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Russia Flashcards

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1
Q

Russia in 1853

A
  • Population
    - Under 50% were ‘Russian’
    - Cultural/Ethnic disputes
  • Leadership
    - Nicholas I (up to 1855)
  • Economy
    - Serf-based
    - Backward
    - Agriculturally based
  • Geography
    - Huge land mass
    - Extreme conditions
  • Society
    - Serfdom (Ownership/Slavery)
    - 90% Peasantry
    - Conscription
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2
Q

The Emancipation of the Serfs (1861-1865)

A
  • For
    - Stopping Urban/industrial development
    - Economy wasn’t helped by Serfs
    - Morality: Human rights violated
    - Social reform after Crimean War
    - Self- sufficiency of peasants
    - Improvements to military
    - Peasant uprisings
  • Against
    - Further demands?
    - Social gap
    - Disrupt economy
    - Next step after emancipation
    - Debt to landowners
    - Reactions to defeat in Crimea
    - Tradition
  • Consequences
    - Land prices rose
    - Increase in laborers in the cities
    - Redemption payments
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3
Q

The Crimean War: What was it?

A
  • 1854-1856
  • Britain, France, Austria, Ottoman Empire vs Russia
  • Black Sea / Ukraine
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4
Q

The Crimean War: Causes

A
  • Russian expansion into the East
  • Defend Ottoman invasion
  • Religion
    - Orthodox vs Islam
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5
Q

The Crimean War: Consequences

A
  • Russia = Backwards
    - Industrially
    - Weapons!
    - Transport
  • Reputation
    - Military supplies
    - Tsar Leadership: Nicholas I - Alexander II
  • Treaty of Paris
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6
Q

The Crimean War: Turning Point?

A
  • Political
    - New Tsar
  • Society
    - Serfdom
    Economic
    - Development in industry
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7
Q

Alexander II: Growth in Opposition

A
  • Turning Point:
    - 1866
    - First attempt on the life of the Tsar by Dmitry Karakozov from a student group
  • Reasons for Opposition
    - Focus on bottom end of society
    - Angering
    - Exposure to ‘liberal’ ideas
    - Too much, too soon - Slavophile
    - Too little, too late - Westerniser
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8
Q

Alexander II: Types of Opposition

A
  • Opposition
    - Intelligensia
    - Socialist
    - Land and Liberty
    - ‘Hell’ - Nihilist
    - The Organisation (1866)
  • Reaction
    - Education
    - Tolstoy Reforms
    - Censorships
    - Traditional curriculum
    - Law Courts
    - Trials
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9
Q

The Crisis of the 1870s

A
  • 1870:
    - ‘Tchaikovsky’ Circle
    - Lavrov - Populist, ‘Land and Liberty’ - Narodniks
    - Plekhanov - Peasant Communes
  • War with Turkey
    - 1877-1879
  • Assassination attempts
    - Vera
    - Murder but escapes
  • 1880:
    - Loris, Melikov (Internal affairs) - Reforms
  • 1881:
    - Assassination of Alexander II (1855-1881)
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10
Q

Reforms of Alexander II

A
  • Military
    - Conscription reforms
    - Service members evaluated
    - Corporal punishment ends
  • Local Government
    - Zemstva
    - Local Governments
    - Mir
    - Peasant Village Communities
  • The Law
    - Maintain Tsarist authority
    - Creation of the Zemstva
    - Seemed like the Tsar was loosening control
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11
Q

Alexander III: Political repression

A
  • Increase state power
    - 1881 Statute of State security
    - Okhrana extended
    - Stop revolutionary groups
    - Assassination of father
    - Russification
  • Reduced freedom of peasants
    - March 1883: Increased power of Bolshek
    - Harder for peasants to leave their Mir.
    - 1893: Banned from leaving
    - Land Captains
    - Controlling the Mir was the best way to maintain control in the countryside
  • Religion
    - More power to religion
    - Influence of Pobedonostsev
    - Pogroms Education
    - Tsar’s motto was: “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”
  • Education
    - Restriction of Universities / Schools
  • Judicial system
    - Government controlled trials
    - Closed trials and executions
    - Obtain more control of the people
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12
Q

Opposition against Alexander III

A
  • Populism (The People’s will):
    - 1890s: Veterans of Populist movement return from exile
    - Populist movement considered a failure
    - 1886: The People’s Will is reformed among students
    - Rural
  • Liberalism:
    - ‘Trickle down’
    - Moderate / individuals
    - Seeking moderate reform and moral regeneration
    - Flourished in Zemstva and Dumas
    - Outdated nature of Tsarism
    - Own initiative to address social issues
    - Work of Zemstva during famine highlighted incompetence of Tsarist Government
  • Marxism:
    - Emancipation of Labour: Marxist Revolutionary group
    - Started by four ex-populists
    - Russia’s position in relation to Marxist theory
    - Propaganda and agitation
    - Marxist-Socialist party - Proletarian revolution
    - Urban
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13
Q

