Transcript Communist Revolution - Dr. Charles Best Secondary School

Communist Revolution
Lenin and Friends
Pre Revolution Russia
Industry:
• Similar to Germany, it industrializes (1890)
later than Britain
• Lacked skilled work force – most were
uneducated peasants
• To speed up industrialization Russia
borrowed from other countries and heavily
taxed peasants
Pre Revolution Russia
Labour
• Labour force is exploited (as Marx saw)
• They begin to strike to demand better
conditions
Pre Revolution Russia
Peasants:
• ¼ of the population
• Separated from modern Russian society
• Excessively taxed
• Unfamiliar with capitalism and government
- uneducated
Who is Vladimir Ilich Lenin?
• Born in Simbirsk (now
Ulyanovsk) 1870
• 1887 he enters Kazan
University to study law
• Participates in various
student demonstrations for
revolution
• Studies Marxism
• Becomes a lawyer
• Translates the Communist
Manifesto to Russian
Ca. 1896
Lenin
• 1893 he begins to meet with Marxist
circles in Russia to join them
• 1895 Lenin founds the League of Struggle
for the Emancipation of the Working Class
in St. Petersburg after travels abroad to
study Marxism further
• 1897 Lenin is exiled to Siberia for his
Marxist studies and writings
1901 – Where to Begin?
• “In our opinion, the starting-point of our activities, the first
step towards creating the desired organisation, or, let us
say, the main thread which, if followed, would enable us
steadily to develop, deepen, and extend that
organisation, should be the founding of an All-Russian
political newspaper. A newspaper is what we most of all
need; without it we cannot conduct that systematic, allround propaganda and agitation, consistent in principle,
which is the chief and permanent task of SocialDemocracy in general and, in particular, the pressing
task of the moment, when interest in politics and in
questions of socialism has been aroused among the
broadest strata of the population.“ (Lenin, 1901)
From Iskra (to be the Communist newspaper)
1902 – What is to be done?
1) "Of course, socialism, as a doctrine, has its roots in
modern economic relationships just as the class struggle
of the proletariat has, and, like the latter, emerges from
the struggle against the capitalist-created poverty and
misery of the masses. But ... modern socialist
consciousness can arise only on the basis of profound
scientific knowledge ... The vehicle of science is not the
proletariat, but the bourgeois intelligentsia: it was in the
minds of individual members of this stratum that modern
socialism originated, and it was they who communicated
it to the more intellectually developed proletarians who,
in their turn, introduce it into the proletarian class
struggle where conditions allow that to be done.”
2) Create an organization of professional Marxist
revolutionists
http://sfr-21.org/whatistobedone.html
1902 – What is to be done?
3) To concentrate all secret functions in the hands of as
small a number of professional revolutionaries as
possible does not mean that the latter will 'do all the
thinking for all' and that the rank and file will not take an
active part in the movement."
• Lenin argues that the effectiveness of the secret
revolutionary leadership will actually increase
participation by the masses through their reading the
illegal press and taking part in demonstrations. He
acknowledges that he will be criticized for his "antiundemocratic" views.
• Lenin is pro-secrecy: March 1918 he wanted to keep
secret from the people the peace treaty signed with
Germany.
4) Shift of emphasis from local to national work
http://sfr-21.org/whatistobedone.html
1903
• The Social Democratic Labour Party creates sides of the
Mensheviks-minority (Martov) and Bolsheviks-majority
(Lenin)
• Iskra remained a Menshevik newspaper so Lenin had to
create his own (Vperyod – “forward”)
• Formal split of Mensheviks and Bolsheviks as a party in
1911
• Bolsheviks believed that a small group of revolutionaries
could cause the revolution - masses uniting all at once
was unnecessary
• Mensheviks focused on winning over the masses to start
a revolution
Events and leading towards the
Communist Revolution
1) Bloody Sunday
• 1905 a peaceful
workers demonstration
in St. Petersburg
• Demonstrators are
slaughtered in what is
known as Bloody
Sunday
• People now see the
Tsar as a leader who
does not care about the
people
March on the Winter Palace
The Duma – Russian Parliament
• Established in 1906 as a part of the October
Manifesto
• Contained a leftist majority
• Direct result of Bloody Sunday and loss in the
Russo-Japanese (1905) war – loosing faith in
the Tsar
• Tsar uses the Duma to regain political favour
and power (members were bought off)
• Tsar arrests radical opponents – creates more
terrorists
Russia Enters the Great War
2)
• Lenin highly opposes the war and urges all Allies to take
up a revolutionary offensive against their commanders
but most Russians were for the war (even most
socialists)
• War is a disaster for Russia – troops were not
modernized enough (old strategy of bayonet rushes)
• Russia lacked resources and soldiers sent to the front
had to pick up the weapons of fallen soldiers
• 15 million mobilized, about 1.5 million die, almost 4
