Russia 1917-1941 Revision

Weakness of Russia (7 things)

	Size
	Peasants
	Poverty
	Corrupt autocracy
	Okrana
	Censorship
	= lack of support.

War (4 things)

	army badly led
	army poorly equipped
	huge defeats at (2 battles): Tannenberg Masurian Lakes
	= anger and unrest.

Tsar and Tsarina unpopular (6 things)

	hated after Bloody Sunday 1905
	Tsar blamed for WWI defeats
	Tsarina left in charge while Tsar commanded army
	Tsarina gave great power to Rasputin
	incompetent government
	= Nicholas and Alexandra hated.

Attacks and opposition (4 points)

	Duma [The Cadets]  angry over lack of power
	Social Revolutionary Party  wanted peasant revolt,
	Social and Democratic Labour Party  split into (2 parties) Mensheviks Bolsheviks wanted Communist government
	= Duma didn’t support Government.

Reforms failed (3 points)

	Prime Minister Stolypin had tried reform (2 reforms) let kulaks buy own land tried to improve conditions for workers
	but was murdered 1911
	= last chance to reform was lost.

Industrialisation (3 things)

	created huge urban workforce
	terrible conditions
	= disaffection in Petrograd.

Famine (5 things)

	Trains diverted to war effort so fewer supplies to cities
	15 million men joined army
	high prices
	bad winter 1916-17
	= demonstrations and bread riots.

7 March

Steelworkers on strike.

8 March

International Women’s Day – bread riots.

10 March (2 things)

	Half workforce on strike
	Tsarina orders army to stop them.

11 March (2 things)

	Troops fired on crowds
	Tsar dissolves Duma.

12 March (3 things)

	Soldiers joined riots
	Duma sets up 12-man ‘ Provisional Government’ led by Kerensky.
	Soldiers and workers set up ‘Petrograd Soviet’.

15 March

Tsar abdicated.

Government (2 things)

	Petrograd Soviet issues Order Number 1 workers and soldiers only obey Provisional Government if Soviet agrees
	= government has little power.

Terrible conditions (2 things)

	Continuing war led to worse inflation and food shortages
	= people feel let down.

Peasants (3 things)

	Took nobles land
	Provisional Government sent in troops
	= anger.

War (3 things)

	Russian defeat in Austria
	deserters executed
	= naval mutiny, desertions increased.

Bolsheviks (5 things)

	Lenin returned
	Lenin Published his ‘April Theses’ saying (3 things): 'Peace, Bread Land'
	‘July Days’ riots,
	Provisional arrested leaders but allowed Bolshevik Party to continue
	= continued power for Bolsheviks.

Kornilov  (3 things)

	Attempted right-wing coup August 1917
	Provisional Government had to ask Bolsheviks to help
	= appeared weak.

Nov. 6

Red Guards take over bridges/telephone exchanges.

Nov. 7 (3 things)

	Red Guards take over banks, government buildings, railway stations,
	Winter Palace [shelled by Cruiser Aurora]
	Provisional Government leaders arrested.

Nov. 8

New Communist Government declared.

Provisional Government weak (Government That’s Provisional Will Be Killed).

	Government
	Terrible Conditions
	Peasants
	War
	Bolsheviks
	Kornilov

Slogans appealed to people (2 slogans):

	‘Peace Bread Land’
	‘All Power to the soviets’.

Propaganda

Party newspaper Pravda [means ‘Truth’]

German Money

financed publicity campaigns [Germans supported Lenin to remove Russia from war].

Lenin (3 things)

	brilliant leader
	brilliant organiser
	single-minded (to overthrow government).

Army (3 things)

	Red Guards
	well trained
	dedicated.

Organisation (2 things)

	Central committee sent orders to soviets who sent them to factories.
	Demanded total obedience.

Government changes (3 things)

	election Nov. 1917 results:
	Bolshevik=175 seats, Social Revolutionaries = 370 seats
	Lenin did (3 things): closed Assembly killed objectors ruled by decree.

Brest-Litovsk (3 things)

	Bolsheviks ended war 1917
	Treaty gave good agricultural and industrial land to Germany
	Russia lost (4 regions): Ukraine Estonia Latvia Lithuania.

Communist state

	Land taken from nobles and given to peasants
	Elected committees of workers controlled factories.

