Lecture #25 -- Russian Revolution

I. Administration

            A. Collect Book Reviews

            B. Quizzes at end of class

            C. Disc. #7 -- Thursday

II. Introduction

            A. Today we want to look at the problems with the Versailles Treaty, and then we will turn our attention eastward toward the Russian bear and the monumental changes that occurred there beginning in 1917.

III. Problems with Versailles

            A. If you'll remember last time we ended while going over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

                        1. The most important clauses to the German view of the treaty had nothing to do with the Fourteen Points. Article 231 was also known as The War Guilt Clause, and in it Germany accepting full responsibility for causing the War. Along with this was the next clause – Article 232, which said that Germany was to pay for the damage caused by the war, as well as reparations, but no amount was stated. Allies said it would be determined later. Needless to say none of this set really well with the Germans.

                        2. Aside from this the treaty neglected to provide for Russia at all, and created a new map of Europe. Show slide The break-up of the Empires of Austria, the Ottomans, and the Russians, as well created several new countries, but unfortunately, these countries were not based in realpolitik. They were based on ethnic divisions, but Wilson had no real understanding of the ethnic diversity that existed in Central Europe. There were Germans in Czech, and Hungarians in Rumania, so problems still remained.

            B. There were other problems and controversies that arose over the Treaty. The first to rear its head was the accusation that it was TOO HARSH on the Germans, and unreasonable.

                        1. This quickly became tied with the Stabbed in the back idea of the German military. Well, the question is was it really? Well, in reality, it wasn't. Germany was the losing power, and she had issued the Blank Check to Austria. She also had declared war on France and refused to go around Belgium. France had to pay reparations after Napoleon, after all, and this was nothing compared to the separate peace that the Germans had extracted from the Russians in November 1917.

                        2. The other question was did it achieve what it meant to? Was Germany less of a threat? Well, Germany was left intact -- Not so harsh, leaving her population and industrial might alone. Clemenceau had in fact wanted to divide her up and have a separate French-controlled German state, but Lloyd George and Wilson had vetoed the matter, instead promising to guarantee France's borders. The Treaty was ineffective because it made Germany mad, but it didn't take away Germany's power to take revenge. The treaty also ignored the issue of Balance of Power. There was no attempt to bring Germany back into the family of nations, nor to create a counterweight. No Balance of Power – just idealism, not realpolitik.

                        3. Furthermore, there were no enforcement clauses in the treaty. Germany agreed to abide the treaty, but there were no provision to make them. Plus, there was no attempt to bring Germany back into the family of nations -- no reconciliation. The German government, feeling abused, immediately set up an entire department whose sole purpose was to demonstrate how she was wronged and the she was not responsible for the war at all.

            C. So, in the end, there were five basic problems of the Versailles Treaty, which began to have an impact almost immediately after it went into effect.

                        1. The first was its inconsistency in dealing with Germany. The Allies were also inconsistent in enforcing the terms, as well. Only once after the war, did the Allies take action when the Treaty was broached.

                        2. The Second Problem was the United States. Wilson gave the impression that he could make and ratify a treaty, as the others could, but according to the U.S. Constitution – only the Senate has the power to ratify a treaty. Wilson did not have the plenipotentary (or diplomatic authority) powers to negotiate. He also did not take along anyone from the Republican controlled Senate, or the Foreign Affairs committee. Given these mistakes by Wilson and his high-handed tone with the Senate, the Senate would not ratify the Versailles Treaty. The U.S. never joined the League, and signed a separate treaty with Germany. The Congress also refused to acknowledge Wilson’s guarantee to France. The U.S. retreated into isolationism, and Britain had no choice to back out of her commitment to France. So... we have no balance of power, an angry, but not sub-dued Germany, and France isolated and fearful for its borders.

                        3. Plus the Treaty did not solve the problems that existed before the war over arms races, or diplomacy or the tension. Fourth, the Treaty not only didn't solve those problems, it created new ones in Eastern Europe, by people who felt cheated of their own state, and actually made some ethnic tensions worse. Finally it left the question of Russia completely unanswered or even addressed, which is what we will explore next time.  

IV. Russian Revolution

            A. The Treaty of Versailles ignored Russia partly because the Allied Powers weren't sure what to do with her yet, and furthermore because Russia by that point was already to a stage of being hostile toward the West. Russia in 1919 had undergone a series of changes, but to understand those we need to look briefly at life in Russia prior to 1914 and the opening of the war.

