The Russian Revolution
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2004 12:15 pm
The Russian Revolution 1917-1941
Under the Tsars the government of the Russia Empire was unpopular. The Tsar was all powerful and ruled without a parliament, and most of the country's wealth and land was owned by a small noble class. The church taught that the Tsar must be obeyed, and villages were controlled by a 'mir' local council who had the power to decide whether a peasant was allowed to own or rent land.
The growth of industry brought large numbers of workers to growing towns - but conditions in towns were poor and workers were badly paid. In 1905 Russia's defeat in war with Japan led to strikes and demonstrations with troops firing into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg. There was nearly a popular revolt then.
The Tsar allowed some change and set up the first Duma parliment in 1906 when the Liberal Cadet party won a majority. They demanded control of taxes, as the Tsar had promised them, but instead he dismissed the Duma and many Liberals fled to Finland. New elections were held and this time the Duma was even more radical as the Marxist SDLP (Social Democratic Labour Party) won some seats from the Cadets. When the Tsar wanted to arrest several SDLP members as terrorists this Duma refused - so the Tsar dismissed it too.
The next two Dumas obeyed the Tsar (1907-1914), because the SDLP were not allowed to run as candidates and any known troublemakers were arrested and imprisoned. The press was censored and a secret police was used to spy on anyone the Tsar feared. The situation of most Russians hadn't improved and there was still a lot of discountent among the poor working classes and the peasants.
Some reforms were attempted under Prime Minister Stolypin who wanted reforms for a slower and more natural rate of industrial growth, being afraid that badly-run industry could get out of control, and he redued the control of the 'mir'. Now hard-working peasants could rent or buy land to farm themselves known as Kulaks and helped by special Peasant Banks known. The 'mir' system continued but became less efficient when the Kulak peasants left - causing problems for the country's food supply.
Peasants in the 'mir' farms resented the wealth of some Kulaks, but reform needed peace and Europe was heading for war. Stolypin was murdered in 1911 by a revolutionary and Tsar Nicholas became influenced by a 'Holy Man' called Rasputin who claimed supernatural powers to treat his son for haemophilia. Rasputin became powerful and even sacked and appointed government ministers, and while he was killed by angry nobles in 1916, the Tsar's authority had been undermined.
With the First World War, patriotism and loyalty to the Tsar were revived. People wanted a short and victorious war, but :
1) There were high casualties with 1,700,000 soldiers killed by the end of 1917.
2) There was a shortage of rifles and other munitions equipment.
3) Military leadership was bad with the Tsar taking personal command in 1915.
4) Russian forces were pushed back by the Germans and hit a stalemate.
5) Inflation led to prices at home quadrupling between 1914 and 1917.
6) There was widespread hunger and food shortages at home.
The war speeded up the process of change as Russians got fed up with the Tsar and what they thought was a pointless war. In Febuary 1917, demonstrations and food riots broke out in the capital Petrograd, and the Tsar lost support and control. When his soldiers were ordered to fire on the mobs many refused or deserted to join rioting workers. The Tsar abdicated and a Provisional Government was formed under the leadership of Prince Lvov until July, and then Kerensky.
Russia was now a republic and the main Revolutionary Parties were taken by surpise. This was a real people's revolution caused by sudden risings of workers and soldiers sick of the war, shortages and high prices. But the new government faced opposition from the Revolutionaries, who wanted power for themselves - among them, a group split from the SDLP called the Bolsheviks.
Revolutionary opposition was widespread. The SRP - the Socialist Revolutonary Party - wanted to start a peasants' revolt. The SDLP - Social Democratic Labour Party - wanted to set up a Communist state based on the ideas of the nineteenth century political thinker Karl Marx. These groups had been in exile abroad or in distant parts of Russia because it was dangerous to speak out, and this was one reason they weren't involved in the February Revolution and hadn't expected the sudden fall of the Tsar.
Capitalism, based on business making profits, Marx had said was unjust as workers received very small wages for labour that made a tiny elite class very rich. And Marxists saw history as a process of change - of development towards an ideal society because of class struggle between the rich, the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (the proletariat). Monarchy as a Feudal system with fixed classes would be replaced by a bourgeois revolution, setting up an industrial capitalist state and then a proletarian revolution setting up a communist worker state.
After the proletarian revolution, the means of production would be used for everyone's benefit and shared-this is called Communism. Marx's book 'Das Kapital' was based on observations made in Britain and Western Europe and 1917 Russia didn't fit his characteristics for a Proletarian Revolution so the 'February' Revolution wa bourgeois, and Marxism said the bourgeois state had to last some time before the proletariat could successfully revolt.
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Russian SDLP encouraged industrial workers in towns to protest against their terrible living conditions, hoping to create a situation where a Marxist revolution could take place. But at the 1903 Social Democrat Conference, the SDLP split over whether to become a mass party or remain a small party of dedicated members workers towards revolution.
They split into Lenin's Bolsheviks ('the majority') a minority favouring a small party, and Martov's Mensheviks favouring a mass party. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin the Bolshevik leader was a clever thinker and a practical man who knew how to take advantage of events. Though a small party, they smuggled a newspaper into Russia called ''Iskra'' (the Spark) to try to win support among industrial workers but made little impact on the workers.
During the war Lenin was in exile in Switzerland, and when the 'February Revolution' came he returned to Russia to rally the Bolshevik cause. The Germans helped him to return in a sealed train in April 1917, because they hoped he would cause another revolution and that Russia would quit the war. When Lenin arrived in Russia, most people thought the Bolsheviks would support the Provisional government's efforts to reform the Tsarist system. But Lenin issued a document called the April Theses, promising 'Peace, Bread, Land and Freedom', calling for an end to the 'capitalist' war and demanding that power should be given to the Soviets - elected committees of workers, peasants and soldiers which had started up in 1905 and had given leadership to the people during the 'February' Revolution.
Lenin demanded a Revolution against the Provisional Government as soon as possible, though this wasn't a strict Marxist position. Lenin was adapting Marx to the Russian context, which is sometimes called Marxist-Leninism.
The Provisional Government had problems;
1) It was supposed to be temporary, but economic crisis made elections impractical. By November 1917 prices were ten times higher than in 1914.
3) Food shortages led to peasants seizing land from nobles.