Communist society (4 things)

	Religion banned = churches destroyed priests killed
	Labour Law = (3 things): 8 hour day unemployment pay pensions.
	Education = (3 things): Science encouraged History and Latin banned people taught to read.
	Communist morals = (3 things): Divorce allowed abortion allowed greater equality for women.

Terror (4 things)

	Totalitarian state
	CHEKA [secret police] arrested and killed opponents
	Censorship
	Lenin said a ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ was needed until Russia was fully Communist.

War Communism (6 things)

	introduced during Civil War, very harsh:
	Large factories taken over by government
	strikes illegal
	strikers shot
	Rationing
	peasants forced to give surplus food to government.

Challenge to Bolsheviks (8 groups):

	Political opponents
	Social Revolutionaries
	Mensheviks
	Tsarists
	former army officers
	former landlords
	‘White’ armies led by generals Yudenich and Deniken attacked from west,
	Admiral Kolchak attacked from east.

Czech Legion (3 things):

	prisoners of war mutinied as they were being taken across Russia
	took control of Trans - Siberian railway
	supported Kolchak.

World Revolution (2 things):

	Comintern set up with stated aim to cause communist revolutions across the world
	Britain, America, France supported ‘whites’ against Bolsheviks.

1918

Tsar and family put to death

1919 (2 things):

	Red Army defeated Admiral Kolchak
	British, French, Americans went home.

1920

Last White army defeated in Crimea.

1921 (3 things):

	Red Army invaded Poland, defeated.
	Famine, disease and atrocities throughout
	Millions died.

Whites' armies (3 things):

	Were disunited
	Thousands of miles apart
	= easy to fight one by one.

Trotsky (3 things):

	brilliant leader of Red Army
	excellent war strategist
	= clever tactics.

Beliefs (3 things):

	Many Russians believed they were fighting for a better world
	others hated foreign armies
	= army enthusiastic and determined.

War Communism (6 things):

	factories nationalised
	military discipline in factories
	strikes illegal
	Surplus food handed over to government
	rationing
	= sufficient army supplies.

Terror (2 things):

	Cheka murdered Whites,
	terror was used to ensure loyalty and unity.

Wherewithal (3 things):

	Bolsheviks held Moscow/Petrograd = factories/supplies
	Controlled railways = communication/supplies
	Army of 300,000 men.

Cause

	1921 Kronstadt Mutiny (2 things) Sailors at Kronstadt naval mutinied They demanded (4 things): free speech free elections free trade unions end to War Communism.
	Bolsheviks concerned, brought in NEP (2 things): It was opposed by some members of government as capitalism, but it restored some prosperity.

The New Economic Policy (memory word: NEP)

	New Small businesses (2 things): Small factories returned to owners small private businesses allowed.
	Experts brought in to increase production in nationalised industries (4 industries): coal iron steel railways.
	Peasants (2 things): allowed to sell surplus and pay tax Some peasants became rich [the Kulaks].

Secretary

as General Secretary of Com. Party installed supporters in important positions.

Trotsky unpopular (3 things):

	brilliant but big-headed.
	Missed Lenin’s funeral (Stalin told him wrong date).
	Ideas of world revolution worried some Russians - too soon.

Played off 2 sides of Politburo against each other (3 steps):

	First (2 things): Stalin allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev [Leftists] = got Trotsky dismissed 1925.
	Next (3 things): he called for ‘Socialism in one country’ allied with Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky [Rightists] = got Zinoviev and Kamenev dismissed 1927.
	Then (2 things): he said the NEP wasn’t socialist = got supporters of it [Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky] dismissed 1929.

THE PURGES (memory phrase: Stalin Takes Total Control)  

	Secret police (2 things): The Cheka became OGPU in 1924 became NKVD in 1934.
	The First Purges 1930-1933 (2 victims): anyone who opposed industrialisation anyone who opposed collectivisation.
	The Great Purges 1934-1939 triggered by murder of Kirov Political Opponents (2 things): thousands arrested/found guilty of treason at ‘Show trials’ (2 examples): Zinoviev/Kamenev 1936 Bukharin/Tomsky/Rykov 1938 Army (2 things): Commander-in-Chief of Red Army shot dozens of other generals admirals and officers executed or imprisoned Church (2 things): leaders imprisoned churches closed Ethnic groups (2 things): ‘Russification’ mosques closed Ordinary people (3 things): arrested, sent to Gulag [labour camps] 20 million died Apparatchiks [loyal supporters] given new homes.
	Cult of Stalin (4 examples): pictures statues constant applause history books changed

REASONS FOR THE PURGES (memory phrase: Why Unnecessary Purges?)

