A. 1890 census showed that the country was 80% agrarian

B. Peasants tended to be conservative, having blind faith in the Tsar

C. Local authorities were blamed for peasant problems.

III. Government

A. No representative government

B. No prime minister. The Tsar filled the post himself

C. Because of the large peasant population, the Tsar commanded the loyalty of approximately 75% of the Russian population.

D. Few universities existed and there was a low literacy rate

1. Represented the nobility

2. People with education were in demand

3. On a side note, the Russian term "Chinovnik" refers to the bureaucrats who enjoyed being bureaucrats for the sake of making others' lives miserable.

4. Most of the middle class is content in its role.

E. Military

1. All officers were members of the nobility

2. Inclined to keep the status quo; loyal

F. No serious internal threats existed to the monarchy

G. Zemstvos handled local affairs, and in 1892, they rallied against a famine and stopped people from starving. Then, they petitioned the Tsar for a Duma and were refused.

IV. Revolutionary history of Russia began in 1825

A. The Napoleonic wars ended and the officers had been exposed to the radical west.

B. They formed a society called the Decembrists

C. The emperor, Alexander I, was not well and soon died

1. Had no children. Constantine was supposed to inherit the throne, but he did want it.

2. Nicholas ended up taking power in 1825.

D. Officers demonstrate against the monarchy and some refuse to take the loyalty oath to the Tsar. They chanted "Constantine and Constitution." The peasants don't support the movement and it fails, resulting in a temporary crackdown on liberalism.

 

The Downfall of the Russian Empire

I. War with Japan 1904

A. Both the Russians and Japanese felt that a quick war would boost the morale of their respective countries, and both believed that a war with the other country would end in quick victory.

B. This was a complete and utter disaster for the Russian military. Their navy was decimated in the Straits of Tsushima by the Japanese

C. Upsets the people

II. Industrialism

A. Represents a demographic change. Factories need labor

B. Peasants come to the cities.

C. Large foreign investments flow into Russia.

III. Nationalities question - 2/3 of the country was Russian. The other third was nonRussian.

A. The Russian nationality is The dominant one in The Empire, but there is a large nonRussian population. There is no official policy for dealing with The nationalities question.

B. Napoleonic Wars

1. Russia gets most of Poland

2. Poland formally became a Russian "colony" in 1831

3. Poles hate The Russians and vise-versa

1. Poland is Catholic, while Russia is Orthodox

2. Selfishness of Polish gentry dissolved The country and Polish nationalism was trying to be redeemed. Polish literature, therefore, took on a very anti-Russian tone.

C. Nicholas could have bribed Poland with autonomy

1. Instead, he built an Orthodox Church in Warsaw

2. Made Russian The official language

3. These things were designed to crush Poland. Resulted in 30 million disloyal Poles on The border.

D. Ukraine - second largest nationality and major grain producer

1. Orthodox Christian

2. Willingly entered The Russian Empire to get away from The Ottomans

3. By The end of The 19th century, enough national feeling was present to cause problems.

a. Nicholas II refused to even acknowledge that a Ukraine existed

b. Granted no concessions

E. Austrian - Hungarian Empire

1. Rival of Russia before WWI

2. Austria founded Ukrainian University in Lvov and recruited faculty on anti-Russian sentiment

a. Produced a generation of Ukrainian intellectuals who felt that Ukraine should be independent.

b. Again, failure substantial nationality was ignored and offended

F. Jews

1. More Jews that anywhere else in The world at The beginning of The 20th century

2. No territorial base

a. Excluded from The historic cities

b. Most confined to Poland or The Pale (mostly in Ukraine or Belorussia)

c. By law, second class citizens

3. Regime was anti-Semitic and persecuted Jews

4. After 1881 when Alexander III was emperor, pogroms began. Policy continued by Nicholas II.

5. Conservative Pobedonostov was curator of The holy Synod. His goals were thus:

a. Wanted to get rid of Jews

b. Chase 1/3 out. Succeeded. 2 million Russian Jews left. Mostly to The US

c. Assimilate or convert 1/3. This didn't happen. It was very rare, and those who did convert were still not accepted.

d. Kill (starve) 1/3

6. Those who stayed had a rough life, Options:

a. Retreat form The world. Live secluded in a Jewish community and don't interact with The outside world.

b. Those who didn't do that or immigrate had to organize a rebellion. Large numbers of Jews took part in The revolutionary movement. Community elders didn't explicitly disapprove, and did nothing to stop this.

F. Finland

1. Voluntarily entered The Empire in 1815 for protection against Sweden.

2. Under Alexander II, Finland was given total autonomy. One governor in Helsinki was Russian, but that was it.

3. In The mid 19th century, Russia still protected Finland, but The people were allowed to be their own.

4. Pobedonostov warned Nicholas II that this was a bad idea, and started taking privileges away from The Finns. Russian was made The official language and Finnish autonomy was lost.

5. In 1898, The Finns assassinated The Russian governor and Russia occupied. This was probably stupid.

6. The Finns, on The whole, were more educated than The Russians and enjoyed a higher standard of living, so The Russians were jealous.

G. Central Asia - didn't come under Russian control until The 19th century

1. Muslim religion dominates these areas

2. Russia never really established a base in Asia.

3. Created a Russian presence, but only to pacify The land

4. Created Russian cities of Western Russians to run The place. No identity was built Native felt as if they were being occupied by The Russians.

5. Russian was not made The official language, so there was a communications problem

6. They had no interest in defending The Russian empire.

 

Russian Liberal and Revolutionary Movement

I. Roots of The Revolutionary Movement

A. In 1848, Russia didn't have a revolution with The rest of Europe

B. The Tsar actually sent troops to put down The uprisings

C. No revolution in past because of secret police. Universities were censored

1. Courses in theology and language

2. No courses in social science and few humanities courses

D. Resulted in a brain washed population

E. Shortage of well educated people

II. Intellectuals vs. Inteligensia

A. All inteligensia are intellectuals

B. They however, want to change things:

1. Intellectuals are not a problem

2. Inteligensia are a problem

C. French was The language of Russian upperclass, and sometimes people would visit the West, bringing back new things with them

III. Rise of Alexander

A. Nicholas I died in 1855

B. The Crimean War is being fought at this time, and Russia was losing it on its own soil, essentially

1. The lack of technology was important

2. British and French were better equipped

C. Alexander came to power in 1855 and ruled until 1881

D. Reforms

1. Allowed universities to chose curriculum. Results in reading of diverse opinions.

2. Freed serfs in 1861

E. Assassination attempts and their affects: First in 1866

1. Alexander stopped reforms

2. Rescinded university freedoms

3. Upset the students, causing many more to become intelligentsia

a. Children of well to do families and nobility made up the students

b. many now went abroad - Paris, Munich, Zurich, and come in contact with new people and ideas

c. Some meet Russian political exiles

d. Herzen was one who spent his life in exile, but rejected the West. Worked students over, telling them they had an obligation to "tell the people" to build agrarian socialism.

i. Considered Marx irrelevant to Russia

ii. Felt that Russia was too agrarian for Marxism to have any meaning

iii. Founded Russian populism

iv. Some people listed to Herzen

v. In 1870s, the government forbade study abroad Alienated many into becoming populists.

IV. Populism

A. Life is hard for the peasant

1. Not enough land

2. Sharecropping

3. Alcoholism and domestic violence prevalent

B. Bourgeoisie Populists were not popular with these people

1. Herzen believed peasants were predisposed to socialism

2. Peasants didn't like this because it criticizes the emperor

3. Many Populists were turned into the police or beaten up

C. Some Populists gave up, but others decided the problem was with the peasants

1. 90% of peasants were illiterate

2. Some Populists form the People's WIll to try to assassinate the Tsar

3. 1881 - they bomb the carriage of Alexander II (the bomb, missed, but a second attacker killed the Tsar)

D. Anarchists - Ema Goldman and Ernest Berkman decided to kill Fick following the Pittsburgh Homestead strike of 1892

1. Berkman got an appointment with Fick, but somehow managed to not kill him

2. This was all carryover from the Russian revolutionary movement

E. Results of the assassination of 1881

1. Peasants were furious

2. All politicals went to jails or left the country

3. Revolutionaries scattered into Western Europe with the likelihood they would never return.

a. People started thinking about the right way to get to socialism

b. Marxism came into play in Russia around this time

c. Marx, just for the record, died in 1883

V. Marx

A. History goes through stages. Russia could not go from feudalism to socialism. They needed capitalism first

B. Economic class conflict is the instrument of revolution. A class-conscious working class is necessary to overthrow capitalism

C. Marx never commented about the speed of this change

D. Russia didn't have the necessary industry for a socialist revolution. This, Marx was irrelevant for Russia for a long time

E. Plekhanov - Founder of the Russian Social Democratic party

1. Thrown out of Russia in 1881

2. Said Marxism was relevant to Russia

3. Instead of fitting Marxism to Russia, Russia should be fit to Marxism

i. Russia didn't have a military alliance

ii. France was most likely ally, because of war lost to Germany in 1871. Believe a Russian alliance would protect France

iii. Problem is that France is a republic and Russia is a monarchy

a. Sergei Witte (Finance Minister) realized that Russia cannot be an alliance member without industry

b. Wanted to raise money for industrialization. Starts vodka monopoly, but also tells France to invest in Russia

4. Plekhanov notices that France is industrializing Russia, but Witte convinces Emperor to let France build railroads. Transiberian railroad gets built in this fashion

5. Plekhanov says Russia is becoming capitalist and is industrializing - thus Marx applies.

6. Establishes Iskra "the spark" to spread Marxism.

 

VI. Lenin - born 1870

A. Recruited by Plekhanov around 1900

B. Lenin seems unimportant at this point

C. Wants to fit Marxism to Russia as opposed to Plekhanov's idea to fit Russia to Marxism

D. Devises his own school of Marxism, published in Iskra in 1902 (What is to be Done?)

1. Vanguard - revolutionary movement boils down to. Russian movement must have a disciplined elite

2. Contempt for the masses and workers. Afraid of the labor union mentality

3. Khvostism - the best the worker can do is follow the leader

4. Mentions small central committee to make the decisions and run the show

a. upsets other members of the SD party

b. immediate impact is inconsequential

E. Party Congress in 1903 in Brussels and the London. 2nd Party Congress.

1. Many thought Lenin had gone too far with his undemocratic contempt for the workers

2. The Bund (Jewish workers group), a Marxist Party in Poland and Western Russia wanted special status as an autonomous division. Party said no, Bund walked out. Gave Lenin a majority at the meeting.

