Brief Review of Russian Revolution• 1917 – Russian Revolution begins and Czar

Nicholas II abdicates his throne– A provisional government is set up (Kerensky from the

Duma)

• October Revolution (1917)– Bolsheviks (led by Vladimir Lenin) take over Russia’s

government

• Russian Civil War (1918-1922)– Between the Bolsheviks (Soviets) vs. Mensheviks (the

landowners, conservatives, republicans and those opposed to the unfavorable treaty Lenin signed with Germany.)

• The west does not support the Bolsheviks

"Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle," Winston Churchill said.

1918: Lenin Begins to Change Russian

Society

• Treaty with Germany cedes land in exchange for peace.

• All industry nationalized.

• Independent labor unions banned.

• Grain requisitions: armed officials seize grain from farmers to feed the poor.

• Housing space seized and distributed.

"Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth" Communist poster, 1920

Successor States (Allies worry for the future independence of these states…)

• Austria

• Hungary

• Czechoslovakia

• Yugoslavia

• Poland

• Some Austro-Hungarian lands were ceded to Romania, Ukraine and Italy

Conflicting values expressed in Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles influenced the determination of national borders in Eastern Europe.

Wilson strongly advocated national self-determination.

But France feared any arrangement that would strengthen Germany.

The new national divisions left large German and Hungarian minorities in a number of countries.

New European Democracies Were Created from the Old Austro-Hungarian Empire

Before WWI, Austria-Hungary was the second largest

country in Europe (after Russia), and

the third most populous (after Russia and the

German Empire).

Nationalist conflicts within the empire were one of the causes of

WWI, and led to the ultimate collapse of the empire.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was created in 1922.

Ukraine Russia

Transcaucasian Region Belarus

Leninism: The Telescoping of History

Karl Marx, considered the father of communism, wrote that history proceeds through distinct stages: feudalism, capitalism, imperialism, etc. Only after going through these stages, Marx thought, could society advance to communism.

Lenin argued that under the right circumstances, such as those of Russia in 1917, the intermediate steps could be skipped.

Marx wrote about the dictatorship of the proletariat, a period in which the working class would govern society while the ultimate classless society of communism was developed.

To Lenin, the dictatorship of the proletariat meant that a small group of dedicated individuals would lead society forcefully so that the groundwork could be laid for the future ideal society.

Worldwide Appeal of Communism

Russia was the first country to attempt to put the theory of socialism into practice.

Many workers and intellectuals around the world thought that at last there was a chance to overcome the inequality and exploitation of capitalism.

Communist parties emerged in the U.S. and Europe, and also in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Maoist demonstration, Nepal

Leon TrotskyTrotsky was a key figure in

the Russian Revolution, second only to Lenin.

From 1918 to 1925, he was People's Commissar for Army and Navy Affairs and commander of the Red Army.

When Lenin died in 1924, Trotsky was widely expected to assume leadership of the country. Instead, that role went to Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee.

As leader of the Left Opposition, Trotsky opposed Stalin. He was purged from the Communist Party in 1927 and exiled in 1928.

From exile, he continued to oppose Stalin and Stalinism.

Trotsky was assassinated by Stalinists in 1940 at his home in Mexico City.

"Have you signed up as a volunteer?"

Civil war recruitment poster

Lenin, Trotsky and soldiers of the Red Army, 1921

Coat of Arms of the Soviet

Union