Positives and Negatives of Alexander III

A
  • Positives
    - Economic growth
    - Foreign influence
    - ‘Open up Russia’
    - State ownership
    - French loan - stability
    - Working conditions (Employment)
    - Increase in workers (1m to 3m)
  • Negatives
    - Emigration
    - Starvation
    - Decline of living standards
    - Poor working conditions
    - Poverty
    - Opposition
    - Temporary exposure to more libertarian thoughts
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14
Q

Alexander III: Economy

A
  • Based on reduction in imports
    - Imposition of tariffs
  • Increase in exports
    - Railway lines made it cheaper
    - Grain exports meant peasants had no supply for the winter
    - “We ourselves shall not eat, but we shall export”
  • Increasing indirect taxation
  • Negotiating foreign loans
  • Peasants faced growth in indirect taxation while not being able to pay for food
  • Grain exports meant peasants had no supply for the winter
  • Overall economic growth
  • Government revenue increase from 1861-1913
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15
Q

Alexander III: Industry

A
  • Witte, Minister of Finance
  • Cities
    - Kiev doubled in size
  • Employment Procedure 1886
  • Increase in productivity and conditions
  • Steel and iron
  • Increase in workers (1m to 3m)
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16
Q

Alexander III: Foreign Investments

A
  • Gold Standard
  • Welsh Miners
  • French loans
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17
Q

Alexander III: Minsters

A
  • Bunge: Railways
  • Witte: Gold Standard
  • Vyshnegradsky: Exports and Foreign investments
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18
Q

Alexander III: Propaganda

A
  • “Prosperous Peasantry”

- Exhibitions and training

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19
Q

Alexander III: Taxation

A
  • Increase taxation and redemption
  • Vyshnegradsky
  • Forced to sell grain for lowest price
  • Semi-state of servitude
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20
Q

Alexander III: Railways

A
  • Buying private companies
  • 14k km to 53k km
  • Communication and exports
  • Trans-Siberian Railways
    - St. Petersburg to Vladivostok
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21
Q

Beginning of Tsar Nicholas II’s reign (1894)

A
  • Marxists:
    - Lenin creates Union for the Liberation of the Working Class
    - 1898: First congress of new Russian SD party - unify groups
    - Lenin and Plekhanov create the Iskra (Political Newspaper)
    - 1902: ‘What is to be done?’ Importance of the SD party
    - July 1903: Split of the SD (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks)
  • Populists:
    - 1890s: ‘The People’s will’ return from exile
    - Great famine helps inspire interests
    - 1901: Establishment of Social Revolutionaries
    - Non-Marxist favoured decentralised workers cooperatives rather than industrialisation
    - Riots in Countryside
    - Assassinations
  • Liberalists:
    - Based in the Zemstva
    - 1896: First annual congress of Zemstva Presidents held
    - 1902: Formed Union of Liberation, in Germany to unite the opposition
    - 1904: Refounded the Union in St. Petersburg
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22
Q

Pyotr Stolypin

A
  • Chief Minister (1907)
  • Reactionary counter-terror
    - Ruthless provisonal governor
    - Prepared to use violence to deal with opposition
    - 1,000 death sentences
  • Agriculture reform
    - Reform was essential
    - Prosperous peasants
  • Reform measures
    - Redemption payments to the Mir were cancelled
    - Peasants gained free ownership of their land
    - Option to leave the Mir
    - Individual land owners
    - Capitalist Peasants (Kulaks) - independence
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23
Q

Pyotr Stolypin: Successes and Failures

A
  • Successes
    - Agricultural production increased - record harvests (1913)
    - More to do with the weather and output was lower than Western standards
    - 24% of households owned their own
    - By 1914 1/3 of peasants had left the Mir
    - 1.5m migrated to Siberia between 1907 and 1909
  • Failures
    - Huge tracts of the best land was still owned by the Tsar
    - Reform did not address the problem of overpopulation and ‘land hunger’
    - Growing class of alienated poor peasants who were susceptible to revolution
    - Constructing a middle ground of ‘enlightened conservatism’ gave him enemies on both sides of the political spectrum.
    - Assassinated in 1911 by a left-wing radical with connections to the Secret Police.
24
Q

Causes of the 1905 October Revolution

A
  • Nicholas II’s leadership (1894)
    - Easily influenced (Pobedonostsev)
  • Social issues
    - Famine (1991)
    - Food Prices
  • Opposition
    - Liberalists / Marxists / Populists
  • Foreign relations
    - Russo-Japanese War
25
Q

Can 1905 be considered a revolution?