4) It didn't end the war, and soldiers and sailors began to mutiny.
5) A network of Soviets was established, with the Petrograd Soviet becoming an alternative governmant and key workers were told to strike to undermine the Provisional Governmant.
6) The Petrograd Soviet issued 'Order No.1' which said that soldiers shouldn't obey orders from the Provisional Governmant that were opposed by the Soviet.
The Soviets demanded an end to the war, but the army attacked German forces on July 1st 1917. After early Russian success the Germans counter-attacked, forcing a retreat and morale and discipline in the Russian army collapsed.
The Bolsheviks prepared for further Revolution and gained increasing support among workers and soldiers.
1) In July 1917 Bolsheviks tried to take control of the Government but were defeated and Lenin was forced to flee to Finland. Kernshy turned public opinion against him by accusing him of being a German agent.
2) Leon Trotsky set up the Red Guards - a Bolsheviks militia - and the Bolsheviks won control of the Soviets with Trotsky becoming Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
3) Peasants attacked Kulaks and took land from Church and nobles.
4) Many soldiers started to desert from the army.
In September 1917 Russian Commander in Chief, General Kornilov, turned his army back from the Front and marched against the Provisional Governmant determined to seize power. Kerensky had to give weapons to the Bolsheviks and the Petrograd Soviet to save his Government from a military takeover.
Bolshevik railway workers and Red Guards were waiting to stop Kornilov's advance - but all his soldiers deserted him and he fled. The Bolsheviks were now the real power in Russia, and it was a decisive moment in 20th century history when the Bolshevik Central Committee under Lenin voted on October 23rd 1917 for revolution. Detailed plans were made by Trotsky to seize important buildings in Petrograd and arrest Ministers.
But as there were only 250,000 Bolsheviks in Russia, controlling a small part of the country, civil war was inevitable as there were many opposed to Bolshevik rule. Lenin was ruthless and determined to keep power, knowing a strong governmant was needed and the ideals of communism would have to wait.
1) The All-Russian Congress of Sovies gave power to Lenin and 15 Bolshevik People's Commissars on 8th November 1917.
2) Soldiers were sent into the countryside to seize grain to feed the towns.
3) The Bolsheviks controlled the main centres of power and used telegraph communications to spreed their revolutionary message to local groups.
4) Elections held for a new National Assembly gave most seats to the peasant-supported SRP, but the Red Guards disbanded the Assembly as soon as it was set up in January 1918.
6) The Bolsheviks became the Communist Party, which was made the only legal party in Russia.
The reasons for the Bolshevik success;
1) They were strong in key poitical and administrative centres - especially Petrograd.
2) They had their own trained military force - the Red Guards.
3) They were ruthless, had clear planned strategies and were prepared for swift action.
4) They were practical in recognising that the time for a true Marxist revolution in Russia was a long way off and so adapted their policies in order to seize power at the first chance. They claimed they ran a Socialist governmant which was trying to create the right conditions for Communism in the long term - so in the short term they could do whatever they liked.
5) The continuing problems of war and famine, and the breakdown of law and order weren't dealt with by the Provisional Governmant, who had become a weak target.
6) The vision and ability of Lenin who was a quick-thinking leader who inspired his party.
The Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Germans, hoping to delay a peace treaty as they thought there might be a Communist revolution in Germany too. This didn't happen, and German army advances made the Bolsheviks agree to the harsh terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. But when Germany was defeated by Western Allies later in 1918 some conceded lands were regained.
A civil war in Russia was inevitable and Lenin and Trotsky were prepared for this.
1) The Communists had seized power suddenly and disbanded the elected National Assembly and outlawed political opposition, so many saw them as a danger.
2) Anti-Communist army officers no longer fighting Germany included many Royalists wanting the return of the Tsar and now could attack the Communists.
3) The Communists wanted world revolution and the Comintern (Third International) was formed under Zinoviev to promote revolution abroad.
The Government moved from Petrograd to Moscow in March 1918 and Leon Trotsky began to build an efficient Red Army to fight the civil war which began in the spring of 1918 and lasted until the end of 1920. Anti-Communist forces surrounding Red Russia were called the ''Whites'' - the colour of the Tsarist state. But there were many White groups who often had different aims and purposeswhich was a key problem for them. Britain, France and the USA sent troops to help the Whites, worried by Communist ideas of world revolution and hoping to restart the Eastern Front against Germany.
Reasons for the Red Army victory over the Whites ;
1) Red forces were united, while White forces were divided and didn't work together which meant the Reds could fight the White armies one by one, instead of fighting on several fronts at the same time. And Trotsky was a brilliant leader.
2) White forces were a long way apart and couldn't stay in touch to coordinate attacks. Some had different political opinions which meant they didn't want to work together.
3) Patrotic Russians mostly supported the Reds while the Whites were led by nobles or used foreign armies.
4) The Whites' foreign military support was withdrawn as soon as it became clear the Reds would win.
5) The Communists controlled the main cities and communications systems and the railways.
6) The strict and ruthless laws of War Communism helped obtain supplies for the Reds.
When the Red Army had defeated its enemies in Russia it invaded Poland, hoping to link up with Communists in Germany to spread revolution throughout Europe but it was defeated by the Poles outside Warsaw in late 1920, when the civil war ended.
The Tsar and his family were at first held prisoner in a basement at Ekaterinburg, because the Communists knew they were important symbols for the White cause. The official story was that they were executed as White forces approached the town. But historians have debated about whether some of the family, including the Tsar's daughter Anastasia, escaped and several people later claimed to be Anastasia.
Under strict War Communism farms and factories were put under state control and private trade was banned. Food was taken for soldiers and industrial workers and peasants who refused to hand it over to the Red Army were shot or sent to forced labour camps. The Secret Police (CHEKA) hunted and executed any enemies of the state.
Industrial workers weren't allowed to strike or be absent from work and could be sent to any region. Everyone aged 16-60 had to work except for the sick and pregnant women. Experts were brought in to try to improve efficiency, but the result was famine and decline in 1920 and 1921 when over 7 million people died of hunger. The worthless currency was abandoned and wages paid in fuel and food. Workers leaving cities with little food meant industry declined.
