 The last Tsar steps down  The Duma establishes a provisional government  Alexander Kerensky leads this government  His decision to stay in WW1 cost him the support of both soldiers and civilians

 Competed for power  Formed Soviets or local councils consisting of workers, peasants and soldiers  In many cities the Soviets had more power than the provisional government

 Lenin and the Bolsheviks gain power of the Petrograd Soviet and the Soviets of other major Russian cities

 The Provisional Government Falls when armed factory workers storm the Winter Palace in Petrograd  Lenin orders all farmland distributed to the peasants  Lenin orders control of factories turned over to workers  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

 Whites vs. Reds  Leon Trotsky leads the Red army  Western nations send aid to the Whites  14 million Russians died in the 3 year war and the famine that followed

 New Economic Policy  Political reforms  Self supporting republics  Re-named Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR  Dictatorship of the Communist Party

 Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922  This set in motion competition for heading up the Communist Party  Trotsky vs. Stalin

 1928 Stalin controls Communist Party  1929 Trotsky exiled  Stalin becomes a dictator

 Used tanks to control riots  Monitored phones  Read mail  Planted informers  Execution of millions of “traitors”

 1937  Thousands of old Bolsheviks stood trial  Executions  Labor camps  8-13 million killed

 State control of all media  Control of artists and writers  Glorification of Stalin and Communism

 Education becomes Indoctrination  State controlled all education from nursery school through universities  Stressed Communist ideals  No questioning of the state allowed

 League of Militant Godless  Museums of Atheism  Destruction of Churches and Synagogues  Death of religious leaders

 Government made all economic decisions  Industrial Revolution  5 year plans  Limits on consumer goods  Shortages

 Collective farms  Protests by peasants  Forced collectives  Death of millions of Peasants  State run factory farms

 Women gain rights  Educational advancement  Motherhood as patriotic duty

 By the mid 1930’s Stalin had forcibly transformed the Soviet union into a totalitarian regime and industrial power  Stalin was unopposed as dictator  Individuality was not allowed  Rule by terror

 …Corrupts Absolutely