A
  • Yes
    - October Manifesto
    - Creation of State Duma
    - Popular Movement - Organisation
    - Threat to Tsarist Government
    - Violence
  • No
    - Not enough change to satisfy the Russian people
    - Tsar ‘crushing’ of protests
26
Q

Problems facing Russia 1905-1917

A
  • WWI
    - Morale
    - Tsar’s Leadership
    - Influence of RasputinBatt
    - Structural Weaknesses
    - Economic decline
    - Grain hoarding
    - Battles of Tannenberg / Masurian Lakes
  • Would the Tsar Survive?
    - Army was still loyal
    - Middle-class was unlikely to join working-class in revolution
    - Sharp decline in peasant unrest just before war
    - Dumas and Zemstvas had allowed for more political discussion
  • The Tsar wouldn’t survive
    - Town workers were influenced by revolutionaries
    - Nicholas ignored the Duma most of the time
    - People’s freedom to move to towns increased
    - Increasing number of violent peasant uprisings during the war
27
Q

Russia on the eve of War

A
  • Political
    - Rasputin and Stolypin
  • Economical
    - Economic recovery
    - Factory output grew to 5% a year
  • Social
    - Massive social problems
    - 60% illiteracy
    - Population growth
28
Q

How did WWI affect Russia in Leadership?

A
  • 1917:
    - Abdication of the Tsar in February
    - Last Tsar of Russia
    - October: Bolsheviks take over
    - First Communist Country
29
Q

How did WWI affect Russia in Battles?

A
  • 1914:
    - Battle of Tannenburg
    - Masurian Lakes
    - Long retreat
    - 1m Russians killed
30
Q

How did WWI affect Russia in Soldiers?

A
  • Russia suffered serious defeats
  • Reduced morale
  • Soldiers were let down by their officers
  • Turned many soldiers against the Tsar
  • Jan 1917: 1m Soldiers deserted
31
Q

How did WWI affect Russia in the Economy?

A
  • War = expensive
  • Expenditure doubled
  • Excessive borrowing
  • 1916: 1000 miles of front
  • High inflation and lack of food
  • Increase in opposition and revolutionary groups
  • Supply chains and organizations couldn’t keep up with the demands
32
Q

How did WWI affect Russia in Civilians?

A
  • Conscripted or worked long hours in the factories
  • Peasants maintained their income
  • Unhappy population
  • Worked hard and low on food
  • Knowing Tsar was at the front and not helping didn’t help morale
33
Q

February Revolution (1917): Long-term causes

A
  • Social wakeup
  • Conditions / weather
  • Literally
  • Food / Land (Reliance on agriculture)
34
Q

February Revolution (1917): Short-term causes

A
  • Rasputin
  • Food
  • Army
  • Progressive bloc
    - Coalition of opposition in the Duma (1914)
35
Q

February Revolution (1917): Course/Manifestation

A
  • Unexpected
  • Unopposed
  • Collective dissent against Tsarism
  • On the street
    - Social
  • Dissolution of the Duma
  • Lack of leadership
  • Rapid
  • Five days of rioting
36
Q

February Revolution (1917): Consequences

A
  • Fall of Tsarism
  • Peace in WWI - 1917
  • Chaos - Rise of the Bolsheviks
37
Q

The Provisional government

A
  • Nobles (wealthy)
    - Not very forward thinking
    - Still right-wing
  • Led by Lvov
    - Member of one of Russia’s wealthiest families
  • Policy on WWI:
    - Stay in the war, gain territory
  • No strict land policy
  • Tauride Palace
    - Petrograd Soviet
    - Provisional Government
38
Q

The Civil War

A
  • Red:
    - Bolsheviks, unified
  • White:
    - Liberals, former Tsarists, Nationalists and Separatists, Social Revolutionaries
  • Green
39
Q

Political/Leadership reasons why the Reds won the Civil War

A
  • Trotsky: Discipline (Capital Punishment)
  • Organisation
  • White leaders ‘dehumanised’ soldiers
  • Lenin & Land
40
Q

Socio-Economic reasons why the Reds won the Civil War

A
  • Support of the peasants
    - Given a right to land
    - Protect gains of 1917
    - Bolsheviks allowed the best chance to do this
  • Strong Bolshevik propaganda
  • Foreign influence on whites
    - Unliked by many in Russia
41
Q

Military reasons why the Reds won the Civil War

A
  • 5m strong by 1920
  • Unity in Red Army
    - Unlike the whites
  • Command structure (Trotsky)
  • Geography/Control of railways
42
Q

Control of the people by the Bolsheviks

A
  • Support from soldiers
  • Anti-Bolshevik organisations were closed down
    - Propaganda campaign against political and class enemies
43
Q