Sailors at the Krondstadt Naval base near Petrograd mutinied in March 1921. The soilors were unhappy with the lack of progress, the famine and the terror though they had supported the Communists in 1917 and especially Trotsky's leadership in Petrograd. Lenin and Trotsky were worried that dissent might spread when the ice around the island base thawed and let the sailors leave, so Trotsky ordered the Red Army to put down the Mutiny.
The Red Army took the base in a brutal battle losing many men. Many rebels were killed in the fighting and the rest were executed afterwards as traitors. There were other revolts, food convoys robbed and many factories suffered strikes and unrest.
Trotsky had recognised the economic crisis in 1920 and saw Russian Communism as pushing ahead 'too fast' and suggested a change of policy to encourage businesses. Lenin rejected this at first, but in 1921 introduced a New Economic Polic to restore order and increase prosperity after the chaos of Revolution, civil war and War Communism.
Now the civil war was won, the Communists also needed to keep control of public opinion. This meant a policy of Complete Party Unity with no dissent or splits allowed.
The New Economic Policy reversed War Communism and allowed economic recovery so that by 1928 industrial and food production levels were about the same as in 1914.
1) Peasants could sell surplus food produce and pay tax on profits.
2) It allowed small businesses, like shops and small factories, that weren't state-owned and could therefore make a profit.
3) Vital industries such as coal, iron, steel, railways, shipping and finance stayed in State hands. But here experts were brought in on higher salaries, and extra wages were paid for efficiency.
At the same time Communist political control grew ;
1) A 'purge' in 1921 expelled about 1/3 of Party members who didn't agree with Lenin.
2) Communist governments were imposed in areas captured in the civil war, often against the wishes of local Nationalists as in the Ukraine.
3) In 1924 a new constitution established the USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
4) Each Republic had a government with some policy freedom, but they all had to be Communist, and the system was run centrally by the Politburo - the senior USSR council.
Lenin had a stroke in 1922 and died on Jan 21 1924. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour. His key strengths as a leader had been ;
1) His organization and leadership of the Bolshevik party transformed it.
2) He had a pragmatic and realistic approach to problems.
3) He was able to 'seize the moment' which was vital in the Bolsheviks gaining power.
4) He could be ruthless - he set up the CHEKA (secret police) and labour camps. He also wasn't afraid to use force as in putting down the Krondstadt mutiny.
5) He was able to change his policies - e.g. he was able to adopt War Communism to win the civil war, and then to introduce the NEP afterwards to help economy recover.
Several leaders struggled to succeed Lenin. Trotsky was the most able, and popular with the army and Party members. He had led the Red Army brilliantly during the Civil War, but he lacked support in the Politburo and had been a Menshevik and made enemies. Zinoviev and Kamenev were also left-wingers agreeing with Trotsky's ideas on state control of land, rapid modernisation and world revolution, but were determined to stop Trotsky becoming Party leader. Zinoviev was popular and had been a friend of Lenin.
There was also Stalin who didn't seem likely to lead the party, but had accumulated power through good organization 'behind the scenes' in his work as General Secretary of the Party. Lenin had considered who might succeed him in a 'Testament', saying that Trotsky was arrogant but able and that Stalin should be removed from office as too rude and ambitious. While Trotsky wanted the USSR to spread revolution worldwide, Stalin and much of the Party wanted a period of peace and rebuilding in the USSR - 'Communism in one contry'.
Born in 1879 in the Republic of Georgia as Joseph Jughashvili, Stalin studied to become a priest. But he became a Bolshevik and changed his name to Stalin ('man of steel') when imprisoned as a revolutionary. Stalin gained power by controlling the Party and appointing people loyal to him to senior Party positions. This meant Stalin's rivals had little support in the Party, and he could suppress Lenin's testament. Only Party members chosen by the Party were allowed to hold government positions, and by the late 1920's Stalin had enough Party support to have his rivals voted out of power and eventually thrown out of the Party altogether.
Stalin firstly supported Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky, who was dismissed as Commissar for war in 1924, and 'Communism in one country' became Party policy in 1925. Trotsky was isolated and thrown out of the Communist Party in 1927 and new members loyal to Stalin were elected to the Politburo. Stalin suppored NEP and gradual reform of the economy, and Zinoviev and Kamenev were dismissed from the Politburo in 1926 for supporting fast modernisation. For opposing Stalin, they were exiled in 1928 when Trotsky was sent to Siberia and exiled the following year.
But in 1928 Stalin switched to a 'left-wing' position in adopting fast modernisation and now removed the leading figures on the 'right' of the Party like Bukharin and Rykov for supporting Lenin's NEP policy. By 1930 he was in complete control as leader of the Party and the USSR.
While the NEP had stabilised the economy, Stalin now saw rapid growth as needed for the USSR to catch up with the industrialised West and adopted Trotsky's programme of fast state-controlled modernisation. The state took over planning for industry and agriculture with a commission called Gosplan to set 5 Year Plan targets for all basic industrial factories and workers.
1928-33: The first Five-Year Plan. The plan concentrated on basic heavy industry - coal, steel, railways, electricity and machinery - and remarkable growth in output was achieved. Many new factories were built beyond the Ural mountains, far from possible western invaders.
In 1932 a second Five-Year Plan was started, but fears about Adolf Hitler's new Nazi Germany meant developing the armaments industry more than others. A third 5-year plan started in 1937 was even more disrupted by war preparation, and the German invasion of 1941.
In under 10 years, the USSR almost doubled industrial output but the price was misery and low living standards for Soviet workers and there were serious problems with the plans;
1) New towns, cities and industrial zones often had poor quality housing.
2) Long hours were worked for low pay, with higher wage foreign workers with special skills working on new schemes.
3) Bonuses were given for workers who could improve on production targets as an inspiration to others e.g. Alexei Stakhanov, whose coal mining team dramatically increased its output but this often gave unrealistic targets for most workers.
4) Much of the work was done by the forced labour of criminals and political prisoners.
5) Targets were propaganda tools and when government said they'd been broken, it was often hard to tell how much was really achieved and how much was just propaganda.
The USSR had to increase food supplies to workers in the towns and cities for the Five-Year Plans to succeed, but millions of peasants hid food away and didn't support the Communists. They were often poor while many richer peasants, or Kulaks, were influential in the countryside annoying local Communist Party secretaries. So in 1929 Stalin began enforced collectivising of all farms, and peasants could keep only small plots of land of their own for fruit, vegetable and animals.
