Soviet Communism

Soviet CommunismA rejection of liberalism

Russian Revolution Introduction

“Read Handout”

WORLD WAR I

“THE WAR TO END ALL WARS”A backdrop for the revolution

Statistics

World War One included: 3 Continents 31 Countries 65 Million Soldiers 37 Million Casualties 91,198 Deaths by Gas 6,395 Allied and Neutral Ships Lost $186.3 Billion Financial Losses

Causes of WWISome Causes Include: Industrial Revolution Alliances

◦ Triple Alliance Germany, Aus.-Hun., Italy

◦ Triple Entente Russia, France, Great Britain,

Countries InvolvedAllied Countries Central Countries

•Austria-Hungary•Germany•Ottoman Empire •Bulgaria

Countries that only cut off trade •Bolivia•Ecuador•Peru•Uruguay

•Serbia•Russia•France•Belgium•Great Britain•Liberia•Japan•Montenegro•Italy •San Marino•Portugal •Romania

•Greece•China•U.S.•Cuba•Nicaragua•Brazil•Siam•Costa Rica•Guatemala•Haiti•Honduras

That Should Add Up To 31 Countries

Immediate CauseAssassination of Archduke Francis

Ferdinandby Gavrilo Princip, June 28th, 1914.

Archduke Ferdinand

Sweet, sweet Mustache!

Immediate Cause

Archduke Ferdinand was next in line rule the country of Austria-Hungry

Yikes!

Re-enactment!

Watch outFerdinand!

Ouch!

EscalationAfter the Archduke was killed, a series of

events was set in motion, to change the world.1. A-H (Austria-Hungary) declared war on Serbia.2. Russia mobilized to aid Serbia.3. Germany aids A-H, declares war on Russia.4. France mobilizes to aid Russia.5. Germany declares war on France.6. Germany invades Belgium.7. Italy leaves alliance with Germany and A-H8. UK (United Kingdom) declares war on Germany.9. OE (Ottoman Empire) mobilizes to aid Germany

and A-H.10. Italy joins France, UK, and Russia.11. Bulgaria joins OE, Germany, and A-H.

Fighting Fronts The Western Front

was between France and Germany

The Italian Front was between Aus.-Hun. and Italy

The Eastern Front was between Russia and Germany

Germany wanted to avoid fighting on more than one front.

Deadly Fighting On Both Sides

End ResultsMillions Killed

1917http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMGrIwLj7gU

Marx believed that people could, through revolution, move towards communism – classless society where all people share in the production of goods. NO GOVERNMENT IS NEEDED

Communism

Key Ideas from communist theory in the 20th Century

Political Ideas

Workers will revolt and

overthrow the wealthy

business owners and landowners

The state will be governed By the Communist Party

in the interests of the people

the political structure will have less hierarchy.

There will be a more collective form of government with

better representation for all people

Economic Ideas

Collective ownership of resources, land, capital

Private propertyWill be

abolished

Incomes will beEqualized.

Social ideas

A classless societyWill becreated

Women will haveEqual rights

There will be CooperationInstead of

competition

The Russian Revolution

Part 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMGrIwLj7gUPart 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpEaPxNW0g&feature=relatedPart 3:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mReH_vgrf-U&feature=relatedPart 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzHFzeWFgyY&feature=relatedPart 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rSYFCSVQbU&feature=related

Vladimir Lenin founder of the communist Bolsheviks.

October 1917 this party had the power to take control, with Trotsky the two were able to establish a new government.

Lenin took Marx’s ideas and adapted some, for example Lenin believed that government was necessary.(Bolsheviks would carry out a dictatorship, until people were ready for utopia)

Civil war between the REDs and Whites, eventually ended and in 1922 the Union of soviet socialist republics was formed.

Leninism

War communism had begun. Five main points of this new policy were:

All factories were nationalized All workers were under government control Private trading was banned Bartering replaced the use of money Food was strictly rationed in cities. The proletariat resisted preferring to run the

factories collectively through councils of workers. Strife on the farms was worse as peasants resisted the confiscation of their crops and animals for the war effort

Leninism

under which many things were returned to private ownership.

Marxism – Leninism Communist party retains control over the

commanding heights.