3. What is to be Done? becomes the official party line. Bolsheviks are the winners and Mensheviks are the losers

4. Menshevik leader, Martov, didn't' know how to maneuver out of the vote. He is known as the Hamlet of Russian history for his indecisiveness

5. SD party splits - outside of Russia, the Marxists don't accept this, and it matters to only a very few people inside.

 

Prelude to Revolution

I. Lenin

A. Created a big splash in 1903

B. Was not well regarded

C. Karl Radek - kicked out of German SD. Refused Lenin's offer of membership in Bolsheviks in 1913

D. considered a pest

1. Divided the smallest party in 1903

2. Refuses to compromise

E. Accident of history

1. In 1905, the Russian fleet was sunk

2. Mutiny on Potemkin

3. Riots in the streets

4. Regime makes concessions

a. Duma

b. Land reform payments

c. Duma is given no power and then dissolved many times. No real meaning

d. Tsar still controlled appointment of ministers

II. Europeans believed they were living in the best of times

A. General belief that war wouldn't happen again

B. Defensive alliances formed

1. Dual alliance (1879) between Germany and Austria states that if one is attacked, the other would, at worse, be neutral, but if either is attached by 2 powers, the other would fight

2. Russia/France had a similar alliance

3. England was in splendid isolation

4. Seemed to guarantee peace

C. All European countries had large standing armies - compulsory military service at 18 which lasted for 2 years

D. Nicholas had no foreign policy sense

1. Felt Russia should protect Slavic Peoples (Pan Slavism)

2. Many Slavs were orthodox, and Russia was seen as the mother Slav

III. Slav issues

A. Austria had problem with Slav population

B. Serbia's independence made this worse

C. Austria tried to annex Bosnia and Serbia objected in 1908

1. Russia was supposed to help

2. Austria said if Russia didn't object to the annexation, they wouldn't object to Russian annexation of Constantinople. Problem is that Constantinople doesn't belong to Austria, but Nicholas accepts

3. Angers Serbs

D. June 1914 - Emperor of Austria was Franz Joseph since 1848. He had no more children. His son had killed himself and the heir was Francis Ferdinand (unpopular nephew)

1. Ferdinand visited Sarajevo and schedule the visit for June 28, 1914. June 28 is the day the Serbs lost their independence to the Turks in the 14th century. Kosowa day. It's a day of mourning. The visit was basically poorly timed

2. Serbian nationalists killed the Duke

4. Austria's militant had an inferiority complex and were frustrated so they look for war with Serbia.

E. The idea of this was not a world war

1. Wanted to sail gunboats down the Danube and fire some shells to have the Serbs surrender and sail back to Austria

2. Serbia got scared and asked Nicholas for help

3. Nicholas tells Austria to leave the Serbs alone. This worries Austria who evokes the defensive alliance with Germany, asking for defense

4. Germany isn't too thrilled about this, but the military sends a telegram to Austria saying go for it

5. Now Nicholas needs to decide about taking on Germany

a. Mobilization problems

b. Nicholas argues for partial mobilization

c. Germany considers this a hostile act

d. Russia asks France for help

e. August 1914 - war starts

IV. WWI

A. Germany plans to march through Belgium and take Paris. Belgium was a neutral country since 1837.

1. Asks Belgians for passage. Belgium says no, so Germany goes anyway

2. Britain foes to war to defend Belgium

3. Full - scale war Russia, France, Britain vs. Germany, Austria, Turkey, etc.

B. The war caused nationalism to increase

1. Nicholas II has his domestic problems with revolutionaries subside

2. People felt Russia might be destroyed

C. Germany wanted to give enough troops to hold Russia off

D. Russia loses 4 million men in the first year. More than everyone else combined

1. Shows the ineptitude of Nicholas

2. Something else could easily have been done to minimize casualties

3. People in Russia start wondering why they're in this mess

a. People start blaming the empress

b. Rasputin - holy man. Could stop the bleeding of Alexis (he had hemophilia)

i. Corrupt

ii. Believed in salvation through sexual excess

iii. In peacetime, the population was okay with Rasputin's actions, but it a time of war, it upset them

iv. For the record, recent research indicates that though Rasputin slept with a large percentage of the Russian noble women, he never has sex with Alexandra

c. Nicholas goes to the front, leaving the Empress in charge

i. Put friends of Rasputin in power

ii. Angers the people more

d. In 1916, royal family members decide to kill Rasputin, but the damage was already done, and the people had no confidence in the regime.

4. Farms struggled because of the calling up of reserves

a. Danger of famine

b. Not enough bread for the cities

5. People feel defeats at the front are the fault of the Tsar

V. February Revolution of 1917 - keep in mind that Russians didn't recognize the Gregorian calendar

A. Riots break out in Petrograd during International Women's Day

B. Garrison of the capital refused to put them down

C. Nicholas, on hearing of the news, agreed to return and ordered the disturbance put down

D. Officer corps tells Nicholas that the thing to do is abdicate in favor of his son, with his brother Mikhail as a regent

1. Nicholas, however, abdicates for himself and his son, creating problems

2. Throne is offered to Mikhail who didn't want the job. This ended the Romanov dynasty

3. It also ended the monarchy, because no one had a right to run the country, creating a power vacuum

4. Revolutionaries played no role in this whatsoever

Problems After the Fall of the Tsar and the Forming of a New Government

I. Problems after the fall of the Tsar

A. No one is entitled to rule

B. Duma was dissolved previously

C. Tsar's ministers resign

D. WWI

1. The war won't end

2. Germany is slowly winning, they took Poland

E. Soviet appears but has no legal basis

1. Consisted of groups of workers and deserted soldiers

2. Does not claim to be the government

3. Organized to protect the revolution

4. Virtually no Bolsheviks. Lenin is in Finland, Trotsky is in the Bronx, contemplating a trip to Durham, NC

F. Kerensky was a SR defender

1. SRs were an peasant based party

2. Trotsky seemed to forget that

3. Both Kerensky and Trotsky were excellent public speakers (to be more clear, Trotsky was originally a SR as well)

G. The emergence of the Provisional Government (Prov gov)

1. Appeared out of fear of the Soviet

2. Perhaps related to Army Order #1

a. This stated that solders could vote on major decisions

b. Elect their officers

c. Destroyed morale

3. "Responsible People" formed the Prov gov

4. Didn't want to let the crazies take over

5. Kerensky brought in as the bridge between the Soviet and Prov gov

a. Also a member of the Soviet

b. Helped the government with diplomatic issues

6. By summer, Kerensky is the head of the regime

7. Allies fear losing Russia

a. US was in the war, but there wasn't a lot of respect for their military power

b. They entered WWI in 1917 over the U boats

c. The logistics of this were difficult

II. Problems of WWI

A. If Russia withdrew from the war, no aide from the west

B. Kerensky chooses to continue the war

C. Peasants want land and no more

D. Shows people that Kerensky is more interested in Woodrow Wilson's ideas than Russia

E. Shows neglect of Russian peasants

III. Other Revolutionaries

A. Lenin decides to go by train from Switzerland through Germany to get back to Russia

B. Germany thinks ending the revolutionaries back was a great idea. Called "Germ Warfare"

C. Sealed train brought a bunch of them back

D. Lenin had been living on charity.

1. He had been funded by a condom distributor who sold condoms to both sides

2. Essentially, Lenin was supported by safe sex during WWI

E. Train went form Stockholm to St. Petersburg (Petrograd)

F. Lenin assembled a meeting of supporters and wanted immediate revolution. They say no

1. Capitalist stage was just beginning

2. Socialist regime in pre mature

3. Put off the suggestion

4. Lenin needed Trotsky in Russia

a. Better orator

b. Trotsky had participated in the 1905 revolution and had gone to jail

c. He had worked out a plan for bringing socialism to Russia. "Permanent Revolution" He advocated a continuous revolution. This provided a justification for Socialism in Russia.

d. Turned Marx upside down. Marx discussed cartels. Trotsky noticed that these also existed in Russia

e. Trotsky said you didn't need an overwhelming proletarian state. All you need is enough o take power

f. No such thing as a Russian Revolution because nations are capitalist creations Revolution should not be contained by capitalist boundaries. Revolution just starts in Russia

g. Russia is the weak link in the capitalist chain, but revolution cannot be confined to Russia.

5. Trotsky doesn't want to know Lenin

6. In summer, 1917, the July Days occur and Lenin flees into Finland while the Bolsheviks are arrested. The Prov gov doesn't' arrest Trotsky, because he isn't revolutionary enough

a. Trotsky says he's a revolutionary and was sent to jail

b. Jail under Kerensky wasn't bad

c. Lenin had to remain in hiding, even after Trotsky was released

d. Trotsky was elected head of Soviet and created the armed guards to protect against enemies of the revolution

e. Indicative of Prov gov weakness that nothing happens. Kerensky doesn't take the Bolsheviks seriously

7. Lenin comes back in October and wants \revolution. This time, party goes along with it

a. Zinoviev and Kamenev publish the discussion, because they dissented

b. Kerensky does nothing

IV. Bolshevik Revolution - pretty quite on the whole

A. Relatively peaceful. Military revolutionary Committee storms the Winter Palace and meets little resistance.

B. Kerensky fed in a US embassy car

C. Next Morning, Lenin comes out of hiding and addressed the Soviet. Why is Lenin the head, when Trotsky did all the work?:

1. Trotsky is challenged by Mensheviks and gives his rubbish heap of history speech

2. Trotsky realized the nature of the anti-Semitism in Russia

3. Trotsky had recently joined the Bolshevik party, so his loyalty was questionable

4. When it comes to important party decisions, Trotsky backs off rather than challenging Lenin

D. Government gives land to the peasants (the people who work it)

E. Refuses to fight the war

F. Problem with this is that Trotsky feels a continued revolution is necessary. By not continuing the war, the chance for a revolution in Germany is decreased.

