THE TRANSFORMATI

ON OF RUSSIA & CHINA

Mr. McKennaWorld History

Marymount College

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS The March Revolution: 1917 –

workers riot over food shortages – soldiers refuse to fire on the crowd

The Czar abdicates and the Duma sets up a provisional government

Soviets, councils of workers, are created.

Bolsheviks, a radical socialist group under Lenin, take over the Soviets

November, 1917, Bolsheviks overthrow the provisional government.

A ROCKY START Once the Bolsheviks complete their takeover,

Lenin seeks peace with Germany, signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, 1918

Civil war against czarist Whites lasts for 3 years.

National groups that had been conquered under the czar revolted

Allies send troops to aid the Whites, hoping to get Russia back in the war.

Communists win out and takeover industry and financial institutions.

Leon Trotsky takes charge of the military

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

1922 – constitution with democratic and socialist doctrines, creating the U.S.S.R.

Communist, not people, hold true power

Use army and secret police, just like the repressive czars they despised

Lenin dies in 1924 – Josef Stalin takes power after a power struggle with Trotsky

JOSEF STALIN Lenin did not have great faith in Stalin’s

leadership qualifications Stalin proves to be more cunning than

the idealistic Trotsky Trotsky flees into exile and is later

murdered in Mexico by an agent of Stalin

Stalin enacts reforms for industry, transportation, and agriculture with mixed results

THE GREAT PURGE Stalin was obsessive and paranoid 1934 – Stalin uses secret police to

eliminate anyone he thought was a threat: older Bolsheviks, army heroes, writers, industrialists, and others

800,000 are executed. Over 3,000,000 are exiled to forced

labor camps in Siberia Eliminates 90% of military officers

THE NEW CHINA

THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 1911 Sun Yixian is the first president 1912 Sun Yixian steps down in favor of

General Yuan Shikai, hoping order can be restored

Yuan tries to make himself emperor instead but dies in 1916

Chaos increases

FOREIGN DEVILS ABOUND 1915 – Japan tries to make China a

protectorate, issuing Twenty-One Demands

Yuan gives in to some of Japan’s demands

1919 – Japan takes over German holdings in China; Chinese accuse rulers of selling out to the Japanese

MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT May 4th, 1919 – student protests start in

Beijing and spread across China These students and military officers

receive support from Russia in order to start another Communist revolution.

1921 – Sun Yixian and the Guomindang (Nationalist Party) set up a government in southern China

Jiang Jieshi takes over after Sun’s death and seeks to unify China under the Guomindang

GUOMINDANG MARCHES NORTH Jiang leads his forces

north to battle local warlords and restore order.

Stops in Beijing to strike at Communists

1927 Guomindang slaughter thousands of Communists, setting up decades of struggle between the two parties

MAO ZEDONG Communist party member that escapes

Guomindang attacks Seeks to recruit the peasant masses

rather than wooing middle class 1934 Mao leads 100,000 followers on

the Long March – 6,000 miles – to escape the Guomindang army.

Communists treat those they pass with respect, increasing support for them

ONGOING STRUGGLE 1931 -Japan invades Manchuria 1937-1945 China is the center of a

three-way struggle between Guomindang, Communists, and Japan

Pearl Harbor brings an alliance between U.S. and China

Turmoil continues after the war…