SOCIALISM IN EUROPE AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

PART 1: THE AGE OF SOCIAL CHANGE

1. Discuss the impact of the French Revolution.

i. Powerful ideas of freedom and equality circulated in Europe after the French Revolution.
The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way
in which society was structured.
ii. In many parts of the world including Europe and Asia, new ideas about individual rights and
who
controlled social power began to be discussed.
iii. In India, Raja Rammohan Roy and Derozio talked of the significance of the French
Revolution, and many others debated the ideas of post-revolutionary Europe.

2. Discuss the views of the Liberals. (3)

● Liberals wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.
● opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers.
● wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments.
● argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted
by a well-trained, independent judiciary.
● However, they were not ‘democrats’. They did not believe in universal adult franchise.
● They felt men of property mainly should have the vote.
● They also did not want the vote for women.

3. Discuss the views of the Radicals. (3)

● Radicals wanted a nation in which the government was based on the majority of a
country’s population.
● Many supported women’s suffragette movements.
● Unlike liberals, they opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory
owners.
● They were not against the existence of private property but disliked concentration of
property in the hands of a few.

4. Discuss the views of the Conservatives. (3)

● Earlier, in the eighteenth century, conservatives had been generally opposed to the
idea of change.
 ● After the French Revolution, however, even conservatives had opened their minds to
the need for change.
● By the nineteenth century, they accepted that some change was inevitable but
believed that the past had to be respected and change had to be brought about
through a slow process.

5. Why was this a time of profound social and economic changes? (3)
Economic changes:
● It was a time when new cities came up and
● new industrialised regions developed,
● railways expanded and
● The Industrial Revolution occurred.
Social changes:
● Industrialisation brought men, women and children to factories.
● Work hours were often long and wages were poor.
● Unemployment was common, particularly during times of low demand for industrial goods.
● Housing and sanitation were problems since towns were growing rapidly.

6. Why did Liberals and Radicals become revolutionaries and work to overthrow
existing monarchies?
● Liberals and radicals themselves were often property owners and employers. Having made
their wealth through trade or industrial ventures, they felt that such effort should be
encouraged.
● Opposed to the privileges the old aristocracy had by birth, they firmly believed in the value
of individual effort, labour and enterprise.
● If freedom of individuals was ensured, if the poor could labour, and those with capital could
operate without restraint, they believed that societies would develop.
● They therefore wanted revolutions to put an end to the kind of governments established in
Europe in 1815.
● In France, Italy, Germany and Russia, they became revolutionaries and worked to
overthrow existing monarchs.

7. Who was Giuseppe Mazzini? (1)

● Nationalists talked of revolutions that would create ‘nations’ where all citizens would
have equal rights.
 ● After 1815, Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian nationalist, conspired with others to achieve
this in Italy.
● Nationalists elsewhere – including India, read his writings.
8. Explain the concept of “Socialism”. (3)
● By the mid - nineteenth century in Europe, socialism was a well-known body of
ideas.
● Socialists were against private property, and saw it as the root of all social ills of the
time.
● Individuals owned the property that gave employment but the propertied were
concerned only with personal gain and not with the welfare of those who made the
property productive.
● So if society as a whole rather than single individuals controlled property, more
attention would be paid to collective social interests. Socialists wanted this change
and campaigned for it.

9. What is a cooperative? Explain (3/5 )

● Some socialists believed in the idea of cooperatives.
● These cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced goods together and
divided the profits according to the work done by members.
● Robert Owen (1771-1858), a leading English manufacturer, sought to build a cooperative
community called New Harmony in Indiana (USA).
● Other socialists felt that cooperatives could not be built on a wide scale only through
individual initiative: they demanded that governments encourage cooperatives. ● In
France, for instance, Louis Blanc (1813-1882) wanted the government to encourage
cooperatives and replace capitalist enterprises.

[Link] were the views of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels? (3/ 5)
● Marx argued that industrial society was ‘capitalist’.
● Capitalists owned the capital invested in factories, and the profit of capitalists was produced
by workers.
● The conditions of workers could not improve as long as this profit was accumulated by
private capitalists.
● Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property. ● Marx believed that
to free themselves from capitalist exploitation, workers had to construct a radically socialist
society where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society.
● He was convinced that workers would triumph in their conflict with capitalists.
 ● A communist society was the natural society of the future.
11. What was the Second International? (1)
● By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe.
● To coordinate their efforts, socialists formed an international body – namely, the
Second International.

