Russian Revolution to USSR: 1917–1922 Political Transformation

February Revolution (1917)

• By early 1917, Russia faced economic hardship, rations, widespread hunger, and military defeats.
• In February 1917, massive protests led by women and workers erupted in Petrograd.
• The army mutinied, and the Duma supported the revolution; the Tsar abdicated.
• A Provisional Government was formed, promising reforms and elections.
• At the same time, Soviets (workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils) spread across Russia, representing workers, peasants, and soldiers.
• This created a situation of dual power: the Duma/Provisional Government (liberal) and the Soviets (radical).
• Lenin returned from exile and presented the April Theses: rejection of the Provisional Government, transfer of power to the Soviets, nationalisation of land and banks, and an end to the war.

Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention (1918–1923)

• Civil War broke out between the Red Army (Bolsheviks), the White Army (royalists, liberals, foreign allies), and minor forces such as the Greens.
• The Red Army, led by Trotsky, was well-organised and disciplined.
• The Cheka carried out the Red Terror against internal enemies.
• Foreign powers including Britain, France, the USA, and Japan intervened, generally supporting the Whites.
• Despite intervention, the Reds prevailed by 1921; some fighting continued until 1923.
• Other communist revolutions (Germany, Hungary) failed in 1919.
• The Polish–Soviet War (1920–21) ended hopes of an immediate international revolution.

The Soviet State and the Birth of the USSR (1922)

• The war strengthened Bolshevik control: the White opposition was discredited, and the Red victory legitimised Bolshevik power.
• War Communism: state control of the economy, forced labour, and requisitions caused famine and protests.
• New Economic Policy (NEP) (1921–1928): allowed limited private trade, revived agriculture, led to economic recovery and the emergence of kulaks.
• The USSR was formed in 1922: a federal state with centralised power in Moscow under Communist Party rule.
• The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) became the dominant political force.
• Lenin died in 1924, leaving a divided leadership and mounting tensions between Stalin and Trotsky.
• Lenin's final writings expressed concern over authoritarianism and the future of the revolution.