FROM THE END OF THE RUSSIA’S TSARIST EMPIRE TO THE
FORMATION OF THE USSR
Vladímir Ilich Uliánov, Lenin
Tsar, Nicholas II Romanov
Lenin J. Stalin Trotsky
[Link]
Romanov Family
Rasputin
FROM THE END OF THE RUSSIA’S TSARIST EMPIRE TO THE FORMATION OF THE USSR
REVOLUTION 1905 REVOLUTION 1917
FEBRUARY OCTOBER
PROVISIONAL GOV.
(Bourgeois Revolution) (Soviet Revolution)
-Russia continued in the War
Tsarist regime:
DEEP-ROOTED - autrocracy (absolute monarchy) - Popular discontent:
- economy based on traditional
Tsarist regime
CAUSES - poverty
agriculture - slow agricultural reforms
- Defeat in Russo-Japanese war WWI (casualties, famine...) - Occupation of Petrograde
in 1904 (Imperialism)
TRIGGER FACTOR Demonstration + general and - Taking of Winter Palace
- BLOODY SUNDAY: peaceful military strike
demonstration
PARTIES/ Soviets Mensheviks Mensheviks Bolsheviks
MOVEMENTS Bourgeoisie
LEADERS Kerensky Kerensky Lenin
workers Bourgeoisie Bourgeoisie Soviets
SOCIAL SUPPORT peasants
soldiers Soldiers Red Guards
End of autocracy -Withdrawal from the Great -Permanence in the -Withdraw from WWI: Treaty of Brest-
War War Litovsk, 1918
(to reduce the working day)
OBJECTIVES - End of Tsarism -Democratic -Land collectivisation: expropriation
institutions
-Workers’ committees to manage
-Reforms factories
- Creation of the Duma - Proclamation of the Republic Bolsheviks (Lenin: April -Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly=
- Parliamentary elections by Theses) End of political pluralism
CONSEQUENCES universal suffrage - Provisional Government
- Agricultural reform Soviets Revolution - Civil War (Red Army vs. White Army)
RUSSIA 1st 1/2 20th century:
from the Tsarist regime to the Stalinist dictatorship
TSAR NICHOLAS II ROMANOV LENIN STRUGGLE FOR
POWER
STALIN
(1894 – 1917) (1917 – 1924) (1924 - 1927) (1927 – 1953)
R. CIVIL WAR USSR
R. 1918-1921 (1922 – 1991)
TROTSKY
vs
STALIN
WWI WWII
(1914 – 1918) (1939 – 1945)
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950
1904-1905 1917 1924
Russo- - End Tsarism Death of
Japanese - Provisional Gov. Lenin
war - Bolshevik Rev.
1905 1918
Bloody -Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Sunday
- Execution of the Tsar
and his family
1907
Triple Entente
1919
III
International *R.R= Russian Revolution
(Communist)
A giant with feet of clay:
- huge country with more than 100 million of inhabitants
- big army
- a lot of natural resources
A giant with feet of clay:
- huge country with more than 100 million of inhabitants
- big army
- a lot of natural resources
BUT…
1. Political system: Tsarist autocracy:
- absolute monarchy under Nicholas II Romanov
- power supported by:
- the nobility
- the Orthodox Church
- the army
- the police
- Opponents were persecuted
A giant with feet of clay:
2. Economy
- Agriculture:
- main activity
- traditional techniques
- Most of the land belonged to the privileged groups.
- Industry:
- little
- supported by foreign capital due to the lack of a Russian industrial
bourgeoisie
- concentrated in some regions: Saint Petersburg (capital city), Moscow
and Ukraine
3. Society:
- Inequality (typical of Ancien Régime)
- 80% peasants, lived as serfs
- 5%, industrial proletariat:
- class conscience
- revolutionary ideas
- bourgeoisie
REVOLUTION OF 1905
Long-term causes:
- political system
- social discontent due to harsh conditions of peasants and workers
- economic crisis
- defeat in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905): humiliation
Trigger factor (Spark of the revolution): BLOODY SUNDAY:
- Peaceful demonstration in front of the Winter Palace, in St. Petersburg,
asking to the Tsar:
- better labour conditions
- establishment of a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage
- Tsar’s response: order the Army to open fire = 300 dead and 1000
wounded
BLOODY SUNDAY,
1905
REVOLUTION OF 1905
Consequences:
-Indignation:
- Strikes, demonstrations, uprisings
- Mutinies of soldiers
- Creation of Soviets: revolutionary assemblies of workers, peasants and
soldiers.
-Tsar had to make concessions: October Manifesto
- creation of a parliamentary assembly: Duma, elected by male universal
suffrage.
- granted basic civil right
- allowed the formation of political parties
- economic and agricultural reforms
What were the Russian political parties? What social groups did they represent?
POLITICAL PARTIES MEMBERS IDEOLOGY
Liberal
Democratic Constitutional Party
bourgeoisie Peaceful social reform
(KADET)
Parliamentary Monarchy
Social-Revolutionary Party (ESERS) peasants Peasants revolution
Social Democratic Party Marxism
- 1912: Proletariat
- Mensheviks (mencheviques) - Moderate (alliance with the bourgeoisie)
- Bolsheviks (bolcheviques) - Radical (revolution!!)
REVOLUTION OF 1917
I- Causes:
- Long-term cause: Revolution of 1905
- Short-term cause: Russian participation in World War I
[Link] of the 1917 Revolution:
1. Bourgeois Revolution in February
2. Provisional Government
3. Bolshevik Revolution in October
REVOLUTION OF 1917
II. Phases of the 1917 Revolution:
1. Bourgeois Revolution
Causes
- People’s discontent (famine, military disasters)
- Continuation of Tsarism
- WWI
Consequences
- End of Tsarism: Proclamation of a Republic
- Establishment of a Provisional Government
2. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT:
- Governed by the moderate party: Mensheviks, ruled by Kerensky
- Parliamentary democracy
- Political and social reforms: very slow popular discontent
- Exiles (Lenin among them) are allowed to return to Russia:
* Lenin’s April Theses (main ideas, achieved after the Bolshevik Rev.)
- MISTAKE: Continuation in the Great War
3. BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION:
- led by the Soviets and the Red Guard: occupation of Petrograd and assault on
the Winter Palace
- all land was expropriated and divided up among the peasants
- factories were taken over by workers’ committees
- Withdrawal from WWI: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- elections were held for the Constituent Assembly (Bolsheviks, only 25%)
- dissolution of the Assembly: end of political pluralism
CIVIL WAR (1918-1921)
White Army:
- Supporters of Tsarism
- Helped by France, Britain, Japan and
USA
Red Army (Bolsheviks)
- Led by Trotsky
Main events:
- Execution of the Tsar and his family
- Food shortages and a lot of casualties
- Bolsheviks victory thanks to the
support of the peasants, happier due to
the land reform
Collectivisation in practice
Find the
differences:
POLITICAL
CENSURE