iii. life in a totalitarian state€¦ · b. stalin’s rise to power 1. lenin suddenly died in...

I. Two Revolutions in Russia

II. From Lenin to Stalin

III. Life in a totalitarian State


A. “Backwards” Russia pre-1914

1. massive territory

2. 1897 census - Russians minority

3. 1904: Russ-Japanese War

4. “Bloody Sunday” in 1905

○ Moderates fired upon by Czar forces

○ Festering working class

5. 1906: some legislative reforms

○ Peter Stolypin as Prime Minister

○ Duma “parliament”

Too little, too late


B. The March Revolution

○ a. threat of revolution was always present

○ b.

○ c. Romanov answer: and



○ a. 99 problems, and the war

was one:

○ b. Tsar Nicholas II - to the front

○ c. Czarina Alexandra and

Rasputin

○ d. largest army, but

underdeveloped



○ a. March 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicates

○ b. liberals lead a new republican – Alexander Kerensky

○ c. granted natural rights and religious freedom

Too idealistic

○ d. Bolshevik socialists revolutionaries dominate soviets


C. Lenin and the Bolsheviks

○ a. born in 1870 - middle-class

○ b. Lenin…in brother’s footsteps

○ a. Siberian punishment / Switzerland Exile


C. Lenin and the Bolsheviks

○ a. Lenin adopted Marxist ideas

○ b. since a mass of urban workers did not exist, a

“dictatorship of the proletariat” would rule in their best

interest

○ a. Germany’s plan for infection…a double-edged sword?• yes


D. The November Revolution

○ a. Lenin, Trotsky, other Bolshevik - “Peace, Land, and

Bread” - April Thesis

○ b. armed factory workers & mutinous sailors

i. “its no use, we give up. No bloodshed” – member of the

provisional government

○ a. took over other major cities outside Petrograd

○ b. Moscow new capital

○ c. ended private ownership & distributed lands to the

peasants


E. Russian Civil War

1. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

○ a. gave up huge amount of territory and population

2. civil war raged for the next 3 years

○ a.

○ b.

3.

○ a. The RED ARMY - rallied behind nationalism

Led by Leon Trotsky

4. end of the line


F. “ ”

1. banks, mines, factories, and

railroads

○ peasants forced to give surplus crops

○ army totally rebuilt under Trotsky's leadership


G.

○ a. millions dead from the war

○ b. millions more dead from starvations and pandemic

○ c. immense job of rebuilding ahead


A. Building the

Communist Soviet Union

1. Lenin’s Communist

Government

○ a. constitution in 1922

both democratic and socialist

○ b. elected legislature; suffrage

for anyone over 18

○ c. ALL political, resources,

means of production would

belong to the workers and

peasants


Size and Limitations?


A. Building the Communist Soviet Union

2. Lenin’s Communist Government

○ d. despite promises of equality…power corrupted

○ e. Secret police / Cheka (later the KGB)


A. Building the Communist Soviet Union

3. Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy)

○ a. allowed for some capitalistic ventures

Farming (compare to CCP under Deng Xiaoping in 1970s)

○ b. communist government - mines, large industries, banks,

foreign trade, etc

○ c. peasants were allowed to save/sell their extra crops

i. all this SAVED a collapsing economy

ii. improved the standard of living


B. Stalin’s Rise to Power

1. Lenin suddenly died in January 1924

2. USSR / communist party in a power struggle


B. Stalin’s Rise to Power

3. Leon Trotsky

4. Joseph Djugashvili

II. FROM LENIN TO STALINC. Stalin’s 5 Year Plans

• 1. acknowledged technologically behind

• 2. in 1928, first 5-year plan

• a. heavy industry, improving transportation, and increasing farm output

• 3. created a

• a. where government officials make all basic decisions as opposed to the

free market of capitalism


• 4.Mixed Industrial Results

• a. set high-production goals for industry and transportation

• i. wheelbarrow motivation

• b. standards of living declined steadily

• c. wages were low and consumer goods were scarce

• d. central planning was inefficient causing shortages of necessities and comforts

• e. quantity over quality instead of the other way around

• f. do well in heavy industry, but failed to consumer goods


• 5. Revolution in Agriculture -

• a. abolished “private” lands from Lenin’s NEP

• b. forced peasants into collectives

• c. told what to farm, when to far, how to farm and, of course, how much to

farm

• We must feed the urbanites!

• d. creation of MASSIVE factories because of TOTALITARIANISM, not

COMMUNISM


• 6. A Ruthless Policy

• a. Stalin looked to destroy the , or wealthy peasants

• i. confiscated lands and Siberian work camps (Gulags)

• b. close to 10 million peasants die

• c. grain production increased slightly / meats, fruits and vegetables scarce

II. FROM LENIN TO STALIND. The Great Purge

• 1. purge / GULAGS

• 2. Stalin became obsessively paranoid

• a. begins to “remove” Old Bolsheviks

• b. targeted old army heroes, industrial managers, writers, ordinary citizens

• 3. held massive “ ” between 1936-38

• a. at least 4, but probably closer to 6 million Russians were purged

• 4. Great Purge strengthened Stalin's power, but weakened the Soviet Union

• a. new communist leaders were loyal to Stalin rather than to communism

II. FROM LENIN TO STALINE. Soviet Foreign Policy

• 1. between 1917 and 1939, the Soviet Union pursued two very different

goals in foreign policy.

• 2.Commintern vs. League of Nations

III. LIFE IN A TOTALITARIAN STATE

III. LIFE IN A TOTALITARIAN STATEA. An Age of Totalitarian Control

• 1. Marx predicted that the “state” would disappear in a true socialist state

• 2. Stalin created a state

• 3. Terror

• Censorship and the death of privacy


• 4. Propaganda

• a. ALL praised communism and ALL denounced capitalism

• b. promoted extreme nationalism

• c. created communist “heroes”


• 5. War on Religion

III. LIFE IN A TOTALITARIAN STATEB. Changes in Soviet Society

• 1. Equality is tough to deliver…a new elite emerges


• 2. Social Benefits and Drawbacks

• a. most people did enjoy more benefits than before the revolution

• (but that’s not saying too much)

• b. free education for everyone

• c. free medical care, free day care, inexpensive housing and public

transportation and recreation

• d. still a comparatively low standard of living

• e. with urbanization, crowed living conditions

• f. bread available, but shortages of meat, veggies and fruits


• 3. Education

• Universal…with an agenda


• 4. Women in the Soviet Union

• Top down / not bottom up / East vs. West

• Zhenotdel – abolished in 1930 by Stalin

II. FROM LENIN TO STALIN

Three Revolutions Compared:

, and

1. Sort the three revolutions from most radical to

least radical.

2. Which revolution had the greatest immediate

world-wide impact?

3. Which has had the most lasting effect on today?

iii. life in a totalitarian state€¦ · b. stalin’s rise to power 1. lenin suddenly died in...

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