Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution

Soldiers sympathetic to the Bolshevik cause carry banners bearing Marxist slogans. Lenin and his co-conspirators found a welcome audience among the Imperial troops. Sent by the czar to fighting a losing war in the freezing winter, they were quick to accept the message that they were being exploited.

Marx & the Roots of Communism

Karl Marx (1818-1883) – German economist, philosopher

and socialist

Communist Manifesto (1848) & Das Kapital (1867) explained his theory of communism.

Key Elements of Marxist thought:

• Man is by nature good

• Economic relations determine all human relations

• Exploitation is an inherent feature of capitalism

• Private property is evil

• Capitalism produces two classes of people

• Only revolution can rid society of capitalism and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat

• Classlessness and statelessness will follow after the revolution and a transition period

Socialism vs. Communism Marxist theories pertaining to industry….

• raw materials; factory & machinery; factory manager & owner (bourgeosie); and the workman (proletariat); of all these elements, Marx said, the workman was most important.

• Capitalists stole the value of the product from the worker for his own profit

• Marx’s solution: Workers should take over all elements of production

Socialism vs. Communism

Socialism believes there are legal and constitutional approaches to take over industry; but, industrialists control the legal and political avenues of change.

Communism states that only through violent revolution of the common man can he take over the means of production from the capitalists.

Private property is an evil (according to Marx)

Marxist History Marx interpreted the events of history, and the

coming of the revolution as follows:

1. Capitalism was borne out of feudalism and exploitive by definition. Class struggle was the result.

2. Revolution would overthrow capitalism after workers had become class conscious. According to Marx, this would happen in industrialized nations, such as Britain, Germany or the USA.

3. Dictatorship of the Proletariat (transitional stage)

4. State would eventually wither and true communism would be established. No explanation as to how this would occur.“The history of all human society, past and present, has been

the history of class struggles”

Russia (1900 – 1917)Three Russian Problems:1. Industrialization

• Industry was foreign owned; profits left the country

• To pay for foreign technology the people were heavily taxed

2. Labour• Few skilled workers• Workers soon realized they had

the power if they could organize• Strikes

3. The Peasant Question• ¾ of pop. were uneducated

unskilled peasants• Most lived on farms• No political representation;

heavily taxed; main source of income for the Tsar

• Seen as untapped resource for the communists

Tsar Nicholas II of Romanov Dynasty

Revolt of 1905Voices of dissent:

1. Labour

2. Peasants

3. Intellectuals

4. Military (Russo-Japanese War)

Tsar Nicholas II is unable (and uninterested) to deal with the growing dissatisfaction of Russian people; faces growing criticism. Communist movement is split –

Bolsheviks (means majority) believed that winning over the masses to bring about a revolution was unnecessary. A small group of hardcore revolutionaries could do it – Lenin

Mensheviks (means minority) believed that the masses must first be won over - Martov

Bloody Sunday (1905)Tsarist troops opened fire on a group of protesters who were begging the Tsar for help

• 130 were killed; 100s woundedSignificance:

• Showed incompetence of Tsarist regime

• Tsar’s support crumbles

• Strikes

• Soviet (council) formed of MarxistsOctober Manifesto – Tsar’s Response

i. Provide some civil liberties

ii. Create a Duma (legislative assembly)

Outcome of 1905The Fundamental Laws

- Tsar held power to call and dismiss the new Duma

Impact of Fundamental Laws

- Temporarily, most dissatisfied had been placated

Long Term Impact

- Tsar arrests and harasses opposition

- Terrorism continues

- Tsar becomes more despotic, which in turn bred more terrorism

Rasputin and the end of the Romanovs

Rasputin

• WWI further exaggerated all existing issues in Russia

• Tsar was even less capable of running a war than managing the country in peace time

1915 – Tsar Nicholas II left for the front to take personal charge of the troops and leaves Tsarina in charge of the domestic scene. She hands over reins of power to Rasputin, the mystic.