1. Germany was willing to sign a separate peace

2. Russia would lose too much. Trotsky wants to stall

3. Meeting set for Brest - Litovsk

4. Trotsky wants to discuss all kinds of issues (Ukrainian Independence), asked for rights to cross lines to propagandize the German army. Demands that Germany not transfer troops west. Germany refuses/

5. When Trotsky can stand it no more, he says no war, no peace and left to go back to Moscow.

Establishing the Revolution

I. Bolshevik seizure of power

A. Very few Bolsheviks in Russia

B. How did they take power?

1. Most people didn't want to protect the Provisional Government

2. Kerensky was largely irrelevant, though he was recognized as the leader of Russia by the US until 1933

3. Most people felt the Bolshevik regime wouldn't last

B. Power was taken first in St. Petersburg

D. Bolsheviks gave land to the peasants. Peasants, therefor, are willing to try they system because they are anti-landlord. Essentially, the peasantry didn't resist

E. Tsar was under arrest

F. Monarchists were in disarray, as were the Kadets

G. Lenin had good timing, and the regime slowly spread

II. End of WWI

A. German terms

1. All of Poland

2. Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)

3. Some of Belorussia

4. Control of Ukraine

5. Amounts to about 1/3 of European Russia

B. Most Russians didn't mind losing Poland, but Ukraine and the Baltic States were harder to give up.

C. Bolsheviks have no choice

1. Lenin things Germans won't be able to keep it. He's right, but he believed Germany would fall to the proletarian revolution.

2. Trotsky was upset about the terms of the treaty. There were two votes in the Central Committee on it. He voted no on the first and yes on the second.

3. Trotsky finally gave up and went to take over the military

D. Many Bolsheviks form opposition group call the "Left - Communists" to denounce Lenin

1. Trotsky won't join them

2. Movement died.

III. Civil War (1918 - 1920)

A. Bolsheviks have army problems. They have little military experience and few officers.

B. Trotsky sets up the military

1. Willful promotion of talented people

2. Forced officers of old regime into service by holding their families hostage

3. Horrifies Western allies who send troops to Russia

C. Bolsheviks eventually won the Civil War, but in 1919, it looked pretty bleak.

1. Whites were never coordinated

2. Never made it clear what they were fighting for

3. Most of the White Army was peasantry

a. Peasants weren't very political

b. When Bolsheviks come, there are no landlords

c. When the Whites come back, so do the landlords, so the peasants support the Bolsheviks

4. There was not enough foreign intervention to make a difference. They only served as a negative symbol to the Russian people

5. Deniken commanded the southern front. Very perceptive and not old nobility

a. His memoirs tell of looting Ukrainian villages

b. He realized that if the Whites were going to win, he needed to change the policies

6. Essentially, Bolshevism survived because the country wouldn't fight to support the old regime

IV. Results of the War

A. Distrust of West

B. Trotsky again brings up the idea of world revolution. Lenin didn't really give a damn

1. There were several revolutionary outbreaks in Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, after WWI. Between November 1918 - 1919

2. All failed. Local population wouldn't support it

C. Concern about what would happen in the West came to Russia

D. Poland was recreated after WWI with the pianist Paderewski as a leader

1. Paderewski was to be the chief negotiator

2. Appointed Pilsudski to be the chief of state including the army. Pilsudski was very anti-Russian

a. Pilsudski wanted a coalition that was meant to be protective against Russia and Germany

b. Wanted this coalition to include the Baltic States, Romania, and Ukraine

c. Ukrainian opinion was mixed. Pilsudski agreed to "liberate" Ukraine if Ukraine will accept current borders

d. Waits until White army is delegated and then Pilsudski invades Ukraine.

E. Russia feels it has been invaded and then fights Poland

1. Tukhachevsky is given the task of driving out the Poles

2. Poles take Kiev, but Tukhachevsky attacks in the north

3. Tukhachevsky decides without permission of Lenin to go to Warsaw.

F. The Raise Polish War of 1920

1. If he reaches Warsaw, Germany is next

2. Problem for Lenin, because he didn't order this

a. Lenin was intrigued, because he wanted to know what would happen if Tukhachevksy won

b. This upsets the west because they didn't want a Communist Poland

3. Russians lost the battle of Warsaw

4. No opposition groups such as the Mensheviks supported Poland.

The Years Prior to Lenin's Death

I. Meaning of Communist Revolution

A. Lenin used Communist early to distinguish his party as the true revolutionary party

B. Socialism becomes almost a negative term

C. Mensheviks were decent people, believe in in a democratic form of socialism

1. inherently pacifistic

2. would not be elected and would not fight their way in

3. believed in the inevitability of socialism

D. Socialist Revolutionaries - party of Kerensky

1. The promise of a constituent assembly was their idea and it had possibilities

2. It never happened

E. Constituent assembly was called by Lenin in 1917

1. Most people were peasants, and they were not political

2. Peasants tended to care about the land and therefore voted for the SRS

3. SRS won a majority in the Constituent assembly

4. SRS declare Bolshevik revolution illegal and say they are the rightful government

5. Lenin sends the guards to disperse them

6. Peasants don't care. Constitutional government is not a big issue

7. This was, for all intents and purposes, the end of the SR party in Russia

II. War, etc.

A. War with Poland. No opposition group helped the Poles

1. British and French object to the invasion

2. British could have bombed ST. Petersburg from the Baltic Sea

3. Lenin backs off, but doesn't know how to draw borders

4. Western investigating teams found that the Bogue River was the ethnic barrier. Britain and France say that if the Russians cross that line, they would attack, however support was lacking for this

5. Russians cross the River and took Bialstock, an industrial city. Did not meet serious resistance

6. Russians set up a revolutionary committee in Bialstock which would have become the government of Poland had the Reds taken Warsaw

7. After Warsaw, Lenin called the army back

B. In October, 1920 (after the civil war, Lenin gave a speech)

1. Blamed loss of Poland on inexperienced army

2. Said the workers of Europe were not ready for the Communist revolution

3. May have been the point where Lenin gave up on the world revolution

C. Russia in 1920 was in bad shape

1. The economy had gone to hell

2. Regime needed food form the peasants, and ended up expropriating the grain

3. Lenin had to appeal for Western aide to prevent famine

III. The New Economic Policy (NEP) "One step back for two steps forward"

A. Introduced at the 1921 Party Congress (10th)

B. Major changes:

1. To solve the peasant grain problem, he took a tax in kind

2. Peasants can do what they want with the rest

3. Market revives

4. Mixed economy

C. Problems with Marxism

1. Workers have to buy grain from peasants

2. Upsets many people who claim it isn't Communist.

D. Lenin invites Western companies to invest in Russia after defaulting on the governments old debt

E. Corporations agree to invest, because Lenin offered such a good deal that even if it went bad eventually, money would be earned.

F. The policy works more or less

1. Until 1928, the economy recovers

2. Gorbachev used NEP as a model

3. upsets Marxists

4. Peasants can sell grain and Western capitalism makes profits

The Structure of the New Government

I. Communist Party

A. Starts in cells in factories, etc.

B. Cells send delegates to the city party organization

C. This send delegates to the regional party

D. Sends delegates to the republic level

E. Republic sends delegates to the Party Congress

F. Party Congress picks the Central Committee (in Lenin's time, this was about 18 members. It expanded later on)

G. Central Committee divides into subdivisions

1. Politburo - 5 members in Lenin's time

2. Secretariat - not important until Stalin

3. Orgburo - takes care of organization

H. Technically speaking, Central Committee is the most important. They set the policy

I. Communist party makes the policy to run the country

J. This is Consistent with what Lenin wrote in What is to be Done?

II. Russian Government

A. Council of People's Commissars (Ministers)

1. Lenin chaired this body

2. Made Lenin the chief executive

B. Supreme Soviet

1. Until late 1980s, all measures passed unanimously

2. Legislative body

3. Agreed to party policy

4. Elected by universal suffrage

III. People's Response - Domestic Affairs

A. People don't seem to mind

B. On the whole, the people like a strong leader

C. During Lenin's time, there are few complaints about the party calling the shots

D. New Economic Policy is working more or less

1. Currency has value

2. Grain in increased

3. Western investment increases

E. World Economic Conference in Italy meets in 1922

1. Germans and Russians are not allowed to come, but each sends their foreign minister to observe

2. Russia sends Chicherin, Germany sends Rathenaw

3. The two leave Genoa and go to Rapallo

F. Meeting results in the treaty of Rapallo

1. Mutual diplomatic recognition

2. Mutual most favored nation status

3. Secret part

a. Germany can work with heavy weaponry on Russian interior

b. Germany will give Russia a favored trade status

c. In 1924, Germany had highest GNP ever and 80-90% of export in heavy industry went to Russia

IV. End of Lenin and the 1920s

A. By 1929, Chicherin negotiates recognition with every major country except the US

B. Starting in 1922, Lenin had a stroke and died in early 1924

C. Results of NEP

1. Upsets Trotsky and others

2. Redefining of gender roles, but sexism still persisted

a. Women largely excluded from the political process

b. Few women ever in Politburo

c. Kollantai was interested in equalizing the gender Lenin appointed her dead of the Women's section

d. Women gained the right to divorce

e. Kollantai was bothered by the double standard in marriage. Men could cheat, but women weren't supposed to

f. Women could have abortion, but this was a mixed victory. It became a common practice, causing much physical and emotional damage. Men believed pregnancy was a women's problem

D. Lenin believed that the nationality problem was a result of capitalism, and he tried not to discriminate.

E. Krupskaya launched a literacy campaign, but this was proper women's work.

F. The regime is dependent on the leader.

V. After Lenin

A. No succession method in Russia

B. On his deathbed, Lenin said Stalin should not be next

C. Central Committee was supposed to pick the leader.

D. There was no clear successor

 

Culture Under Lenin

I. Culture of Lenin's regime

A. Prior to the Bolsheviks, Russian culture was very strong in literature, music, folk songs, and ballet. Here, they surpassed the French.

