1. The Bolshevik Revolution & Beyond
World History 10B
The Bolshevik Revolution & Beyond

2. The Bolshevik Revolution
The Bolsheviks took control of many soviets soon after Lenin’s return to Russia
Remember soviets are councils composed of representatives from workers and soldiers
In November 1917 the Bolshevik Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd
Made up of armed factory workers
Arrested leaders of the provisional government
The revolution was over in mere hours

3. Storming the Winter Palace

4. Problems in Russia Lenin now had to deal with the czar’s problems
Distributed farmland among the peasants
Gave control of the factories to the workers
Signed a truce with Germany to stop fighting in World War I
Russia lost land to Germany in this truce, which angered many people

5. Vladimir Lenin

6. Getting Rid of enemies
The Bolsheviks felt they had to get rid of their enemies in Russia
As a result their opponents formed the White Army
Civil War – Red Guard vs. White Army
Western nations (like the U.S.) helped the whites
15 million Russians died from war, famine, and flu
Red Guard wins the war
Victory shows they were able to gain power and keep it
The still have lots of problems

7. Russian Civil War

8. Lenin Restores Order The Russian economy was in shambles
Lenin creates the New Economic Policy
NEP = small scale version of capitalism
They call the country the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Their constitution was based on socialist and democratic principles
Lenin dies in 1924
By 1928 the economy is like it was before WW1

9. Countries in the USsR

10. Stalin Takes Control
Joseph Stalin takes control of the country upon Lenin’s death
He chose the name Stalin which means “man of steel”, he was cold, hard, and impersonal
Lenin had been wary of Stalin before his death
Stalin had moved up in the communist party and placed supporters in key positions to help him take over

11. Joseph stalin

12. Violates democratic values 
Stalin Takes over
Stalin builds up a totalitarian state
Totalitarianism – government controls all aspects of public and private life
Stalin also sets up a command economy
Command economy – government makes all economic decisions
Security 
Violates democratic values 

13. Joseph Stalin

14. The Great purge Stalin wanted to make all decisions by himself
This led to the Great Purge, the removal of the Old Bolsheviks that had been involved in the early days of the movement
Purge = an abrupt or violent removal
Those purged were put on trial and condemned to death
Stalin also purged army officers, diplomats, union officials, party members, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens

15. The Great Purge An estimated 8 million Russians were arrested
Millions of others were sent to labor camps (gulags) in Siberia and never returned
Poor food rations, inadequate clothing, overcrowding, bad housing, poor hygiene, inadequate health care
All this while forced to do harsh physical labor
Others were executed
There are an estimated million unnatural deaths during this time period
34-49 million of these are directly linked to Stalin

16. Gulag