                        1. The people of Russia were in fact the least advanced of the European powers. There was only a small percentage of industrial workers and city -dwellers in the Western portion. There was almost no middle-class, so liberalism never took hold, and most of the population were still peasants. There were no democratic institutions in Russia, and no legitimate opposition. Political parties were illegal and thus those that did exist were revolutionary in nature.

                        2. There were actually two existing political parties in 1914. One was the Peasant Party, which wanted to overthrow the Tsar and establish a new government with justice for the peasants. The other was the Social Democrats, which was a Marxist party focused on the inevitable revolution. The problem in applying Marxist theory to Russia was that Russia had almost no bourgeoisie or proletariat -- the two final classes.

            B. The Social Democrats had two divisions about how to deal with this problem and how to create the revolution.

                        1. The first and larger group was the Mensheviks. Their name means "minority", despite the fact that they were the majority, and they wanted a grass roots to create revolution and had democratic ethos. Their opponents were the Bolsheviks, who adopted this term meaning "majority", though they were smaller in numbers.

                        2. The ideas of the Bolshevik sect were set forth by Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov(1870-1924), usually known by his revolutionary name V.I. Lenin. In 1902, Lenin wrote a pamphlet called What is To be Done? in which he argued that the revolution would be the result of a small elite group focused and dedicated to the ideas of revolution. These professional revolutionaries would create the revolution and then lead the peasants and workers against capitalism. Lenin spent most his life in and out of prison and exile until 1917. In fact, he was in exile in Switzerland writing a book on imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism when WWI broke out.

            C. So what was this government that they wanted to revolt against? Russia prior to WWI was an autocratic and imperial regime. The last Tsar was Nicholas II, whom we have mentioned before. He was married to a German noblewoman named Alexandra. Together they had five girls and one son -- the Tsarevitch. This young man had hemophilia. The Tsar had absolute power, but he was not the wisest of rulers. He had little understanding of his people.

                        1. The only democratic body in Russia was the result of a failed revolution in 1905. After the Russians had been defeated by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese WAR (1904-05), there was a revolt in St. Petersburg which failed to overthrow the Tsar. However, a legislative body called the Duma was established, but it provided only the facade of democracy.

                        2. In fact one of the most influential men in Russia was a bizarre mystic named Gegory Rasputin, who had no qualifications except for the fact that he seemed to have sort of mystical healing ability with the Crown Prince's hemophilia. It was probably a sot of hypnosis which slowed the Tsarevitch's heartbeat, but Rasputin claimed to be Holy Man. He looked more like Charles Manson. The Tsarina trusted him completely and thus was able to convince Nicholas to follow whatever policy Gregory Rasputin wanted.

            D. In 1914, Russia went to war over the incident in Serbia. This war was used by the autocratic regime that Rasputin manipulated. The war provided a reason for patriotic fervor.

                        1. The great Russian bear was going to trample the German menace and expand her empire. But the war would actually prove to be the undoing of Tsarist Russia. The first problem was that the Tsar himself went to the front to direct his troops, despite his inability in military matters. This meant first that any problems at the front fell directly on the Tsar, not his generals. There was no scape goat, as there had been in 1905.

                        2. There were problems at the front. Russian soldiers were ill-equipped to the point that many didn't even have rifles. Some of those they did have were in bad repair. The battle plan given to the soldiers without rifles, was that they were to get ones from the fallen soldiers on their own side or from the enemy. Confidence inspiring, right? On top of this, they often lacked food supplies as well. Industrial output increased as the war continued, but agricultural production plummeted.

                        3. Meanwhile, the Tsar had left the government in the hands of his wife, which meant Rasputin. He was a disreputable character who exploited his position and became a symbol of corruption. There were rumored affairs with the Tsarina and her daughters, and there were orgies inside the palace. Orgies in St. Petersburg, while Russian soldiers died of neglect. The nobility did their best to get rid of Rasputin. They tried to poison him several times, and shot him twice before they finally succeeded in assassinating him December 1916.

            E. By March of 1917, (Though it was February 1917 in Russian, since they still used the old Julian calendar) there was no confidence left in the government, and the people were suffering. The Revolution began with the women of Petrograd.

                        1. One of the best symbols of the changes in Russia was the city of Petrograd itself. The city itself was founded in 1709 as part of the Westernization of Peter the Great. It became a symbol of Tsarist Russia with its grand palaces. The Revolution of 1905 had begun with the workers there. The name was changed in 1914 to Petrograd to sound less German. The war cause great hardships on the people here, and in the bitter winter of March 1917, the women of Petrograd on 8 March led the workers in a revolt to gain food. Soldiers were sent out to crush the rebellion, but refused to fire on the women and eventually joined the riots. Within four days, the Tsar lost support completely and was forced to abdicate and was taken prisoner along with his family.