million wounded, 2.3 million captured
Ra Ra Rasputin
3)
• Won favour with Tsarina Alexandra for helping her
haemophiliac child Alexis feel better
• Nicholas joins the losing war front in 1915 which allowed
Rasputin to gain favour with Alexandra
• Prophesized a losing war for Russia – prophecies gained
him popularity
• Often clashed with the Duma – Duma saw him as a
threat since he was so close to the royal family
• 1915 the Duma was disbanded and Rasputin was in
charge of the government
• 1916 Rasputin was assassinated
Unhappy people 1917
4)
• The war had caused hunger and unhappiness
within the country – no food transportation
system
• The war had shown the people the
ineffectiveness of the autocratic system of rule
• Proletariat demonstrations and even women
demonstrations arise
• Peasant unrest
• 1.5 million deserters from the war (returned to
join the movements for revolution)
February-March Revolution 1917
• March 12 demonstration due to hunger, a
military regiment was sent to quell them (the
Cossacks), they joined instead and disarmed the
police
• Russian Army commanders suggested to Tsar
Nicholas to abdicate in fears of a violent
revolution (like French)
• The Army and the Duma convinced Nicholas
that the people would no longer support him
February-March Revolution 1917
• Nicholas abdicates on March 15 and is placed under
house arrest
• A provisional government under Alexander Kerensky is
put in charge of Russia
– Kerensky favours a continuation of war to boost Russian
nationalism
– Legalizes strikes
– Organizes a constituent assembly (to figure out a new
constitution)
• Provisional government will have a power struggle
between the Marxists and the Liberals (wanted to stop
the revolution)
• Lacked legitimacy since it was not elected by the people
February-March Revolution 1917
• Lenin, who was in exile in Germany, was provided with
safe passage from Germany to Russia in hopes that
Lenin would help stop the war on the Eastern front for
Germany
• Lenin returns to Russia and gains more support by
criticizing socialists that supported the Duma (they’re
supposed to start a revolution, not maintain
subordination)
• In April, Lenin writes the “April Theses”
–
–
–
–
–
calls for immediate revolution
Peace
Seizure of aristocratic lands
All power to soviets (labour movements)
Seizure of factories
Stalin and Trotsky
• Leon Trotsky joins Lenin
from the Menshevik party
• Stalin was for the Duma
but formally supported
Lenin after returning to
Russia from exile as well
Kerensky fails Russia
• Continues the war with a new offensive in
July (Kerensky offensive)
• The unsuccessful offensive quickly cause
dissent amongst the people
• Disagreement between Kerensky and
Kornilov (leader of another party in power)
causes Kornilov to attempt a coup using the
army
• Kernesky turns to Lenin and his Red Guards
and Soviets (workers council) to help him
defend Petrograd and won
• Kerensky realizes the trouble he created
and decides that he now needs to limit
Bolshevik power
• Kerensky closes down Bolshevik
newspapers and cuts off telephone lines
• Bolsheviks defeating the army won favour
from the Soviets in Petrograd
• Government troops open fire on a worker's protest in Petrograd in
July of 1917. The shootings only served to further anger the citizens
of Petrograd.
October Revolution 1917
(Bolshevik)
• Lenin rides on the unhappiness of the
people with the Duma and promises
“Peace, Bread and Land!”
• Trotsky persuades Lenin to take over the
government
• November 7, Lenin with his Red Guards
seized the Winter Palace
Lenin’s Immediate Policies
• Making good on his promise, he sanctioned
peasant seizures of land, gathered grain to feed
cities, and signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk
which gave up a large portion of Western Russia
and 30% of Russia’s population
• Nationalized banks
• State controlled foreign trade
• All opposition groups made illegal
• Peasant seizure of lands
• Factories under the control of Soviets
• Lenin, inspired a small cadre of Communist intellectuals to agitate
amongst the workers and soldiers of Petrograd, today's St.
Petersburg. In this photo, his close associate Leon Trotsky stands at
the right of the podium.
(http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1681193,00.html)
• Soldiers sympathetic to the Bolshevik cause carry
banners bearing Marxist slogans. Lenin and his coconspirators found a welcome audience among the
Imperial troops. Sent by the czar to fighting a losing war
in the freezing winter, they were quick to accept the
message that they were being exploited.
Peace at last?
• Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin will be leaders of the
government
• Democracy was not a priority – Lenin held a
constitutional convention (to form a new
constitution) and found himself out-voted 3:1 but
used his military to close down the convention
• Peace was not gained
– There were still followers of the Tsarist regime and
nations that wanted to stake their independence
Mini essay assignment (paragraph
will do)
Read pp 68-70
Evaluate the following statement:
Lenin’s Revolution was a Marxist
Revolution.
Use evidence from your text and notes.