Agenda 2-4-2013
• BW – Define Communist Party
• Describe – New Economic Policy (pg.872)
• CW – Notes
• HW – Primary Source Reading on Lenin
• QOTD – “You can still dunk in the dark”
- Oreo
What impact
did Vladimir
Lenin have
on Russia?
Notes #4-2
• As the leader of the Bolsheviks, he
promised “Peace, Bread, and Land” to
gain popular support to overthrow the
Russian government.
One Government out, the next
one in
• The Provisional Government Topples
In November 1917, workers take
control of the government
• Bolsheviks in Power
• Lenin gives land to peasants, puts
workers in control of factories
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Lenin had Russia sign a peace treaty
with Germany, ending its involvement
in WWI.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918
Civil War
Civil War Rages in Russia
•Civil War between Bolsheviks’ Red Army
and loosely allied White Army
•Red Army wins three-year war that leaves
14 million dead
Comparing World Revolutions
•Russian, French Revolutions similar—both
attempt to remake society
Political Reforms
• Lenin and the Communists politically
reorganized Russia,
• Creates self-governing republics (mini-
states) under national government
Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics
(U.S.S.R.); 1922 – 1991
Political Reforms (cont’d)
• In 1922, country renamed Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
• Communist Party—new name taken by
Bolsheviks from writings of Marx
Flag of the Flag of the
Russian Empire Soviet Union
COMMUNISM
•Lenin believed in the ideas of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels and had the Bolshevik
Party change their name to the Communist
Party.
The Communist Manifesto:
• Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels.
Friedrich
Karl Marx Engels
• According to Marx and Engels, history
can be viewed as a continuous struggle
between economic classes.
Working class (proletariat) vs. Wealthy class (capitalist class)
• A main idea of The Communist
Manifesto was that the proletariat must
unite to overthrow the capitalist class.
• This leads to private property ceasing
to exist and the people owning the
means of production, creating a system
of communism.
• once communism emerges, the evils of
industrial society would disappear.
New Economic Policy
• In March 1921, Lenin launches New
Economic Policy; (has some capitalism)
• NEP and peace restore economy
shattered by war, revolution
• By 1928, Russia’s farms, factories are
productive again
A New Leader?
• Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin compete
to replace Lenin when he dies
• Joseph Stalin—cold, hard Communist
Party general secretary in 1922
Joseph Leon
Stalin Trotsky
And the winner is……Stalin!
• Stalin gains power from
1922 to 1927
• Lenin dies in 1924
• Stalin gains complete
control in 1928; Trotsky
forced into exile
Only Party
• Communist Party was the only party
that ran the government, using violence
and terror to force control.
