Bread, Peace, and Land WHAP/Napp
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“The Russian Revolution of 1917 challenged the capitalist order by instituting communism. Communism advocated the abolition of private property and the control of the economic resources by the state. It argued that the Communist Party should spearhead this system by the use of violence if necessary. Leaders of the party believed that Russia could telescope the development process and catapult itself into the ranks of the wealthy and powerful. The Bolshevik Party, renamed the Communist Party in 1918, asserted the importance of its own official dominance over the politics, economy, and society of Russia. Through the worldwide organization of the Communist International, it proposed itself as a model for, and leader of, colonized and backward countries in overthrowing foreign control and capitalist economic development.
On the eve of World War I, Russia lagged far behind the Western European countries economically and industrially. Nicholas II had made great strides in increasing industrial production. But during that same period, 1880-1913, the USA’s per capital level of industrialization had quadrupled. In a rapidly industrializing world, Russia had to race much faster just to keep up. Since Russia lacked the capital to build the industries it wanted, it invited foreign investment. In 1917 foreigners held nearly 50 percent of the Russian national debt. Russia was Europe’s largest debtor. Russia’s agriculture was also unproductive and its technology was primitive, but economic productivity had little bearing on the power over land and peasantry held by Russia’s wealthy elites. An exploited peasantry living in mirs (village collectives) had neither the economic incentive nor the technical training to produce more. Moreover, the costs of industrialization and the repayment of foreign loans had to be squeezed out of the agricultural sector. The result was a mass of peasants impoverished, technologically backward, despised by the wealthy elite, and suffering under the weight of a national program of industrialization for which they were made to pay.
Several revolutionary groups attacked these conditions, each offering a different plan. A lawyer, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later calling himself Lenin, stressed the need for the party to provide leadership for the revolution. Lenin underlined the need for an absolutely dedicated core of leaders to carry out the revolution. World War I, with its 2 million Russian causalities, finally united the many forces of opposition and brought down the monarchy. In the first revolution of March 1917, the duma or parliament forced the czar (tsar) to abdicate and established a new provisional government under Aleksandr Kerensky. But the war persisted. The turmoil of mutiny and desertion in the army, food shortages, farm revolts, and factory strikes ground on. More radical groups sought to seize control. Lenin – with the assistance of the Germans who wanted to sow discord in Russia – returned from exile in Switzerland. He called for an immediate withdrawal from the war, land for the peasants, and a government-run food distribution system. ‘Peace, Land, Bread,’ was his motto.” ~ The World’s History
1- Describe Russia on the eve of the First World War. ______
2- Compare the two revolutions that occurred in 1917 as well as their leaders. ______
I. The Trouble with RussiaA. Russia was the least able of the Great Powers to fight a prolonged war (WWI)
B. Tsar’s wife, Alexandra, German by birth, suspected of favoring Central Powers
C. Adding to losses on the front, a strange religious sectarian, Grigory Rasputin, had gained influence over the royal family – did great harm to prestige of monarchy
D. Rasputin was supposedly able to control the hemophilia of the Tsar’s son
E. In March 1917 a riot broke out when people demanded food
F. Russian generals sent a message to the tsar: abdicate and Nicholas complied
G. A Provisional Government was set up
H. Unfortunately, Provisional Government believed war could still be won
I. The Provisional Government also had to share power with councils, soviets
J. Leaders of the soviets were inspired by Marxist doctrine
K. The Bolsheviks were one faction of Marxist revolutionaries
L. While others debated what should be done, Bolsheviks urged action
M. Action: peace at once, bread for everyone, and land to the peasants
N. On November 7, 1917, Red Guards, military arm of Bolsheviks, burst into Winter Palace, scattering Provisional Government’s officials to the wind
II. The New Bolshevik Government
A. Lenin contacted Germans to discuss peace: met at border town of Brest-Litovsk where Trotsky was chief negotiator but Bolshevik Russia would have to start its existence with a substantial loss of population, farmland and resources
B. Trotsky refused to sign but Lenin convinced that Russia had to have peace
C. Russia then plunged into civil war as not all supported Bolsheviks’ vision
D. Bolshevik Red Army, organized by Trotsky, versus the Whites, anti-Communists