B. Weakness in culture - art (there was no precedent). Some Bolsheviks tried to make films about Russian artists such as Serov, but there were few Russian artists to think of.

C. Lenin realizes that art is a good way to communicate.

1. Lunacharsky - People's Commissar of fine arts. Very cosmopolitan. Lived in France for a while. A playwright who was very mediocre, but could recognize talent

a. Lenin was too busy with politics

b. Effectively, this was a carte balance

c. Lunacharsky wanted to develop Soviet art to build on Russian art and to help socialize the people.

II. Lunacharsky's Program

A. Knew Russians loved poetry, particularly Pushkin

1. Pushkin didn't deliver a revolutionary message

2. Bolsheviks tried to put a revolutionary slant on it

3. Lunacharsky tried to create Soviet poetry

B. Alexander Block was a poet who did promising work in 1917. Committed suicide shortly after the November revolution.

C. Sergei Yesenin - a peasant who composed poems celebrating victory of Bolshevism over old regime.

1. Didn't understand what Bolshevism was.

2. Used God in his poems, but Bolsheviks are atheistic

3. Lunacharsky tries to tell Yesenin about atheism. Married Yesenin to Isadora Dunkin, but this didn't work out as he died playing Russian roulette

D. Mayakovsky (Vladimir) was well - educated and had been to the West. Supported the revolution. Offered to create poems and posters to get the revolutionary message across

1. Posters spread around Russia around 1920

2. Modestly successful, but short term

3. Mayakovsky was disgusted with the way the revolution was going and started satirizing the revolution. Also died playing Russian roulette.

4. Basically, Lunacharsky gives up with poetry after this

E. Attempts in opera and music were laughed off the stage, because they were so strong before

F. From Paris, Lunacharsky knew the artists of the left bank

1. Mark Chagall was a Russian

2. In 1914, he returned to Russia and was stuck because of WWI

3. Nonpolitical, but following the November revolution, Lunacharsky appointed him People's Commissar of Art; turned it down

4. Was harassed by authorities because his art wasn't obviously Communist

5. Went to Moscow and painted for Yiddish at theater there

6. Left Russia for good in 1922

G. Kandersky (Vassily) - has idea of revolutionary change in his painting, however Lunacharsky couldn't control him. Lunacharsky could not create Soviet art.

Death of Lenin and Rise of Stalin

I. Death of Lenin - January 1924

A. Suffered from strokes for several years

B. Tried to hide his poor health from the people

C. No mechanism for succession

D. Few constraints on the leader and many were worried about the future

E. Trotsky appeased to be the heir apparent. Stalin wasn't even in the picture in 1923

1. People either loved or hated Trotsky and this threatened to divide the party

a. Intellectuals liked Trotsky

b. Leadership and bureaucrats tended to dislike him

2. Zinoviev thought he could lead the party.

II. Party Congress in 1923 (March)

A. Lenin is too ill to go

B. Celebrating 25 years of Russian Marxism. Pravda puts out a large edition and most of the edition is devoted to Lenin

C. On page 8, an article by Karl Radek claims that Trotsky is responsible for Bolshevik control and victory in the Civil War

D. Anti-Trorsky people are afraid Trotsky will use the military to consolidate power

E. They put their people in the Central Committee, while Trotsky's people are too concerned about debate

III. Struggle for Power

A. January 1924, Lenin dies

B. Trotsky is hunting ducks in the Caucuses and misses Lenin's funeral. Poor taste

C. Stalin gave the funereal speech, projecting himself onto the national stage

D. Trotsky comes back after the funeral and had to deal with the troika of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev

E. Those behind Trotsky were not political leaders

F. Stalin's group included Kamenev, Zinoviev and Molotov

G. Bukharin forms a group to save NEP. Rykov and Tomsky were in this camp, too

H. Dzerzhinsky - head of secret police and several generals including Frunze refuse to get involved

IV. Stalin's Rise

A. As general secretary, Stalin had placed his men in bureaucratic positions

B. In 1924, Stalin comes out with "Socialism in One Country." This ends the world revolution with Trotsky

C. For may, this contradicts the concepts of Marxism

D. Zinoviev and Kamenev go to the Trotsky camp

E. Stalin announces that he's going to increase the party by 2% to honor Lenin

1. Central Committee votes no confidence in Trotsky as head of the army

2. Trotsky can either resign or use the army for a coup

3. He decides to resign as minister of military

4. Stalin appointed Frunze as head of the army

F. Lenin had not wanted Stalin to succeed him, but when the will was read to the central Committee, Zinoviev, who was still with Stalin, suggested the will not be release to the public, and Trotsky agreed The will was eventually published in America by Max Eastman, and Trotsky denied its existence.

G. By 1926, Stalin decided he needed all the power

1. Frunze had a medical problem with his stomach

2. Stalin suggested to the Central Committee that Frunze have an operation. Motion passes and Frunze died on the operating table

3. Stalin appointed his friend, Voroshilov, as head of the military

4. Dzerzhinsky had a heart condition and Stalin sent him on a rigorous speaking tour. He came back and dropped dead.

5. By 1925, Stalin had control of party

H. At party meeting in 1927, Stalin announced that Socialism in One Country was the party line and anyone who didn't agree was exiled. Trotsky was sent to Alma - ata. Many Trotsky supporters decided to repent and work for Stalin's program

I. In 1929, Stalin ordered Trotsky deported

1. This was a mistake

2. Trotsky becomes a man without a country

3. In 1937, Mexico invites Trotsky to live there

4. He had no power, but he could write and speak well, and he raised a lot of havoc while he was there

5. Stalin became obsessed with trying to kill Trotsky and there were many assassination attempts

6. Ziquera (a Spanish artist) shot up his house, but Trotsky hid under the bed

7. In 1940, a person got into Trotsky's confidence and killed him with a mountaineer's axe

8. Trotsky because a symbol

IV. Problems people saw with Stalinism

A. Socialism in one country meant the end of NEP

B. Bukharin protested and was sacked

C. On Lenin's death in 1924, Rykov was appointed the head of the government

1. In 1930, Rykov was replaced by Molotov as the head of the government

2. Illustrates how insignificant the government one

D. In 1929, Stalin celebrated his 50th birthday. By this time, he had consolidated party control. This also kicked off the cult of Stalin.

The Rule of Stalin

I. Socialism in One Country

A. Gave up the idea of a world revolution, though Stalin claimed that this was a matter of priority, not of giving up.

B. Economic program of Trotsky and Stalin were fairly similar, but their priorities were different.

1. Trotsky was fairly oblivious to the danger Stalin posed.

2. The Stalin terror period may have been a result of things that have gone wrong. It may not have been planned originally.

C. On the whole, the West was pleased that Stalin won, because people feared that Trotsky would try to destroy capitalism. Stalin, at least would keep the problems inside Russia. The West was not so concerned about Russia's domestic problems.

II. Economic Plans

A. Russia needed to industrialize quickly. This was one of the problems that with the NEP - industrialization was meant to be very gradual. Stalin also hated the more bourgeois aspects of the NEP.

B. Introduced the first Five Year Plan

1. Mobilized the economy to accelerate productivity.

2. Wanted to do in five years what had taken the West one hundred.

C. The USSR could export grain in return for the means to build up industry. Under the NEP, the peasants controlled grain, and the production of agriculture was inefficient. The peasants used little mechanization and insisted on using old methods. Remember, in many respects, the peasants were a very conservative group. The individual peasants were unable to purchase tractors, which was fine because the government was unable to produce enough of them.

III. Collectivization

A. A central part of the first FYP.

B. In order to make agriculture more affective, peasants were put on collective farms.

C. Peasantry did not like this very much. It took the land away from them.

D. Peasant essentially became an agricultural worker with a salary. The government kept the crop. The collectives were meant to function as a type of agricultural factory.

E. Designed to feed the country and to export grain for foreign trade.

F. Problems:

1. Assumes the weather will be perfect. The FYP had no room for error.

2. Peasants will not accept this idea. They see their land being taken and naturally resist.

3. During the first FYP, half of the livestock in Russia was killed. The peasants preferred to eat their animals than have the state take the,.

4. By 1930, tremendous grain shortages had developed. Stalin decided to export the grain anyway, causing many, especially in the Ukraine, to starve This decision fits in well with a profile of Stalin.

IV. Other Problems with the first Five Year Plan

A. Stalin's wife committed suicide. She had been a mellowing influence on him, and after hear death, he became even more depressed and morose.

1. Stalin's daughter claims that the mother's suicide was a message to Stalin

2. He was traumatized and offered to resign before the Central Committee. Molotov asked him to stay.

3. Stalin announced a second FYP to make Russia completely self sufficient.

B. The purges occurred during this time. They may have been designed to make sure he would retain power.

C. The second FYP may mark another revolution in Russia, because it changed the way people lived. Stalin's brand of Communism became a scripture that could not be ignored. Repression began and the average citizen started to live in fear.

V. Second Five Year Plan (1932 or 1933 is when it began)

A. Failure of the first plan was blamed on Trotsky.

B. Stalin claimed that Trotsky was undermining the second FYP also.

C. The Soviet population needed to learn how to think a certain way.

1. Everything must meet the criteria of Socialist Realism.

2. Supposed to give the camera eye view of the positive effects of the second FYP.

3. Zhdanov was the main propaganda minister for Socialist Realism.

4. Radek was supposed to tell the artists what Socialist Realism was: don't lie, but concentrate on the good.

5. Unfortunately, the truth was that there just wasn't enough to go around.

6. The result of the policy was the sterilization of a generation of Russian culture.

 

More on the Second Five Year Plan

I. Get People to Think What the Government Wants

A. Socialist Realism

1. Only publish that which is safe to see.

2. Destroyed a generation of Russian literature.

B. Russians love music

1. Stalin didn't like many folk songs because they were about the social problems that were so prevalent.

2. It became very dangerous to do anything culturally wrong.

3. Government sanctioned music was produced by groups such as the Red Army Chorus.

4. The Government allowed for the revival of the Cossacks in the 1930s. A popular legend of a Cossack leader who threw a woman overboard was used to show how loyalty to the country was a very important attribute.

