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Lecture #4

Bolshevik Revolution

  1. Alternatives to old order
    1. Develop during WWI
    2. Communism most prominent
      1. rejection of parliamentary democracy
      2. rejection of European economic system
  2. Why Revolution in Russia?
    1. Supposed to be in more developed country
    2. Historical conditions
      1. repressive autocratic government
      2. no possibility of reform
      3. dissatisfaction among groups
        1. peasants want land and tax relief
        2. workers want better working conditions
        3. middle class has no political power
      4. Political and economic situation had begun to change
        1. atmosphere of expectation
        2. serfdom had been abolished 1861
        3. zemstvos established on local level
        4. Russian government began state sponsored industrialization
  3. Why socialist revolution?
    1. 1905 Revolution
      1. Bloddy Sunday--January
      2. Public outvry
      3. Beginnings of political organization
      4. October General Strike
      5. October Manifesto
        1. establishes Duma
        2. political parties allowed
        3. immediately begins to dismantle
      6. Liberal party (Kadets)
        1. Parlimentary democracy
        2. middle class has power
        3. Helped by October Manifesto
      7. Socialist Revolutionaries
        1. Belief in peasant power
        2. Wanted peasant based socialism
        3. no clear program for this
        4. terrorists
      8. Social Democrats
      9. Marxist party
      10. Based on Western model
      11. Industrial socialism
      12. Must have Revolution
      13. conspiratorial party--can't work through legal means
      14. but very small working class in Russia
      15. Split in 1903 into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
        1. Bolsheviks--autocracy to socialism
        2. Mensheviks--must let capitalism develp--truer Marxists
    2. March 1917
      1. Tsar Nicholas abdicates
      2. Duma takes power
        1. Represented wealthy, intelligentsia--Duma leaders
        2. Program
          1. Civil liberties: speech, press, assembly, religion
          2. Equality under the law
          3. Release of political prisoners and exiles
        3. continuation of war
        4. Constituent Assembly
      3. Petrograd Soviet
        1. Composed of delegates of workers and soldiers
        2. Open structure, reflecting diverse popular views--dominate parties, SRs, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks
        3. Claimed authority to approve or refuse govt. program
        4. Network of soviets all over country, even at front
        5. PG really just figurehead--PS in real control but not organized enough to take over--need to educate masses to support socialists
        6. Bolsheviks spend May and June propaganda against war
      4. People want Societ to take over
        1. Soviet run by SRs and Mensheviks
        2. Believe must wait for PG to work
        3. Refuse to actually take power
        4. Have power in reality
      5. People ready for Soviet to take over
        1. PG stays in war
        2. won't make changes--wait for Constituent Assembly
      6. Lenin only socialist willing to take over
    3. November 1917
      1. Bolsheviks seize power
      2. Bread, Peace, Land
      3. Nearly bloodless revolution
    4. Made good on promises
      1. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
        1. Russia loses land and resources
      2. Land given to peasants
  4. Consolidation
    1. All-Russian Congress of Soviets
      1. Coordinates work of nation-wide soviets
      2. Lenin must establish party rule to maintain control
      3. Has Constituent Assembly ratify Soviet rule and disbands it
    2. Civil War 1918-1920
      1. Very brutal on both sides
      2. Increased political repression
      3. War Communism to finance war--very unpopular
        1. work brigades, conscription of labor
        2. grain requisitioning
        3. mass destruction
    3. New Economic Policy 1921-1928
      1. Conciliate peasantry--market forces in ag.
      2. Free market in retail and small enterprises
      3. Commanding heights still in government hands
      4. Massive unemployment
        1. lost of dissension in the party
        2. deomcratic centralism
        3. ignoring real constituency
      5. Socialism at a snail's pace
    4. Social changes
      1. Zhenotdel
        1. Bring women into revolution
        2. especially important in Central Asia
        3. Alexandra Kollontai
      2. Marriage laws change
        1. civil marriage
        2. postcard divorces
        3. birth control, abortions
    5. Lenin dies 1924
      1. no clear successor
      2. party in-fighting
      3. 1928 Stalin clear victor
    6. First Five Year Plan 1928-1932
      1. Forced industrialization
      2. Collectivization
        1. force peasantry to work in socialism
        2. rural proletariat
      3. famine and mass terror
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