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Russian Revolutions and Soviet Union Formation

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Russian Revolutions and the USSR's Genesis

Tsarist Autocracy

  • Absolutism of the Tsar.
  • Political repression, economic hardship, and peasant poverty.
  • Increasing political opposition to the regime due to widespread poverty.

Revolution of 1905

Causes:

  • Military defeats in the war with Japan.
  • Widespread strikes and protests by workers and peasants.

Consequences:

  • Civil liberties were granted.
  • Creation of a parliament (Duma) and a project of democratization began.

Parliamentary Status (1906-1917)

  • Failure to implement reforms.
  • Authoritarian influence and camarillas (cliques).
  • Disastrous policy and heavy losses in the First World War.

Revolution of 1917

Causes:

  • Strikes and protests by workers and unrest among peasants and soldiers.
  • Dissolution of the parliament (Duma).
  • Growing political opposition.

Consequences:

  • Abdication of the Tsar.

Interim Government Features

  • Composed of various opposition political forces, excluding the Bolsheviks.
  • Maintained Russia's participation in the war.

Crisis of Governance:

  • Armed Bolshevik uprising and illegalization of their party.
  • Kornilov's coup attempt.

October Revolution

  • The Bolsheviks capitalized on Kornilov's coup attempt.
  • Radical politics and the call for "All Power to the Soviets."
  • Abandonment of the war effort.
  • Armed uprising led by the Bolsheviks.

Lenin and the Birth of the USSR

First Government (1917-1921)

  • Russia abandoned the World War.
  • Radical Agrarian Reform.
  • Constitution of a federal republic.
  • One-party dictatorship: the Communist Party.

Civil War (1918-1921)

  • Strong political opposition to the Bolshevik dictatorship.
  • Rise of armed "White" armies.
  • International intervention against the communist revolution.
  • Victory of the Red Army.

Lenin's Government (1921-1924)

New Economic Policy (NEP):

  • Private property in agriculture and small commerce.
  • Monetary economy and trade.

Creation of the Soviet Union:

  • Political centralism.
  • Communist dictatorship.
  • Elimination of civil liberties.

Stalin's Era

Stalinist Dictatorship

  • Characterized by:
    • The cult of personality around the leader, who was regarded as infallible and absolute.
    • Suppression and elimination of any dissent.
    • Stalin's control over the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).
  • In 1936, a constitution was adopted which effectively legalized the dictatorship.
  • The Communist Party formed a privileged bureaucracy, the nomenklatura.

The Terror of the Stalin Era:

  • Stalin created the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), which served as an instrument of repression.
  • The terror was implemented through purges.
  • Former opponents of Stalin were convicted (Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, and other Old Bolsheviks).
  • Additionally, millions of people were sent to forced labor camps (Gulag), where many died.
  • The economy moved away from the NEP, with a reinforcement of state planning and control.

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