communismrussia

Communism in Russia

Socialist Revolution:

1. Marx - as a consequence of capitalist developments
in the countries most advanced economically
2. Lenin - as a consequence of developments in the capitalist world, in less developed countries (weakest link)

Bolsheviks ==> the war brings vulnerability of the capitalist
system
==> from general strike to insurrection

1. The February Revolution:

1916: munitions strikes in Moscow and Petrograd => military disaster => food shortages => food riots in Petrograd

March 1917: Provisory government cannot find
solutions to => peace problem
=> food problem

- Petrograd: workers, soldiers, and sailors organized in soviets (councils)

August - October 1917: increasing influence of the bolsheviks in the soviets, following Lenin's return to Russia => bolshevik program (bred, peace, land)
organization of paramilitary army (red guards)

July 1917: first insurrection => military units used against the bolsheviks
November 7, 1917: red guards stormed the winter palace in Petrograd
    - government replaced by the Congress of Soviets, with a Council of People's Commissars
    - measures - opened negotiation for peace (March 1918)
                     - crushed any opposition with the CHEKA (later NKDV, later KGB) => introduction of the principle of class struggle => red terror

2. Civil War:

- Tsarist generals use the armies after the war to restore the old regime => the tsar and his family are executed
- Red Russia against White Russia => civil war + intervention of foreign powers (Britain, France, US, Japan, Poland)
- war crisis => Bolsheviks abolished private property and confiscated crops to cope with famine

1921: the red army defeated the whites => increasing terror => sailors in Petrograd revolted => Trotsky annihilated the rebellion

Dec. 1922: proclamation of the Soviet Union (6 republics)

End of war => economic relaxation => the New Economic Policy (NEP) re-introduced free enterprise to help recover the economy

3. Stalin in Power:

1924: Lenin dies => Petrograd is rebaptized Leningrad => cult of Lenin
    - struggle for power within the Communist Party
    1. Trotsky - in order to succeed, Russia needs to export
    the revolution
    Ex. 1919 - creation of the Third International => rise of the communist parties in Europe and Asia
    2. I.V. Dzhugashvili (Stalin) - communism in Russia will succeed if using internal potential
                                                 - continuation of the class struggle => growth of the NKDV

1924 - 1925: USSR recognized by capitalist countries (Britain, Italy, Austria, France, Canada, Japan) = Stalin's doctrine of socialist encirclement

4. The Five Year Plan:

1926 - 1927: continuation of the NEP => capitalist investments in USSR
- first power plant (on the Volkhov R.)
- giant industrial plants (Kuznetsk, Magnitogorsk, Stalingrad)

1929: Stalin puts an end to NEP => the first five year plan
    - increased centralization
    - crash industrialization program
    - complete collectivization in agriculture => deportations, labor camps (gulags), mass executions => 1932 - 1933: Great Famine => 1937 - total collectivization
    - complete alphabetization of the population => increasing influence of the printed media (Pravda)
    - cultural revolution => socialist realism ( M. Gorki, M. Sholokhov, V. Mayakovski)

5. The Great Terror:

November 1927: Trotsky's supporters executed => 1929: Trotsky in exile (assassinated in 1940)

1934: Stalin's supporter in Leningrad, S. Kirov, is assassinated => NKDV receives the power to destroy any terrorist centers => Stalin accused the NKDV leaders of incompetence => a new NKDV chief (N. Yezhov) starts a series of show trials => mass arrests, denouncing encouraged

1937: executions of the Red Army generals

1938: Stalin wiped out the leading old bolsheviks

1939: Gulags had a population of 10.4 million

6. Foreign Affairs:

November 1933: USSR recognized by US

1934: USSR in the League of Nations (Geneva)

1939: Soviet - Nazi treaty against Poland and neighboring countries