Collectivisation destroyed the traditional peasant way of life and was resisted by peasants who didn't want to give up lands - especially the Kulaks. It did mean extra machinery for use on the larger farms, but the collectives were forced to grow particular crops needed for industry, export or food for workers and they had to suppy a specific amount to the state, whether the harvest was good or bad. And Party officials were brought in to run collectives, which was also resented.
Stalin blamed the Kulaks for resistance to collectivisation and sent troops to attack what he called 'these enemies of the people'. An estimated 10 million were shot or sent to Labour Camps where many died from starvation or cold either on the way to such camps or while working there. Some villages were surrounded and destroyed with many Kulaks burning their own crops and killed livestock. This helped cause a famine in the Ukraine where 5 million people died.
1930-33 saw famine and poor harvests, and collectivisation was halted brieftly. Millions were dead or deported and grain production was down and animal numbers had fallen. By 1937 collectivisation was 99% complete, the Kulaks had been eliminated and other peasants were afraid of Communist power. The Communist Party now held absolute authority in rural Russia as it did in the cities.
For Collectivisation ;
1) It ended the forced exploitation of peasants by greedy landlords and got rid of the anti-Communist Kulaks.
2) It helped peasants work together and provided large-scale organisation of food production for the farms.
3) It was Communism in practice.
4) Soviet propaganda could show collective farms as a triumph for state, and create a myth of the happy peasant.
Against Collectivisation ;
1) The changes were enforced by the army and by law there was no choice.
2) The Kulaks were scapegoats for previous inefficient food producation, and the policy led to the murder and deportation of millions of people.
3) The new system failed at first when bad harvests combined with Kulaks destroying crops and animals caused serious famine killing many.
By 1940 a few state farms were set up as an extension of collective farms, with land being owned completely by the state, and peasants working as labourers so they received wages even if the farm did badly. Food was produced for the state and this was considered closer to the communist ideal than the collective, but they were expensive to establish and run.
Stalin became terrified that others wanted to overthrow him and this made him determined to get rid of rivals, even those that weren't really a threat. Kirov was the popular head of the Party in Leningrad and was murdered in 1934, and Stalin's successor Krushchev blamed Stalin for that murder but gave no clear proof. But immediately Stalin ordered a purge of people he believed involved in conspiracy against Kirov and against himself though Kirov's murderer was never put on trial.
In 1935-36, 'Old' Communists like Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested and tried in 'Show Trials', being forced by torture or threats to confess to betraying Stalin. No-one knowns exactly what was true and what was invented in this process, but one claim was that the exiled Trotsky was plotting with senior leaders to take power. Soon the purges reached ordinary people and anyone suspected of disloyalty to Stalin was taken away by the NKVD (the new secret police). Most were shot or sent to Labour camps and people who wanted to avoid arrest did so by providing information about others even if it was false.
By 1939 approximately 3 million people were dead and 9 million were political prisoners. Stalin's wife killed herself (or was murdered) in 1932 after a purge at the University where she was a teacher. In 1937 the exiled Trotsky condemned Stalin's purges from his home in Mexico and called for a new revolution - and in 1940 he was murdered by one of Stalin's agents.
Stalin controlled all information requiring artists and writers to follow the Party line, creating 'useful' art for the workers. The media promoted the heroic workers' struggle and Stalin's great leadership and criticism of Stalin was banned. History was re-written making Stalin more important in the October Revolution than he really had been, and Trotsky became a 'non-person' with his name was removed from history books and articles and his picture rubbed out of old photos as though he had never existed. Historical photographs were altered to show Stalin as a close friend of Lenin.
Stalin's terror purges slowed down by the end of the 1930s, but had serious consequences. Many of the most gifted and able citizens had disappeared, killed or sent to camps, and even the army and navy were seriously weakened by the loss of many senior officers. Industrial and technical progress was hampered by the loss of top scientists and engineers. In 1936 a new Constitution meant elections every 4 years but only official Party candidates were allowed and power was kept in the Politburo.
Religion had been called the 'opium of the people' by Marx, and the Russian Orthodox Church had been a powerful supporter of the Tsars. The Communist government siezed Church property and land as valuable assets for the Party, and Christians were perscuted as a political threat to Communism with priests were murdered or exiled. In 1929 the Church was banned from any activity except leading worship, and by 1939 only a faw hundred Churches remained active though the state claimed the promise of free conscience in the 1936 constitution was being honoured. Many people were remained believers, nearly half the population in 1940.
In Stalin's dictatorship of Russia, Party 'appartchik' members loyal to Stalin received privileges like holidays, flats etc while most people lived in fear and were unable to speak out. And communist Russia became almost an outcast country. Of course from 1917 a successful Russian workers revolution was seen as a danger by Western countries fearful of their own workers revolting, and Russia reneged on many debts to the West. Hence France and Britain sending troops to help the Whites in the civil war, and the West refusing aid to Russia in time of famine.
But actual Russian leaders, unlike Trotsky leftists, did not prioritise world revolution and gradually better relations were established and trading agreements made as with Germany. In 1934 Soviet Russia was allowed to join the League of Nations, and in 1935 signed an agreement with France to support Czechoslovakia. From 1936 to 1939 the USSR helped the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War by supplying them with weapons in their fight against the Fascist troops of Franco. The Fascists were helped by Hitler and Mussolini so battle lines were drawn between Communism and Fascism.
But Britain and France failed to help Russia stop Germany taking over Czechoslovakia, so Stalin decided on the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939. A deal was reached by Molotov and Von Ribbentrop with a secret section allowing for the division of Poland between Germany and Russia. Stalin knew that Russia wasn't ready for a war with Nazi Germany, and hoped to avoid any involvement in the coming European War. Russia also signed a neutrality pact with Japan.
In trying to win back territory, the USSR attacked Finland and the Baltic States on 15th September 1939, but the Finns held out and embarrassed the Red Army who began to fight among themselves gaining only a little territory in South Finland. The League of Nations expelled the USSR but by then the rest of Europe was already at war.
Germany attacked a largely unprepared Russia in June 1941 but Stalin rallied the Russian people for a patriotic effort, and all industry was geared to winning the war. It's estimated about 20 million Soviets died fighting the Germans, but a victorious Communist Russia emerged much strengthened.