Rasputin claimed he could cure her son’s hemophilia

A drunk, he was “the straw that broke Russia’s back”

1917 – 1.5 million desertions in Russian army

March 1917: The First Revolution

Duma, 1917

• war

• food shortages

• strikes

• Cossacks refuse to fire on strikers, shoot commander instead

• Moscow falls, Tsar forced to abdicate and placed under house arrest

•Provisional government formed of moderates with some radicals

• Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin still in exile

Provisional Government

Alex Kerensky

Power Struggle: Liberals vs. Marxist

Weaknesses of Provisional Government:

1. Did not recognize the catastrophic condition of Russia. Famine rules Russia.

2. Unable to address the serious problems facing Russia

3. Misjudged mood of Russian people with regard to the continuation of the war effort against Germany

Lenin – “Peace, Bread and Land”

Lenin returns to Russia in April, 1917April Theses: “Peace, Bread & Land”

• Proletariat and peasants must bring about communist revolution

• Immediate peace

• Seizure of the gentry land

• All power to the Soviets

• Seizure of Factories

July 1917 – Lenin fails to overthrow Provisional Government. Kerensky becomes PM of provisional government.

Kornilov AffairA loose alliance of two groups was now running Russia

• Socialists (not communists) led by Kerensky

• Constitutional Democrats led by General Kornilov

Kornilov Affair:

Political unrest in Petrograd requires Kerensky to call for the armies support (very Tsarist)

Gen. Kornilov decides to attempt military coup rather than support the provisional government

Kerensky appeals to the workers and the people to save Russia

In step the Bolsheviks……

October Revolution, 1917

Leon Trotsky

1. Trotsky, a Bolshevik, rallies the workers and gains political control of the Moscow and Petrograd Soviets and the military during the Kornilov Affair

2. Lenin returns to Russia and with the help of Trotsky seize power, claiming a communist revolution

3. October 13, 1917 – Petrograd is under control of the Bolsheviks

4. October 23 – Moscow falls

5. November 7 – the provisional government is arrested

USSR propaganda tells of a great uprising, but in actual fact it was a rather calm affair; the October events were planned and met with little resistance

LeninismIs it acceptable to use violence to change

society?

Lenin’s immediate reforms

Industrial: Work day shortened, unemployment insurance, worker control of factories, state owned banks

Peasants: land to the peasants

Social: expropriate church lands, end right of church to educate, rights of women, social equality

Problems for the New Government:• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

– Trotsky negotiates with Germans– “Peace at any cost”– Russia Gives away Baltic, Poland, Ukraine– 62 million people(26%), 27% of USSR

agricultural land, 26% of railroads, 70% of iron & coal deposits

– Germany achieves war aims:• “Middle Europe”

Communism Steps taken to introduce communism:

1.Bolsheviks allowed the peasants to seize land2.Factories come under the control of workers’ committees3.All banks are nationalized4.Private accounts were confiscated5.Foreign trade became a state monopoly6.All opposition groups were made illegal.

• Including the Mensheviks

• “Civil War…” 1918-1921– Former officers, middle

class/professionals/industrial class, peasants, ethnic minorities attempt to overthrow Bolsheviks

– Poland, Britain, USA, Japan, France, Czech’s land troops. Poland attacks

– Lenin creates a secret Police (Cheka) w/ Felix Dzezhinski, (~50,000 killed) Immediate bloodletting, many more die because of the war, violence, and terror that follow

Dr. Zhivago

War Communism: Economic Policy

• Radicalism establishing communism and fight civil war• Organize agriculture under Bolshevik control• Expropriate surplus for war• Social equality (Housing, status of women, comrade)• Nationalize all industry - end worker control• Centralization of all aspects of Russian life

1918: Assassination attempt on Lenin

Tsar: The Tsar and family are executed - including Anastasia?

Famine: The turmoil that accompanies the civil war and land question leads to a famine in much of the Soviet Union

Bolsheviks Win Russian Civil War- Why?