	Whole country belief in ‘strength in unity’.
	Urgency Stalin said Russia had 10 years to catch up the west before Germany invaded
	Paranoia Stalin saw plots everywhere and became power-mad.

RESULTS (memory phrase: Results Of The Terror – Insane Stalin Grabs All The Power)

	Russification
	Orthodox Church attacked
	Twenty million dead
	Terror & fear
	Industry-affected by loss of top scientists & engineers
	Stalin cult
	Gulag
	Army and navy lost leading officers
	Purges

Why? [memory phrase: Six Factors Now To Collectivise Kolkhoz]  

	Soviet agriculture backward (4 problems): subsistence farming no machinery too small inefficient.
	Food was needed for workers in towns essential for success of 5 year plans
	NEP not working by 1928 20 million tons of grain short to feed towns.
	Town workers were needed peasants needed to work in industry in towns.
	Cash crops were needed for export to raise money to buy foreign machinery and expertise.
	Kulaks (3 problems): not Communists had private wealth Stalin wanted to destroy them.

ENFORCEMENT (5 key dates):

	1927 (2 things): voluntary scheme ignored = food shortages
	1929 (3 things): compulsory collectivisation peasants burned crops = famine
	1932-33 (6 things): two-thirds of villages collectivised more resistance government took food for towns = more famine [5 million died in Kazakstan and Ukraine] Stalin blamed Kulaks = shot/sent to labour camps in Siberia/land taken.
	1934 all 7 million Kulaks ‘eliminated’
	1939 (2 things): 99% of land collectivised ¼ million Kolkhoz.

RESULTS [memory phrase: Quite Modern Govt Tries Collectivisation - Sad Foolish Kulaks]

	Quarter of million Kolkhoz
	More modern methods (3 things): machinery modern farming methods/ideas large-scale
	Grain by 1937, 97 million tons plus cash crops
	Town workers 17 million peasants moved to work in towns
	Complete Communist control
	BUT
	Stock numbers fell
	Famine
	Kulaks destroyed

REASONS (memory phrase: Make And Catch Up)

	Many regions of the USSR were backward   Machinery was needed to mechanise agriculture
	Armaments (3 points) would be needed to defend Russia Stalin believed Germany would invade ‘Either we make good the difference in 10 years or they crush us’.
	Compete with Western world (3 points): Stalin believed the USSR should ‘overtake the capitalist countries’  (‘Socialism in one country’) then the USSR would take over the rest of the world.
	Useful propaganda for Communism and for Stalin.

5 YEAR PLANS

	1928 – 32 heavy industry
	1933 – 37 agricultural machinery + mining, transport
	The Plans (9 elements): Targets set by GOSPLAN for every industry Foreign experts brought in Propaganda (4 things): Posters Slogans Bonuses encouraged to be Stakhanovites Fines for not meeting targets Women encouraged to work (2 points): Crèches set up 1932-37 4 out 5 new workrs recruited were women Slave labour used Education and training Harsh conditions Industry not consumer goods.

SUCCESSES

	The USSR was turned into a modern state.
	There was genuine Communist enthusiasm among the young ‘Pioneers’.
	Huge increases in production, 1927–1937 (3 industries): Electricity up 5–36,000m kw Coal up 35–128m tons Steel up 4–18m tons
	Many achievements (13 things): new cities dam/ hydroelectric power transport & communications the Moscow Underground farm machinery electricity coal steel fertilisers plastic no unemployment doctors & medicine education.

FAILURES/CRITICISMS

	Poorly organised (3 problems): Inefficiency duplication of effort waste.
	Appalling human cost (9 problems): discipline (sacked if late) secret police slave labour labour camps (for those who made mistakes) accidents &  deaths (100000 workers died building the BelomorCanal) few consumer goods poor housing wages FELL no human rights
	Some historians claim the tsars set up the basis for industrialisation.