The Constituent Assembly

A
  • The decree on land
    - Giving peasants legality for throwing their landlords from their properties
  • The decree on workers’ control
    - Accepting the workers has taken control of the factories
  • Nationalise banks and railways
    - Cancel all foreign debt
    - Less chaotic transport system
  • Cheka created in 1917
    - Better and more organised version of the Okhrana
  • Dissolved the Constituent Assembly
    - Supported as a mode to end the provisional government
    - Dissolved at gunpoint (January 1918)
    - Way of keeping hold of precarious power
  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
    - Peace treaty signed between Soviets and Central Powers
44
Q

Consolidating Bolshevik power

A
  • From the beginning, the Bolsheviks struggled to survive
  • Few plans to keep power as the focus had been how to gain it
  • What would they need?
    - Political structure
    - Suppress opposition
    - Social promises: “Peace, Land and Bread”
    - Economy
45
Q

Vladimir Lenin

A
  • ‘Professional’ Revolutionary
  • Orator
  • Figurehead of revolution
  • Leader
  • Permanent revolution
46
Q

Leo Trotsky

A
  • ‘Professional’ Revolutionary
  • Military brain
  • Background tactician
47
Q

Why did the Provisional Government fail?

A
  • The dual Authority
  • Conditions in the Cities
  • The Soviet
  • The Kornilov affairs
  • Internal dispute within the government
  • Failures of Kerensky
  • The Bolsheviks
  • The War
48
Q

The Structure ‘Dual Authority’

A
  • Provisional Committee featured people who used to favour Constitutional Monarchy
  • Provisional Government + Soviets
  • Right wing working with the left
49
Q

Lenin’s Return in April

A
  • New promises
    - “Peace, Land and Bread”
    - “All power to the Soviets”
  • Increase Bolsheviks, decrease Provisional government
50
Q

Kerensky Offensive (June)

A
  • Military operation ordered by Kerensky
  • Unpopular due to demands for peace
  • Weakened the position of the Provisional Government
  • Bolshevik revolution made more likely
51
Q

July Days

A
  • 3rd July
  • Pro-Bolshevik units refused to be sent to the front
  • They joined other left-wing radicals on the streets
  • 250,000 went to the Tauride Palace
  • Not organised by Bolshevik leaders
52
Q

Kornilov Affair (August)

A
  • Kornilov was General of the Army
  • Ordered 6 regiments of troops from the caucasian native division to march on Petrograd
  • Presumed to be an attempt to crush the Soviet and establish a Military Dictatorship
  • Kerensky panicked and asked that the Soviets helped him defeat Kornilov
53
Q

New Economic Policy

A
  • August 1921
  • Capitalist Elements
  • Allows limited private enterprise
  • Interaction between rural and urban
  • Foreign aid and trade
  • Survival
  • Divides party
  • Scissors Crisis
    - Widening gap between agricultural prices and industrial prices
  • Nepmen
    - People who benefitted from the NEP
54
Q

War Communism

A
  • Heavy state control
    - Centralised command economy
  • 1918:
    - Spring: Nationalism of Railways and Merchant Fleet
    - June: Factories
  • Devaluation of money
    - Ration tokens
  • Labour discipline tightened
  • Internal passports
  • Spies
  • Targeting Kulaks
    - Food shortage
    - Poor peasants were considered allies of the proletariat
    - Kulaks were considered enemies of the people
    - More efficient farmers left and grain levels reached dangerous levels
  • Black market trade
  • Forcible requisitioning of grain
    - Officially ‘bought’ but often brutally confiscated
    - Peasants didn’t have enough grain
55
Q

Economic Problems after the Civil War

A
  • Industrial output fell to 20% of pre-war levels
  • Food prices increased
  • 1921 Harvest produced 48% of 1913
  • 25m died from malnutrition and disease
  • Peasant violence - Tambov province
    - 70,000 strong peasant army
    - Spread across south-eastern Russia
  • Kronstadt Naval Base
    - March 1921: Sent a manifesto to Lenin
    - 30,000 sailors fought against the army
    - 15,000 imprisoned
56
Q

Why Stalin became leader of Russia and not Trotsky

A
  • Different policies
    - Trotsky wanted democracy and openness
    - Stalin had a plan to rise to the top
    - Trotsky wanted ‘permanent revolution’
    - Stalin wanted to establish a strong Socialist state
  • Stalin’s positions in the party
    - Party Secretary: Meeting agendas etc.
    - Position in Orgburo: Supporters in key positions
    - Control of party organisation and membership
  • Trotsky’s failures
    - Arrogance and aloofness
    - His views split the party
    - Party members not convinced of his loyalty
    - Often ill with unknown fevers
    - Tricked into not going to Lenin’s funeral

History HL (10 decks)

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