Under the Tsars the government of the Russia Empire was unpopular. The Tsar was all powerful and ruled without a parliament, and most of the country's wealth and land was owned by a small noble class. The church taught that the Tsar must be obeyed, and villages were controlled by a 'mir' local council who had the power to decide whether a peasant was allowed to own or rent land.
The growth of industry brought large numbers of workers to growing towns - but conditions in towns were poor and workers were badly paid. In 1905 Russia's defeat in war with Japan led to strikes and demonstrations with troops firing into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg. There was nearly a popular revolt then.
The Tsar allowed some change and set up the first Duma parliment in 1906 when the Liberal Cadet party won a majority. They demanded control of taxes, as the Tsar had promised them, but instead he dismissed the Duma and many Liberals fled to Finland. New elections were held and this time the Duma was even more radical as the Marxist SDLP (Social Democratic Labour Party) won some seats from the Cadets. When the Tsar wanted to arrest several SDLP members as terrorists this Duma refused - so the Tsar dismissed it too.
The next two Dumas obeyed the Tsar (1907-1914), because the SDLP were not allowed to run as candidates and any known troublemakers were arrested and imprisoned. The press was censored and a secret police was used to spy on anyone the Tsar feared. The situation of most Russians hadn't improved and there was still a lot of discountent among the poor working classes and the peasants.
Some reforms were attempted under Prime Minister Stolypin who wanted reforms for a slower and more natural rate of industrial growth, being afraid that badly-run industry could get out of control, and he redued the control of the 'mir'. Now hard-working peasants could rent or buy land to farm themselves known as Kulaks and helped by special Peasant Banks known. The 'mir' system continued but became less efficient when the Kulak peasants left - causing problems for the country's food supply.
Peasants in the 'mir' farms resented the wealth of some Kulaks, but reform needed peace and Europe was heading for war. Stolypin was murdered in 1911 by a revolutionary and Tsar Nicholas became influenced by a 'Holy Man' called Rasputin who claimed supernatural powers to treat his son for haemophilia. Rasputin became powerful and even sacked and appointed government ministers, and while he was killed by angry nobles in 1916, the Tsar's authority had been undermined.
With the First World War, patriotism and loyalty to the Tsar were revived. People wanted a short and victorious war, but :
1) There were high casualties with 1,700,000 soldiers killed by the end of 1917.
2) There was a shortage of rifles and other munitions equipment.
3) Military leadership was bad with the Tsar taking personal command in 1915.
4) Russian forces were pushed back by the Germans and hit a stalemate.
5) Inflation led to prices at home quadrupling between 1914 and 1917.
6) There was widespread hunger and food shortages at home.
The war speeded up the process of change as Russians got fed up with the Tsar and what they thought was a pointless war. In Febuary 1917, demonstrations and food riots broke out in the capital Petrograd, and the Tsar lost support and control. When his soldiers were ordered to fire on the mobs many refused or deserted to join rioting workers. The Tsar abdicated and a Provisional Government was formed under the leadership of Prince Lvov until July, and then Kerensky.
Russia was now a republic and the main Revolutionary Parties were taken by surpise. This was a real people's revolution caused by sudden risings of workers and soldiers sick of the war, shortages and high prices. But the new government faced opposition from the Revolutionaries, who wanted power for themselves - among them, a group split from the SDLP called the Bolsheviks.
Revolutionary opposition was widespread. The SRP - the Socialist Revolutonary Party - wanted to start a peasants' revolt. The SDLP - Social Democratic Labour Party - wanted to set up a Communist state based on the ideas of the nineteenth century political thinker Karl Marx. These groups had been in exile abroad or in distant parts of Russia because it was dangerous to speak out, and this was one reason they weren't involved in the February Revolution and hadn't expected the sudden fall of the Tsar.
Capitalism, based on business making profits, Marx had said was unjust as workers received very small wages for labour that made a tiny elite class very rich. And Marxists saw history as a process of change - of development towards an ideal society because of class struggle between the rich, the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (the proletariat). Monarchy as a Feudal system with fixed classes would be replaced by a bourgeois revolution, setting up an industrial capitalist state and then a proletarian revolution setting up a communist worker state.
After the proletarian revolution, the means of production would be used for everyone's benefit and shared-this is called Communism. Marx's book 'Das Kapital' was based on observations made in Britain and Western Europe and 1917 Russia didn't fit his characteristics for a Proletarian Revolution so the 'February' Revolution wa bourgeois, and Marxism said the bourgeois state had to last some time before the proletariat could successfully revolt.
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Russian SDLP encouraged industrial workers in towns to protest against their terrible living conditions, hoping to create a situation where a Marxist revolution could take place. But at the 1903 Social Democrat Conference, the SDLP split over whether to become a mass party or remain a small party of dedicated members workers towards revolution.
They split into Lenin's Bolsheviks ('the majority') a minority favouring a small party, and Martov's Mensheviks favouring a mass party. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin the Bolshevik leader was a clever thinker and a practical man who knew how to take advantage of events. Though a small party, they smuggled a newspaper into Russia called ''Iskra'' (the Spark) to try to win support among industrial workers but made little impact on the workers.
During the war Lenin was in exile in Switzerland, and when the 'February Revolution' came he returned to Russia to rally the Bolshevik cause. The Germans helped him to return in a sealed train in April 1917, because they hoped he would cause another revolution and that Russia would quit the war. When Lenin arrived in Russia, most people thought the Bolsheviks would support the Provisional government's efforts to reform the Tsarist system. But Lenin issued a document called the April Theses, promising 'Peace, Bread, Land and Freedom', calling for an end to the 'capitalist' war and demanding that power should be given to the Soviets - elected committees of workers, peasants and soldiers which had started up in 1905 and had given leadership to the people during the 'February' Revolution.
Lenin demanded a Revolution against the Provisional Government as soon as possible, though this wasn't a strict Marxist position. Lenin was adapting Marx to the Russian context, which is sometimes called Marxist-Leninism.
The Provisional Government had problems;
1) It was supposed to be temporary, but economic crisis made elections impractical. By November 1917 prices were ten times higher than in 1914.
3) Food shortages led to peasants seizing land from nobles.
4) It didn't end the war, and soldiers and sailors began to mutiny.
