Lesson 2: The Revolutionary: Lenin
-before WW1-Karl Marx fading but reignited by war and the rise of Lenin
The man:
-Vladimir Ulyanov “Lenin” 1870-1924
-part of the Russian Marxist movement
-founder of the Bolshevik faction
-believed in the radical socialist ideals
-plotted how to bring socialism to Russia
-adapted Marxism for his purposes in the middle of WW1
-In November of 1917, he seized power
History: Why Marxism took took in Russia
-the key to Marxism taking root was due to the weakness of the TSAR regime of Nicholas II
Nicholas II life: 1868-1918
-in 1894 he ruled after death of father
-TSAR of the Russian political system
-never believed he had the strength or self-confidence, so he was bullied by advisers to go to war in 1914
-Romanov dynasty: ruled until 1613
-under his reign Russia grew economically & modernize
-but his decisions led to the fall of the regime
-1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war-Russians lost
-revolution in 1905 of leftists who wanted to get rid of the TSAR
-outcome was successful reforms through peace
TSAR’s advisor:
-Minster Pyotr Stolypin: Russian Prime Minister 1906-1911
-he warned not to go to war, but must have peace prior to 1914
-80% or Russians were peasants
-1909 he spoke of the need for 20 years of peace
-Statesman was assassinated in 1911 which was a blow to the regime
-statesman had social reforms and economic growth to resist the silent sound of the revolution
After death of advisor of peach: No more peace
-instead his advisors badgered him into not appearing weak to the resistance to defend its honor and prestige
-Lenin would not have come to power if there weren’t such a slaughter in WWI and assistance from Germany
-Germans took over Russia in war
-1917 the revolution took root 1915
-Russia people didn’t want to be in the war so not happy with TSAR
-the dissatisfaction of the elites of the TSAR
-there was mutiny among the troops against the TSAR
-February Revolution: Russia 1917 that led to the collapse of the TSAR regime
-Russian progressives who wanted a stronger parliament
-the topping moment was the troops rebelled against the TSAR
-Paradox: Russian mutiny
-front of the line troops and rear guard units differences and it is the rear guard that played a pivotal role in ending the TSAR regime
2 critical mistakes made by the TSAR regime:
1-going to war in the first place
2-abdicating his thrones on false premises to stop the war(TSAR penalized the troops not wanting war-fueled the revolution)
-Duke Michael is regent: Duma In Control
-1st revolution overthrew the TSAR and created a provisional government who wants to continue the war while loosening military discipline
-declared absolute freedom of expression, of political activity, and property rights
Rehabilitation of political prisoners: most radical return
-Leon Trotsky, People’s commissioner for military and naval affairs, 1918-1925
-Leo Deutsch Founding member of emancipation of labor 1883-
-Grigory Zinoview, chairman of the communist international 1919-1926
-the loosening of government regulations-political radicals
One exiled radical returned to Russia: Lenin
-Lenin had been radicalized for invoking violent revolution activity
-he seized the opportunity to return to Russia to implement the Russian revolution
-Lenin was in Switzerland learning about Marxism
-He was about to return to Russia with the help of the German regime
-Germans didn’t want the Marxist regime takeover but wanted the TSAR regime to be weakened
-German gave him funds mixed with Bolshevik propaganda so he would go back and get Russia out of the war
-Lennon had German sponsors providing him money
-coup led him to become an exile again but not for long
-the problem was the war was draining resources and manpower
-provisional government insisted on staying in the war
-in 1917 there was a great unrest
-people hungered for peace
-Lenin moved when the provisional government was on its last leg
-October 1917 revolution opened the door to Lenin and Bolsheviks to power
Rebellion:
-rebelled against the provisional government led by Alexander Kerensky, Minster-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government in 1917
-used propaganda to divide and to promote the Bolsheviks to the rear areas of soldiers to get them to lose their loyalty to the regime
-they did a coup d'état: the minority party in the socialist group
-Bolshevik's attacked key communication center, etc….captures the news and propaganda, then they became the government
-in 1917, there was a nationwide election
- Bolshevik's got 24% of the vote so ¾ of the population voted against them
-January 1919 Liberation magazine had Lenin on the cover
-the minority that thrust itself on the majority
- with the Bolsheviks in power; Lenin brought his Marxist goals
Civil war breaks out:
-challenges by outside forces and internal economic struggles
-Lenin sets up a secret police