[Link] the development of socialism in Europe. (5)

● Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better living and
working conditions. They :
i. set up funds to help members in times of distress and
ii. demanded a reduction of working hours and
iii. the right to vote.
● In Germany, these associations worked closely with the Social Democratic Party (SPD)
and helped it win parliamentary seats.
● By 1905, socialists and trade unionists formed a Labour Party in Britain and
● a Socialist Party in France.
● However, till 1914, socialists never succeeded in forming a government in Europe. ●
Represented by strong figures in parliamentary politics, their ideas did shape legislation, but
governments continued to be run by conservatives, liberals and radicals.

[Link] was the Paris Commune?

● Paris Commune was a popular uprising in Paris between March and May 1871. ● This was
a period when the town council (commune) of Paris was taken over by a ‘peoples’
government’ consisting of workers, ordinary people, professionals, political activists and
others.
● The uprising emerged against a background of growing discontent against the policies of
the French state.
● The ‘Paris Commune’ was ultimately crushed by government troops but it was celebrated
by Socialists the world over as a prelude to a socialist revolution.

[Link] are the two important legacies of the Paris Commune?

● The Paris Commune is popularly remembered for two important legacies: one, for

its association with the workers’ red flag – that was the flag adopted by the

communards ( revolutionaries) in Paris;

 two, for the ‘Marseillaise’, originally written as a war song in 1792, it became a symbol

of the Commune and of the struggle for liberty.

PART 2: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

1. Discuss the conditions in Russia prior to the Russian Revolution.

AREA:

● Besides the territory around Moscow, the Russian empire included current-day Finland, Lativia,
Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
● It stretched to the Pacific and comprised today’s Central Asian states, as well as Georgia, Armenia
and Azerbaijan.

RELIGION:

● The majority religion was Russian Orthodox Christianity – which had grown out of the Greek
Orthodox Church – but the empire also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and
Buddhists.

ECONOMY:

● Beginning of C20th, vast majority of Russians- agriculturists, i.e about 85% were
agriculturists.
● Russia major exporter of grain.
● Industry was found in pockets. Prominent industrial areas were St Petersburg and Moscow. ●
Many factories were set up in the 1890s, when Russia’s railway network was extended, and
foreign investment in industry increased.
● Coal production doubled and iron and steel output quadrupled.
● Most industry was the private property of industrialists. Government supervised large
factories to ensure minimum wages and limited hours of work. But factory inspectors could
not prevent rules being broken.

WORKERS:

● Workers divided into social groups- some had strong links with villages/ some permanently
settled in villages.
● Workers divided by skill, metal workers got more importance because more training and skill
was required.
● Women made up 31 per cent of the factory labour force by 1914, but they were paid less
than men
● Some workers formed associations to help members in times of unemployment or financial
hardship but such associations were few.
● Despite divisions, workers did unite to strike work (stop work) when they disagreed with
 employers about dismissals or work conditions. These strikes took place frequently in the
textile industry during 1896-1897, and in the metal industry during 1902.
NOBILITY/ UPPER CLASSES

● nobility, the crown and the Orthodox Church owned large properties.
● Workers/ peasants had no respect for nobility. Nobles got their power and position through their
services to the Tsar, not through local popularity.

2. How were Russian peasants different from other European peasants? (3) ● Workers/ peasants
had no respect for nobility. Nobles got their power and position through their services to the Tsar, not
through local popularity. This was unlike France where, during the French Revolution in Brittany,
peasants respected nobles and fought for them. In Russia, peasants wanted the land of the nobles to
be given to them. Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords. In 1902, this
occurred on a large scale in south Russia. And in 1905, such incidents took place all over Russia.
● Russian peasants were different from other European peasants in another way. They pooled their
land together periodically and their commune (mir) divided it according to the needs of individual
families.

3. Discuss the development of socialism in Russia. (3)

● All political parties were illegal in Russia before 1914.
● The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898 by socialists who respected
Marx’s ideas. However, because of government policing, it had to operate as an illegal
organisation. It set up a newspaper, mobilised workers and organised strikes.
● Socialists were active in the countryside through the late nineteenth century. They formed the
Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900. This party struggled for peasants’ rights and demanded
that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants.

4. Why did some Russian socialists feel that Russian peasants were natural socialists? (1) ●
Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them
natural socialists. So peasants, not workers, would be the main force of the revolution, and Russia could
become socialist more quickly than other countries.

5. Why did the social Democrats disagree with Socialist Revolutionaries about peasants? (3) ● The
socialist Revolutionaries felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically
made them natural socialists. So peasants, not workers, would be the main force of the
revolution, and Russia could become socialist more quickly than other countries. ● Social
Democrats disagreed with Socialist Revolutionaries. Lenin felt that peasants were not one
united group. Some were poor and others rich, some worked as labourers while others were
capitalists who employed workers. Given this ‘differentiation’ within them, they could not all be
part of a socialist movement.
6. How was The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party divided? (1)
❖ The party was divided over the strategy of organisation. Vladimir Lenin (who led the

Bolshevik group) thought that in a repressive society like Tsarist Russia the party should be
disciplined and should control the number and quality of its members.