– Bolsheviks Control Central Russia– Trotsky (Red Army) v. White Army (fought as

many independents)– Allied intervention was less than half-hearted– Attitudes of the population:

• Middle class and upper class were “white”• Lower working class were “red”• Peasants were non committal, but in the end the

would get their land (for the time being)

– Communists were ruthless– Economic organization

• War Communism

New Economic Policy (NEP) (1921)

• Private trade allowed, moderation of harsh economic policies• Permit peasants to sell surplus, private ownership, small

business• Permits the re-establishment of a middle class both in the city

and on farms (Kulaks)• Creates personal affluence and access to goods, but also

resentment amongst the peasantsThese changes to War Communism created a sense (falsely) that the people, who were the driving force of the revolution, gained from their sacrifice

Lenin’s Foreign Policy 1. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

2. Russian Civil War immediately pitted young Bolshevik state against the West.

3. Cancellation of all Tsarist treaties with foreign nation; including debt and seizure of foreign property.

4. Foreign Trade comes to an end.

5. International recognition – Britain (1924)

6. Treaty of Rapallo – USSR agreed to manufacture illegal war material for Germany in exchange for steel manufacturing technology.

7. Encouraged international revolution the world over, but internal troubles made the USSR’s leadership impossible (Comintern).

Lenin is good - Lenin is bad• Revolution - came to power

• Introduced first communist nation

• Implemented Marxism to some degree

• Brought social change and won civil war

• Peace with Germany• “You cannot make an omelet

without breaking an egg”• Rejected historical Marxism• Opportunist - power hungry• Began political organs of terror -

Cheka• Withdrew personal freedoms• Discredited communism• Paved way to Stalin• Represented a minority when he took

power (“Vanguard of the Proletariat”)

• The repression of workers and rivals• Revolution in a peasant society

means the proletariat is in the minority

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXJfTN_LeaI&feature=relatedLenn n clolor

Is Lenin a Marxist?• The removal of private property

• Social and economic reform• Violent overthrow of the Bourgeoise

• Represented a minority when he took power (“Vanguard of the Proletariat”)

• The repression of workers and rivals• Revolution in a peasant society means

the proletariat is in the minority

Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin1922 – Lenin has the first of three strokes (by ’23 he is paralyzed and unable to speak)

Lenin on Stalin – “He has concentrated enormous power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with caution.”

Lenin – Chairman

Trotsky – Foreign Affairs

Stalin – Commissioner of Nationalism & Chairman of the Communist Party

Stalin becomes the political powerbroker controlling who could influence and vote on policy. He effectively controlled who was “elected” to high positions in the party.

Clash of VisionsStalin:

• Georgian – bright but a bully in school

• Sent to Siberia 6 times for actions against the Tsar

• “Socialism in one country”• New Economic Policy

Trotsky:• Intellectual & career

revolutionary• Desires global communist

revolution• Of Stalin: “the most eminent

mediocrity in the party”• IndustrializationStalin forces Trotsky into exile with the help of moderates…..he was

found guilty of treason in absentia and sentenced to death…..

Trotsky was killed in 1940 by KGB in Mexico City

Revolution Betrayed• Revolutions always turn conservative • Death of Revolutionary fervor• Bureaucratization: consolidation of power• Defeat of international socialism• Left wingers arrested

Isolation – Soviet state centred around innerpolicies

Stalin begins absolute and brutal reign

“A riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”

Winston Churchill

Lenin• Was Lenin a success or a failure?

• Did Lenin betray communism or help to realize it?

• Who did Lenin choose as his successor; why?

• Marxism:

• The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle”

• The Bourgeoisie: The owners of the factories and banks. The rich.

The goal of this group is to make as much money. To do this they expand business opportunities while keeping wages/cost down

• Global Capitalism• Ever expanding markets ……..Destroys nationalism, political

power, Religion, morality, family, • One calculation: Value of labor and profit. … • Freedom = Free Trade, “brutal exploitation,”

• Constant expansion until the Crisis of Overproduction, which can only be solved by more thorough exploitation and conquest of new markets

• The Proletariat: The workers who seek to improve the quality of their lives. The work they do horrible, hours terrible, child labor, exploited, wages low, rents too high, and now debt

• .• The Proletariat seek to improve their situation: Individually, as trades, they destroy the

machines that exploit them. But as the Industrial Revolutions deepens there are just more workers who further weaken the power of the class. Unionism is the one means of increasing the collective power of the group.

• The crisis of overproduction) forces the bourgeoise to make an alliance with proletariat. (perfection of production)

•

• Vanguard of the Proletariat: Intellectuals emerge who understand the historical process and these people become leaders of the revolution

• Revolution: the violent destruction of the existing order and the creation of a Proletariat Communist State.

Abolition of Private Property: Collective and common ownership of the means of production.