5. Stalin ordered a new national anthem.

C. Movies also served a very important propaganda purpose.

1. Became very poplar in Russia, particularly after the introduction of "Talkies."

2. Eisenstein was very poplar His films "Potemkin" and "Ten Days that Shook the World" were widely seen inside the USSR. IN the 1930s, he made a politically risky film about Ivan IV. However, he avoided prosecution and likely death by making Ivan into a hero, while the traitor in the film was made to resemble Trotsky.

3. On the whole, there were few good Russian movies.

4. The movies were mostly about the idea of sacrifice for a new society

D. Examples of works that could be produced:

1. Cement by Gladkov was a work about factory workers striving to overfullfill the quota set by the FYP. This is available in English.

2. The Second FYP becomes very similar to a religious text.

II. The Great Purges Occurred During the Second FYP

A. Many, many people were killed. Accepted estimates are usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 - 7 million people, though Conquest estimates that the number could be as high as 20 million. None was safe. The writer, Gorky was one of the victims.

B. Hierarchy of the CPSU

1. Stalin, Molotov, and cronies.

2. New Bolsheviks - Kirov, Ordyhnokidze (Party Central Committee), etc.

3. Old Bolsheviks - originally opposed Stalin and then recanted and were readmitted to the Party. Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, Bukharin, etc.

4. Military - Tukhachevsky, Gamarnik (Chief of Staff).

5. Secret Police, Yezhov, Yagoda.

E. Kirov assassinated in December 1934.

1. No one knows exactly how it happened, but Stalin ordered people already in prison killed for it.

2. Eye witnesses were mysteriously hit by cars.

3. In 1935, Zinoviev and Kamenev were accused and sentenced to prison. In 1936, they were executed. This kicked off the show trials of the Old Bolsheviks.

4. The most common crimes were wrecking and sabotage and Trotskyism. Many times, the accused repented and asked for death.

F. Trial of Radek

1. Confessed after many days.

2. Said he received ordered from Trotsky and collaborated with Zinoviev and Kamenev. When told that wasn't good enough, he announced that his questioner was also one of his collaborators.

3. found guilty but not sentenced to death. Later died in a prison. brawl.

G. Why Confess?

1. Save families? - didn't really help.

2. They were drugged? - not supported by evidence.

3. To save and protect the Party and the revolution. This gave them one last chance in the public spotlight, Those who refused were just killed privately.

H. Trail of Tukhachevsky

1. Nazis wanted him gone.

2. Drew up a document saying he collaborated with the Germans.

3. Kicked off the military purges.

III. Why the Purges?

A. The guilty had no powerbase, so they were not a threat to Stalin's regime.

B. Possibly, Stalin was just paranoid.

C. Possibly, the target was really the Kirov group. The New Bolsheviks. Kirov was in favor of lowering production goals, and by 1939, much of the Kirov group had been purged.

D. At the 1939 Party Congress, 65 - 70% of the deputies from 1934 had been killed.

E. People were afraid to speak against the purges, so they continued.

IV. Results of the Second FYP

A. Millions of causalities.

B. Soviet economic figures are unreliable.

C. Between 1928 - 1938

1. Dobb (British economist) claims that Soviet GNP rises by 430%.

2. Clark (Australian economist) claims the growth is only 180%.

D. Using Clark's figure, growth was approximately 12 - 15% a year.

E. If a plan achieved this growth, didn't it work economically?

1. Soviet economy started so slowly that this growth isn't so significant.

2. Certainly more industry and industrial capacity. Built many hydroelectric stations and canals. Generated electrical capacity.

3. By 1938, literacy was almost universal. Both in the native language and in Russian.

F. Prison Labor

1. Didn't try to rehabilitate prisoners.

2. Canals, etc. built almost entirely with prisoners.

G. Rule of law

1. Almost nonexistent.

2. Bukharin and Radek wrote a Constitution before their arrests.

3. Soviets believed a Constitution should be an expression of reality.

4. Constitution of 1936 was among the most progressive in the world to that time.

a. Has 136 articles.

b. The Only legal political party was the CPSU.

c. Mainly served propaganda purposes.

d. Every citizen has the right to a job. This was a poor reflection on the West, where many were still without work.

e. If you didn't work, you could be accuses as a "parasite."

f. Freedom from arbitrary arrest.

g. A surprising amount of the Western left bought into this Constitution. Some, including the American ambassador, even believed that the show trials were authentic.

Rise of Fascism and the Road to War

I. The Rise of Fascism

A. People believed in the show trials, etc. because hey were afraid of Fascism.

B. Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov was very skillful.

1. Knew the West very well.

2. One of the first to catch the dangers of Fascism.

4. Stalin gave him a free hand in foreign policy.

C. Purely speaking, Fascism is only applicable to Mussolini.

1. Came to mean any society run by a totalitarian regime.

2. Many imitated Mussolini - Hitler, Franco, Dolfus (Austria).

D. When Hitler took over German (1933), Litvinov realized something ended to be done.

1. In 1933, Litvinov brings Russia into the League of Nations (replaced Germany who had earlier withdrawn).

2. Achieved diplomatic recognition from the US

3. Negotiated a treaty with France against Fascism. If one was attached by a Fascist sate, the others would help.

E. In 1936, Italy invaded Ethiopia.

1. Russia was the only country to take Ethiopia's side.

2. League did nothing - chastised Italy, but didn't intervene.

F. Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936.

1. Spain's monarchy overthrown in 1931.

2. Military coup against republic in 1936.

3. Most countries said it was a Spanish internal affair. Only country to support republicans originally was Mexico.

4. Eventually, Hitler and Mussolini gave support to Franco

5. Russia then helped Spanish republic. Soon, other nations set volunteers to fight the Fascists.

a. Stalin began sending secret police.

b. They knocked off the anti - Stalinists.

c. Stalin pulled out and the republic collapsed in 1939.

d. The Soviet aid proved ineffectual because the Soviets were more concerned with starting fights between the Communists and non - Communists and purging the Party of the non - Satanist elements.

G. France and Russia guaranteed Czech autonomy

II. The Road to War

A. Germany remilitarized the Rhineland.

B. Annexed Austria in 1938. The West did nothing.

C. Hitler argued he should have the Sudetenland (Western Czechoslovakia, where the population was majority German). Leads to the Munich Conference.

1. In 1938, Hitler convinced Britain and France that in order to avoid war, he should be allowed to annex the Sudetenland.

2. Stalin felt that France would also abandon Russia.

3. Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia a few months later.

D. In 1939, Litvinov was replaced by Molotov. Stalin told him he was sick. Really, Hitler refused to negotiate with a Jewish foreign minter.

1. Hitler doesn't want a pact with Russia.

2. His generals told him that they would not fight a war on two fronts.

3. Basically, Hitler believed that the Slavs really weren't human. He felt their only use could be as slaves to his great people.

E. Nazi - Soviet pact came in the summer of 1939.

1. The part that was made public was simply a non - aggression pact.

2. A secret corollary divided Europe between Russia and Germany.

3. The Menshevik papers published the entire thing, but nobody believed them.

4. Regardless, the pact alarms the West, because the leaders realize they cannot push the fight to the East.

WWII

I. Chronology

A. August 1939 - Soviet - Nazi non - aggression pact.

B. September 1939 WWII begins with the invasion of Poland.

C. June 1941 - Nazis invade USSR.

D. Winter 1942 - 1943 battle of Stalingrad

E. June 1944 D Day

F. May 1945 European War Ends

II. Nazi - Soviet Pact

A. People are surprised by the signing of the pact.

B. People are also relieved because they didn't have to worry anymore (this was primarily in Germany and Russia).

C. Soviet Union is not in good military shape, especially not compared with Germany.

D. Stalin can see there's a war coming and it comes fairly quickly.

E. Actually, Germany used the time between the pact and the invasion better than Russia did.

III. Start of War

A. Stalin takes the Baltic States and one third of Poland.

B. Stalin bullied Romania into taking Bessarabia/

C. He can claim to have added lots of territory with no casualties.

D. 1940 - Nazis take over most of Europe. Denmark fell in three days.

1. Denmark evacuated its Jews to Sweden.

2. Virtually all of the Danish Jews survived.

E. Nazis only took the Norwegian coast.

F. Nazis sweep into the Netherlands. The Dutch tried to flood as a defense. This didn't work so very well.

G. Belgium fell.

H. Nazis took Paris. France capitulated within weeks. This was the first time France had ever been lost.

I. Only England stood in Hitler's way. Hitler, however, cannot reach the industrial center of this country.

IV. Russo - Nazi War

A. Stalin felt that ST. Petersburg was vulnerable. In 1940, he started a war with Finland to gain territory in its vicinity. First, Stalin offered to compensate by granting the Finns lands in the Antic Circle. They refused.

B. The Russian invasion of Finland did not go as planned originally. The Finns threw back the Russian advance. However, after 6 months, Finland capitulated

C. Hitler used this as evidence against his generals: it exposed the weakness of the Russian army.

D. Original German plan was to invade in late March. However, Mussolini went into Greece and basically got his as kicked. Hitler bailed him out, but it cost a month of valuable time.

E. The British tried to tip off Stalin about the coming invasion, but he would not listen.

F. June 22, 1941 - Hitler invades Russia.

G. By November, they were on the doorstep of Moscow.

H. St. Petersburg (Leningrad), was surrounded for 900 days. Between 600,000 and 1,000,000 people died. Mostly from hunger, hypothermia, malnutrition, etc.

I. Most of the Ukraine was overrun

1. Ukrainians were somewhat sympathetic to the Germans.

2. Stalin's rule now looked bad.

3. However, Hitler abuses the Ukrainian people's so much that they decide Stalin wasn't so bad after all, so they fight the Germans. rather than cooperate with them.

J. Russian army uses the scorched earth policy.

K. Stalin stayed in the Kremlin in Moscow.

L. Lucky Breaks:

1. Delayed invasion.

2. People united against the German army.

3. Early and hard winter.

4. December 1941, Hitler declared war on the US There was no reason to do this. The US Then became de facto an ally of Russia. So does England.