                        2. Two groups emerged in the vacuum left by the Tsar's abdication. A republic was declared and the government of this new republic was the Provisional Government. This was a democratic body of liberals whose strong man was a great orator named Alexander Kerensky. The other power was the soviets which were committees elected by the workers and soldiers, and the Petrograd Soviet was the most influential and powerful of these. The soviets controlled the local government, while the Provisional government controlled central matters. Civil liberties were declared, but Kerensky and the other members of the Provisional Government felt honor-bound to support their allies and continued to fight the war.

                        3. Staying in the war proved disastrous for this new democratic government. The populace was against it by this point. The peasants wanted land and peace, and the workers wanted peace and food, the soldiers simply wanted peace. The Germans saw an opportunity in Russia's instability. The intellgensia had been exiled for the most part, and the Germans helped out by putting Lenin in a sealed train and through neutral countries sent the train and Lenin home to Russia and he arrived in April, followed shortly by a another revolutionary Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Lenin was an organized revolutionary and would use any methods necessary to gain power, and he saw the soviets as the best path. Lenin wanted a socialist revolution which would put an end to the free market system of exploitation. He preached peace and bread, which the women of March had, but he also added land which meant he gained the support of the peasants. So with the slogan Peace, Land and Bread! his influence in the soviets increased and kept doing so.

                        4. In July 1917 The July Days, the Bolsheviks inspired and led a massive demonstration occurred against the Provisional Govt. The slogans read Peace for peasant huts, war for the palaces! All power to the Soviets!. The Provisional Govt. responded with force, and this time Lenin fled to Finland. Kerensky became Prime Minister, but continued participation in the War, which only made matters worse at home, as the Bolsheviks gained influence.

            F. It was not over, however, and in November of 1917, came the Second Russian Revolution. This was no spontaneous uprising of hungry women. It was a planned socialist coup d'etat.

                        1. Lenin returned secretly from Finland, and he and Trotsky led the plan. The Red Guard -- the militia of the Soviets, seized communication centers and public buildings. Then they seized political control by taking the Winter Palace -- the symbol of Tsarist Russia and the meeting place of the Prov. Govt. Members of the Provisional Government arrested.

                        2. Lenin set out to make good on his promises, as he headed the Bolshevik regime now ruling Russia. The first step to fulfilling "Peace, Land & Bread" was to get out of the war. He sent Trotsky in January 1918 to negotiate a separate peace with the GErmans. In March 1918, the Russiand and Germans signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The GErman thought Versailles was humiliating, but they forgot what the subjected the Russians to.

                        3. Russia lost almost all of her western territories, and was reduced to a size prior to Peter the GReat. The peace conditions were disastrous to Russia. The Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Lithuainia, Estonia and Latvia received their independence. Russia lost 26% of her total population; 27% of her arable land; 32% of her average cropes, 26% of the railway system, 33% of manufacturing industries, 73% of iron industries, 75% of her coal field. Besides that, Russia had to pay a large war indemnity." Russia lost over 60 million people and 5,000 factories. Despite the harshness of the treaty, Lenin had to get out of the war, and he believed the world revolution would soon occur anyhow.

            G. Meanwhile Lenin had other issues to deal with. The Second step to consolidating his power was to get support of the people.

                        1. So an elected body called the All Russian Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd and sanctioned the reovlution. It was an eleceted body, but it was under the contol of Lenin and his compatriots. Then in January 1918, an assembly met to form a constitution, but Lenin declared it illegal, because the elected memebers did not have enough Bolsheviks in their reanks. Lenin sent in the Red Army. It was now the Dictatoship of the Proleriat, and the Bolsheviks were its strong arm.

                        2. A Constitution was written in July 1918, and was adopted for the R.S.F.S.R. -- Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics. This new government was to be the government of the proletariat, and its symbol was not the double eagle of the Romanov Tsars, but the hammer and sickle to symbolize its connection with the people.

                        3. Lenin's regime in 1917-18 still had a ways to go before its hold on power was secure. The Brest-Litovsk treaty angered the old military men and they joined forces with the Cossacks -- warriors, usually nobles, who feared the loss of their land and privileges. Together they formed the White Army which fought against the Bolshevik Red Army for the next three years. The Allies sent 100,000 troops to support the White Army and hopefully to free the Tsar and his family.