“Dictatorship of the Proletariat:” First time in history that the will of the majority will be the state. Hence the workers will have supreme control.

Communist Party will have no interests that appose the welfare of the workers• The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties. • They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian

principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.

Communism is not nationalist (workers define humanity not ethnicity)

Communism views “Religion as the opium of the masses”

Communist state can be created in an Industrialized state, only. Industrialization creates the means to produce an excess of wealth and products, enough to distribute.

Communists:

Communist International (Comintern)

• Lenin encourages international revolution

• In 1924 in part from complications following the shooting of 1918

Lenin dies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV2QTXIW1U&feature=relatedLenin speaks

Reveiw• Marxism• March Revolution• Kerensky: continues

war, no land distribution, greater political freedom

• Soviets• Kornilov’s Coup• Lenin returns: “Peace,

bread land”, “All power to the soviet”

• November Revolution

• Immediate reforms: land, nationalization, social reform

• Election• Brestlitovsk• Civil War: use of “Terror”

(Cheka)• War Communism• Kronstadt Rebellion• NEP• Choice of Successor:

Stalin v. Trotsky

Model for RevolutionStalin v. Trotsky

What am I trying to do? To show you that a model exists that shows the pressures new societies experience in part it is to show that the process can be reversed through understanding

Trotsky’s: “Revolution Betrayed”“Revolution Betrayed”

– Applies to Russia, France, Nicaragua, Cuba…

Evolution of Revolution

• Interference from West in the form of:

– Actual military intervention– Arms and legitimacy to the old

regime’– Reduction of trade

• Victory

– State Capitalism creates

prosperity for new elite

– dependent on

extremism/violence to retain

privilege

– conflict causes power

struggle: Hardliners win -

“end justifies the means”

Tyrany/despot: Elite, foreign ownership, army, inequality,

-Amalgamation of opposition against Tyrant-Rebellion overthrows Government and Tyrant-Revolution creates new laws:Land reform, social equity nationalizing, reform, export of ideas, and police

Civil War

NEW ELITE’

The Revolution Betrayed: Thermidor thesis

• Stalin; the man of Social forces• Revolutions always turn

conservative (Thermidor)• Death of Revolutionary fervor• Bureaucratization: consolidation of

power• Defeat of international socialism• Even Lenin would have been

overthrown• Left wingers arrested• Trotsky dies in Mexico in 1940 with

an ice pick in his head.

Power struggleStalin v. Trotsky

three issues that separate the two men

• Nationalism• Personality• Economics

• “Socialism in one country” v. international revolution– Trotsky called for international revolution and Germany would

help Russia develop. Stalin sensed that Russia was isolated and needed to create one communist nation.

• Apparatchik v. fame– Trotsky was a famous Civil War hero, signed Brest-Litovsk, head

of Soviet, famous thinker/writer/speaker– Stalin organizer, controlled the appointment of officials for

communist party. This meant that every body had to be Stalin’s friend to get a job.

• Industrialization v. NEP– Trotsky called for rapid industrialization (left) Stalin called for

the preservation of the moderate policies of the NEP. (right) NEP won left was thrown out. Once right won Stalin began to eliminate his enemies and he himself then called for industrialization

Stalinism in the 1930’sOnce firmly in Power Stalin adopted Trotsky’s principle

of Industrialization. “Soc. In One Country” now meant

catching up to the west for communist survival.

• The idea was to realize “communism” by creating greater wealth and to eliminate the NEP which was petty bourgeois, and provided for slower growth

To achieve Stalin“ism” a Five Year Plan (1928) was pursued….

Summary:

• Most goals not met

• Human cost was high

•Marx sacrificed for production

•Enemies & opposition sent to Gulag

Five Year Plan (1928)We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us. - Josef Stalin

Stalin's first five-year plan helped make the USSR a leading industrial nation; albeit at the expense of millions of lives and a decline in the standard of living.

Key Elements:

a) Command Economy

b) Collectivization

c) Industry

Command Economy Free market forces eliminated (Lenin’s NEP and soft communism is wiped out)

Government sets production goals for all aspects of the economy

Production, distribution and consumption are controlled by the state

All individual economic initiative was suppressed in the USSR

Collectivization• Definition: The unification or collectivization of

many farms into one large shared farm.

