1. The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism

2. Essential Questions Why were the reform efforts in Russia prior to 1914 so ineffective at improving life and removing the deep discontent of Russia’s poor? Why was the Bolshevik faction able to take control of Russia in November 1917, even though it was a small organization even compared with other revolutionary parties? Were the millions of deaths and millions sent to the Gulag in the 1930s a terrible but necessary price the Soviet Union had to pay to industrialize rapidly, or were they completely unnecessary from any economic point of view?

3. Essential Questions (continued) Why did Khrushchev decide to criticize Stalin as he did in his famous “secret speech” to the Twentieth Party Congress? Why were Gorbachev’s efforts at reform ultimately unable to save Soviet communism and hold the Soviet Union together?

4. USSR History: The Short Version March 15, 1917: Tsar Nicholas II abdicated November 1917: Bolshevik revolution 1924: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev in power, initiated glasnost and perestroika 1989: USSR declined to intervene in East German demonstrations; Berlin wall opened 1991: Gorbachev resigned, republics formed Commonwealth of Independent States

5. Geography of the USSR

6. Diversity of Soviet Geography Above: Returning from a hunt in Altai province Left: fishing in the Dnieper River

8. Peoples of the USSR Up to 100 national groups Western USSR: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Caucasus: Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani Soviet Central Asia: Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakhstani, Kyrgyzstani Others: Finnish, Jewish, Inuit

10. 19th-Century Russia Romanov dynasty Territorial expansion after Congress of Vienna Decembrist revolt, 1825 Loss of Crimean War, 1856 Serfdom abolished, 1861 Industrial growth Political and social repression Russian Boyar (rich landlord)