❖ Others (Mensheviks) thought that the party should be open to all (as in Germany).

7. What was the political setup of Russia prior to the 1905 Revolution?

Russia was an autocracy. the Tsar was not subject to parliament.

Liberals in Russia campaigned to end this state of affairs. Together with the Social Democrats and

Socialist Revolutionaries, they worked with peasants and workers during the revolution of 1905 to
demand a constitution.

They were supported in the empire by nationalists and in Muslim-dominated areas by jadidists

who wanted modernised Islam to lead their societies

8. What led to the 1905 Revolution? (5)

The year 1904 was a particularly bad one for Russian workers. Prices of essential goods rose so
quickly that real wages declined by 20 percent.
The membership of workers associations rose dramatically.

When four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers, which had been formed in 1904, were
dismissed at the Putilov Iron Works, there was a call for industrial action.
Over the next few days over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike demanding
a) a reduction in the working day to eight hours,
b) an increase in wages and
c) improvement in working conditions.
When the procession of workers led by Father Gapon reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by
the police and the Cossacks.
Over 100 workers were killed and about 300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody
Sunday, started a series of events that became known as the 1905 Revolution.

9. Highlight the events of the 1905 Revolution. (5)

Strikes took place all over the country.

universities closed down when student bodies staged walkouts, complaining about the lack of civil
liberties. Lawyers, doctors, engineers and other middle-class workers established the Union
of Unions and demanded a constituent assembly.
During the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament
or Duma.
For a brief while during the revolution, there existed a large number of trade unions and factory
 committees made up of factory workers.
10. Discuss the steps taken by the Tzar after the 1905 revolution. (5)
After 1905, most committees and unions worked unofficially, since they were declared illegal.

Severe restrictions were placed on political activity.

The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and the re-elected second Duma within three
months.
He did not want any questioning of his authority or any reduction in his power.

He changed the voting laws and

packed the third Duma with conservative politicians. Liberals and revolutionaries were kept out.

11. Name the European allies in the First World War. Why was the war fought outside Europe as
well as inside Europe? (1)
In 1914, war broke out between two European alliances – Germany, Austria and Turkey (the
Central powers) and
France, Britain and Russia (later Italy and Romania).

Since each country had a global empire and the war was fought outside Europe as well as in
Europe.

12. Why did support for Tzar Nicholas II diminish during WWI? (3)
In Russia, the war was initially popular and people rallied around Tsar Nicholas II.

As the war continued, though, the Tsar refused to consult the main parties in the Duma.
Support wore thin.
Anti- German sentiments ran high, as can be seen in the renaming of St Petersburg – a German
name – as Petrograd. The Tsarina Alexandra’s German origins and poor advisers, especially
a monk called Rasputin, made the autocracy unpopular

13. How did WW I on Eastern Front differ from that on the Western Front?
(1) In the west, armies fought from trenches stretched along eastern
France.

In the east, armies moved a good deal and fought battles leaving large casualties.

14. Discuss the impact of WWI on Russia. (5)

Defeats were shocking and demoralising. Russia’s armies lost badly in Germany and
Austria between 1914 and 1916. There were over 7 million casualties by 1917.
As they retreated, the Russian army destroyed crops and buildings to prevent the enemy from being
able to live off the land. The destruction of crops and buildings led to over 3 million refugees in
Russia. The situation discredited the government and the Tsar. Soldiers did not wish to fight such a
war.
The war also had a severe impact on industry. Russia’s own industries were few in number and the
country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by German control of the Baltic Sea.
Industrial equipment disintegrated more rapidly in Russia than elsewhere in Europe. By 1916,
railway lines began to break down.
Able-bodied men were called up to the war. As a result, there were labour shortages and
small workshops producing essentials were shut down.
Large supplies of grain were sent to feed the army. For the people in the cities, bread and flour
became scarce. By the winter of 1916, riots at bread shops were common.

PART 2: THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION IN PETROGRAD

1. Explain “The layout of the city seemed to emphasise the divisions among its people”

The workers’ quarters and factories were located on the right bank of the River Neva.

On the left bank were the fashionable areas, the Winter Palace, and official buildings, including the

palace where the Duma met

2. Why were people dissatisfied at the beginning of the February Revolution?

In February 1917, food shortages were deeply felt in the workers’ quarters.

The winter was very cold – there had been exceptional frost and heavy snow.