• Purpose: Greater equality, increased efficiency,

greater, output, and mechanization.

• Consequence:Kulaks: “The elimination of Kulaks as a class”

Kulak’s are middle class farmers that resisted collectivization. They are ruthlessly suppressed, evicted, placed in labor camps, Siberia. (hundreds of thousands to millions die)

Ukrainian Famine (1928): drop in production, resistance,

slaughter of animals, forced procurements(some argue Stalin encouraged the famine in areas hostile to collectivization)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcumJNNX0qccollectivization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQZ9qWO63Sk&feature=relatedPro collectivization

Collectivization• By 1937 90 percent of peasants were on collective farms

and collectivization begins to see returns and increases to former production levels

• Statistics:• 100 million peasants in 1928 and 25 million small farms • (1 in 4 owned land)• (75% of peasants would support collectivization 25% would

resist)

• By 1932 75% of farms were collective and by 1937 90% were collectivized

    1927  1932  1937• grain (million tons)  69  73  97• cattle (million)  70  40  63• Pigs (million) 26  12  23• tractors (thousand)  25   200• Harvesters (thousand) 1   25

Industrialization• The creation of a 5 year plan to

increase heavy industrial production (Coal, elect, steel etc)

• Gosplan: Central control of economy, targets for production not always keyed to demand

• By 1937 produce as much steel as G.Britain

• Lives improve; Pension’s guaranteed in constitution

• Free medical (more doctors per 100 people than anywhere in the world)

• Illiteracy falls from 50% to 19%• However, the existence of slave

labor and gulags, and terrible working conditions are problematic in a communist society

    1927 1932 1937

• Coal (mill tons)  35 64  128

• Oil    11  21  28

• Iron    3  6  14

• Steel    4  6  17

• Tractors (thou) 25   200

• Harvesters ("   ") 1   25

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGThPeOJu4&feature=relatedindustrialization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsaNhs0merk&feature=related

magnitorovsk

Political Propaganda

Soviet Economics and Paranoia

Second Five Year Plan (1933-37)

• Command economies become rigid to make up for the failure of the first five year plan

• Conditions seen as harsh by many in Stalin’s government

• Stalin begins to purge anyone critical of the plan, thus the revolution

• All dissenters arrested by NKVD (secret police)

• Show trials (outcome predetermined)Problems with the purges:

• Stalin became paranoid

•Purges killed off the USSR’s best thinkers and its most capable military leaders

Summation of Five Year PlansStalin’s 3rd Five Year Plan (1938-1940)

• Stalin sees the need (desperate in his mind) to arm Russia against another invasion.

•If Soviet economy could not match production of war goods of their enemies the USSR would collapse as it had in 1917

Soviet Economy by 1941:

• 5 Year Plans seldom met targets,

• Farming was organized and production increased

•Rapid urbanization (peasants flood cities)

•Small increase in standard of living

•Modernization of armed forces, though leaderless

• Loss of civil liberties

• Terror used as a tool of control

Purges and Labour camps• 10-20 million dead

(impossible to know true figures)– Mass movements of people– Famine caused by

collectivization and its resistance

– Slave labor camps (Siberia) - Gulags

– Mass executions and political torture• Fear existed as people

denounced neighbors• Stalin built a “cult of

personality” around himself• History is distorted to

support Stalin’s view

George Orwell

A man is captured and is to be tortured. The torturer asks him what 2+2 equals? The man replies 4; the torturer applies electric shock to the man and then asks him again what 2+2 equals? The man again replies 4; the torturer increases the voltage and shocks the man who screams in pain. The torturer repeats the question and the man shouts, “what do you want me to say?” The torturer says 5 which the prisoner repeats after the question is asked once more. The torturer increases the voltage to the highest setting and shocks the man who looks up at the torturer and says, “ but I told you what you wanted to hear.” The torturer replied, “yes, but you didn’t believe it.”……….Totalitarian Rule….

Purges Timeline• 1928: Show Trials

– Confessions, non appearance, saboteurs collaborating with enemies

• 1933: Ryutin Platform– a letter of criticism; one

million purged• 1934: Kirov murder

– 27th Congress of “Victors” (victims) 2/3 dead

• 1936: Great Purge:– Numbers unknown

• 1937: Army purged, then doctors

• 1938: Bukharin

Show Trials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1333fveKng&feature=related

Gulag

• Another aspect of the purges is the labor camps (Gulags).

