Dissent and revolution, 1917
Before 1917: Russia was ruled by an autocrat, Tsar Nicholas II. Most people were poor peasants; city workers lived in bad conditions. The First World War brought huge losses, food shortages and price rises. The Tsar took personal command of the army in 1915, so he was blamed for defeats.
February Revolution: strikes and bread riots in Petrograd; soldiers joined the crowds. The Tsar abdicated. Power was shared by the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet (council of workers and soldiers): 'dual power'.
Between the revolutions: the Provisional Government kept fighting the war and delayed land reform. Lenin returned and issued the April Theses ('Peace, Land, Bread', 'All power to the Soviets'). After the failed Kornilov affair in August, the Bolsheviks gained support.
October Revolution: led by Lenin and organised by Trotsky, the Bolsheviks seized key buildings in Petrograd and arrested the government, with little fighting.
Bolshevik consolidation, 1918–1924
- Dictatorship: the elected Constituent Assembly was closed in January 1918 after one day. Other parties were banned; the secret police (Cheka) carried out the Red Terror. In 1921 a 'ban on factions' stopped groups inside the party.
- Peace: the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) gave Germany much land but ended the war.
- Civil War (1918–21): the Reds beat the Whites (Tsarist officers, liberals and others), helped by foreign troops on the White side. The Reds won because they held the central cities and railways, had one command and a strong Red Army under Trotsky, while the Whites were divided.
- Economy: War Communism (grain seizures, state control of industry) fed the army but caused famine and revolt, including the Kronstadt sailors (1921). The New Economic Policy (NEP) allowed peasants to sell surplus food and small traders to work; output recovered.
- Foreign relations: other powers distrusted the Communists; the Comintern (1919) spread revolution abroad; the Treaty of Rapallo (1922) with Germany broke isolation. The USSR was formed in 1922.
Stalin's rise to power, 1924–1929
Lenin left no clear successor; his 'Testament' even warned against Stalin. The candidates:
- Trotsky: brilliant leader of the Red Army, wanted 'Permanent Revolution' (spread revolution abroad) and rapid industry; many saw him as arrogant.
- Zinoviev and Kamenev: leaders of the Left; first allied with Stalin against Trotsky.
- Bukharin: the Right; wanted to keep NEP and grow slowly.
- Stalin: as General Secretary (from 1922) he controlled party appointments and built a loyal base. He offered 'Socialism in One Country'.
He allied with the Left to defeat Trotsky (expelled 1927, exiled 1929), then with the Right to defeat the Left, then turned on Bukharin in 1928–29 over the grain crisis and NEP. Party government was now his to command.
Economy and society, 1929–1941
- Collectivisation: from 1929 peasants were forced to join collective farms (kolkhozes). Better-off peasants, called kulaks, were deported or killed. Peasants slaughtered animals in protest; grain output fell, yet the state took grain. The famine of 1932–33 killed millions, especially in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
- Five-Year Plans (from 1928): set huge targets for coal, steel, oil and electricity. New industrial cities like Magnitogorsk were built. Heavy industry grew very fast, but consumer goods, housing and quality suffered. Workers were pushed by the Stakhanovite movement, and harsh labour laws; prisoners of the Gulag also worked on projects.
- Stalin cult: pictures, statues, songs and rewritten history showed Stalin as the wise 'father of the peoples'.
- Society by 1941: literacy rose, more people lived in towns and more women worked, but living standards were low and fear was everywhere.
Stalinism, politics and control, 1929–1941
- Dictatorship: after the murder of Kirov (1934), purges grew. In the show trials (1936–38) old Bolsheviks such as Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin confessed to invented crimes and were shot.
- The Yezhovshchina (1936–38, named after NKVD chief Yezhov): the Great Terror. Around 1.5 million people were arrested in two years and about 680,000 shot; army officers were purged too. Millions were in the Gulag.
- Culture: socialist realism required art to praise the system; religion was attacked; the 1936 Constitution promised rights that were not real.
- International relations: the USSR joined the League of Nations (1934) and sought allies against Hitler, but after Munich it signed the Nazi–Soviet Pact (1939), gaining time and land.
The Great Patriotic War and Stalin's dictatorship, 1941–1953
Germany invaded in June 1941 and reached the edge of Moscow. Factories were moved east; the whole economy worked for war. The USSR won key battles at Moscow (1941), Stalingrad (1942–43) and Kursk (1943), helped by Allied supplies, and reached Berlin in 1945. About 27 million Soviet people died.
High Stalinism (1945–53): rebuilding through the Fourth Five-Year Plan; returning prisoners of war were treated as suspects; new purges (such as the Leningrad Affair) and the 'Doctors' Plot' against mainly Jewish doctors. The cult reached its peak.
World position: the USSR became a superpower, controlled Eastern Europe, tested an atomic bomb (1949) and faced the West in the Cold War. Stalin died in March 1953.
Try it: winners and losers of the plans
Make two lists: who gained from Stalin's changes (for example, new factory managers, some workers who rose in the party) and who lost (peasants, kulaks, people in the Gulag). Then use the slider in the 3D: compare 1928, 1932 and 1940. Which bars rose, and which did not?
Key formulas and definitions
- Bolsheviks = Lenin's party, later the Communist Party
- Dual power = Provisional Government + Petrograd Soviet (1917)
- War Communism = grain seizures and state control (1918–21)
- NEP = New Economic Policy, small private trade allowed (1921–28)
- Socialism in One Country = build socialism in the USSR first (Stalin)
- Collectivisation = forcing peasants into collective farms
- Five-Year Plan = state targets for industry
- Kulak = a better-off peasant, treated as a 'class enemy'
- Gulag = system of labour camps
- Great Terror / Yezhovshchina = mass arrests and executions, 1936–38
Worked examples
1. Explain why the Bolsheviks were able to seize power in October 1917.
The Provisional Government was weak: it kept fighting the war and delayed land reform, so it lost support. The Kornilov affair made the Bolsheviks look like defenders of the revolution and armed their Red Guards. Lenin's simple slogans and Trotsky's planning through the Soviet's military committee let them take Petrograd with little resistance.
2. Why did Stalin, and not Trotsky, win the power struggle?
Stalin's post as General Secretary let him appoint loyal officials who voted for him. He changed alliances skilfully, first with the Left against Trotsky, then with the Right. 'Socialism in One Country' was more popular than Trotsky's world revolution. Trotsky made mistakes: he seemed arrogant, missed Lenin's funeral and did not build a party base.
3. Assess the success of the first two Five-Year Plans.
In heavy industry they were a big success: coal, steel and electricity rose many times and new cities and dams were built, helping the USSR survive in 1941. But targets were often faked, quality was poor, consumer goods and housing lagged, and the cost was huge: forced labour, harsh laws and the countryside drained by collectivisation. A balanced answer: a success for state power, a failure for living standards.
Common mistakes
- Mixing up the February Revolution (Tsar falls) and the October Revolution (Bolsheviks take power).
- Thinking Stalin seized power right after Lenin's death. It took him five years of political moves (1924–29).
- Thinking collectivisation increased grain output. Output fell at first; the state still took grain, causing famine.
- Thinking the Great Terror only targeted enemies of the state. Ordinary workers, party members and army officers were all victims.