Parliamentarians wishing to preserve elected government, were opposed to the Tsar’s desire
to dissolve the Duma.

3. Why was 22nd February called International women’s day?

On 22 February, a lockout took place at a factory on the right bank.

The next day, workers in fifty factories called a strike in sympathy.

In many factories, women led the way to strikes. This came to be called the International Women’s
Day.

4. Explain the events which led to the February Revolution in Petrograd. On 22 February, a
lockout took place at a factory on the right bank. The next day, workers in fifty factories called a
strike in sympathy.
Demonstrating workers crossed from the factory quarters to the centre of the capital – the
Nevskii Prospekt. At this stage, no political party was actively organising the movement. As the
fashionable quarters and official buildings were surrounded by workers, the government
imposed a curfew. Demonstrators dispersed by the evening, but they came back on the 24th and
25th.
The government called out the cavalry and police to keep an eye on them.

On Sunday, 25 February, the government suspended the Duma. Politicians spoke out against the
measure. Demonstrators returned in force to the streets of the left bank on the 26th. On the 27th,
 the Police Headquarters were ransacked. The streets thronged with people raising slogans about
bread, wages, better hours and democracy.
The government tried to control the situation and called out the cavalry once again. However, the
cavalry refused to fire on the demonstrators. An officer was shot at the barracks of a regiment and
three other regiments mutinied, voting to join the striking workers.
By that evening, soldiers and striking workers had gathered to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’ in the same
building as the Duma met. This was the Petrograd Soviet.

5. What was the result of the February Revolution

After the formation of “Petrograd Soviet”, a delegation went to see the Tsar.

Military commanders advised him to abdicate.

He followed their advice and abdicated on 2 March.

Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the country.

Russia’s future would be decided by a constituent assembly, elected on the basis of universal
adult suffrage.
Petrograd had led the February Revolution that brought down the monarchy in February 1917.

6. After the February Revolution what kind of provisional government came to power? ●
Army officials, landowners and industrialists were influential in the Provisional Government. But the
liberals as well as socialists among them worked towards an elected government. ● Restrictions on
public meetings and associations were removed.
● ‘Soviets’, like the Petrograd Soviet, were set up everywhere, though no common system of election
was followed.

7. What was “the April Theses of Lenin” (3)

● In April 1917, the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from his exile. He and the
Bolsheviks had opposed the war since 1914. Now he felt it was time for soviets to take over power. ●
He declared that t
❖ he war be brought to a close,

❖ land be transferred to the peasants, and

❖ banks be nationalised.
● These three demands were Lenin’s ‘April Theses’.
● He also argued that the Bolshevik Party rename itself the Communist Party to indicate its new
radical aims.

8. What steps were taken by the Bolsheviks to bring about a socialist Revolution? ● In
industrial areas, factory committees were formed which began questioning the way industrialists ran
their factories.
● Trade unions grew in number.
● Soldiers’ committees were formed in the army.
● In June, about 500 Soviets sent representatives to an All Russian Congress of Soviets. ●
Meanwhile in the countryside, peasants and their Socialist Revolutionary leaders pressed for a
redistribution of land. Land committees were formed to handle this. Encouraged by the Socialist
Revolutionaries, peasants seized land between July and September 1917.

9. What steps were taken by the Provisional government to control the growing Bolshevik
power?
● As the Provisional Government saw its power reduce and Bolshevik influence grow, it decided to
take stern measures against the spreading discontent.
● It resisted attempts by workers to run factories and began arresting leaders. ● Popular
demonstrations staged by the Bolsheviks in July 1917 were sternly repressed. ● Many
Bolshevik leaders had to go into hiding or flee.

10. How did Lenin organise the October Revolution?

● As the conflict between the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks grew, Lenin feared the
Provisional Government would set up a dictatorship.
● In September, he began discussions for an uprising against the government. ● Bolshevik
supporters in the army, soviets and factories were brought together. ● On 16 October 1917, Lenin
persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power.
● A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet under Leon Trotskii to organise
the seizure. The date of the event was kept a secret.

11. Explain the events leading to the October Revolution.

(Steps taken by the Provisional Government)
● The uprising began on 24 October. Sensing trouble, Prime Minister Kerenskii had left the city to
summon troops.
● At dawn, military men loyal to the government seized the buildings of two Bolshevik newspapers.
● Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices and protect the
Winter Palace.
(Steps taken by the Bolsheviks)
❖ In a swift response, the Military Revolutionary Committee ordered its supporters to seize
government offices and arrest ministers.
❖ Late in the day, the ship Aurora shelled the Winter Palace.

❖ Other vessels sailed down the Neva and took over various military points.

