Outline for the Russian Revolution:

Civil War: what does that mean/entail?

Background:

1. Russia a vast territory with many ethnicities

2. Tsarist government was autocratic
3. People revolted in 1905- Duma set up (little actual power, but sets stage
for later revolt).
4. Russia was behind in industrial power- still a largely rural, if not feudal
society.
5. Conditions for workers in rural and especially urban areas as Russia
industrialized was terrible.
6. Nicholas failed to respond to the will of his people, and when forced to do
so, failed to act accordingly.
7. Unions and political parties were set up in 1905 and gradually sought
changes.

Why did the revolution occur when it did?

1. 1917- War going poorly for Russia

2. Army ill-prepared and under-equipped
3. Nicholas took personal command of the military without experience
4. Resources were put forth into the military effort, to the detriment of the
peasants and people. Men left to fight, limiting productive capacity, and
trains were used for military transport, meaning no food transport and
famines across the country.
5. As Nicholas was on the front, his wife was placed in charge. 2 problems:
she was under the influence of the very unstable Rasputin, and she was
German, which did little to assuage the fears of the Russian populace that
Germany was going to win.
6. Army abandons the Tsar by early March, 1917.

After Nicholas abdicates, then what?

1. The Duma is placed in charge of the government.

2. Provisional government continues fighting the war AND the Bolshevik
movement.
3. Provisional government did nothing to stop the Soviet movement, which
was sweeping across the country and proclaiming the values of Marxism.
4. The war furthered the suffering of the people
5. Peasants began taking the land of the nobles- anarchy (Provisional gov’t
sent troops to restore the land- mistake!)
 6. The German army won victories over the Russian army, and the navy and
army mutinied/deserted.
7. April 1917- Lenin and Bolsheviks promoted Land, Peace, Bread and state
control of production

Events of the Provisional Government

March The Provisional Government was faced by massive
problems (inflation, hunger, peasant riots, war, Bolshevik and
Tsarist revolutionaries).
The Petrograd Soviet issued Order No. 1 – workers and
soldiers must obey the Provisional Government only if the
Soviet agrees. However, the Soviets were still controlled by
the Mensheviks (moderate Communists).
April The German government smuggled the Bolshevik leader
Lenin back into Russia. He published his manifesto: the ‘April
Theses’.
June Failure of the June military offensive against Austria.
July Bolshevik riots – the July Days – were defeated, but the
Bolshevik Party was not banned.
August General Kornilov revolted, but was defeated by the
Bolsheviks.
Sept The Bolsheviks (extremist Communists) took over the
Petrograd Soviet (Trotsky became its President).
6–7 Nov (24–25 October old style) Bolshevik Revolution.

November Revolution:

1. Bolsheviks overthrow gov’t due to weaknesses and inaction

2. Bolsheviks kept it basic, responding to the needs of the
people, which was followed by vehement support
3. Propaganda- Pravda (Truth)
4. Germans financed the Bolsheviks because they knew Lenin
would take Russia out of the war
5. Bolsheviks were well-led under Lenin- charismatic
revolutionary
6. Red Guards under Trotsky enabled the Bolsheviks to use a
military force to enforce policies

New Government:
 1. Bolsheviks and socialists won a majority of the seats in the
new elections
2. Lenin used the Red Guard to kill anybody that opposed his
rule
3. Brest-Litovsk was signed ending Russia’s part in WWI (gave
great agricultural land to Germany)
4. Lenin instituted communist rules: land redistribution so
peasants owned land, workers owned factories
5. Religion was banned
6. 8-hour work day, unemployment and pensions
7. campaign for literacy
8. “useless” subjects like history were banned! (the horror)
9. Terror used to create a totalitarian state (Cheka)
10. Newspapers censored
11. Dictatorship of the Proletariat until a fully communist state
was feasible

The Civil War

1. powers resisting Bolshevik power: Mensheviks, tsarists, army

officers, landlords that lost land
Why The Bolsheviks Won The War
1. Whites
were disunited and thousands of miles apart, so Trotsky could fight
them one by one.

2. Trotsky
was a brilliant war leader and strategist, so the Red Army had good
tactics.

3. Belief
Many Russians were Communists, who believed they were fighting for a better
world. Others fought for them because they hated foreign (British, American and
French) armies invading Russia. This made the Bolshevik soldiers fervent and
enthusiastic.

4. War Communism
The Bolsheviks nationalised the factories, and introduced military
discipline. Strikes were made illegal. Food was rationed. Peasants were forced
to give food to the government. This gave the Bolshevik armies the supplies they
needed.

5. Terror
The Cheka murdered any Whites they found – more than 7000 people were
executed, and Red Army generals were kept loyal by taking their families hostage –
so the Bolsheviks were united.

6. Wherewithal
The Bolsheviks had control of the main cities of Moscow and Petrograd (with their
factories), control of the railways (vital), an army of 300,000 men, very strict army
discipline, and internal lines of communication – giving them the advantage in the
war.
The New Economic Policy

National freedoms
a. Lenin allowed freedom to national and Muslim cultures.
b. In the Ukraine, although the Bolsheviks were in power, the Ukrainian
language was used in government and business, and children were taught it in
schools.
c. In the Muslim areas of central Asia (such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) bazaars were
allowed to reopen, mosques were taken from Soviet control, the Koran was restored, and
native languages were encouraged.

Experts
Coal, iron, steel and railways stayed nationalised, but the Bolsheviks brought in
experts, on high wages, to increase production.

Private enterprise
a. Small factories were handed back to their owners.
b. New traders (called 'nepmen') were allowed to set up small private
businesses.
c. At the same time - where War Communism had forced the peasants to hand
over ALL their surplus grain - Lenin let them sell their surplus, and pay a tax
instead. Some hard-working peasants became rich (the ‘Kulaks’).

Results
1. Some of the Politburo (the inner cabinet of the government) opposed the NEP because it
allowed capitalism.
2. However, the NEP did something to restore prosperity - although production
levels only passed the 1914 level in 1928.

Source A
Everyone is so infinitely better off that present conditions see paradise by
comparison... 250,000 private traders have migrated to Moscow since the
NEP began. They crowd the restaurants where it costs $25 a head for dinner
with French wine ... and lose a thousand or so an evening at cards without
turning a hair.
Walter Duranty, I Write AS I Please (1935)
Duranty - an American journalist who had been in Russia during the revolution - remembering the NEP in 1992
Source B
The NEP restored some prosperity to Russia . But to many of us this prosperity was
distasteful... We felt ourselves sinking into the bog, paralysed, corrupted... There was
gambling, drunkenness, and all the filth of former times.
Classes were reborn in front of our very eyes..
Victor Serge, From Lenin to Stalin (1937)
Serge was a Bolshevik, remembering the NEP

Source C
There wasn’t any food in the country. We were down to a little bread each. Then
suddenly they started the NEP. Cafes opened. Factories went back into private
hands. It was Capitalism. In my eyes it was the very thing I had been fighting
against...
Most people supported Lenin, other said he was wrong, and many tore up their
party membership cards.
Nikolai Izatchik, a Bolshevik, remembering the NEP in 1992