• Labor camps of criminals, political prisoners, victims of purges work in building projects under the worst conditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6y2CTxbtL0

Cult of Personality• Changing history• Censorship• One party rule and

consolidation of power• Fear and terror• Infallibility

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fik2-kgOgngThe buzzer

Soviet Foreign Policy Under Stalin: “Socialism in One Country”

1928: Kellogg-Brand Pact: Stalin never trusted the west, but he saw need to court them

1934: League of Nations: USSR joins the League to give them an international body to view global politics (expelled in 1939 for attacking Finland)

1935: Seventh Communist Congress: USSR leads via Comintern other Communist organizations in agreeing to work towards stopping the spread of Fascism

1937: USSR enters talks with England regarding Japanese expansion

USSR & Appeasement

Summer 1939: France, Britain & USSR begin talks about Hitler’s expansion. However, the West only ever send low-level diplomats to deal with Stalin.

Britain and France appease Hitler; Stalin loses confidence in the West

Stalin sends Molotov to meet with his German counterpart

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939:

• Hitler attains one-front war; Stalin gains time to prepare

• Poland divided between USSR and Germany

• Stalin foresaw that Germany would turn on their agreement – “Lebensraum”

Operation Barbarossa, June 1941

Learning Cell• Form a group of 5

• Each member must select a question, research (answer) that question and then teach (share) their answer with each member of the group

• 10 minutes to answer your question

• 5 minutes to teach (share) your answers

• The cells underline the belief that History students are able to engage in self-directed learning and that they gain substantially from so doing.

Questions 1. Explain how Stalin used terror and violence to maintain a

totalitarian regime in the USSR between 1928 and 1938.2. Briefly describe Marxism and discuss the problems that occurred in

their implementation in a backward 1920s Russia.3. Explain how the First World War contributed to the rise of

communism in Russia.4. “Stalin took a backward country and transformed it into a modern

state but at great cost to the Russian people.”a) Describe the policies Stalin used to transform the USSR into a

modern state.b) Justify the statement that this change came at “great cost to the

Russian people.”5. A a result of Lenin’s actions after November 1917 was hostility

between the new communist government of Russia and the West.”a) Describe the actions taken by Lenin’s government after the

November Revolution that angered the West.b) Describe the actions taken by the Western powers in the same

period that angered Lenin’s government.

Ideas and discussion• 1. In pairs, To Industrialize or not Industrialize? (1927)

• 2. Pick a Stalin: Macro economics how would you industrialize Russia? What problems need to be overcome?

• 3. Why are the peasants enemies of the Bolsheviks? How could it have been different?

• 4. Purges• Statistics: 98 – 139 Central Committee

1108 – 1916 17th Congress

319 – 385 Regional Party Secretaries etc…

First purge Left and Trotsky. Then purge Right NEP’ers. In this process elite consolidate power eliminate enemies. Eventually excesses are restrained (Yakov NKVD leader purged for “eliminating thousands of innocent party officials. ) Now younger junior officials purge the elite at the top. And so on …

5. Why Purge the party of leaders?

6. Why did Communist officials testify that they were spies, saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries?

7. Was Stalin necessary, or did he save the world?

8. Is Stalin equivalent to Hitler?

Darkness at noon p. 191

How is it possible for people to commit such horrors?

• Fear• Belief that “the end (communist society) justify the means (violence) to

achieve it”• Stalin is a tyrant, a dictator; people “worship” and fear him• Dehumanize the enemies• Belief is dangerous• Faith in the system• Appeal to authority• Skewing others ideas to maintain system of belief• Self deception… awareness and denial

– Abandonment of truth, results in more important truth

Foreign Policy• Treaty of Brestlitovsk

• Treaty of Riga with Poland

• Rapallo Treaty

• Joining the League of Nations

• Assisting the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War

• Franco – Soviet Treaty

• Nazi Soviet Pact

• World War Two– Aggressor: Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland

– Great Patriotic War: Defeat of Hitler’s Germany

• Grand Alliance