Russian Rev Flashcards
Major Soviet Leaders with Approximate Years of Rule
Lenin (17-24)
Stalin (24-53)
Khrushchev (55-64)
Brezhnev (64-82)
Andropov (82-84)
Chernenko (84-85)
Gorbachev (85-91)
Pre-Revolutionary Russia - Conditions
true autocracy ■ divine right
■ No representative political institutions
■ In fact, repression
■ secret police,
censorship, Siberian
“prisons” (/exile)
■ Late to Industrialize
■ ex. Trans-Siberian Railway (1897)
■ Largely rural, poor
■ Persistence of
Serfdom
Revolutionary Causes
● Russo-Japanese War (1904-5)
○ Conflict over competing Imperialist ambitions in
Manchuria
○ Russia humiliatingly defeated
The Revolution of 1905
■ Impacts of Industrialization
■ Desire for Reforms
(Moderate-Radical)
■ Russo Japanese War
■ → “Bloody Sunday” (January): massacre of protestors at the Tsar’s Winter Palace
■ Urban, Liberal & Socialist elements revolt
■ Ex. Battleship Potemkin
■ crew rises in sympathetic
revolt
■ Ruthlessly repressed by the Tsar
Conservatism Persists: 1905-1917
■
October (1905) Manifesto
■ Issued by Tsar
■ recognition of some Liberal rights
Duma (Parliament)
■ restricted franchise
(wealth)
■ still subservient to Tsar
Alexandra: The Power Behind the Throne
■ Committed Autocrat
■ influential over Tsar
Nicholas
■ Influenced by Rasputin
■ Origins of Rasputin’s
power…?
■ charisma? ■ hypnosis?
■ sexual prowess?
■ Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to discredit the monarchy
World War I
■ Army has poor: training, equipment, leadership
■ avg. peasant soldier & morale?
■ Result:
■ mass desertions
■ 2 million + casualties (by
end of 1915)
■ Radical ideological ideas
spread
■ ↑ ineffectiveness of Russian army
The Collapse of the Imperial Government
■ Tsar Nicholas left for the Front—September, 1915
■ Alexandra (and Rasputin?) failed to lead government.
■ factions, division, chaos
■ Alexandra a traitor?
■ Tsar Nicholas remained absent,
focused on the war
The Collapse of the Imperial Government
■ Rasputin assassinated Dec. 1916
■ Economy in disarray
■ Ind. production ↓
■ inflation and starvation ↑
■ Cities are overflowing w/ refugees, deserters
■ hotbeds for pol. activism and radicalism
■ esp. St. Petersburg
The Two Revolutions of 1917
■ The March (February, Julian) Revolution (Tsar → Provisional Govt./Duma)
■ The November (October, Julian) Revolution (Provisional → Communist Coup d’etat)
The March Revolution
■ Origins: Demonstrations/strikes
■ soldiers joined the rebellion
■ Duma declared itself a Provisional Government
■ Tsar abdicated
■ Alexander Kerensky heads Provisional Government
– Very Popular at first
– favours gradual reforms – war effort as #1 priority
Kornilov Affair
■ August 1917
■ attempted military
coup d’etat
■ A desperate Kerensky frees & arms many more radical Bolsheviks to strengthen the anti-military “side.”
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
■ Exiled
■ Leading figure among
Russian Socialists.
■ Sent to Russia by German
in mid-1917 to destabilize Russia
Russian Socialism
■ Outgrowth of W. Socialism
■ Two Factions
■ “Mensheviks”
■ More moderate,
working for change within democracy (Democratic Socialists)
■ “Bolsheviks” ■ Radical,
revolutionary, anti-democratic
The Petrograd Soviet
Red Guards of Vulkan Steel Factory, 1917
■ Socialists in St. Petersburg (Capital City) formed the Petrograd “Soviet” (“Council”) in 1917
■ Operates as a rival/dual govt. to the Duma.
■ One of many “Soviets” (Socialist dominated groups) arising in Russian cities