❖ By nightfall, the city was under the committee’s control and the ministers had surrendered.

❖ At a meeting of the All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd, the majority approved the
Bolshevik action.
❖ Uprisings took place in other cities. There was heavy fighting – especially in Moscow – but by
December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow-Petrograd area.

PART IV: WHAT CHANGED AFTER OCTOBER

1. What steps were taken by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution? (5) ● The Bolsheviks
were totally opposed to private property. Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917.
This meant that the government took over ownership and management. ● Land was declared social
property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility. ● In cities, Bolsheviks enforced
the partition of large houses according to family requirements. ● They banned the use of the old titles
of aristocracy.
● To assert the change, new uniforms were designed for the army and officials, following a clothing
competition organised in 1918 – when the Soviet hat (budeonovka) was chosen.
2. Explain the development of Russia into one party state. (5)
● The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik). In November 1917,
the Bolsheviks conducted the elections to the Constituent Assembly, but they failed to gain majority
support.
● In January 1918, the Assembly rejected Bolshevik measures and Lenin dismissed the Assembly. ●
He thought the All Russian Congress of Soviets was more democratic than an assembly elected in
uncertain conditions.
● In March 1918, despite opposition by their political allies, the Bolsheviks made peace with Germany
at Brest Litovsk.
● In the years that followed, the Bolsheviks became the only party to participate in the elections to the
All Russian Congress of Soviets, which became the Parliament of the country. ● Russia became a
one-party state.

3. Discuss the effects of the One Party system on Russia. (3)

● Trade unions were kept under party control.
● The secret police (called the Cheka first, and later OGPU and NKVD) punished those who criticised
the Bolsheviks.
● Many young writers and artists rallied to the Party because it stood for socialism and for change.
After October 1917, this led to experiments in the arts and architecture. But many became
disillusioned because of the censorship the Party encouraged.

4. Why was there an outbreak of civil war in Russia?

● When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up. Soldiers,
mostly peasants, wished to go home for the redistribution and deserted.
● Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik uprising.
Their leaders moved to south Russia and organised troops to fight the Bolsheviks (the ‘reds’). ●
During 1918 and 1919, the ‘greens’ (Socialist Revolutionaries) and ‘whites’ (pro-Tsarists)
controlled most of the Russian empire.
● They were backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops – all those forces who were
worried at the growth of socialism in Russia.
● As these troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine became
common.

5. Name the two groups which helped the Bolsheviks in controlling most of the former Russian
 Empire.
● By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled most of the former Russian empire. ● They
succeeded due to cooperation with non-Russian nationalities and Muslim jadidists.

6. Explain “attempts to win over different nationalities were only partly successful”. ●
Cooperation did not work where Russian colonists themselves turned Bolshevik. In Khiva, in Central
Asia, Bolshevik colonists brutally massacred local nationalists in the name of defending socialism. In
this situation, many were confused about what the Bolshevik government represented. ● Partly to
remedy this, most non-Russian nationalities were given political autonomy in the Soviet Union (USSR)
– the state the Bolsheviks created from the Russian empire in December 1922. But since this was
combined with unpopular policies that the Bolsheviks forced the local government to follow – like the
harsh discouragement of nomadism – attempts to win over different nationalities were only partly
successful.

7. Why were the Bolsheviks able to introduce centralised planning?

● During the civil war, the Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised.
● They permitted peasants to cultivate the land that had been socialised.
● Bolsheviks used confiscated land to demonstrate what collective work could be.

8. What was the centralised planning introduced by the Bolsheviks? Discuss its positive and
negative effects. (5)
● A process of centralised planning was introduced. Officials assessed how the economy could work
and set targets for a five-year period.
● On this basis they made the Five Year Plans.
● The government fixed all prices to promote industrial growth during the first two ‘Plans’. 1927-1932
and 1933-1938).
● Centralised planning led to economic growth. Industrial production increased (between 1929 and
1933 by 100 per cent in the case of oil, coal and steel).
● New factory cities came into being.
● However, rapid construction led to poor working conditions.

9. What measures were introduced by the Bolsheviks to make the lives of workers easier? Why
are historians doubtful about its effects?
● An extended schooling system developed, and
● arrangements were made for factory workers and peasants to enter universities.
● Crèches were established in factories for the children of women.
● Cheap public health care was provided.
● Model living quarters were set up for workers.
● The effect of all this was uneven, though, since government resources were limited.
 10. Why was collectivisation of agriculture disastrous? What emergency measures were
introduced by Stalin?
● The period of the early Planned Economy was linked to the disasters of the collectivisation of
agriculture. By 1927- 1928, the towns in Soviet Russia were facing an acute problem of grain
supplies.
● The government fixed prices at which grain must be sold, but the peasants refused to sell their grain
to government buyers at these prices.
● Stalin, who headed the party after the death of Lenin, introduced firm emergency measures. He
believed that rich peasants and traders in the countryside were holding stocks in the hope of
higher prices.
● Speculation had to be stopped and supplies confiscated.
● In 1928, Party members toured the grain-producing areas, supervising enforced grain collections,
and raiding ‘kulaks’ – the name for wellto- do peasants.

