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MODERN HISTORY SOURCEBOOK

CRIB SHEET

[Note: Crib Sheets are meant as review aids for a particular period/theme. They are not complete overviews!]

Geography of Russia

• 1/6th earth's land surface.
• Understand difference between "Russia" and "Soviet Union" or "USSR"

Russian Culture:

• Slavic language
• Russian Orthodox Church
• Byzantine Background
  

Tsarist Russia

Society:

• Tsar/Czar (= Caesar or Emperor)
• Government is an autocracy
• Most people are peasants. Most peasants were serfs until 1861.

Notable Rulers

• Ivan the Terrible 1533-1584
• Peter the Great 1688-1725 - builds new capital city - St. Petersburg
• Catherine the Great 1762-1796
• Alexander I 1802-1825
• Nicholas I 1825-1855 - begins policy of Official Nationality - slogan "Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationalism".

Russia under Alexander II 1855-81 (the Liberator)

• Abolition of serfdom 1861
  Peasants were forced to live in Mirs: a communal landholding system.
• Population Growth from 1860: 50 to 100 Million 1860 - 1900

Alexander III 1881-1894

• Very rapid Industrialization under Sergei Witte
  

The Lead-Up to Revolution

Opposition: The Intellegensia

• Organization - "Land and Freedom" - Populists/Narodniks
• "The People's Will", a terrorist group, kill Tsar in March 1881.

New Political Parties

• Social Revolutionaries 1901
• Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) 1903
• Social Democrats 1898
• George Plekhanov 1857-1918 Founder of Social Democrats
  

Vladmir Illich Ulyanov "Lenin" 1870-1923

• Theories in What is to be Done? 1902
• "Vanguard of the Revolution", "democratic centralism"
• "Strategy" - long term goal, not to be altered/ "Tactics" - day to day flexibility
  

Origins of Bolshevism

• London Conference 1903
• Mensheviks (=minority) split from Bolsheviks (=majority)
  

The 1905 Revolution

• Father Gapon - March on Winter Palace Jan 22 1905.
• "Soviets" (Worker's Councils) set up.
• Tsar Nicholas II responds with The October Manifesto
  -Grants a Duma (Parliament) and some civil liberties.
  

Government 1907-1914

• Peter Stolypin 1862-1911 - Prime Minister 1906-1911
• Nicholas I 1894 -1917 and Alexandra.
• The Tsarvitch and Hemophilia.
• Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (1871?-1916)
  

The 1917 Revolutions

First World War 1914-1918

• Russia battle preparedness - boots, guns,
  

February Revolution 1917 (March 1917 New Calendar)

• Long-standing causes - peasants anger about land,
• Population explosion 1860-1914, Workers' discontent
• Workers Revolt - Feb 23 1917
• Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers set up
• A Provisional Government set up by the Duma
• Problems: Continuation of the War, Return of Lenin and other Bolsheviks, Continuing Unrest in the cities.
• Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970) - chief minister from July 1917. Kornilov Plot shows his weakness.
  

October Revolution 1917

• Bolshevik Slogans: "Peace, Bread and Land", "All power to the Soviets"
• Attack on Winter Palace October 1917 (November 6-7-8 new Calendar)
  

Bolsheviks Actions in Power

• Aim is to secure power
• -Constituent Assembly dissolved December 1918
• -Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3 1918 ends war with Germany
• -Nationalization of all factories - June 1918
• -Execution of the Tsar and his Family 1918
  

Civil War 1917-1921

• Red Army, led by Trotsky, vs. the "Whites".
• War Communism - a collection of emergency measures:-
• -The Cheka - secret police from December 1917
• -Communist Party control of the State
• -Nationalization of production
• -Opposition suppressed Kronstadt Rebellion March 1921
  

The Third International (Cominintern)

• 1919 split European socialists into "Communists" and "Social Democrats".
  

New Economic Policy March 1921

• Aim - increased food production. Incentives were allowed.
• Peasants allowed to farm for profit and small businesses with up to 12 workers allowed.
• Economy recovered by 1927.
• Kulaks - rich peasants become important.
  

Stalin Takes Over

• Struggle between Leon Trotsky, who wanted rapid industrialization, and Nicolai Bukharin, the editor of Pravda, who was pro-peasant.
• Josef Djugushvili "Stalin" (1879-1953). An ally of Bukharin. By 1912 on Central Committee. Succeeds by controlling party organization.
  

Stalin in power

• A revolution from above - Doctrine of "socialism in one country"

1. Agriculture - collectivization of land: perhaps 10 Million people died in forced collectivization.
2. Rapid Industrialization:
   Five Year Plans Began in 1928
   1928-1940, 400% increase in production
3. Purges and Personality Cult: Show Trials 1936-38
   

© 1997, Paul Halsall, halsall@murray.fordham.edu