New Economic Policy

Russian Revolution During WWI Overthrew Czar Lenin Rose to power Introduced

Communism Commanding

Heights 1924 Lenin dies –

Who follows? In the next episode:

Peace Land BreadTEDed

Power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin, Stalin won by having Trotsky expelled, exiled and assassinated(1940).

Claimed to be a Marxist-Leninist, but his meaning of communism was influenced by his need to have absolute power and control.

Stalin’s communism became one of fear and oppression, he rejected any liberal values.

He developed a personality cult

Stalinism

Stalinism

Gulag Secret Police Purges Rewriting of

historyCollectivization

of all farms

Falsification of history

Historical revisionism (negationism)

Stalin's cult of personality

The Centrally-Planned (Communist)Economic

System

Vocabulary

Totalitarian: system of government that is dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state (total control).

Autocracy: a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state

Central Planning: all aspects of the economy are controlled and planned by the government.

Lenin and the Rise of Communism What was the Czar’s gov’t like? What was life like for many of the people? What happened in 1905 and how did it

contribute to the Revolution? What did the Czar allow and what was his

failure? How did the results of WWI contribute? What about Feb 1917?

Activity Please read pages 355 to 357 and 359 to 363 of Global Systems to respond to the questions that follow.

War Communism (1918 – 21) was Soviet economic policy applied by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Its chief features were the expropriation of private business and the nationalization of industry, as well as the forced requisition of surplus grain (and other food products) from the peasantry.

Problem: No incentives to grow food.

The New Economic Policy (NEP), the official economic reconstruction program of the USSR from 1921 to 1928 and introduced by Lenin to revive the economy, replaced the economic policies of War Communism. What limited free market principles were adopted in the new program?

The return of most agriculture, retail trade, and small-scale light industry to private ownership and management while the state retained control of heavy industry, transport, banking, and foreign trade.

The New Economic Policy (NEP), the official economic reconstruction program of the USSR from 1921 to 1928 and introduced by Lenin to revive the economy, replaced the economic policies of War Communism. What limited free market principles were adopted in the new program?

Money was reintroduced into the economy in 1922 (it had been abolished under War Communism).

The peasantry were allowed to own & cultivate their own land, while paying taxes to the state.

viewed by the Soviet government as merely a temporary expedient to allow the economy to recover while the Communists solidified their hold on power

Why did Stalin believe there was a great need to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union?

He feared attack from foreign nations who did not want to see the spread of communism.

What method did he decide to use to industrialize the USSR so rapidly?He would need cheap labour from the peasants and food they produced to sell to foreign nations. He then could afford to mechanize by purchasing the necessary equipment from foreign nations.

3. What was the purpose for the development for each of Stalin's five year plans from 1928-1950?

a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union

Plan One (1928-32): the creation of collective farms in which peasants worked cooperatively on the same land with the same equipment; "collectivization" in agriculture to facilitate the process of rapid industrialization.

improve the efficiency of agriculture and eliminate the "kulak" class of landowners

3. What was the purpose for the development for each of Stalin's five year plans from 1928-1950? Heavy industrial expansion

3. What was the purpose for the development for each of Stalin's five year plans from 1928-1950? Second Plan (‘33-’37) gave heavy industry top priority (placing

the Soviet Union not far behind Germany as one of the major steel-producing countries of the world)

[a deterioration of the standard of living because the focus of "planners' preferences" replaced consumer preferences in the country's economy]

3. What was the purpose for the development for each of Stalin's five year plans from 1928-1950? Third (‘38-’41) Five-Year Plan ran for only 3 years, up to

1941, when the Soviet Union entered the Second World War

Heavy industry and defence spending.

3. What was the purpose for the development for each of Stalin's five year plans from 1928-1950? Fourth (‘46-’51)the emphasis was on reconstruction

4. Explain how each of the following helped to demonstrate that the Soviet Union's economy was centrally planned (aka command economy; planned economy).

A. five year plans and production targets (quotas)

All objectives and goals were set by the state (Stalin)

4. Explain how each of the following helped to demonstrate that the Soviet Union's economy was centrally planned (aka command economy; planned economy).