E. Former Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra, and children were executed
F. In 1921 country called Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after gained full control
III. The Communist Government
A. Lenin gave the secret police, the Cheka, a free hand to search out dissenters
B. Result was mass executions, imprisonment, and flight of millions
C. Russian Orthodox church lost all its property, and its patriarch was jailed
D. All Soviet life came under the management of the state
E. Soviet legislation forbade strikes
F. Lenin dominated executive committee of party, as head of the Politburo
G. In 1923, however, Lenin suffered a stroke
H. It seemed probable that Leon Trotsky would be next in line
I. But Josef Stalin came to power
J. Lenin had shown that could be flexible when saw post-civil-war economy in shatters and used the New Economic Policy which allowed farmers to sell produce on market and permitted small entrepreneurs to run their own businesses
K. But Stalin followed Marxist prescriptions for a socialist society
L. In 1928 launched first Five Year Plan to industrialize and collectivize agriculture
M. Landowning peasants, kulaks, preferred death to giving land over to state
N. Resistance was strong in Ukraine, so peasants suffered disproportionately
O. Stalin also launched the Great Purge in which anyone suspected of dissent was either shot or sent to a labor camps (gulags)
1- Why was Russia the least able of the Great Powers to fight in World War I? ______
2- Why was the Tsar’s wife seen as favoring the Central Powers? ______
3- Who was Rasputin and how and why did he harm the tsar’s reputation? ______
4- Define abdicate. ______
5- Why was the Tsar forced to abdicate? ______
6- What replaced the Tsar’s government after his abdication? ______
7- Why were many Russians upset with the new government? ______
8- What were soviets? ______
9- Who were the Bolsheviks and why were many Russians listening to the Bolsheviks? ______
10- Who was the leader of the Bolsheviks and what did he promise the Russian people? ______
11- Why was November 7, 1917 a significant date in Russian history? ______
12- Why did Trotsky not want to sign the Treaty of Brest- Litovsk? ______
13- Why did Lenin insist that the Treaty was signed? ______
14- Why was Russia plunged into civil war shortly after the Bolsheviks came to power? ______
15- Who fought in the Russian civil war? ______
16- What was the outcome of the Russian civil war? ______
17- What happened to the royal family? ______
18- What was Russia renamed in 1921? ______
19- How did the Cheka affect life in the Soviet Union? ______
20- How was the Russian Orthodox Church impacted by the rise of Marxism in Russia? ______
21- Who rose to power when Lenin died? ______
22- How did Lenin’s New Economic Policy differ from Stalin’s view of the economy? ______
23- What were Five Year Plans, collectivization, purges, and gulags? ______
1. Which of the following best describes the Communist takeover of Russia in 1917?(A) The Communists came to power after assassinating the royal family.
(B) Defeat in World War I demoralized the country so badly that the population overthrew the tsar and voted the Communists into power.
(C) Recognizing its limitations, the Provisional government voluntarily stepped down from power, handing government over to the Communists.
(D) Taking advantage of widespread radicalism and popular discontent with the Provisional Government, the Communists staged a successful armed insurrection.
(E) The Communists won the majority of seats in parliamentary elections.
2. Which political figure eventually emerged to lead the Bolshevik Party after the death of Lenin?
(A) Trotsky
(B) Khrushchev
(C) Gorbachev
(D) Stalin
(E) Bukharin
3. Which factor in the Russian and Chinese revolutions was not present in the French Revolution?
(A) The ideas of Karl Marx
(B) Resentment of peasants
(C) Shortages of bread
(D) Class divisions / 4. Which of the following were the main slogans the Bolsheviks put forward on their road to power in 1917?
A. Peace
I. Communism
II. Land
III. Bread
(A) I, II, and IV
(B) II, III, and IV
(C) I, II, and III
(D) I, III, and IV
(E) I and IV
5. Why did the Bolshevik regime turn to a New Economic Policy in the early 1920s?
(A) A centrally planned economy was seen as the next logical step after the “War Communism” system employed during the civil war.
(B) Lenin and leading Bolshevik elements gave up socialism as a long-range goal.
(C) Lenin and leading Bolshevik elements sought to bring back free enterprise and the profit motive in order to jump-start an economy severely dislocated by World War I and the Russian Civil War.
(D) Stalin had already replaced Lenin as leader of the Bolsheviks and sought a more rapid push toward communism.
(E) Industrial development was seen as inherently exploitative of workers and was renounced in the NEP.
Thesis Practice: Continuity and Change over Time – Analyze continuities and changes in Russia’s political and economic systems from 1861 to 1921. ______