workers control (April 1918) allowed workers to elect committees and run
factories
- The early measures allowed Lenin to establish control in 2 ways
o Won popular support of the regime from workers, peasants and soldiers
o Ending the first world war gave the revolution ‘breathing space’ where they could rebuild
the economy
- First few months gov had very little power, revolution in October happened in Petrograd the capital,
Lenin still didn’t have control over other major cities and senior figures from the previous
government were still powerful
o In late November general Dukhonin, chief of staff of Russian army, refused a direct order
from Lenin
o The Russian state bank and treasury went on strike immediately after the revolution denying
Lenin’s government the funds it needed to operate
- Sovnarkom was unorganised at the start
- They needed to fight a civil war in order to get the control of Russia
How democratic was Russia in 1918?
- Lenin and his party claimed they were democratic
Establishing communist party control
Background of the Bolshevik revolution
- 2 revolutions in 1917
- Russia was ruled by emperors- Tsar Nicholas II, emperor from 1894-1917, known to be more
repressive than other rulers
o Example- hundreds of miners who protested for higher wages at the Lena goldmine 1912,
were brutally murdered by Tsarist troops
- Tsar empire- Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Finland and Estonia
- Economy was weak, gov was strong
- Russia had little modern industry
- 1913- only 2.4m out of 140m working people worked in large factories
- Economic growth was encouraged but the growth remained low and people remained poor
- Political oppression and economic inequality led to growth in opposition to the Tsar
- 2 opposition parties
o Russian social-democratic Labour party (RSDLP)
o Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs)
- 1905 Revolution- series of revolts nearly overthrew the Tsar, stopped repression to ensure the
survival of the regime until the first world war
The first world war
- Entered WW1 in 1914
- Economy incapable of providing food
- No war equipment
- Tsar didn’t lead well
- 1917- economic chaos- Feb rev 1917- Petrograd- Overthrew the Tsar and set up the provisional
government
The provisional Government
- Introduced a series of reforms- Tsars despotism was replaced by liberalism
- Liberalism- freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion
- Prov Gov promised democratic elections to elect the new gov
- Prov gov continued to fight the first world war
- Lenin- RSDLP- argued for a second revolution- demanded end to WW1 and redistribution of land to
the peasants- ‘peace, bread and land’
- October 1917- Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government- Lenin and Trotsky
seized power in the Coup d’état which allowed them to take the power
Lenin’s ideology
- Believed global revolution was necessary to replace capitalism and imperialism with socialism
- Based of Marxist view
The Marxist view of history
- Karl Marx- German Philosopher- famous for his idea that workers should destroy capitalism in
revolutions
- He saw history progressed through a series of stages…
o Primitive communism- simple society
o Classical slavery- Society was unequal
o Feudalism- controlled by noble families
, o Capitalism- workers were powerless
- He argued that the stages progressed due to class conflict
- He believed capitalism would come to an end due to workers revolutions
- Lenin thought the chaos from WW1 would allow the revolution to take place \
The state revolution
- Marx’s writings didn’t state how the revolution should be carried out, they were contradictory,
argued that the revolutionary government should be more democratic than a capitalist government
but he also wrote about the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ which uses its power ruthlessly to
destroy capitalism
- Lenin took both ideas seriously
The Lenin State, 1917-1918
Creating a soviet state
- Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets in Oct 1917
- Between feb and October the soviets played a massive role in governing Russia and the small
democratic councils
- Local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian congress of soviets in July which spoke about
the future of Russia
- Met for a second time in October
- Lenin and soviets argued the all congress of Russia should be the basis of the new government
- They elected the council of peoples commissars (Sovnarkom) to govern Russia on a day to day basis
Sovnarkom
- The new Russian cabinet
- 13 peoples commissars
- Lenin was the chairman
- All commissars were revolutionaries
- Decrees passed by Lenin
o The Decree on land (Oct 1917) peasants could seize land from the nobility and church
o The Decree on peace (October 1917) new government withdrew from the first world war
o Workers Decrees (November 1917) 8 hour max working say and min wage
o The Decree of workers control (April 1918) allowed workers to elect committees and run
factories
- The early measures allowed Lenin to establish control in 2 ways
o Won popular support of the regime from workers, peasants and soldiers
o Ending the first world war gave the revolution ‘breathing space’ where they could rebuild
the economy
- First few months gov had very little power, revolution in October happened in Petrograd the capital,
Lenin still didn’t have control over other major cities and senior figures from the previous
government were still powerful
o In late November general Dukhonin, chief of staff of Russian army, refused a direct order
from Lenin
o The Russian state bank and treasury went on strike immediately after the revolution denying
Lenin’s government the funds it needed to operate
- Sovnarkom was unorganised at the start
- They needed to fight a civil war in order to get the control of Russia
How democratic was Russia in 1918?
- Lenin and his party claimed they were democratic