B. the goals of the Politburo and Council of Ministers

The highest executive body of the Communist Party and the USSR, the Politburo was headed by the General Secretary and included powerful members of the party and the government; made the major governmental decisions; made the major governmental decisions

4. Explain how each of the following helped to demonstrate that the Soviet Union's economy was centrally planned (aka command economy; planned economy).

Council of Ministers: the highest executive and administrative body of the USSR;

Both were examples of planning done by the state in Moscow – central planning.

c. What was Gosplan (an abbreviation) and what was it supposed to achieve?Gosplan was the committee for economic planning in the Soviet Union and was responsible for translating general economic objectives outlined by the Communist Party into specific national plans.

4. Explain how each of the following helped to demonstrate that the Soviet Union's economy was centrally planned (aka command economy; planned economy).

D. Gosbank: was the central bank of the USSR and the only bank whatsoever in the entire Union from the 1930s until the year 1987;

The Soviet state used Gosbank, primarily, as a tool to impose centralized control upon industry; monitored complance with the 5 year plans.

It dod not act as a commercial bank.

Question: What did the Communist Party do to promote "cooperation" and provide incentives?

USSR promoted “socialist competition”; the first to meet (overfill) the quotas/production targets.

Incentives: higher wages, better housing and public recognition

5. a. What is collectivization and in what way was Stalin’s quotation a motive for collectivization?A policy was to consolidate individual land and labour into collective (state-run)farms

The quote implies existing farming techniques were inadequate and inefficient.

b. True or false? Collectivization of private farming had a profound impact on Soviet society. To those directly affected, collectivization changed a way of life forever. To the Soviet leadership under Stalin, collectivization was claimed as a great achievement. Support your response with reasons and examples.

True. an agricultural production cooperative in

which members-owners engage jointly in farming activities

when the new farms failed to attract the number of peasants hoped, the government blamed the oppression of the kulaks and resorted to forceful implementation of the plan, by murder and wholesale deportation of farmers to Siberia

the immediate effect of forced collectivization was to reduce grain output and almost halve livestock, thus producing major famines in 1932 and 1933

in 1932-1933, an estimated 3.1–7 million people, mainly in Ukraine, died from famine after Stalin forced the peasants into the collectives (Ukrainians call this famine Holodomor)

it was not until 1940 that agricultural production finally surpassed its pre-collectivization levels

 In paragraph form please answer this question: To what extent did Stalin improve the lives of Soviet Citizens between 1928 and 1938? Use the documents as well as other historical evidence. /4 

Evidence From the Documents: DOCUMENT 2 — Suggests that citizens

will be able to use modern agricultural equipment and thus produce more food.

Other Historical Evidence: • Eventually citizens benefited by

improved housing, free education, state medical care, improved transportation.

• Consumer goods began to be produced in the second and third Five-Year Plans.

STALIN DID NOT IMPROVE THE LIVES OF SOVIET CITIZENS:

Evidence From the Documents: DOCUMENT 1 — Depicts the terrible

conditions in forced labour camps. DOCUMENT 2/3 — Indicates industrial

targets achieved but do not comment on the welfare of citizens.

Other Historical Evidence: Forced labourers were mostly kulaks,

uprooted from their private plots. Grain was forcibly taken from peasants. Punishments inflicted on workers who did

not produce. Loyalty to Stalin. or punishment Totalitarian government with secret police

sought out dissenters and kept citizens on task.

Stalin strictly controlled media.

Total 44 points

USSR rose to 4th in the world in terms of industrial output

Literacy improved Number of hospitals increased Coal production increased almost 5 times by

1928 Electricity increased 10 times by 1940 Steel production increased almost 5 times by

1940 Soviet Union became the world’s leading

producer of oil, coal, iron ore, cement and steel.

Results of Stalinism

Consumer goods virtually ignored (poor quality)

Factory workers were overworked and safety precautions ignored

Housing conditions were miserable Schools were forced to emphasize communist

virtues of hard work, conformity, sobriety, nationalism and infallibility of leaders

Workers who were absent were deprived of food cards and housing.

Price paid

Stalin

Before War

After War

Treaty of VersaillesIn the next episode: