October 29, 2024

We continued early Europe talking about the Dutch and the Spanish. The Duke of alba was an important figure and so was William the Silent (another Orange William, I guess they really liked that name).

You’re all here for the big one. This lecture for modern Europe was all about the Russian Revolution and the USSR. Although it wasn’t a normal lecture. These were video lectures on Kanopy that I think you all can watch yourselves. The professor is not mine. We were taught by Dr. Robert Bucholz. If you want to watch the lectures yourself just go to Kanopy and find the series called “Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Importance of the West.” The two episodes we had to watch were “The Russian Revolution - 1917-1922” and “Totalitarian Russia - 1918-39”. As you can tell by that last one these lectures were a doozy. They actually took me a few day to get through, because even though they were both only half an hour long, I had to keep pausing to write down every bit of what he was saying because I needed to share it with you all. So let’s get into it.

Russia is the largest state on the planet comprising of multiple ethnic groups. At the time it wasn’t just Muscovy and Siberia, but also Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland. Because of being a multi-ethnic nation, there were tensions between these groups. There were also distance problems and it made it hard to maintain authority. In the 19th century there was harsh repression, Russia was considered the “prison house of nations,” and was viewed as the most conservative, economically backward state. The social structure was an ancient regime, the Tsar was considered only second to God but also “batiushka” (which means “little father”). This leadership was also reinforced by the Orthodox Church. Landed aristocracies owned most of the land, which was worked by peasants. Those peasants used to be serfs prior to the 1860s. In 1917 eighty percent of the population were peasants. There were small urban elites in the cities who were encouraged by the Tsar, and also professionals. Urban workers accounted for ten percent of the population and were poorly paid. They tried to organize labour unions but were suppressed by the Tsar. These urban workers were literate and open to new ideas, they were ready for change.

Economically, Russia was overwhelmingly agricultural. There was little machinery and everything was mostly done by manual labour. Russia would also be the last European power to industrialize. It had been trying to westernize since the times of Peter the Great. Secret organizations formed to urge reform, there were three main groups: the populists, the anarchists, and the socialists. The Populists wanted to free the serfs and improve the lot of the peasants. The Anarchists saw al forms of government as oppressive and wanted to overthrow it. The Socialists wanted revolution, but they were split between two sects: the Socialist revolutionary Party and the Marxists. The socialist Revolutionary Party (1901) sought to improve the lot of the peasants and were willing to engage in acts of terrorism. The Marxists wanted to politicize the urban workers, they were also called the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party founded in 1898, but it split into two factions in 1903: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks were named that from the Russian word for “majority,” although they were only a majority due to people walking out. They were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. They wanted a centralized and disciplined party, revolution would come from a small, socialist elite. A smaller, intellectually coherent party was better. The Mensheviks were called that from the Russian word for “minority,” they were more like a big tent (loosely organized) and intellectual moderates. There was also the constitutional Democrats which were a moderate liberal party.

Let’s talk about Russian royalty. We began with Alexander II and he was willing to meet reform groups halfway. He eased censorship; reformed law so that everyone was equal under it; reduced enlistment of conscripts from 25 to 6 years; freed the serfs (endowed them with land), although they had to compensate the nobles by taking out loans which just made the serfs more impoverished; created zemstvos (local representative bodies) but those were dominated by local nobles; and imposed Russification in provinces (denial of nationalistic impulses). Radicals did not believe these went far enough, and thus Alexander II was assassinated by The People’s Will (anarchist group) in 1881. His successor was much less tolerant. Alexander III turned his back on reform and reintroduced repression. He intensified Russification, nationalist movements were crushed. Religious minorities were repressed (mainly Catholics, Protestants, and Jews). Jews were forced to live in special settlements, prohibited from being in certain professional, and were subject to pogroms which were race riots (mostly spontaneous and encouraged by the Tsar). Political freedoms were reduced: power of the zemstvos was curtailed; popular education was discouraged; press was heavily censored; secret police existed; and dissidents were imprisoned, exiled, or killed. Political assassinations became more common. Industrialization was encouraged, trade unions were outlawed, and working conditions were very poor. Now we get to the main guy, Tsar Nicholas II who ascended the thrown in 1894. The lecturer brings up Robert Massie’s famous book that paints a certain narrative of the Romanov’s:

Nicholas II was a weak man who relied on his wife, Alexandra. This marriage was diplomatic initially but would blossom into a great love story, this love story would be blighted after the birth of their first son, Alexei. Alexei had hemophilia which was certainly fatal at the time, and only the Mad Monk Rasputin seemed to have a positive (psychosomatic) effect on Alexei’s condition. Grigori Rasputin had Alexanndra’s devotion and confidence due to his effect on her son. But this sentiment was unwarranted as Rasputin was a glutton, drunkard, and apparently very smelly. He gave political advice to Alexandra, urging continued repression, so Alexandra would send the message to Nicholas so he would enforce it. So he did, alongside enforcing antisemitism. This al would lead to a series of disasters.

This is a neat story, but all this does not fit the facts! Nicholas had always been incompetent, long before Rasputin entered the picture. He was ruining Russia all on his own. In 1904 he started an ill advised war with Japan: in the early 1900s, Russia had expanded into Asia, moving troops into Manchuria, threatened by Japan’s plans to move into the Korean Peninsula. Japan would make a surprise siege on Port Arthur, to combat this Nicholas dispatched the Russian Baltic Fleet, and if you know where the hell the Baltics are you’ll quickly realize how stupid this move was. It was an 8 month voyage, so by the time the fleet made contact with the Japanese they were easily destroyed. Japan had also been armed by the British too so there’s that element. This forced the Russians to sue for peace. The Treaty of Portsmouth was humiliating, it surrendered the lease to Port Arthur, made the Russians evacuate Manchuria, and recognized Japan’s right to move into Korea. Teddy Roosevelt got the Nobel Peace Prize for this. Russia’s surrender directly led to the 1905 revolution.

In the fall of 1904 there were a series of strikes or better pay and working conditions, they failed. On January 22, 1905 a peaceful crowd gathered at the Winter Palace to petition the Tsar for better working conditions, but the Royal family was not there. Th imperial guards panic and fire into the crowd killing around 100 people. This would be called Bloody Sunday, which led to the General Strike forcing the government to negotiate. In 1906 Nicholas was forced to concede the creation of a weak legislature (Duma) which granted civil liberties like the right of assembly. Works would organize elected councils called Soviets. The government would reassert itself by suppressing workers organizations and ethnic groups. 1000s of revolutionaries were imprisoned or exiled, two of them being Lenin and Trotsky. Liberal cadets opted for reform; socialist revolutionaries leaned towards terrorism; Mensheviks urged cooperation and legislation; the Bolsheviks wanted revolution, underground newspapers and illegal strikes were in the works. Nicholas and Alexandra listened to Rasputin’s calls for crushing dissent, yet Nicholas’ biggest mistake was not Rasputin’s fault: WWI. Rasputin himself was actually against getting involved in the war.

Like many other people round the world, WWI was initially seen as patriotic and God ordained. Opponents of the war were considered traitors. Radicals were swept up in the fervour of nationalism, only the Bolsheviks opposed it, arguing that the war was only for profit and killed workers. WWI would claim 7.3 million lives. Mobilization disrupted food supplies and famine ensued. March (February) 1917, protests in Petrograd and mutiny in the army led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provincial government headed by Alexander Kerensky. This Provisional government was a liberal coalition. It needed Tsarist repression which would release the radicals from exile, Soviets of workers and soldiers were reactivated. At the end of March, Petrograd Soviets united which provided an alternate source of power from the government; it created a commission to examine food supply problems, published newspaper called “izvestia” (the facts). On march 1st they issued order #1: all soldiers and sailors obey the orders of Petrograd soviets; council of soldiers could debate said orders; no solider needs to salute their superior officers. Around this time the Germans would round up the exiled (including Lenin and Trotsky) and gave them tickets to Russia.

It’s time to talk about Vladimir Lenin. When he got to Russia he immediately gave fiery speeches some of his most famous being “Bread, Peace, Land!” “Down with the Provisional Government!” And “All power to the Soviets!” He was joined by Leon Trotsky who brought over a lot of Mensheviks. Both of them attracted dispirited soldiers, alienated workers, and students who formed the Red Guard. Workers would form factory committees and demand control of the means of production. To Lenin, Marxist revolution was happening. In the country side peasants would form Soviets, seizing land from landlords (spring and summer of 1917). All victims of the Tsar are on the move, the Kerensky government was a huge disappointment. It wanted to continue the war, refused land reform, included lots of industrialists in the cabinet, and urged that the oppressed must fight for “mother Russia.” But people said “thats not my mother!” Although, most people at the time were not radicalized and much preferred a moderate socialist platform. International communist Bolsheviks were still viewed as extremists. In June the first election for representative soviets was held. Moderate socialists won the majority and the Bolsheviks only won 137 delegates out of 1090. But hard times favour radical solutions and Lenin’s people were consistent and offered solutions. In the summer of 1917 the government was in crisis. The first congress of Soviets backed anti-war demonstrations and the Bolsheviks call for the overthrow of the government. The government would respond with repression, arresting Trotsky and forcing Lenin into hiding. September (August) 1917 saw General Kornilov turn against the government. Kerensky appears to radical leaders, like Lenin, to defend the February revolution from Kornilov. To do this he gave the Bolsheviks and their allies arms. They amassed 25000 followers to defend Petrograd and ended up convincing Kornilov to join them. The coup was successfully suppressed. But now the Bolsheviks were legitimized, Kerensky made a devil’s bargain.

October 10, Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to seize power, Trotsky formed the revolutionary military committee. November 5-6 (October 25-26) railway stations, central telephone exchange, state bank, and main post office were all occupied by the Bolsheviks. Red Guards surrounded the Winter Palace, a Naval cruiser called “Aurora” fired on the palace. The palace was stormed and the provisional government was arrested. Power was handed to the Soviet council of People’s Commissars with Lenin as chairman. Kerensky fees and the Soviet Republic is declared. It was originally multi-party; the executive was the Council of People’s Commissars; the legislature was the Congress of Soviets, elected from various local bodies with many opinions. Initially there was freedom of the press and assembly; equal rights for women; regulation of banks; nationalized healthcare; public education and housing; freedom of worship and end of Orthodox Church privileges; self-determination of ethnic groups; and government officials earn no more than factory workers. By the end of the year things would change. Lenin and the Bolsheviks would claim that the revolution was threatened by counter revolutionaries, the oldest excuse in the book. They oiled seize absolute control, freedom of the press was curtailed, liberal cadets outlawed, and the Mensheviks and Socialist revolutionaries purged. There was the creation of the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Speculation and Sabotage, also known as CHEKA. They were a secret police force tasked with rooting out enemies of the revolution and were the parent of the NKVD and KGB. The greatest enemy of the revolution was the royal family and they would be executed by firing squad in 1918. A lot of the lecturers students have a hard time with this fact and he says while it is not excusable, it must be recalled that the Royals were universally blamed for Russia’s problems. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, pursuing Realpolitik, knew that as long as the royals lived then someone might try to restore them, they had to go (this is my personal thought, the Bolsheviks killed their Tsar but China rehabilitated their emperor, what’s the difference in these case studies? This is a genuine question because I’ve seen people lightly bash the Soviets for this “mistake” and praise China for their methods so I want to know what you all think).

Lenin’s war communism had four points: seizure of land by peasants, seizure of factories by the workers, immediate peace, and exportation of international communism. The Third Communist International would foment revolution in Germany, Austria, and Hungary; brother communist revolutions. The results of War Communism? It was a disaster. Land reform (collectivization) made communists lose support of the peasants, communists were hated for diverting food to the cities because the peasants were starving too. Any revolts they attempted were put down ruthlessly. Factory seizures did not go well, factory owners threatened sabotage and so the government moved fast (too fast). They fired factory foremen and middle management, putting workers in charge. But the workers were inexperienced as managers. Pace was negotiated by Leon Trotsky, an armistice was signed December 5, 1917. Trotsky stalled during negotiations to wait for revolution but it did not happen. Germans took territory and the Russians were exhausted. So it culminates in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918): Russia was forced to concede Poland and 1/4 of their European territory, which happened to contain 1/3 of Russia’s heavy industry and 1/2 of its coal and iron manufacturing. Lenin’s exporting of revolution enraged the Allies. So much so that they blockaded Russia, which increased the food crisis, and they contacted counter-revolutionaries sending them troops in 1919. This would cause Trotsky to form the Red Army. Personal freedoms and right to dissent were curtailed, CHEKA was strengthened, and the death penalty was reimposed. The Red Terror saw 1000s of opposition figures executed.

Now we move on to the second lecture video “Totalitarian Russia 1918-1939” and let me warn you that it is a DOOZY. To make a long story short this was my reaction while listening to the entire video:

Show

The lecture begins with the definition of Totalitarianism: a form of government permitting no rival loyalties or parties. Totalitarian regimes are more repressive of dissent than absolutist monarchies. It implies the use/threat of force to ensure loyalty; surveillance, imprisonment, torture, and liquidation are all on the table. The state monitors public and private life and uses modern technology and propaganda. Leaders are presented as godlike benefactors, he then takes the time to compares posters of Hitler and Stalin. Socialism and nationalism are integral to a totalitarian state’s ideology. Socialism is used to convince citizens they have it good, that they are better off than others; while nationalism is used to justify aggressive foreign policy. Totalitarianism can apply to any ideology, left or right. He goes on to say that the Soviet Union was the granddaddy of all totalitarian states.

The Brest-Litovsk treaty was an absolute disaster. The Socialist Revolutionary Party denounced it and left the Council of People’s Commissars. Extreme members launched assassination attempts to restart the war, they even killed the German ambassador to Moscow. Bolshevik leaders were also attacked, Lenin was critically injured and would never truly recover (this really broke my heart, I wish that treaty went better, maybe this wouldn’t have happened). So in truth, the first ever counter-revolution in Russia actually came from the left, not the right. Like the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks responded with the Red Terror which set Russia on the path to becoming a one-party state. July 1918, Congress of Soviets approved the first constitution of Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). From 1918 to 1922 was the Civil war. It was between the Red Russians (communists) and White Russians (Ukrainians). White Russians had a common cause with monarchists, liberals, non-communist socialists, Mensheviks, and anyone who was anti-communist. Germans, prisoners from Austria-Hungary, Americans, British, French, and Japanese all joined the Whites. Churchill justified the invasions by saying “Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle.” Spring 1920, Poland invades (supporting the Whites) to restore historical Poland-Lithuania. In 1919, the Whites launch an offensive on Moscow, but the Red Army held and the Soviet state barely survived.

The Treaty of Riga was signed in 1921. Russia had to cede western Ukraine and Byelorussia (Belarus) to Poland, and the Soviet Union accepted the de facto independence of Finland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. From 1914-1921, Russia’s population fell. The Soviet Union would spend much of the twentieth century getting that land and people back. Spring 1921, Petrograd workers and Kronstadt sailors revolted against Communist control, they were shot. Factionalism was outlawed within the Communist Party.

The New Economic Policy was a response to the failure of War Communism. It slowed and sometimes reversed communization. There was a partial return to pre-war capitalism. Farmers could sell their surplus yields and grow prosperous, these prosperous farmers were called Kulaks. There was an ease in control on trade and industry. Lenin also retreated from international communism. The NEP was, by and large, a success. 1928, production recovered to pre-war levels, food was plentiful, and wages increased. The West viewed the NEP as a sign of maturity (which to me is a bit condescending but what do I know). By 1925 most diplomatic relationships were restored, save for the US. There was bitter debate between gradualists and those who wanted immediate change. In 1922, Lenin suffered a paralytic stroke and was incapacitated, he died in 1924 at the age of 53. The front runner to leading the Soviet Union was Leon Trotsky. He was a close associate of Lenin post-revolution, and was a brilliant intellectual and important theorist. He was an effective organizer; established the Military Revolution Committee; and the Red Army. But he was not a good negotiator (Brest-Litovsk) He was only rivalled by one person: Josef Stalin. (Prepare yourselves for this part, its wild)

