Russia

1
Russia

• Three eras of Russian history
• Tsarist Russia (13th century-1917)
• Communist USSR (1920-1993 ish)
• Presidential Democracy ish (1993- present)

2
Map of Russia
3
Geography

• Europe or Asia?
• 11 time zones
• Few natural boundaries
• Not much arable land
• Difficulty in reaching the sea (warm water ports)
• Isolated (more than just geographically)
• Based on its geography, how do you predict its
  government would develop?

4
Early Russia

• Who are the Russians?
• Slovak, slavic is this enough to unite a people?
• 13th Century The Mongols
• Rise of the duchy of Moscow Ivan the Terrible
• Took centuries for Russia to catch up with Europe

5
Slavs and ethnicity

• What problems do you think Russia will encounter
  concerning ethnicity?
• How do you think Russia has dealt with ethnic
  differences?
• What problem would different languages cause in a
  country?

6
The Russian monarchy

• Ivan had a secret police that would exile or
  execute those that opposed him (boyars)
• Tradition of strong, ruthless leadership
• Cyrillic alphabet, few educated
• Eastern Orthodox (the Third Rome) (tsars are the
  head of the church)
• 15th and 16th century free peasants became
  serfs?
• Time of Troubles (17th century)

7
(No Transcript)
8
Peter top down modernization

• Peter the Great comes to power in 1682
• Little bit controlling (military, legislation,
  war, technology)
• Built St. Petersburg
• Created provinces, counties and districts
• Conscription
• Taxation

9
(No Transcript)
10

• Gun Powder empire- powerful in the 1700s
• Under Peter the Great and then Catherine the
  Great
• 1800s- theyre backwards because they are not
  industrialized and are considered weak
• Weakened by Napoleons invasion
• and Crimean War
• Forced to create some reforms

11
Youll notice

• It is never good to be a peasant in Russia

12
Reforms

• eliminate serfdom but serfs get worst land for
  high prices, pay rent to the state instead of the
  nobles
• Created local assemblies called zemstvos to
  address local issues, although they had little
  actual power
• Worked to industrialize- created more railways
  and state run industries- some people saw new
  capitalism as a threat to peasant life, one such
  group assassinated tsar Alexander II in 1881

13
The peasants are worse off than ever.
14
Alexander III

• 1881 Alexander III- father of Nicholas II
• Reverses reforms
• Russification program- targeted non-Russians
  and relied on secret police to catch
  revolutionaries, also accepted pogroms- attacks
  on Jews as forms of patriotism
• 1891 he refused to admit that there was a famine
  and allowed 500,000 peasants to die
• ? Marxism became popular as a way to explain the
  famine

15
The Last Tsar

• Nicholas II-
• also used secret police
• continued to pull money out of the farms and
  invest in new industry ? led to many strikes and
  discontent
• Many peasants believed in the tsar because
  according to the Russian Orthodox Church he was
  descendent from God

16
(No Transcript)
17
The Revolution causes

• The upper class continues to hate the monarch
• Peasants continue to not have land
• Refresher what is Marxs theory? Does it fit
  with Russia?

18
1905 Revolution

• Bloody Sunday 150,000 workers went to the
  Winter Palace of the tsar with a petition of
  economic grievances ? tsars troops fired on them
  killing 40 (destroyed tsars religious image) ?
  later that day outraged workers rioted throughout
  the streets, assaulting police officers, looting
  stores
• In the end-divided Russian people could not
  coordinate efforts and armed forces stayed loyal
  to the tsar- govt did not fall

19
(No Transcript)
20
Road to Revolution

• During the 1905 revolution the people gave the
  government a list of reforms
• Stolypin becomes prime minister in 1905 but was
  known for harsh policies- revolutionaries were
  not happy
• 1911-1914- because of foreign loans there was
  renewed industrial growth but there were also
  many peasant revolts as well as strikes

21
Lenin

• Cult of personality? Can one man drive a
  revolution?
• How did Lenin change Marxism?

22
The Revolution what happened?

• 1905 Russo-Japanese war
• rioting/revolution/naval mutinies
• Tsar Nicholas allowed freedom of speech, press
  and assembly
• Nick wasnt too smart though and refused to give
  up power
• 1914 war makes people unhappy (it stinks even
  more to be a peasant in war) no weapons, no
  food, lots of dying

23
February Revolution

• Started with strikes- tens of thousands of
  workers went on strike
• Met at Znamenskayas Square and listened to
  anti-tsarist speakers
• Soldiers joined the mutiny
• Rioted throughout the streets- destroying
  property, also robbing, raping and killing
  ?thousands of people were killed

24

• Tsar abdicates the throne
• Established the new provisional government which
  shared power with the soviets
• This was considered to be a temporary government

25
New government

• In reality provisional government had no
  authority. Soviets were supported by workers and
  rank-and-file soldiers
• Provisional government allowed major socialist
  leaders to return to Russia (Lenin)
• Lenin comes back and is able to win many
  supporters

26

• 1917
• March a group of democratic moderates deposed
  the tsar
• Provisional government moving towards democracy
• Stayed in the war
• April Lenin arrives in Russia

27
Lenins April Thesis

• Lenin speech laid out the Bolshevik platform
• calling to end the war
• a revolution of the workers
• Get rid of all of the police and put the power
  into the hands of the soviet workers
• Peace, Bread, Land
• Ordinary Russians were involved by listening to
  speeches at Znamenskayas Square, sang
  International song

28
July Days

• Provisional government directed the army to go on
  the offensive and lost 200,000 men and morale
  went to an all time low
• In July 500,00 men took to the streets and rioted
• Kornilov, a military general supported by the
  liberals tried to take over but failed ? which
  further weakened the government

29
(No Transcript)
30
October Revolution

• Bolsheviks gained popularity
• They refused to have anything to do with the
  provisional government
• Most people were sick of war
• Lenin was a very powerful speaker
• October 24th the Bolshevik takeover began
• Took over key government buildings and railroads
  in Petrograd
• Took over the Winter Palace
• Very little violence, many people did not know it
  was happening

31

• October Bread Land Peace
• Storming of the Winter Palace
• Dropped out of the war, fought US troops

32
Russian Revolution immediate impacts

• 1918-1920 Civil war
• Millions died of starvation
• NEP New Economic Policy (allowed some private
  property ownership) state capitalism

33
Cult of Lenin

• Petrograd became Leningrad
• After his death, people in the party tried to
  emphasize their relationship and allegiance to
  Lenin as qualifications to gain power

34
1924- Transition of Power

• Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev were all
  fighting for power
• First they all allied against Trotsky- partly
  because Trotsky had not joined the Bolsheviks as
  early as they had disagreed with Lenin before
  the revolution
• After Trotsky was out of the picture Stalin
  attacked Zinoviev and Kamenev as well
• By 1926 Stalin had gained power

35
Stalin

• Comes to power in 1927, rules until his death in
  1953
• Five year plans (millions starved to death
  intentionally- Ukrainians)
• Consumer goods were ignored for militaristic
  goods
• WWII were able to stave off German invasion
  although soldiers were poorly equipped
• Generally- he was paranoid, controlling and
  ruthless

36

• Stalin!

Stalin with the Pioneers
37
Purges

• Stalin could erase human beings from existence
• A total of 10-15 million people died due to
  purges and collectivization
• Marxism-Leninism provided the legitimacy base for
  the party,.
• with its ideology of democratic centralism, or
  rule by a few for the benefit of the many
• Stalinism changed the regime to totalitarianism,
  a more complete, invasive form of strong-man rule
  than the tsars ever were able to implement

38
http//www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/terror
/cc-1917.jpg
39
Purges

• Like Lenin he executed or deported all those who
  disagreed with him as a continuation of the Red
  Terror
• Purges
• 10 million Soviet citizens died
• Many were executed but others were sent to work
  camps
• Russian Orthodox chuch lost power and authority

40
Lenin, Stalin, Krushchev
41
Kruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov
42
Chernenko, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin
43
Events Stalin-Yeltsin

• 1934 USSR joins league of nations
• 36-38 Purges
• 41 Germany invades, WWII ensues
• 48 Take over Czechoslovakia
• 49 atomic bomb
• 55 Khrushchev takes power, Destalinization
  collective leadership after 1953, lowered
  Stalins power structure
• 57 sputnik
• 61 first man in space
• 62-62 China splits from USSR

44

• 62 Cuban Missile Crisis
• 64 Brezhnev slow economic growth and corruption
• 70s Détente
• 75 Helsinki Accords
• 82 Brezhnev dies
• 82-84 Andropov fights corruption and alcoholism
• 85-91 Gorbechav
• 86 Chernobyl disaster
• 88-89 Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan
• 89 Fall of communism
• 91 Yeltsin comes to power
• 2000- present Vladimir Putin

45
Historical legacies

• Several legacies from Russian history shape the
  modern political system
• Absolute, centralized rule
• Extensive cultural heterogeneity
• Slavophile v. westernizer
• http//www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/sla
  vophiles-westernizers.html
• Revolutions of the 20th century

46
Continual issues in Russian history

• To Westernize or not to Westernize?
• Whos a slav?
• Absolutist rule
• Few civil or human rights or tradition of
  democracy
• Independence for different regions