M. When the snow melts, German advance begins again. Russia had nothing to stop them in the south.

V. Continuation of the War

A. 1942

1. Germans have surrounded Leningrad and are within 20 miles of Moscow.

2. The whole Ukraine is overrun.

3. Industry had been moved to the East where the Germans couldn't touch it.

4. Stalin made the fight a German - Russian one

a. Recreated the Patriarch of Russia (advisors under Peter the Great).

b. Reconstructed the old heroes from the Tsarist times.

5. In 1918, the Germans. treated the population relatively well, but in 1942, it was very deferent.

6. Russia lost between 20 and 27 million in WWII. Most were not on the battlefield, but were a result of the German occupation. The people realized that Hitler was as bad as Stalin and nothing at all came from Hitler, who said that anyone who was a member of the CPSU was a spy and should be shot.

B. Path of Advance

1. Hitler had able generals, but continually interfered.

2. Insisted they go to the Volga and Then capture the interior.

3. Eventually, the Nazis outran their supply line.

4. Hitler wanted to take Stalingrad

5. The Russian front collapsed in part because of the purge of the army and the weariness of the population

C. Battle of Stalingrad Winter 1942 - 1943.

1. Fought street to street.

2. Russians had their backs to the river, but Then the Germans. were unable to get adequate supplies.

3. Other important battles included the battle of Moscow and Kursk (tank battle).

4. After Stalingrad, the German advance stopped and the Russians push West.

D. Effects

1. Changes Stalin's attitude, because he no longer needs to make concessions to the Western powers for aid, etc.

2. 1938 was the last time a Soviet leader proclaimed the world revolution.

3. In 1943, the allies are not in Europe. They are fighting in the Pacific, North African and Italy.

4. Stalin has no incentive to make concessions anymore.

a. Abolished the international.

b. Recognized the Polish government exiled in London as a concession to British and US. In 1943, decided to to continue recognition. Germans. announce massacre at Katyn forest. This broke relations between the Soviets and Polish.

5. Gets more demanding about the post war settlement.

6. Tries to avoid capitalist encirclement.

E. Poland

1. No natural borders.

2. US and Britain want Stalin and Poland to make up, but Stalin says he cannot determine the border of Eastern Poland.

3. Churchill says Poles should recognize Russian frontiers. Stalin said he would give Poland part of Eastern Germany. Odessa line recognized eventually in the West.

4. Poles reluctantly agree to accept the Russian border. Polish Prime Minister in exile goes to Moscow to accept the terms and Stalin refuses to see him.

5. In 1944, Russia prepares to liberate Poland. It is the custom to allow native troops to liberate their own country.

6. AS the Russians marched towards Warsaw, they asked the Polish to liberate their capital. The citizens, etc., rose in revolt and the Russians stopped their advance. Russians also prevented the allies from supplying the city effectively.

a. When the Germans realized that the Russians weren't coming, they defeated the uprising and blew up the city except for the statue of Copernicus (who was really German anyway).

b. they Then withdrew from the city, leaving only 50,000 survivors.

c. This got rid of the potential anti-Soviet Polish government.

The End of WWII

I. End of the War

A. Stalin wanted a Communist Eastern Europe as a buffer zone against the West.

B. In 1945, the Big Three met at Yalta

1. Discussed peace at the end of the war.

2. Stalin wanted outright control of Eastern Europe.

3. Churchill and Roosevelt agree to this. Really, they didn't have much in the way of a choice. They managed to get Stalin to compromise, but it was essentially a capitulation.

4. Ultimately, they got Stalin to agree that the democratic pre - War government of Czechoslovakia should be returned.

5. Decision was made for "democracy" in Eastern Europe.

a. free elections in which all parties except Nazis and Fascists could run.

b. Problem is that by the time the elections were held both Roosevelt and Churchill were gone.

C. Seton - Watson did an analysis of Stalin's reasoning in the elections.

1. The imposition of Soviet control in Easter Europe went through three steps.

a. 1944 - 1946 - Genuine coalition government.

b. 1946 - 1949 - Bogus coalition government.

c. 1949 - 1956 - Monolithic regime.

2. Under the first stage, several parties governed but there were very few non - Communists. Communists insisted on having the ministry of defense, communications, and interior (this controlled the national police).

a. Free elections in 1947.

b. Non - Communists could not get air time on the radio.

c. Coercive tactics called "mistaken arrests" were used. Basically, the day before the election, opposition party headquarters were raided and everyone was arrested. The day after they were released with apologies from the Communists.

3. The Bogus Coalition referred to the way the governments were organized. Stalin had control of East Europe with the exception of Czechoslovakia.

II. The Beginning of the Cold War

A. Winston Churchill made a lecture tour in 1946 in the US

1. Westminster College - Fulton Missouri, Iron Curtain speech

2. From the Baltic to the Adriatic.

3. He was right about this, but probably premature.

B. Conflict over Germany.

1. Stalin wanted to be sure Germany. would never be united again.

2. He always realized that the USSR would benefit greatly from control of Germany's natural resources

3. Germany. and Berlin were divided but access was poorly negotiated.

a. Two highways, three railroad lines, and two air corridors were opened for the Allies to have access to Berlin, which was located about 100 miles behind the Soviet area.

C. Berlin Blockade 1948

1. Stalin upset about currency issue. Basically, Britain, France, and the US had issued a new currency for West Germany without the consent of the USSR and were going to put it into affect in West Berlin as well. The US also refused to take troops out of Germany until a peace treaty was reached.

2. In the beginning of 1948, Stalin announced the railroads and highways would be closed for repairs.

a. West Berlin is roughly the size and population of Manhattan.

b. Using the airport, the Western Allies ran a massive airlift to supply Berlin

3. Through 1948, Berlin was kept with food, fuel, etc.

4. At the end of 1948, Stalin announced that the roads had been fixed.

D. Yugoslavia

1. Tito's government (Communist) was installed by the Partisan movement.

2. Didn't accept Soviet leadership and in 1948, Stalin kicks Yugoslavia out of Communist block.

3. Tito published correspondences between himself and the Russians and made clear that the Russians were to blame.

4. Stalin thought Yugoslav Communist Party would be afraid to live alone in the capitalist world.

5. The people were loyal to the Tito regime and supported it. Economically, it was ahead of the Soviet block.

6. Stalin began to see Tito as a new Trotsky. He began to purging Communist parties in Eastern Europe.

E. The combination of failing in the Berlin blockade and Tito's freedom led to Stalin's closing down the Iron Curtain.

III. Behind the Iron Curtain

A. Purges - thousands killed. More to Siberia.\

B. Error - run by Beria.

C. Decreased quality of life.

D. Few people went in or out.

E. From 1939 - 1952 there was no Part Congress.

F. All prisoners of war were imprisoned for another 10 years.

1. Really, this made no sense.

2. But because people had surrendered, they were considered disloyal citizens. That and they had been exposed to ideas from other cultures, making them a danger to the regime.

G. During the war, culture and iterate had been revived to some extent, and some fairly good literature was produced. However, in 1948, Zhadanov asserted that Soviet Realism was still in effect.

H. Economic Situation

1. IN 1946, Stalin announced a new FYP to reconstruct from the war.

2. End of 1950 fulfillment was announced

a. Used prision labor almost exclusively.

b. Last German prisoners of war were also used.

c. Stalin used the people of the Baltic states and Eastern Poland.

d. This kept people in the labor force Rationing persists for many years after the war. For those who didn't work, there were too few rations, while workers got sufficient food, etc. This kept people from retiring.

e. Housing was also used as an incentive.

f. So much damage had been done that the Soviets felt they were entitled to reparations. The Soviets took everything from East Germany. that could be carried off. Also took reparations from countries in Eastern Europe that allied with Hitler.

3. Refused Marshall Plan Aid. Tactical error. There was little chance that the Congress would have improved the plan if the Soviets accepted the aid. Thus, the rest of Europe would not have received American dollars, either.

4. Instead of the Marshall plan, Stalin made each country in Eastern Europe enter into a bilateral trade agreement. This impoverished many countries.

5. In order to compensate Poland, the Poles were given Siliscia from East Germany. Obligated that population to give reparations.

I. In 1952, Stalin called a Party Congress

1. Mostly celebrated the fulfillment of the plan.

2. There were questions about how long Stalin would last. Of course, nobody said this aloud or publicly, but there was definitely a succession question.

3. People thought that Malenkov would be next.

IV. End of Stalin

A. Stalin starts having doctors (mostly Jews) arrested.

B. Suggestive of another purge.

C. March. 1953, radio Moscow reports that Stalin is ill.

D. Several days later, he dies.

E. NO evidence that he was killed. Had a stroke, went into a coma, and died.

F. Stalin had a great funeral and was put next to Lenin.

V. After Stalin

A. It was announced that Malenkov was the next leader. He was around for 10 days.

B. Collective leadership

1. Malenkov - head of government, but not of the CPSU, which is where the authority was.

2. Molotov

3. Beria - eventually disappeared and an article condemned the secret police's use of arbitrary power. AT the end of 1953, it was announced that Beria had been tried, found guilty of crimes against the USSR, and executed. On the day of Stalin's death, Beria put the city of Moscow under martial law. The Party decided that a police chief with his own army was a little scary so The military was used to arrest Beria (this was Zhukov's role in The plan). No one protested Beria's execution and this was The last of The political executions in Russia.

4. Zhukov

5. Mikoyan

6. Khruschev

C. Average Russian no longer fears arrest. Other problems still persist.

The Rise of Khruschev

I. Succession

A. No real mechanism for replacing leaders.

B. This is clear both with Lenin and Stalin

C. When the Soviet press listed names of Soviet Officials, Khruschev's name appeared in capital letters.

D. British Embassy found this and told people to watch Khruschev for succession.

II. Khruschev - Popular in 1955 with The press

A. Nuclear war is the most dangerous thing facing the world, but if it happens, the USSR will survive.

B. In February 1955, Malenkov resigned as Prime Minster because he was incompetent.

C. People think Khruschev forced him out. Buganin replaced Malenkov Khruschev's position is rising, but still shaky.

D. Devised the mythology that he was behind Stalin's seccess in WWII.

E. February 1956 - Party Congress

1. Right before the Congress, Voroshilov has his 75th birthday. Press talks about him without mentionig either Stalin or Khruschev.