5) A network of Soviets was established, with the Petrograd Soviet becoming an alternative governmant and key workers were told to strike to undermine the Provisional Governmant.
6) The Petrograd Soviet issued 'Order No.1' which said that soldiers shouldn't obey orders from the Provisional Governmant that were opposed by the Soviet.
The Soviets demanded an end to the war, but the army attacked German forces on July 1st 1917. After early Russian success the Germans counter-attacked, forcing a retreat and morale and discipline in the Russian army collapsed.
The Bolsheviks prepared for further Revolution and gained increasing support among workers and soldiers.
1) In July 1917 Bolsheviks tried to take control of the Government but were defeated and Lenin was forced to flee to Finland. Kernshy turned public opinion against him by accusing him of being a German agent.
2) Leon Trotsky set up the Red Guards - a Bolsheviks militia - and the Bolsheviks won control of the Soviets with Trotsky becoming Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
3) Peasants attacked Kulaks and took land from Church and nobles.
4) Many soldiers started to desert from the army.
In September 1917 Russian Commander in Chief, General Kornilov, turned his army back from the Front and marched against the Provisional Governmant determined to seize power. Kerensky had to give weapons to the Bolsheviks and the Petrograd Soviet to save his Government from a military takeover.
Bolshevik railway workers and Red Guards were waiting to stop Kornilov's advance - but all his soldiers deserted him and he fled. The Bolsheviks were now the real power in Russia, and it was a decisive moment in 20th century history when the Bolshevik Central Committee under Lenin voted on October 23rd 1917 for revolution. Detailed plans were made by Trotsky to seize important buildings in Petrograd and arrest Ministers.
But as there were only 250,000 Bolsheviks in Russia, controlling a small part of the country, civil war was inevitable as there were many opposed to Bolshevik rule. Lenin was ruthless and determined to keep power, knowing a strong governmant was needed and the ideals of communism would have to wait.
1) The All-Russian Congress of Sovies gave power to Lenin and 15 Bolshevik People's Commissars on 8th November 1917.
2) Soldiers were sent into the countryside to seize grain to feed the towns.
3) The Bolsheviks controlled the main centres of power and used telegraph communications to spreed their revolutionary message to local groups.
4) Elections held for a new National Assembly gave most seats to the peasant-supported SRP, but the Red Guards disbanded the Assembly as soon as it was set up in January 1918.
6) The Bolsheviks became the Communist Party, which was made the only legal party in Russia.
The reasons for the Bolshevik success;
1) They were strong in key poitical and administrative centres - especially Petrograd.
2) They had their own trained military force - the Red Guards.
3) They were ruthless, had clear planned strategies and were prepared for swift action.
4) They were practical in recognising that the time for a true Marxist revolution in Russia was a long way off and so adapted their policies in order to seize power at the first chance. They claimed they ran a Socialist governmant which was trying to create the right conditions for Communism in the long term - so in the short term they could do whatever they liked.
5) The continuing problems of war and famine, and the breakdown of law and order weren't dealt with by the Provisional Governmant, who had become a weak target.
6) The vision and ability of Lenin who was a quick-thinking leader who inspired his party.
The Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Germans, hoping to delay a peace treaty as they thought there might be a Communist revolution in Germany too. This didn't happen, and German army advances made the Bolsheviks agree to the harsh terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. But when Germany was defeated by Western Allies later in 1918 some conceded lands were regained.
A civil war in Russia was inevitable and Lenin and Trotsky were prepared for this.
1) The Communists had seized power suddenly and disbanded the elected National Assembly and outlawed political opposition, so many saw them as a danger.
2) Anti-Communist army officers no longer fighting Germany included many Royalists wanting the return of the Tsar and now could attack the Communists.
3) The Communists wanted world revolution and the Comintern (Third International) was formed under Zinoviev to promote revolution abroad.
The Government moved from Petrograd to Moscow in March 1918 and Leon Trotsky began to build an efficient Red Army to fight the civil war which began in the spring of 1918 and lasted until the end of 1920. Anti-Communist forces surrounding Red Russia were called the ''Whites'' - the colour of the Tsarist state. But there were many White groups who often had different aims and purposeswhich was a key problem for them. Britain, France and the USA sent troops to help the Whites, worried by Communist ideas of world revolution and hoping to restart the Eastern Front against Germany.
Reasons for the Red Army victory over the Whites ;
1) Red forces were united, while White forces were divided and didn't work together which meant the Reds could fight the White armies one by one, instead of fighting on several fronts at the same time. And Trotsky was a brilliant leader.
2) White forces were a long way apart and couldn't stay in touch to coordinate attacks. Some had different political opinions which meant they didn't want to work together.
3) Patrotic Russians mostly supported the Reds while the Whites were led by nobles or used foreign armies.
4) The Whites' foreign military support was withdrawn as soon as it became clear the Reds would win.
5) The Communists controlled the main cities and communications systems and the railways.
6) The strict and ruthless laws of War Communism helped obtain supplies for the Reds.
When the Red Army had defeated its enemies in Russia it invaded Poland, hoping to link up with Communists in Germany to spread revolution throughout Europe but it was defeated by the Poles outside Warsaw in late 1920, when the civil war ended.
The Tsar and his family were at first held prisoner in a basement at Ekaterinburg, because the Communists knew they were important symbols for the White cause. The official story was that they were executed as White forces approached the town. But historians have debated about whether some of the family, including the Tsar's daughter Anastasia, escaped and several people later claimed to be Anastasia.
Under strict War Communism farms and factories were put under state control and private trade was banned. Food was taken for soldiers and industrial workers and peasants who refused to hand it over to the Red Army were shot or sent to forced labour camps. The Secret Police (CHEKA) hunted and executed any enemies of the state.
Industrial workers weren't allowed to strike or be absent from work and could be sent to any region. Everyone aged 16-60 had to work except for the sick and pregnant women. Experts were brought in to try to improve efficiency, but the result was famine and decline in 1920 and 1921 when over 7 million people died of hunger. The worthless currency was abandoned and wages paid in fuel and food. Workers leaving cities with little food meant industry declined.