11. Why was the decision taken to collectivise farms?

● As shortages continued, the decision was taken to collectivise farms.
● It was argued that grain shortages were partly due to the small size of holdings. ● After 1917, land
had been given over to peasants. These small-sized peasant farms could not be modernised.
● To develop modern farms, and run them along industrial lines with machinery, it was necessary

❖ to ‘eliminate kulaks’,

❖ take away land from peasants, and

❖ establish state-controlled large farms.

12. Explain Stalins ”Collectivisation Programme”.

● From 1929, the Party forced all peasants to cultivate in collective farms (kolkhoz). ● The
bulk of land and implements were transferred to the ownership of collective farms. ●
Peasants worked on the land, and the kolkhoz profit was shared.
● Enraged peasants resisted the authorities and destroyed their livestock. Between 1929 and 1931,
the number of cattle fell by one-third. Those who resisted collectivisation were severely punished.
Many were deported and exiled
● In spite of collectivisation, production did not increase immediately.
● In fact, the bad harvests of 1930-1933 led to one of most devastating famines in Soviet history when
over 4 million died.

13. Explain the terms: “Kulaks” and “Kolkhoz”

“Kulaks”: the name for well to- do peasants.
“Kolkhoz”: Collective Farms

14. What happened to those who opposed Stalin’s collectivisation Programme? ● Many within
the Party criticised the confusion in industrial production under the Planned Economy and the
consequences of collectivisation.
● Stalin and his sympathisers charged these critics with conspiracy against socialism. ●
Accusations were made throughout the country, and by 1939, over 2 million were in prisons or
labour camps.
● Most were innocent of the crimes, but no one spoke for them.
● A large number were forced to make false confessions under torture and were executed – several
among them were talented professionals.

15. Explain how USSR gave socialism a global face and world stature?
● Existing socialist parties in Europe did not wholly approve of the way the Bolsheviks took power –
and kept it. However, the possibility of a workers state fired people’s imagination across the world. ●
In many countries, communist parties were formed – like the Communist Party of Great Britain. ● The
Bolsheviks encouraged colonial peoples to follow their experiment.
● Many non-Russians from outside the USSR participated in the Conference of the Peoples of the
East (1920) and the Bolshevik-founded Comintern (an international union of pro-Bolshevik
socialist parties).
● Some received education in the USSR’s Communist University of the Workers of the East.

16. How did the world view the developments in Russia?

● In the world socialist movement too it was recognised that all was not well in the Soviet Union. ● A
backward country had become a great power. Its industries and agriculture had developed and the
poor were being fed.
● But it had denied the essential freedoms to its citizens and carried out its developmental projects
through repressive policies.
● By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a socialist country
had declined though it was recognised that socialist ideals still enjoyed respect among its people.
SOCIALISM IN EUROPE AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
PART 1: THE AGE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Remedial assignment
1. Discuss the views of the liberals, radicals and conservatives
LIBERALS RADICALS CONSERVATIVES
• Liberals wanted a nation • Radicals wanted a nation in
which tolerated all religions. • Earlier, in the eighteenth
• opposed the uncontrolled which government was based on the
century, conservatives had been
power of dynastic rulers.
majority of a country’s population.
• wanted to safeguard the generally opposed to the idea of
rights of individuals against • Many supported women’s
governments. change.

• argued for a representative, suffragette movements.

• After the French Revolution,
elected parliamentary
• Unlike liberals, they
government, subject to laws however, even conservatives had
interpreted by a well-trained, opposed the privileges of great
independent judiciary. • However, opened their minds to the need for

they were not ‘democrats’. They landowners and wealthy factory

change.
did not believe in universal adult
owners.
franchise. • By the nineteenth century,
• They felt men of property • They were not against the
mainly should have the vote. they accepted that some change

• They also did not want the existence of private property but
was inevitable but believed that the
vote for women.
disliked concentration of property in
past had to be respected and
the hands of a few.
change had to be brought about
through a slow process.

1. Explain the concept of “Socialism”.

● Socialists were against private property, and saw it as the root of all social ills of the
time.
● Individuals owned the property that gave employment but the propertied were
concerned only with personal gain and not with the welfare of those who made the
property productive.
● So if society as a whole rather than single individuals controlled property, more
attention would be paid to collective social interests.

