MWHB
RUSSIA - 1800s Through the Russian Revolution 
Short Version of Russian political history - 19th C.
 
I.  What is Marxism?
In the mid-nineteenth century Karl Marx, a German journalist, and  Fredrich Engels, son of a English factory owner, wrote books which exposed and analyzed the capitalist system.  Capitalism was well  developed in England and emerging in the other European countries, which  were beginning to industrialize.  Marx and Engels wanted to help factory  workers who labored under harsh conditions and low wages. Marx developed an economic theory of history based on his study of   the economic development of countries all over the world.  He argued that    throughout history two groups had always been in conflict.  One group    controlled all of the wealth, political power, and means of production.    The other group did all of the work.  In Marx's time, he named the two  groups the bourgeoisie, the capitalist middle class, and the proletariat,   the working class.  According to Marx, labor was the most important  factor in the production, and the real value of goods or services is the  amount of labor used in producing them.  A worker, Marx thought, should be  paid the full value of the labor that goes into the job.  Many Europeans were familiar with the political ideals of the French Revolution and rebelled against their rulers throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Marx predicted that workers would revolt  against the factory owners because the working conditions were so bad.   Marx also thought that the fight between capitalists and workers would be the last class struggle in history.  He reasoned that since England was the  most industrialized country, workers would rise up there first.  After the bourgeoisie capitalists were overthrown, the leaders of the revolution  would set up a dictatorship of the proletariat to help their worker friends  (comrades) learn how to run the country.  All land and means of production  ( factories) would be owned by the workers, which is an intermediate   stage called socialism.  Eventually, there would be no need for government, because everyone would work as much as they could and only  take as much they needed.    The last stage of history, according to Marx, would have no class   structure, everyone would be equal, and cooperation would replace competition.  This ideal society Marx called communism.

 II.  How did Marxism Come to Russia  
The Russian people were devastated by the constant fighting against  the Ottoman Turks and grew increasingly  hostile toward their czar.  In  order to consolidate his power, the czar adopted a Russification policy  which forced non-Russians to speak Russian, adopt Eastern Orthodox  Christianity, and adhere to Russian customs and culture.  The Jews living   in Russian-controlled territories especially were targeted as a group which needed  to become more Russian.  Young Jewish boys were taken from their  families at birth and forced to convert to Christianity, and older Jewish  boys were forced to join the army unless they were the only males in their   family.    The Russian serfs finally got relief in 1861 when Czar Alexander II     emancipated them.  In 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by members of  a terrorist, revolutionary movement influenced by Marxist philosophy   called the People's Will.   Czar Alexander III continued Russification by the   "one czar, one church, one language" policy.  He also did nothing to  discourage pogroms (massacres against the Jews), because anti-semitism  gave Russians a scapegoat (excuse) for the economic and political problems their country was facing.

  III.  What reforms did Nicholas II offer? 
After another military defeat in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, a   group of workers on strike walked to Nicholas II's palace to present him  with a petition of grievances.  The czar's troops opened fire on the  unarmed strikers.  This slaughter on Sunday, January 27, 1905 (Bloody  Sunday) led to a general work stoppage throughout the country.  Nicholas II  then allowed the formation of a Russian parliament, called the Duma.   However, he was really still committed to absolutism and did not abide by the constitutional powers of the legislature.

 IV. What groups formed to oppose Nicholas II in 1917?
Four major groups formed to work toward change in Russian society ncluding the removal of the czar.

  1. Naradynik - oldest opposition -- Lenin's older brother had been  involved with this group before being hung for trying to kill Alexander II -- known later as the Social Revolutionary Party.
  2. Republican party - Bourgeoisie who desire a republic.
  3.  Anarchists - students, some radical peasants, some industrial proletariat - violent terrorism is their means.
  4. Marxists - divided into two parties:       a.  Mensheviks Š       b.  Bolsheviks - Lenin
 V.  What happened in 1917?
 Russia suffered enormously in the beginning years of WW1  losing many men in battle and resources needed for industrial development.  In   early 1917, all four of the groups listed above participated in the February/March  Revolution.  The army joined the rioters in the streets and the Duma  refused to be disbanded.  On March 15, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated his throne and czardom was abolished in Russia.   A provisional government based on the Duma took control.  Yet, some of the revolutionaries felt that Russia needed to go one step further into a  Marxist/Communist society.

In the spring of 1917, when the Germans gave Lenin safe passage back from Switzerland (where he had been publishing a Bolshevk newspaper for the other Russian exiles from the czar's secret police), he led the charge for this more radical  change.  Lenin knew that Marxist doctrine required that the progression into  socialism and then communism needed to come from a capitalist  industrialized society.  Russia's industries were still just growing and over 80% of the population still worked in the countryside as emancipated  serfs.  Lenin decided to alter the philosophy Marx developed and "force the  Revolution" without a real proletariat (industrial working class).  He and a  small group of revolutionaries (Bolsheviks) overthrew the provisional government.  The slogan of the Bolsheviks was "land, peace, and bread"  (land referred to more land reform and land transfers to the peasants,  peace referred to a withdrawal from WW1, and bread referred to ending the massive food scarcity in Russia).
 
VI.  Lenin's Rule
Lenin and his Bolsheviks (Politburo), calling themselves Communists,  took control of Russia and put power in local areas in the hands of worker and soldier soviets (which is the Russian word for council).  He maintained  the centralized system of the czars, outlawed all other groups, and seized  control of the factories.  Lenin also withdrew Russia from fighting in  WW1 by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Germans.  Many groups were upset by the Communists' decision to rule without   their participation.  Soon, Civil War broke out between the communists  (reds) and the other groups (whites).  The Whites received support from  the WW1 Allies who feared the spread of communism and who were angry  about Lenin's  withdrawal from fighting in the war.  The Russian civil war ended in 1921 when the communists won. Communism in the new Soviet Union started with the philosophy developed by Marx and modified by Lenin.  In some ways, communism in the  Soviet Union more closely resembled the centralized, authoritarian, militaristic dictatorship characteristic of czarist rule