Utopian Visions: The Soviet Experience through the Arts Jan Plamper, Simon Huxtable
Week 2 Outline
Week 2 Russian History Part 1 (until 1917)
Soviet Union: Physical Map
St. Petersburg founded in 1703
early 18th-century map
Peter the Great (ruled 1689-1725), by Paul Delaroche, 1838
Catherine the Great (ruled 1762-1796), by J. B. Lampi, 1780s
Enlightenment
two main demands:
(1) constitutional monarchy
(1) constitutional monarchy (2) abolition of serfdom
19th-century Napoleonic Wars
Russian Cossacks in Paris, 1814
быстро (bystro = ‘fast’)
Russian monarchy and part of nobility…
…parting of ways
intelligentsia
Decembrist rebellion 1825
abolition of serfdom 1861
reforming monarchy: too little, too late
radicalisation of intelligentsia
1872 Russian edition of Das Kapital by Karl Marx (orig. 1867)
Terrorists of People’s Will executed, 1881
Industrialisation, working class
split of Russian Social Democrats in 1903
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
1905 Revolution
1905-1917: constitutional monarchy
Romanov Tercentenary
1914-1918: World War 1
February Revolution of 1917
Russia = republic
Dual Power…
(1) provisional government
(1) provisional government (2) soviets
October Revolution of 1917