2. What was the Second International?

● By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe.
● To coordinate their efforts, socialists formed an international body – namely, the
Second International.

1905 REVOLUTION FEBRUARY REVOLUTION OCTOBER REVOLUTION

CAUSES -The year 1904 was a particularly -In February 1917, food
bad one for Russian workers. •As the conflict between the

Prices of essential goods rose so Provisional Government

shortages were deeply felt
quickly that real wages declined
and the Bolsheviks grew,
by 20 percent. in the workers’ quarters.
-The membership of workers Lenin
-The winter was very cold –
associations rose
began discussions for an
dramatically. -When four there had been exceptional
members were uprising against the
dismissed at the Putilov Iron frost and heavy snow.
government.
Works, there was a call for strike.
-Parliamentarians wishing to
-Over the next few days over •Bolshevik supporters in the
110,000 workers in St preserve elected
Petersburg went on strike army, soviets and factories
government, were opposed
demanding
were brought together.
a) a reduction in the working to the Tsar’s desire to
day to eight hours, •On 16 October 1917, Lenin
dissolve the Duma.
b) an increase in wages and c)
persuaded the Petrograd
improvement in working -On 22 February, a strike
conditions. Soviet and the Bolshevik
took place at a factory on
Party to agree to a socialist
the right bank. The next day,
seizure of power.
workers in fifty factories
•A Military Revolutionary
called a strike in sympathy.
Committee was appointed
- the government imposed a
by the Soviet under Leon
curfew.
Trotskii to organise the
seizure. The date of the
event was kept a secret.
COURSE -When the procession of workers -On Sunday, 25 February,
•The uprising began on 24
OF THE led by Father Gapon reached the
Winter Palace it was attacked by the government suspended
REVOLUTION
October. Sensing trouble,
the police and the Cossacks. Over
the Duma
100 workers were killed and about Prime Minister Kerenskii
300 wounded. The incident, -On the 27th, the Police
known as Bloody Sunday, had left the city to summon

-Strikes took place all over Headquarters were

troops.
the country.
ransacked.
-Students, Lawyers, doctors, •At dawn, military men loyal
engineers and other middle-class -The government tried to
to the government seized
workers established the Union of
Unions and demanded a control the situation and
the buildings of two
constituent assembly.
called out the cavalry.
Bolshevik newspapers.
However, the cavalry
•Pro-government troops
refused to fire on the
were sent to take over
demonstrators. An officer
telephone and telegraph
was shot at the barracks of
offices and protect the
a regiment and three other
Winter Palace.
regiments mutinied, voting
(Steps taken by the
to join the striking workers.
Bolsheviks)
-By that evening, soldiers
.In a swift response, the
and striking workers had
Military Revolutionary
gathered to form a ‘soviet’
Committee ordered its
RESULT -After 1905, most committees or ‘council’ in the same
supporters to seize
and unions were declared
illegal. building as the Duma met.
government offices and
-Severe restrictions were placed
This was the Petrograd
on political activity. arrest ministers.
-The Tsar changed the voting Soviet.
-Late in the day, the ship
laws and packed the third
Aurora shelled the Winter
Duma with conservative
Palace.
politicians. Liberals and
-Other vessels sailed down
revolutionaries were kept out.
the Neva and took over
various military points.
-By nightfall, the city was
under the committee’s
control and the ministers
had surrendered.
-At a meeting of the All
Russian Congress of
Soviets in Petrograd, the
majority approved the
Bolshevik action.
-After the formation of
•The Bolsheviks were totally
“Petrograd Soviet”, a
opposed to private property.
delegation went to see the
Most industry and banks
Tsar.
were nationalised in
-Military commanders
November 1917.
advised him to abdicate.
•Land was declared social
-He followed their advice
property and peasants were
and abdicated on 2 March.
allowed to seize the land of
-Soviet leaders and Duma
the nobility.
leaders formed a
•In cities, Bolsheviks
Provisional Government to
enforced the partition of
run the country.
large houses according to
family requirements.
•They banned the use of the
 old titles of aristocracy.
•To assert the change, new
uniforms were designed for
the army and officials,
following a clothing
competition organised in
1918 – when the Soviet hat
(budeonovka) was chosen.

15. How did WW I on Eastern Front differ from that on the Western Front?
In the west, armies fought from trenches stretched along eastern France.

In the east, armies moved a good deal and fought battles leaving large casualties.

16. Discuss the impact of WWI on Russia.

Defeats were shocking and demoralising. Russia’s armies lost badly in Germany and

Austria between 1914 and 1916. There were over 7 million casualties by 1917.