                        4. The Tsar and his family were executed in July of 1918, and recent excavations have unearthed all the bodies, even that of the Grand Duchess Anastasia. It looked at the time, like this socialist revolution like others was doomed. Yet despite the number of forces of the White Army and the Allies, their efforts were not co-ordinated and Lenin was able to triumph by being better organized and more ruthless.

                        5. T0 win the civil war, he instituted WAR Communism, in which everything was nationalized. Material and food was confiscated without compensation. By 1921, the peasants were very suspicious of thegovernment and were hoarding food against the new REd government. He also established the New Bolshevik Police -- CHEKA which arrested counter-revolutionaries, and the police state was begun. By May Day 1920, Russia was a thoroughly socialist state, and the allies and the whites were gone.

V. Life in Soviet Russia

            A. So what was life like in RUssia in 1920? Lenin still face a number of problems.

                        1. This first communist state, was in a sorry state. While Russia had regained some territory in Civil War, and the ALlied victory had cancelled much of the treaty, She was a catastrophe. Her industrial output was 15-20% of what it had been in 1913, and it had been less than most of Europe then. The civl war had resulted in 2 million civilian deaths alone. Famine and epidemic in 1921-22 were worse than both the Great War and the civil war. There was an uprising in March 1921 outside of PEtrograd. Not to mention the continued hostility of every country in Europe and the U.S.

                        2. Lenin had to take some desperate measures. They took the form of the New Economic Policy. It was the plan of Nikolai Bukarin, a moderate in Lenin's government, and it restored a measure of free market to the Russian economy. Small businesses (less than 20 employees) were de-nationalized, and operated in free market.

                        3. The other provision was Freed Agriculture. The collectivization of famring was put off, and operated in a free market. THis meant the rise of the kulaks, or peasants who gained some land and now got more. The NEP was a practical solution -- and it worked. Russia began to recover.

                        4.But that did not mean that Lenin stopped his organization of irregular police that were above the law. The Cheka were succeeded by the NKVD and later the KGB, all of which were designed to ferret out and drive out counter -revolutionaries.

            B. Lenin's efforts wer successful, and the Communist Russian state survived, obviously. However, his own efforts cost him his health, and he suffered from a series of strokes which eventually killed him in 1924. It was at this point that Petrograd once again got a new name -- Leningrad. It had gone from St. Petersburg, the Tsarist capital, to Petrograd -- the center of Revolution, and now symbolized the hold of the new Bolshevik Regime as Leningrad.

            C. Lenin's death, of course, that a new leader was necessary for the Poltiburo which governed the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and thus the state. The obvious heir to Lenin was Trotsky or at least Bukarin, but power would eventually pass to a young man that Lenin had said should never come to power -- Josef Stalin (1879-1953).

                        1. Stalin was from the Black Sea area, what is now the country of Georgia, and was a favored revolutionary who had risen up through the ranks of the local party. He was appointed to aminor post in 1922, where Trotsky and Lenin thought he would be safe. Stalin proved effective at creating a party structure which could respond to the country as a whole. After Lenin's death, Stalin would prove to be the force to be reckoned with, not Trotsky or Bukarin. The latter built their public images, while Stalin consolidated power behind the scenes. Stalin would switch political allies within the Communist Party to first destroy Bukharin and then Trotsky, who would eventually have to flee Russia for his life.

                        2. After 1927, Stalin was the only left standing with any power. His elimination of his rivals in the party was soon extended to the rest of the country. Stalin embarked upon a new course for the Soviet state, though he was careful never to criticize Lenin, even creating a shrine in Moscow. A New consitution was constructed which created a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) -- technically there were 16 autnomous repoublics. The reality however was that the Communist Party controlled all of the soviets in every state and it was the Party controlled by Stalin that controlled Russia and her territories.

                        3. Stalin also embarked upon a plan of collectivization -- forced of all industry and agriculture. Lenin's NEP was eliminated through what Stalin called his Five Year Plans, covering from 1929 to 1936. The period was truncated because officially the plans were so successful. The purpose was to eliminate capitalism, but also to mechanize and collectivize agriculture and increase industrialization and the national defense, which was done.

                        4. What was also done was Stalin's Purges, in which he eliminated all opposition -- this meant the trial and execution of kulaks, army officers, engineers, and anyone whose loyalty was not to Stalin personally. From 1934-38, at least 300,000 were executed, and confessions were obtained through the use of drugs. Seven million more were put in to labor camps in Siberia. The full numbers have only become known since the fall of the Soviet government in 1992.

            D. There other problems as the Europeans faced the challenges of the interwar era, and we will look at that next time.