The Russian Revolution

1. The Russian Revolution Unlikely revolution?

2. Marx’s theory of revolution • Revolution as the product of class struggle • State is the instrument of the ruling class • Revolution to occur at the highest phases of capitalism • Polarization between owners of property – bourgeoisie and a proletariat (underclass), increasingly conscious of its exploitation • Proletariat seizes power, violently or otherwise, uses its control of the state to establish socialism and create eventual conditions for communism

3. Lenin’s modification • Revolution in a backward country can serve as a catalyst for revolution elsewhere • Analogy: Chain breaks at its weakest link • Revolution does not depend on inevitable class consciousness • Instead, can be brought about by a small conspiratorial organization – a vanguard party

4. The situation in Russia • Capitalism at its incipient rather than advanced stages • Country more agrarian than industrial • Peasantry barely removed from feudalism • Industrial working class only in certain cities such as Petrograd (St. Petersburg)

5. Bases for revolution in Russia • Tsarist regime thoroughly autocratic • Minimal concessions made – then reversed – to allow participation of newer classes or groups • Russia exhausted by participation in war • Prosecution of war increasingly erratic

6. Events • February 1917 Revolution • Tsar overthrown, Provisional Government established • Provisional government tries to continue war • Troops rebel, power shifts to Soviets (councils) in different cities • Bolsheviks gain ascendancy over other groups • Bolsheviks seize power in October 1917

7. Problems confronting the new regime • Establishing control • What to do about the war • How to proceed with the revolution

8. Solutions • Sue for peace • Accept Brest-Litovsk Treaty, including ceding substantial territory to Germany • Fight civil war against • Other socialist parties • White Russian forces – rump of nobility • Neighbouring countries (over borders) • Allied armies • Suspend Constituent Assembly, elected in 1918 • Implement ‘war communism’ – seize food, material needed for war effort • Consolidate power circa 1920

9. The revolutionary project • What to do when revolution elsewhere fails to materialize as expected? • Options: • Continue to promote world revolution? • Try to build socialism in one country?

10. Lenin’s interim solution: • New Economic Policy (NEP) -- a temporary reversion to capitalism (one step backward, two steps forward) in order to get the economy going again (1921-28) • Ultimate direction: determined by Lenin’s impairment (1922) and death, 1924, and Stalin’s succession to power

11. Stalin’s succession • Stalin • A lesser figure in Bolshevik hierarchy • However, as general secretary of the Communist Party, well placed • Uses control of the administrative apparatus to advance supporters • 1925: Moves against left --Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev in defense of NEP • 1927/28: Moves against Bukharin and moderates to promote socialism in one country

12. Socialism in one country • Use of party and state apparatus, including terror, in order to industrialize USSR, lay the conditions for socialism and communism • Via series of five year plans • Justification • Bourgeoisie in Russia had failed to industrialize the country and establish the conditions for socialism • Therefore the party and state would do it instead

13. Consequences • Agriculture collectivized, opponents liquidated • Russia industrialized • Decline in individual consumption • Stalin uses purges (1930s) in order to consolidate power • USSR substantially isolated from other countries