As they retreated, the Russian army destroyed crops and buildings to prevent the enemy from being

able to live off the land. The destruction of crops and buildings led to over 3 million refugees in
Russia. The situation discredited the government and the Tsar. Soldiers did not wish to fight such a
war.

The war also had a severe impact on industry. Russia’s own industries were few in number and the

country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by German control of the Baltic Sea.

Industrial equipment disintegrated more rapidly in Russia than elsewhere in Europe. By 1916,

railway lines began to break down.

Able-bodied men were called up to the war. As a result, there were labour shortages and

small workshops producing essentials were shut down.

Large supplies of grain were sent to feed the army. For the people in the cities, bread and

flour became scarce. By the winter of 1916, riots at bread shops were common.

12. What was “the April Thesis of Lenin”

● In April 1917, the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from his exile. He and the
Bolsheviks had opposed the war since 1914. Now he felt it was time for soviets to take over power. ●
He declared that t
 ❖ he war be brought to a close,

❖ land be transferred to the peasants, and

❖ banks be nationalised.

● These three demands were Lenin’s ‘April Theses’.

● He also argued that the Bolshevik Party rename itself the Communist Party to indicate its new
radical aims.

13. What was the centralised planning introduced by the Bolsheviks? Discuss its positive and
negative effects.
● A process of centralised planning was introduced. Officials assessed how the economy could work
and set targets for a five-year period.
● On this basis they made the Five Year Plans.
● The government fixed all prices to promote industrial growth during the first two ‘Plans’. 1927-1932
and 1933-1938).
● Centralised planning led to economic growth. Industrial production increased (between 1929 and
1933 by 100 per cent in the case of oil, coal and steel).
● New factory cities came into being.
● However, rapid construction led to poor working conditions.

14. Why was collectivisation of agriculture disastrous? What emergency measures were
introduced by Stalin?
● The period of the early Planned Economy was linked to the disasters of the collectivisation of
agriculture. By 1927- 1928, the towns in Soviet Russia were facing an acute problem of grain
supplies.
● The government fixed prices at which grain must be sold, but the peasants refused to sell their grain
to government buyers at these prices.
● Stalin, who headed the party after the death of Lenin, introduced firm emergency measures. He
believed that rich peasants and traders in the countryside were holding stocks in the hope of
higher prices.
● Speculation had to be stopped and supplies confiscated.
● In 1928, Party members toured the grain-producing areas, supervising enforced grain collections,
and raiding ‘kulaks’ – the name for wellto- do peasants.

15. Why was the decision taken to collectivise farms?

● As shortages continued, the decision was taken to collectivise farms.
● It was argued that grain shortages were partly due to the small size of holdings. ● After 1917, land
had been given over to peasants. These small-sized peasant farms could not be modernised.
 ● To develop modern farms, and run them along industrial lines with machinery, it was necessary

❖ to ‘eliminate kulaks’,

❖ take away land from peasants, and

❖ establish state-controlled large farms.

16. Explain Stalin’s “Collectivisation Programme”.

● From 1929, the Party forced all peasants to cultivate in collective farms (kolkhoz). ● The
bulk of land and implements were transferred to the ownership of collective farms. ●
Peasants worked on the land, and the kolkhoz profit was shared.
● Enraged peasants resisted the authorities and destroyed their livestock. Between 1929 and 1931,
the number of cattle fell by one-third. Those who resisted collectivisation were severely punished.
Many were deported and exiled
● In spite of collectivisation, production did not increase immediately.
● In fact, the bad harvests of 1930-1933 led to one of most devastating famines in Soviet history when
over 4 million died.

17. Explain the terms: “Kulaks” and “Kolkhoz”

“Kulaks”: the name for well to- do peasants.
“Kolkhoz”: Collective Farms

18. What happened to those who opposed Stalin’s collectivisation Programme? ● Many
within the Party criticised the confusion in industrial production under the Planned Economy and the
consequences of collectivisation.
● Stalin and his sympathisers charged these critics with conspiracy against socialism. ●
Accusations were made throughout the country, and by 1939, over 2 million were in prisons or
labour camps.
● Most were innocent of the crimes, but no one spoke for them.
● A large number were forced to make false confessions under torture and were executed – several
among them were talented professionals.

19. How did the world view the developments in Russia?

● In the world socialist movement too it was recognised that all was not well in the Soviet Union. ● A
backward country had become a great power. Its industries and agriculture had developed and the
poor were being fed.
● But it had denied the essential freedoms to its citizens and carried out its developmental projects
through repressive policies.
● By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a socialist country
had declined though it was recognised that socialist ideals still enjoyed respect among its people.