Sailors at the Krondstadt Naval base near Petrograd mutinied in March 1921. The soilors were unhappy with the lack of progress, the famine and the terror though they had supported the Communists in 1917 and especially Trotsky's leadership in Petrograd. Lenin and Trotsky were worried that dissent might spread when the ice around the island base thawed and let the sailors leave, so Trotsky ordered the Red Army to put down the Mutiny.
The Red Army took the base in a brutal battle losing many men. Many rebels were killed in the fighting and the rest were executed afterwards as traitors. There were other revolts, food convoys robbed and many factories suffered strikes and unrest.
Trotsky had recognised the economic crisis in 1920 and saw Russian Communism as pushing ahead 'too fast' and suggested a change of policy to encourage businesses. Lenin rejected this at first, but in 1921 introduced a New Economic Polic to restore order and increase prosperity after the chaos of Revolution, civil war and War Communism.
Now the civil war was won, the Communists also needed to keep control of public opinion. This meant a policy of Complete Party Unity with no dissent or splits allowed.
The New Economic Policy reversed War Communism and allowed economic recovery so that by 1928 industrial and food production levels were about the same as in 1914.
1) Peasants could sell surplus food produce and pay tax on profits.
2) It allowed small businesses, like shops and small factories, that weren't state-owned and could therefore make a profit.
3) Vital industries such as coal, iron, steel, railways, shipping and finance stayed in State hands. But here experts were brought in on higher salaries, and extra wages were paid for efficiency.
At the same time Communist political control grew ;
1) A 'purge' in 1921 expelled about 1/3 of Party members who didn't agree with Lenin.
2) Communist governments were imposed in areas captured in the civil war, often against the wishes of local Nationalists as in the Ukraine.
3) In 1924 a new constitution established the USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
4) Each Republic had a government with some policy freedom, but they all had to be Communist, and the system was run centrally by the Politburo - the senior USSR council.
Lenin had a stroke in 1922 and died on Jan 21 1924. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour. His key strengths as a leader had been ;
1) His organization and leadership of the Bolshevik party transformed it.
2) He had a pragmatic and realistic approach to problems.
3) He was able to 'seize the moment' which was vital in the Bolsheviks gaining power.
4) He could be ruthless - he set up the CHEKA (secret police) and labour camps. He also wasn't afraid to use force as in putting down the Krondstadt mutiny.
5) He was able to change his policies - e.g. he was able to adopt War Communism to win the civil war, and then to introduce the NEP afterwards to help economy recover.
Several leaders struggled to succeed Lenin. Trotsky was the most able, and popular with the army and Party members. He had led the Red Army brilliantly during the Civil War, but he lacked support in the Politburo and had been a Menshevik and made enemies. Zinoviev and Kamenev were also left-wingers agreeing with Trotsky's ideas on state control of land, rapid modernisation and world revolution, but were determined to stop Trotsky becoming Party leader. Zinoviev was popular and had been a friend of Lenin.
There was also Stalin who didn't seem likely to lead the party, but had accumulated power through good organization 'behind the scenes' in his work as General Secretary of the Party. Lenin had considered who might succeed him in a 'Testament', saying that Trotsky was arrogant but able and that Stalin should be removed from office as too rude and ambitious. While Trotsky wanted the USSR to spread revolution worldwide, Stalin and much of the Party wanted a period of peace and rebuilding in the USSR - 'Communism in one contry'.
Born in 1879 in the Republic of Georgia as Joseph Jughashvili, Stalin studied to become a priest. But he became a Bolshevik and changed his name to Stalin ('man of steel') when imprisoned as a revolutionary. Stalin gained power by controlling the Party and appointing people loyal to him to senior Party positions. This meant Stalin's rivals had little support in the Party, and he could suppress Lenin's testament. Only Party members chosen by the Party were allowed to hold government positions, and by the late 1920's Stalin had enough Party support to have his rivals voted out of power and eventually thrown out of the Party altogether.
Stalin firstly supported Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky, who was dismissed as Commissar for war in 1924, and 'Communism in one country' became Party policy in 1925. Trotsky was isolated and thrown out of the Communist Party in 1927 and new members loyal to Stalin were elected to the Politburo. Stalin suppored NEP and gradual reform of the economy, and Zinoviev and Kamenev were dismissed from the Politburo in 1926 for supporting fast modernisation. For opposing Stalin, they were exiled in 1928 when Trotsky was sent to Siberia and exiled the following year.
But in 1928 Stalin switched to a 'left-wing' position in adopting fast modernisation and now removed the leading figures on the 'right' of the Party like Bukharin and Rykov for supporting Lenin's NEP policy. By 1930 he was in complete control as leader of the Party and the USSR.
While the NEP had stabilised the economy, Stalin now saw rapid growth as needed for the USSR to catch up with the industrialised West and adopted Trotsky's programme of fast state-controlled modernisation. The state took over planning for industry and agriculture with a commission called Gosplan to set 5 Year Plan targets for all basic industrial factories and workers.
1928-33: The first Five-Year Plan. The plan concentrated on basic heavy industry - coal, steel, railways, electricity and machinery - and remarkable growth in output was achieved. Many new factories were built beyond the Ural mountains, far from possible western invaders.
In 1932 a second Five-Year Plan was started, but fears about Adolf Hitler's new Nazi Germany meant developing the armaments industry more than others. A third 5-year plan started in 1937 was even more disrupted by war preparation, and the German invasion of 1941.
In under 10 years, the USSR almost doubled industrial output but the price was misery and low living standards for Soviet workers and there were serious problems with the plans;
1) New towns, cities and industrial zones often had poor quality housing.
2) Long hours were worked for low pay, with higher wage foreign workers with special skills working on new schemes.
3) Bonuses were given for workers who could improve on production targets as an inspiration to others e.g. Alexei Stakhanov, whose coal mining team dramatically increased its output but this often gave unrealistic targets for most workers.
4) Much of the work was done by the forced labour of criminals and political prisoners.
5) Targets were propaganda tools and when government said they'd been broken, it was often hard to tell how much was really achieved and how much was just propaganda.
The USSR had to increase food supplies to workers in the towns and cities for the Five-Year Plans to succeed, but millions of peasants hid food away and didn't support the Communists. They were often poor while many richer peasants, or Kulaks, were influential in the countryside annoying local Communist Party secretaries. So in 1929 Stalin began enforced collectivising of all farms, and peasants could keep only small plots of land of their own for fruit, vegetable and animals.