2. Congress opens and Khruschev gives the first speech, calling for a moment of silence. Yet, he does not mention Stalin's name or the cult of personality.

3. Mikoyan mentioned Antonon Ovsenko and Kosier, who were minor Bolsheviks purged in the 1930s. When Kosier was purged, Khruschev got his job. Kosier was the former head of the Ukrainian Communist Party. ANtonon Ovsenko led the charge on the Winter Palace.

4. The head of the writers and historians unions give similar speeches.

5. Khruschev realizes that these two would never say anything without Party. approval.

6. Later, after lunch, Khruschev called a closed meeting and gave his De-Stalinization speech. Took a shot at Mikoyan as well.

7. Party needed Khruschev, because he could run the Party. His speech was deliberately leaked to the press and he was made the leader of the Soviet Union. The Central Committee, in order to buy time, decided to vilify Stalin.

F. What happened to Stalin's closest advisors?

1. Molotov remained a Stalinist; tried to undercut Khruschev by going to the Politburo and getting a no confidence vote. Mikoyan told Khruschev that the Politburo hadn't hired him and couldn't fire him. The Central Committee appointed the General Secretary and rejects the no confidence vote. Made ambassador to Outer Mongolia

2. Malenkov was made the manager of a hydroelectric plant in Siberia. Buganin remained head of state in Moscow. A powerless position.

III. Khruschev 1956 - October 1964. The only Soviet leader (other than Gorbachev) to be disposed. What was his policy?

A. In Poland, the Poles try to get rid of their Stalinist leader.

1. In 1955, Warsaw, there was a government Communist meeting.

2. Poles noticed other countries had more freedoms and decide they want changes.

3. Polish Communist Party is denounced for not producing Communism.

4. Students start demonstrating for change. Instead of denouncing Communism, they denounce Stalinism and ask for Wadyslaw Gomulka to lead their government. He had been imprisoned by Stalin.

5. In October 1956, Khruschev and others arrive in Warsaw and are told to get rid of the Stalinists and let the Poles have their own Communism. Khruschev agrees provided Poland stays in the Communist block.

6. This was really a bloodless revolution and a very shrewd political move by all involved.

B. Hungary tried a similar track.

1. They, however, wanted to leave the Communist bloc and become neutral.

2. The Red Army marched in and put down the revolution.

4. Probably resulted from the Hungarian leadership yielding to the demands of the people.

5. About 2% of Hungarians flee and a harsh Stalinist regime was out in place.

C. Internal Policy

1. In October 1957, first satellite was launched. This started the space race.

a. This beats the Americans and gives an important psychological boost to the new regime

b. Khruschev had nothing to do with this, but he got credit anyway.

2. Seven year plan - 1957

a. While the Stalinist FYPs focused on industrial output, this was designed to create domestic goods, apartments, clothes, and appliances.

b. Supposed to help raise the standard of living.

3. The Spaceshuttle gave Khruschev the credibility to implement a new domestic program.

4. From 1957 - 1960, the Russian quality of life improved.

a. They had good weather and thus good crops.

b. Military demands were relatively small.

c. Productivity rose and the work week was cut.

d. At this time, Khruschev was very popular and visible.

5. There was still little political freedom.

a. People could get in trouble for anti - Communist statements.

b. Russians, however, could live without freedom, provided they had sufficient goods, food, etc.

D. Foreign Policy

1. Was Khruschev in charge?

1. Wanted to meet with Eisenhower in 1959 - 1960 to discuss peaceful coexistence.

2. Eisenhower agreed to go in June 1960 to further peaceful coexistence.

a. Before the meeting, USSR shot down a US spy plane.

b. Embarrassment for the US government because the incident had previously been denied. Originally, they claimed the Soviet had shot down an unmanned weather plane that had strayed form course. However, the plane had been shot down in central Russia, not near Turkey as the US claimed. Eventually, the Russian produced the US pilot and the summit in Paris was canceled.

c. The USSR had known about these planes before.

d. Both parties were already in Paris, and with Khruschev came Malinovsky. This man went everywhere with him, and was clearly a plant by someone in the Kremlin.

3. In 1962, crops failed, causing hunger and drought. Khruschev bought grain on the world market, drawing criticism at home, but preventing famine. The US actually would not sell him grain, so he had to buy it elsewhere.

4. Fall 1962 - Soviets place missile in Cuba, and U-2 spy planes show this.

a. USSR originally denies this, and then claims they are out there only for defense.

b. Kennedy proposes a quarantine of Cuba. A blockade is an act of war.

c. Eventually, Khruschev backed down. This took about 72 hours. In exchange, the US took missile out of Turkey.

d. This incident may not have been Khruschev's call.

5. In September 1963, it was announced that Baghorn, a Yale professor had been arrested for spying. Kennedy protested and the man was let go. There was no way this man was a spy. He lived on campus with his mother and had been set up in the airport. Khruschev, however, refused to discuss the incidents.

E. On Art

1. Did not completely get rid of Socialist Realism.

2. Ehrenberg publishes ""The Thaw" in 1953. This was really a trial balloon.

3. In 1956, Vladimir Dudinsten published "Not by Bread Alone." This novel was criticized by the Party.

a. The title came from the Bible.

b. The author was renounced.

c. However, he didn't go to jail.

4. There were signals that the new regime could tolerate some deviation.

5. In 1957 - 1958 the controversy surrounding Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternack started.

a. Pasternack had refused to publish during the Stalin. regime.

b. Soviet publishers refused to publish "Dr. Zhivago."

c. Pasternack had sent a copy to an Italian publisher who published it over Pasternack's request not to.

d. The book showed how the average Russian had a hard time relating to the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. The Party claimed that it was a bad example to Soviet youth.

e. Pasternack was forced to not accept the Nobel Prize.

f. It is likely that Stalin. never even read the book, but was acting on advice from his underlings.

6. Soviet art is pretty bad. Several young Russians try to show off their art, and Khruschev personally ordered their exhibit torn down.

Brezhnev 1964 - 1982

I. The deposition of Khruschev, October 1964

A. People were upset with the way Khruschev was running the country.

1. Stalin taken out of the Mausoleum in 1961.

2. By 1963, it was obvious that the 7 year plan would not be completed, especially in housing.

3. Military demands started consuming more and more of the GNP as the military tried to modernize.

4. In October 1964, Khruschev went on vacation and the Party announced that he had resigned.

B. Why was he removed?

1. Deteriorating relations with Chine. The month before he was dropped, China developed the nuclear bomb.

2. The Party. wanted to make him a scapegoat for the failure of the 7 Year Plan.

3. Virgin Lands Program

a. Khruschev tried to have the steppes produce grain. Primarily in Central Asia (Kazakhstan).

b. Never really took off so much. The weather was unreliable and the people didn't want to move out there

4. Lerner's theory on this event works like this:

a. In October 1964, American election was Johnson v. Eisenhower.

b. Goldwater gave the impression that he would start a war with Russia if elected.

c. Khruschev was never really in charge. The fear of Goldwater caused the Kremlin to get rid of him.

C. Brezhnev was chosen to replace Khruschev. They figured he would be a hard nosed leader.

II. Brezhnev's Politics

A. Didn't leave heavy footprints.

B. Rolled back some of Khruschev's reforms.

C. Economy stagnated the whole time - possibly regressed.

D. Indulged in personal luxury.

E. Demanded Obedience.

1. When the writers tried to publish something that was not acceptable, they were sent to prison.

2. If a person was critical of the government of the USSR in public, he or she was sent to a mental institution.

F. US Policy

1. Found he needed the US for trade.

2. US helped to pressure Brezhnev into not punishing a dissident movement too harshly. This included making the USSR follow a Constitution and pressuring the nation to solve the minorities question.

3. The Jews and Ukrainians got the most press.

a. Jewish policy gave Brezhnev a hard time because US Jews adopted the cause.

b. In 1967, Mideast was led to defeat of the Arabs who were Russia's allies.

c. The 6 day war showed that US equipment was superior to Russian equipment.

d. Russian Jews also identified with the Israeli cause. Many pressed for exit visas. Most were refused "refuseniks."

e. May refusenicks lost their jobs.

G. Brezhnev inherited a difficult social structure.

1. There were certain favored professions.

2. In hard times, the regime could not continue their privileges without squishing the bottom more.

3. Brezhnev did this, causing the regime to regress into poverty.

4. Causes chronic shortages for common people.

5. As this become more evident, the people get angrier.

6. Sakharov had been Russia's top nuclear physicist. He decided he was going to do something about the abuse f liberty under Brezhnev.

a. Formed a movement to go to trials of dissidents and protest lawlessness.

b. Embarrassed the regime - Russia's voice of decency.

c. Brezhnev sends Sakharov to Gorky (internal exile). Also known as Nizhny - Novgorod. Effectively stopped the movement.

H. Anti - Communist groups

1. Solzhenitsyn was the main figure in this group.

2. He started publishing exposes abroad.

3. He started criticizing Lenin. This was a big no no. Not even Khruschev had done that.

4. In 1973, he was expelled from the USSR. He eventually found a home in Vermont.

I. Brezhnev began to rely more and more on Andropov, the head of the secret police.

1. Under Khruschev, secret police were downplayed.

2. Brezhnev starts to bring them back.

3. Some saw this as the road back to Stalin.

III. End of Brezhnev

A. Suffered a stroke in 1976.

B. From 1976 - 1982, a coalition really ran things.

C. Coalition included the secret police.

D. No strong leader - deep division in the party over cracking down.

Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev

I. After Brezhnev

A. Leadership becomes geriatric and unstable.

B. In the last year of his life, Brezhnev was a week leader.

C. Economy had gone downhill. Foreign policy was a mess.

1. Czechoslovakia

2. China

3. Afghanistan

D. Any successor had a lot of work to to.

II. Andropov was chosen to be another conservative, hard nosed leader.

A. Former head of secret police, but this was not the highest thing on his agenda.

B. Addressed the economy, inefficiency, and corruption.

C. Said nothing on foreign policy and state security.

D. After 5 months he died of kidney failure. This was 1983.

E. Party not ready to replace Andropov - no consensus.

III. Constantine Chernenko - very old and in poor health.

A. Probably selected because they expected him to die.

B. Did almost nothing and no one expected him to.

C. Stayed in Afghanistan, economy worsened.

D. Public demonstrations against the war.

E. Died in 1985.

IV. Rise of Gorbachev

A. CPSU wanted a new, young leader.

B. Fight for succession between Romanov and Gorbachev.

C. Gorbachev was elected. People though he was incorruptible and efficient.

V. Gorbachev

A. relatively young for a leader of the CPSU. He was only about 50 when elected.

B. Called a Party Congress for the beginning of 1986.

C. Started bringing in young blood, including Boris Yeltsin (made head of Moscow Communist Party). Also brought in minorities from the post WWII generation.