-Lenin’s goal was to take out his political competition
-Lenin sets up concentration camps
-Lenin wanted to kill anyone that opposed him and his power
-Lenin made the classes enemies
-Lenin said it was good to terrorize them and a must conquer small produces
-Lenin believed revolution brings capitalism
-he wanted to remove the proletariat: the small land and business owners
-he had no mercy and turned against them
-he defunds the war
-he prints money that led to hyperinflation
-people stopped using money
-the system had a complete breakdown of the market economy
-Lenin was happy he had blown through the stage of socialism right into communism
-the common man was not to be able to use money; example of Marxism
-Lenin abused Ukraine farmers
***Lenin believed that morality is whatever will make the revolution go forward, it is not immoral to kill so called innocent people
-Lenin had high hopes for communism
-his goal was to have a communist international
In 1919:
-Lenin created a group: workers of the world unite: the communist international
- there were 21 conditions of membership:
-included doctrine, strategy, creating shadow underground governments, infiltrating the military, any communist party in the world in order to call itself the communist party in any country would have to take instructions from Moscow,
Lenin’s domestic policies at home were being challenged:
-nationalizing private property
-taking over industry
-confiscating private bank accounts
-led to mass shutting down of factories,
-mass unemployment
-rationed food
-confiscated food from the peasants
-produced famine across the country by 1920-1921
-horrific starvation
Lenin realized not working as the country had totally collapsed:
-over a million Russians died in WWI
-in 3-4 years after the war, 25 million Russians died
-caused a civil war due to famine
-the peasant revolutions
-Lenin caused mass death
-Lenin dealt with people with brutality of those who led upheavals due to impoverishment
1920: the attacks on Russian churches has began
-Lenin strived for social transformation
-Lenin made a speech about making examples of who he deemed rich
1-hanging people publicly
2-publish their names
3-seize all their grain
4-single out the hostages
***ex. Lenin’s brutality of the Kronstadt sailors
-After thousands of Kronstadt sailors backed Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks and helped them seize power during the 1917 revolution
One sailor recalled that "for years the happenings at home while we were at the front or at sea were concealed by the Bolshevik censorship. When we returned home, our parents asked us why we fought for the oppressors. That set us thinking."
-By 1921, four years of civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, along with the ruthless management of Russia by its new communist rulers, had led to unfathomable human suffering.
-Lenin and Bolshevik rule dealt with the sailor’s rebellion by killing their leaders and their families and followers sent to concentration camps
-these sailors initially helped in the revolution and Lenin brutally took them out so all dissent would die
1921:
-the Bolshevik-rounded up last of the peasant rebels
New economic policy:
-reintroduction of markets
-brought back private enterprise
-buying and selling of grain
-small return to retail manufacturing, etc…
Government retained the power over commanding heights of the economy: -manufacturing, heavy industry, transport, finance, international trade, allowances made for individual ownership,
-capitalists started businesses in this new economic policy
-communists didn’t know how to run a business or run an economy so hired capitalists to teach the communists to be businessmen
Irony:
- leading nations of the west were largely responsible for the survival of the communist system in Russia
-reaction of the Bolshevik rule by part of the west was to help but consequences not good
-by being saved by western intervention there was no consequences of the Bolsheviks who had caused so my damage and economic collapse
-western intervention: to fundamentally not help the armies who were trying to defeat the Bolsheviks, and in some cases undermining them
-the English recognized the soviet union by providing loans
-America provided free food with good intentions to free people from suffering
-ironically, they helped aid the regime to survive and continue to rule
-hired Herbert Hoover: American relief administration
-he was there to help alleviate mass starvation,
-Lenin never had a clear vision of how an economy should run
-Stalin came in 1928 to deal with the economy
***1 dysfunctionalities of the communist regime created by Lenin was there was never a systematic process for transfer of power
-Lenin died with no plan for succession
***this meant the next leader had to consolidate power by brutal force that would define the Soviet Union into WWII and then Cold War
That leader entered: Stalin