What led to the rise of Communism in

Russia?
Fall of the Tsars
 Strikes in Petrograd
 Russians wants Tsar to End WWI
 Living conditions deteriorated because of WWI
 Waited in long queues to buy food
 Endure cold winter without enough coal to heat homes
 Repeated defeats by German Army
 Demoralized Russian army
 Blames Tsar Nicholas II
 Especially after he takes direct command of the army (1915)
 1.5 million Soldiers deserted from 13 million in 1916
 Farmers wanted land
 Demand for a fairer distribution of land
 Social Revolutionaries seizes land by force and redistributes it
 Russians wanted food
 WWI put transport system under pressure
 Food from countryside had to go to both soldiers and cities
 System could not cope and led to food shortages
 Food prices skyrocketed
 ‘Bread riots’, workers demand more food
15 March 1917- February 1917 Revolution
 Tsar Abdicates (15 March)
 12 March: Tsar orders soldiers to put down revolt but they refuse
 Provisional Government set up
 Hold elections for Russian people (1917)
 Grant amnesty to all political & religious prisoners & exiles
 To cooperate with the soviets, who had taken over cities e.g. Petrograd

Failure of the Provisional Government

 Kept Russia in WWI
 Used up resources for war instead for Russian people
 Made it unpopular with Russians

 Did not carry out land reforms

 Provisional Government had rich landowners
 Delayed or stopped redistribution of land
 Russian peasants unhappy, murdered or chased landowners away
 Provisional Government powerless to stop them

 Struggles with soviets

 Soviets had increasing influence, e.g. Petrograd Soviets took charge of food supplies (12 March)

October 1917 Revolution

 Provisional Government arrests Lenin
 Bolsheviks continue to incite riots in Petrograd (1917)
 Provisional Government orders arrest of Lenin
 Lenin escapes to Finland

 Attempted takeover by General Kornilov

 Provisional Government turn to Bolsheviks for help
 Gave weapons to Bolsheviks
  Formed their own Army, The Red Guard
 Managed to fend Korni off with Help of Red Guard
 Showed that it was the Bolsheviks who had power, not the Prov. Govt.

 Lenin returns to Russia from being exiled in Switzerland

 Helped by Germans
 Hoped Lenin provokes political unrest in Russia
 Makes it easier to be conquered by Germany
 Leads Bolsheviks to overthrow Provisional Government
 Red Guards take over key buildings in Petrograd
 Arrests Prov. Govt. members
 Provisional Government swept from power in 8 months
 Agrees to an Armistice with Germany (1917 Dec)
 Signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918 March)

Bolshevik Victory in Civil War

 Bolsheviks opponents
 Social Revolutionaries, Landowners who lost land, Army & Navy officers, monarchists &
conservatives
 They were against the terms of Brest-Litovsk

 The Civil War

 Red Guards vs. Opponents
 Fought a bitter civil war
 Red Guards increase by 300 000 men
 Led by Leon Trotsky
 Bolsheviks won (1921)
 The Red Guards were disciplined & organized, unlike their opponents
 Eventually won after 3 years of fighting (1918-1921)

What Led to The Rise of Stalin?

Prevented release of Lenin’s Will
 Made alliance with Kamenev & Zinoviev
 Prevented Lenin’s from being read out
 Lenin had criticized Stalin in his will & called for his replacement

Pretended to have been close to Lenin

 Manipulates things in Lenin’s Funeral
 Gives Trotsky wrong funeral date
 Trotsky fails to appear and this angers the party members
 Showed a lack of respect for Lenin
 Stalin organizes funeral himself
 Gives himself role as chief mourner
 Makes it look as though he was always close to Lenin

Trotsky’s Weakness

 Had a narrow base of support

 Complacent; though he was the confirmed successor of Lenin
 Did not put in best effort to build support within ranks of the party
 He got the wrong idea
 Idea of ‘World Revolution’ not widely accepted
 Russians weary at more fighting
  Felt Stalin’s ‘Socialism in One Country’ more practical

Made Alliances
 Allies with Kamenev & Zinoviev
 They wanted his support in getting rid of Trotsky, which is what he also wanted
 Once Kamenev & Zinoviev had served their purpose, Stalin made more allies to get rid of them

Advantage as Secretary General

 Many people Loyal to him
 Appointed many of his supporters to important positions
 Also controlled local party committees
 Spread his influence among rank and file members
 Managed to pack a 1925 party meeting with his supporters
 Voted to remove Trotsky

What was the Impact of Stalin’s regime?

Russia was industrialized
 Possible attacks from other countries
 Economic plans focused on heavy industries
 To develop steel industry, cities like Magnitogorsk were built entirely from scratch using forced labor
 Forced labor from people arrested for various reasons
 Foreign experts were hired to teach the Russians
 More opportunities to work
 More women employed
 Farmers encouraged to move to cities

 Five-Year Plans
 First 5-yr plan (1928-1932)
 Focused on heavy industries, especially iron & steel
 Iron, Steel, Chemicals, Electricity & Engineering output to be doubled
 Plan then ordered to be completed in 4 yrs instead
 Stalin announces 5-yr plan great success (1932)
 Not entirely true (Some targets were not met)
 Still, more than 1500 factories & 100 cities were built
 Early Problems
 Lack of training/knowledge, many equipment broke down, not repaired, & just left there
 Many farmers found it hard to adjust to new life

 Second 5-yr plan (1933-1937)

 Set new targets for heavy industries
 Also gave more attention to good production
 1934, Soviets thought another war might occur
 Priority given military production
 Emphasis continues into 3rd 5-yr plan
 Factories built to East of Ural Mountains
 Beyond reach of western invaders
 Transport & Communication networks improved greatly
 Allows Soviets to move quickly in case of war
 Third 5-yr plan (1938-1942, disrupted)
 Disrupted during 1941, when Germany invaded Russia
 Impact of 5-yr plans
 Poorer work conditions
‘Shock Brigades’ (highly motivated groups) get ‘shocked’ by bad work conditions & unrealistic targets

 Systems of reward & training for workers

 Salaries directly proportional to amount of hard work
 Medals & Discounted Holidays
 Many Educational Institutions built
 Education made compulsory
 Thousand of teachers, scientists & engineers trained
 By 1930, Russians can get well-paid, high-skilled jobs
 Changing living conditions
 Initial lack of emphasis on goods
 Russians suffered during winter
 Goods had to be rationed
 Shortages led to high prices
 Actual value of salaries down by half (1928-1933, 1st 5-yr plan)

Farms were collectivized

 Collectivization (1928)
 Combining of Farms into a unit
 All tools shared
 Each farm has common pool of tractors
 Rented out to farmers
 Farmers would work together & share what they produced
 Had to sell % of crops to Govt. at very low price
 Govt. officials managed farms. Each farm has school, hospitals & libraries

 More Beneficial Than single-farms

 Fewer people needed to work the land
 More people can go cities to work in factories
 Can grow more crops
 Crops can be sold & the profit be used to build stuff
 Low priced food makes it easier to get food to cities

 Impact of Collectivization
 Resistance & Riots
 Framers did not want to abandon their traditional way of life
 Knew that it would lead to food shortages as shown in the civil war (1918-1920)
 Led to collectivization by force
 Young communist member went around to confiscate crops
 Led to assassination of party members
 1928, about 1400 assassinations recorded
Armed resistance from farmers
 Stalin slaughters 17 million horses
 So forced to use tractors instead
 However, not enough tractors to replace horses slain
 Villages that resisted were forced o move to gulags
 Made to work on construction plans
 Famine
 Farmers burnt their crops in an act of rebellion  food shortages
 Further droughts & floods worsen the situation
 Worst famine happens in Ukraine, 1931
 Ukraine usually supplies the food, so when Ukraine affected other parts also affected
 USA offers to send food but Stalin rejects
 He suppresses information about famine
 Takes whatever crops is left
 Sells some crops to get money & buy machinery
 Estimated 10 million peasants die in this famine
Established a rule of Terror
 Purges (1934-1938)
 Before 1934, Stalin sent opponents to exile or expels them
 1 Dec 1934, Sergei Kirov, Leningrad communism head, is shot outside office
 Stalin uses this as an excuse to get rid of his opponents, accuses them of the crime
 First to be arrested were followers of Zinoviev. Thousand arrested by NKVD
 From 1934-1935, the amount of prison & gulag people more than tripled
 NKVD given ‘enemy quota’
 Usually arrested intellectuals
 Forced to sign confessions & implicate others
 In 1936, old Bolshevik leaders like Kamenev or Zinoviev were put on show trials
 They confessed to the charges, much to the shock of the public, & are executed

 Impact of terror
 Fear & suspicion
 People encouraged to inform on people around them
 No evidence needed for arrest, anyone who had a grudge could just sabo the person to the NKVD
 They would be taken away, never to be seen again
 Mass executions
 Anyone who opposed or challenged him was purged, and then removed from history.
 From 1930 to 1953, Stalin is the only leader
 Religious persecution
 Russians not allowed to practice religion
 Party members spread propaganda on how religions promote ‘harmful superstition’
 Places of worship were vandalized, religious leaders persecuted

There was tight control over culture

 Elements under Control
 Education
 History rewritten: Stalin is the only Hero in the Oct 1917 Revolution!
 Teachers closely watched- any sign of anti-Stalin & they would be purged

 The arts
 Only writers, artists & musicians praising Stalin were allowed. The rest were sent to gulags.

 Impact of Stalin’s Control

 Lack of a variety of the Arts
 Forces authors & artists to depict him in good light only

 Cult of Personality
 Depicted himself as a fatherly, cheerful & popular man
 Pictures & statues of him everywhere
 All success attributed to him