1. Aim:: To what extent can an ideology break open the floodgates of revolution?

2. Modern Russia
2006 NY Times Article: Russians prefer a strong leader to democracy
"Two-thirds of Russians see a strong leader, and not democratic government, as best for their country, and an overwhelming majority see a strong economy as more important than a good democracy, according to the results of a survey that were released Thursday by the Pew Research Center...

3. The figures, based on the results of a survey conducted in May, show a sharp decline in enthusiasm for democracy among Russians compared with 1991, when the Soviet Union broke apart. At that time 51 percent of respondents felt Russia should rely on a democratic form of government to solve Russia's problems, while 39 percent preferred to rely on a leader with a strong hand."

4. RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

5. Vladimir Lenin Son of middle class government official
Went to college, learned from the “Intelligentsia” Marxism/Communism
Believed in need for professional revolutionaries, b/c of Russia’s peasantry
Exiled but returned to Russia, with German support during WWI
Bolshevik Party-Far Left Socialist party of Russia

6. Causes of the Revolution
WWI going badly for Russia-lost huge amounts of territory and men, ineffective leadership
Czar went to the front, took direct command of armies and failed miserably
Continued anger with poor working conditions, food shortages
Rasputin and the royal family

7. WHY IS IT A BAD IDEA TO LEAVE THE CAPITAL???

8. Czar Nicholas II and family

9. Rasputin

10. February Revolution
Nicholas II Abdication-retired with family to summer home, not killed (yet)
Provincial Government (basically the Duma)-led by Alexander Kerensky, Menshevik party (more moderate socialists), continued the war

11. April 1917 Lenin’s Theses

12. Communist Manifesto
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
5. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
6. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state...
7. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
8. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
9. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form...

13. October/November Revolution of 1917-"All power to the Soviets!"
Soviet-a type of workers group representatives that originally created to help the war effort
Lenin overthrows Provincial Government, not afraid to use force (120,000 Russian soldiers in St. Petersburg)
Seized telegraphs, RR’s, city under Bolshevik control
Petrograd Soviet becomes the government under Lenin’s leadership

14. Three Promises
Peace! Treaty of Brest-Litovsk w/Germany, gave up major territory ex: Poland, Ukraine
Russia lost 26% of pop
28% of industrial capacity
75% of coal and iron mines
Bread!-bring soldiers home to farm, not fight
Land!-land reform for peasants, huge free-for-all

15. Ideal Marxist/Communist Revolution
1) Country industrializes from an agrarian society to an industrial one
2) Industrialization causes horrible working conditions for workers and increasingly unequal distribution of wealth
3) Proletariat (industrial workers) revolt and take over country from bourgeoisie (wealthy middle and upper class)
4) Set up dictatorship of the proletariat that redistributes wealth of society "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".
5) The dictatorship is slowly dismantled, and society is left completely equal.