D. At the Congress, Yeltsin gave a speech advocating getting rid of the old guard. Gorbachev refused to back him. This probably started the Yeltsin - Gorbachev feud that would destroy the party.

E, Gorbachev was given a young Central Committee.

F. Over 75% of the Central Committee was replaced.

G. Gorbachev was popular from 1985 - 1989. After that, he was a bust, and now, he is largely forgotten.

VI. First Years - 1985 - 1989. This was when he was very popular.

A. Reorganized economy.

B. Introduced perestroika (restructuring), glastnost (openness), and democratization.

C. Glastnost - started with the theater, then TV and the press.

1. Investigated the purges.

2. Catastrophes such as Chernobyl and plane crashes were admitted.

D. Tried to diffuse the Cold War - originally rebuffed by Reagan

E. Resources were cut from the military and industrial complexes.

F. Did not address the perks of the CPSU.

G. Refused to sacrifice the Party. His goal was to save the USSR through the CPSU. Did not realize how unpopular the CPSU was.

H. Acknowledged that Afghanistan was a mistake.

I. In 1980, Solidarity was reinvented in Poland. The situation worsened thought the 1980s. Poland tried to export goods to save economy: meat products mainly.

J. Gorbachev began to question the necessity of the Soviet block. He felt the countries were more of a burden than anything else. Gorbachev's model for this was England. The British colonies had all gained independence. Gorbachev said he would not help the other Eastern European governments stay in power.

VII. 1989

A. Starting in January in Poland, election was held and the Communists lost 99% of the seats.

B. This spread across Eastern Europe.

C. The Velvet Revolution occurred in Czechoslovakia

D. Elections occurred in Hungary.

E. East Germany - Communist regime kept power previously thanks to the threat of the Red Army.

1. 1989 - crowds demonstrated against the regime using the Church of Germany as their base.

2. Red Army stayed in their barracks.

3. In November, the assault on the Berlin Wall began and nothing happened. The wall fell.

F. Romania - also no intervention.

1. Riots broke out in December 1989.

2. The secret police was called to put down the revolt, but many mutinied.

G. By the end of 1989, the entire block was gone and most Russians were pleased to be rid of it.

H. Baltic States - "illegally incorporated into the USSR in 1940."

1. Lithuanian Parliament voted unanimously to leave the USSR. Red Army invaded and said that now was not the time for it. Gorbachev said he didn't send in the Army This shows that he may be losing control of the country.

I. In 1988 - 1989, Gorbachev agreed to hold general elections, and the Communists did not fare so well.

1. In 1989 elections for the republics were held. Yeltsin became the president of Russia.

2. Yeltsin didn't respect the authority of the CPSU.

3. Emereges as a rival of Gorbachev.

The End of the Bolshevik REgime

I. The FAll of the USSR

A. In the early years of Gorbachev there was much promise. Glastnost and free elections showed liberal progress.

B. Real problem was that he maintained party privileges, etc.

C. Economy was still bad. Plans were made to privatize, but they never happened. Shatalin came up with the 500 day plan. This allowed for some private management.

D. Still, a large section of Party people were not content with reform.

E. Gorbachev gave Conservatives control of military and police.

1. Some of his original reformers quit.

2. Putin ended up as head of the KGB.

II. The Rise of Yeltsin

A. Had recently been elected head of the Russian republic.

B. Holds this election of Gorbachev.

C. Uses the economy against Gorbachev as well.

D. Quality of likewise eroding.

III. Nationalities - Gorbachev never paid attention to it.

A. Yeltsin kept boosting the idea of Russian nationalism. Encouraged other republics to do the same.

B. Nationalities start asserting their rights.

C. Gorbachev had no policy or plan for this, but it hampered his ability to push through economic reform.

D. In desperation, he granted a treated for considerable autonomy to the nationalities.

1. Military, etc. were still USSR controlled.

2. Right wing was upset by the treaty. It gave away too much.

IV. August Coup 1991

A. While Gorbachev was on a vacation in the Crimea, a coup occurred in Moscow.

B. Right wing had taken over and placed Gorbachev under virtual house arrest.

C. People figured they were going back to Brezhnev.

D. Yeltsin claimed that he was president of Russia and refused to recognize the control of the USSR.

1. Yeltsin made the White House the center of opposition to the coup.

2. All kinds of reformers rallied and built barricades to fight the coup. However, only 40,000 of 10,000,000 people in Moscow came to protest. Most people were afraid and their life went on as usual.

3. Military rolled tanks to the White House and it looked like the situation would go south quickly, as the reformers inside had virtually no weapons.

E. The coup was not quick and ruthless as any successful one must be. The group lost its nerve and began to wonder if tank crews would obey them. After three days, the coup collapsed. The leaders were arrested.

F. Now, the people of Moscow came out in the millions. Only 5 people were killed, and those in an accident.

V. Results

A. Yeltsin is a hero. Gorbachev comes home, but no longer has any power.

B. Yeltsin lets Gorbachev make a very long speech which was devoted to the Party. He didn't seem to understand that the Party could no longer exist.

C. ON December 24, 1991, Gorbachev formally deposed. Very few people saw this coming in that manner, but the West thought that the introduction of a market economy would be a magical cure for the woes of Russia.

D. Authority is essentially removed in the absence of the CPSU

1. Western firms rushed in to get a foothold.

2. The immediate windfall was to those who had privileges before. The CPSU.

3. Industry was taken over by the managers.

4. Hundreds of billions of dollars left the country. This still poses a problem today.

5. Russians let the ruble float on the world market, and it falls like a stone.

VI. Yeltsin's Presidency

A. Mafia grows up - former CPSU, prisoners, etc. They suck the lifeblood from the economy Businesses had to pay protection money.

B. Gypsies started sprouting up too. Previously, they, like other 'undesirables' had been repressed by the authorities.

C. Prostitution continues to flourish, but deals primarily in foreign currency.

D. To save the economy, Yeltsin prints more money and doesn't pay civil servants.

1. Resentment towards bourgeois privileges

2. Huge difference between poor and rich.

3. Traditionally, small middle class.

4. No efficient tax system.

5. People say that under Communism they were better off.

6. People start to become unemployed as business streamline. They look back towards 'the good old days of Communism.'

Russia in the 1990s

I. Standard of Living

A. Russia - relatively low.

B. Former republics: life doesn't improve here either.

C. Baltic States: life improves

1. Many Russians live there.

2. Baltic states don't want them, but they have nowhere to go.

D. In the republics, life is generally nor more democratic.

1. Belorusse - impoverished dictatorship. Wants to reunite with Russia, but Russia doesn't want to burden.

2. Ukraine - dictatorship.

3. Turkmenistan - political turmoil.

II. Russian Identity

A. Yeltsin's idea.

B. Caters to the Russian Church which fared badly in the USSR.

1. Church revives - marriage, baptism, funerals, etc.

2. Quickly, the Church gained support of 70% of the people.

3. Church as allowed to approve or disapprove of any other religions. Mormons were the main target. Catholics and Jews were allowed to have establishments. The Baptists are also popular.

III. Government

A. Yeltsin didn't like democracy. Defined it as what pleased Yeltsitn.

B. 1993 - commanders in Afghan war stage demonstrations in Moscow. Turned into a riot. Yeltsin rolled in tanks and bombed them out of the White House.

C. 1996 elections - first free elections in Russian history. They are supposed to occur at 4 year intervals.

1. Yeltsin ran for reelection. Challenged by about 7 different people. Communists and military were the most important.

2. The leader of the national party promised to make Russia a truly Russian place. In 1994 parliamentary elections, his party got 25% of the vote.

3. Communist's leader was Zyuganov - back to Communism without the excesses was his platform. This included police repression.

4. Military leader was General Lebed. Wanted a Russia with the army leading the way.

5. Yeltsin controlled the Ministry of Communications and refused to give other parties much air time.

6. He got a plurality, while Zyuganov came in a close second. Illustrates the dissatisfaction with Yeltsin.

7. In the runoff, Yeltsin bought off Lebed to get his support and win the election.

D. Personal corruption still plagues Russia.

E. Yeltsin also had health problems, and it becomes obvious that he won't be elected in 2000.

F. Starts playing Constitutional games.

1. Should the President die, the Prime Minster becomes president for up to 90 days.

2. This allows Yeltsin to basically pick his successor.

3. For a while he plays musical chairs with the position, but in 1999, ho chooses Putin from out of nowhere. Putin's police background bothered many people, and they become convinced the USSR is returning to a police state.

4. On New Year's Eve 1999, Yeltsin resigns, making Putin the acting President

VI. Putin

A. Easily elected at the end of his 90 days to a four year term.

B. Addressed corruption, but only for those who had given him a hard time, media primarily.

C. Believed government should not be criticized.

D. Shows a rollback of democratic rights..

E. Economy

1. Didn't get any worse.

2. Fall off of Western investments.

3. Putin decided that petro dollars could buy the way out of economic crisis.

a. US dependent upon foreign oil.

b. Some comes form unreliable sources.

c. Russia could sell oil to the US instead.

4. Historically, economic troubles are because Russia cannot develop modern products that people want.

F. No barrier - everything can be published.

G. Revival of history.

H. Little change in gender relations.

1. Small feminist movement is not well received.

2. New generation is lacking the leadership to change things.

I. Occasional lapse into old Soviet secrecy.

1. Kursk incident

2. Everyone in the sub died.