Collectivisation destroyed the traditional peasant way of life and was resisted by peasants who didn't want to give up lands - especially the Kulaks. It did mean extra machinery for use on the larger farms, but the collectives were forced to grow particular crops needed for industry, export or food for workers and they had to suppy a specific amount to the state, whether the harvest was good or bad. And Party officials were brought in to run collectives, which was also resented.
Stalin blamed the Kulaks for resistance to collectivisation and sent troops to attack what he called 'these enemies of the people'. An estimated 10 million were shot or sent to Labour Camps where many died from starvation or cold either on the way to such camps or while working there. Some villages were surrounded and destroyed with many Kulaks burning their own crops and killed livestock. This helped cause a famine in the Ukraine where 5 million people died.
1930-33 saw famine and poor harvests, and collectivisation was halted brieftly. Millions were dead or deported and grain production was down and animal numbers had fallen. By 1937 collectivisation was 99% complete, the Kulaks had been eliminated and other peasants were afraid of Communist power. The Communist Party now held absolute authority in rural Russia as it did in the cities.
For Collectivisation ;
1) It ended the forced exploitation of peasants by greedy landlords and got rid of the anti-Communist Kulaks.
2) It helped peasants work together and provided large-scale organisation of food production for the farms.
3) It was Communism in practice.
4) Soviet propaganda could show collective farms as a triumph for state, and create a myth of the happy peasant.
Against Collectivisation ;
1) The changes were enforced by the army and by law there was no choice.
2) The Kulaks were scapegoats for previous inefficient food producation, and the policy led to the murder and deportation of millions of people.
3) The new system failed at first when bad harvests combined with Kulaks destroying crops and animals caused serious famine killing many.
By 1940 a few state farms were set up as an extension of collective farms, with land being owned completely by the state, and peasants working as labourers so they received wages even if the farm did badly. Food was produced for the state and this was considered closer to the communist ideal than the collective, but they were expensive to establish and run.
Stalin became terrified that others wanted to overthrow him and this made him determined to get rid of rivals, even those that weren't really a threat. Kirov was the popular head of the Party in Leningrad and was murdered in 1934, and Stalin's successor Krushchev blamed Stalin for that murder but gave no clear proof. But immediately Stalin ordered a purge of people he believed involved in conspiracy against Kirov and against himself though Kirov's murderer was never put on trial.
In 1935-36, 'Old' Communists like Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested and tried in 'Show Trials', being forced by torture or threats to confess to betraying Stalin. No-one knowns exactly what was true and what was invented in this process, but one claim was that the exiled Trotsky was plotting with senior leaders to take power. Soon the purges reached ordinary people and anyone suspected of disloyalty to Stalin was taken away by the NKVD (the new secret police). Most were shot or sent to Labour camps and people who wanted to avoid arrest did so by providing information about others even if it was false.
By 1939 approximately 3 million people were dead and 9 million were political prisoners. Stalin's wife killed herself (or was murdered) in 1932 after a purge at the University where she was a teacher. In 1937 the exiled Trotsky condemned Stalin's purges from his home in Mexico and called for a new revolution - and in 1940 he was murdered by one of Stalin's agents.
Stalin controlled all information requiring artists and writers to follow the Party line, creating 'useful' art for the workers. The media promoted the heroic workers' struggle and Stalin's great leadership and criticism of Stalin was banned. History was re-written making Stalin more important in the October Revolution than he really had been, and Trotsky became a 'non-person' with his name was removed from history books and articles and his picture rubbed out of old photos as though he had never existed. Historical photographs were altered to show Stalin as a close friend of Lenin.
Stalin's terror purges slowed down by the end of the 1930s, but had serious consequences. Many of the most gifted and able citizens had disappeared, killed or sent to camps, and even the army and navy were seriously weakened by the loss of many senior officers. Industrial and technical progress was hampered by the loss of top scientists and engineers. In 1936 a new Constitution meant elections every 4 years but only official Party candidates were allowed and power was kept in the Politburo.
Religion had been called the 'opium of the people' by Marx, and the Russian Orthodox Church had been a powerful supporter of the Tsars. The Communist government siezed Church property and land as valuable assets for the Party, and Christians were perscuted as a political threat to Communism with priests were murdered or exiled. In 1929 the Church was banned from any activity except leading worship, and by 1939 only a faw hundred Churches remained active though the state claimed the promise of free conscience in the 1936 constitution was being honoured. Many people were remained believers, nearly half the population in 1940.
In Stalin's dictatorship of Russia, Party 'appartchik' members loyal to Stalin received privileges like holidays, flats etc while most people lived in fear and were unable to speak out. And communist Russia became almost an outcast country. Of course from 1917 a successful Russian workers revolution was seen as a danger by Western countries fearful of their own workers revolting, and Russia reneged on many debts to the West. Hence France and Britain sending troops to help the Whites in the civil war, and the West refusing aid to Russia in time of famine.
But actual Russian leaders, unlike Trotsky leftists, did not prioritise world revolution and gradually better relations were established and trading agreements made as with Germany. In 1934 Soviet Russia was allowed to join the League of Nations, and in 1935 signed an agreement with France to support Czechoslovakia. From 1936 to 1939 the USSR helped the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War by supplying them with weapons in their fight against the Fascist troops of Franco. The Fascists were helped by Hitler and Mussolini so battle lines were drawn between Communism and Fascism.
But Britain and France failed to help Russia stop Germany taking over Czechoslovakia, so Stalin decided on the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939. A deal was reached by Molotov and Von Ribbentrop with a secret section allowing for the division of Poland between Germany and Russia. Stalin knew that Russia wasn't ready for a war with Nazi Germany, and hoped to avoid any involvement in the coming European War. Russia also signed a neutrality pact with Japan.
In trying to win back territory, the USSR attacked Finland and the Baltic States on 15th September 1939, but the Finns held out and embarrassed the Red Army who began to fight among themselves gaining only a little territory in South Finland. The League of Nations expelled the USSR but by then the rest of Europe was already at war.
Germany attacked a largely unprepared Russia in June 1941 but Stalin rallied the Russian people for a patriotic effort, and all industry was geared to winning the war. It's estimated about 20 million Soviets died fighting the Germans, but a victorious Communist Russia emerged much strengthened.