Born Josef Dzhugashvili, son of a Georgian serf turned shoemaker. He was. Expelled from theological seminary for his socialist views in 1894 and joined the Bolsheviks in 1903, he was a social democrat before this. He was imprisoned multiple times (1903-1912) and imprisoned to Siberia (1913-1917). He helped with the foundation of Pravda in 1911 and adopted the name “Stalin” in 1913, which is Russian for “man of steel.” He was not Lenin’s first choice. He thought Stalin was rude, on his death bed he said Stalin should shunted aside for someone “more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerable to comrades, less capricious,” etc. Lenin was a good judge of character. Stalin did not have great intellectual abilities. He was also only a secretary in the Party (would become general secretary in 1922). He was actually made fun of, being called “Comrade Card Index.” But we should all know never mess with the secretary. Stalin used his position to watch over membership, fill it with supporters, and purge it of Trotskyites. He kept them out of sensitive jobs and then expelling them. 1925, Stalin forced Trotsky’s resignation as minister of war and banished him to Siberia. In 1929 Trotsky was banished abroad. Trotsky wrote against Stalin in “History of the Revolution” and “Revolution Betrayed.” In 1940 Trotsky was murdered in Mexico, probably on Stalin’s orders. The Sabotage Trials(1928-1933) saw Russians and foreign engineers being accused of sabotaging Russian industry; foreigners denied the charges, but the Russians confessed, probably because they were beaten. The outside world thought this was an attempt to explain away quota failures and the slow progress of the Russian economy. The Treason Trials (1934-1938) were a series of purges after the assassination of Sergei Kirov. Stalin alleged that there was a plot by Trotsky and Hitler to assassinate him. Torture was used and paved the way for executions of important party leaders. June 1937, Red Army leaders were secretly put on trial. The purges and gulag created a whole genre of literature: Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon,” Osip Mandelstam’s memoirs, Solzhenitsyn’s “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “the Gulag Archipelago” (I rolled my eyes at this part), and Shalamov’s “Kolyma Tales”. Shalamov was a 22 year old law student imprisoned without charge. His book was smuggled to the West in 1966 and he was forced to sign a statement disavowing it. The lecturer then goes on to read a lengthy excerpt from the book that I did not write down.

The NKVD was created in 1934, called the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. It was originally under Nikolay Yezhov where it arrested several million, shot 1 million, and maybe 2 million died in the camps. The purges ended in 1938 because even Stalin believed they went too far. He purged Yezhov and replaced him with Lavrentiy Beria (the lecturer called him “one of his cronies”) as head of the NKVD. Art and the press were strictly censored t ensure loyalty to Stalin. The had writers and composer unions, which were a good deal for starving artists, all they had to do was never think for themselves. Art was prohibited from ever critiquing Stalin or the state and they had to avoid avant garde and anything too difficult for ordinary people—or Stalin—to understand. Socialist realism was the only approved art style. It worked to praise the party and the new state.many great artists fled but some were brave enough to push the envelope. Like Dmitri Shostakovich who alternated between being an enemy of the people and hailed as the people’s artists. Boris Pasternak was denounced by the party due to his book “Dr. Zhivago” which got him a Nobel prize. He was forced to refuse it. All of this was necessary for Stalin to make him the undisputed master of the Soviet Union. H was marked by paranoia and egotism. The “ultimate basis of Stalin’s power was not the assent of his people, or even of the communist party; it was fear, the fear of CHEKA or the NKVD knocking on your door in the middle of the night.”

On the surface, the Soviet constitution was progressive. The union was defined as a loose federal system with elements of democracy, 16 republics in federal union. The republics were initially granted great autonomy; over time they would be increasingly controlled by Moscow. The legislature was the supreme Soviet, and when not in session it was taken over by a presidium of 27. The Council of the People’s Commissars was appointed by the Supreme Soviet. Regional and local Soviets gave the impression of devolved power. There was also universal suffrage. The Bill of Rights and Freedoms seemed to guarantee rights and freedoms. Rights and freedoms were always interpreted for the good of the workers; the workers state; the Soviet Union. Suffrage was pointless since there was only one party. The whole superstructure of the Stalin Constitution was an empty shell because there were barely any choices.

Stalin had three 5 Year Plans to catapult Russia’s industry into modern times. It poured national resources into developing steel, coal, heavy machinery and railways, sacrificing everything else. The 5 Year Plans were largely successful, from 1927-1937 machinery production expanded by 1400%. Russian production was second only to the USA. Collectivization in agriculture was less successful. Stalin reversed the NEP and in the late 20s, brutally liquidated the Kulaks and confiscated land (he did not explain how this was done, just assume that if a statement is made with no details he did not give any because I would’ve written it down). The resulting murder and food supply disruption in Ukraine and Kazakhstan from 1932-35 killed perhaps 5-7 million. In the late 30s grain yields were up by 30-40 million tons.

Social welfare seemed progressive. It guaranteed full employment, free healthcare, housing, and education. Post-revolution encouraged gender equality with birth control and abortion. The medical care and housing were provided at a rudimentary level, especially for drafted workers; whole families would be crowded into one room, few houses had running water, electricity, and central heating. Washing clothes typically took all day, in 1935 there were only 180 laundries in the USSR. Worried about the birth rate, Stalin rolled back gender equality. 1934 saw abortion and homosexuality criminalized (it was not mentioned that homosexuality was decriminalized after the revolution). The family was made responsible for state crimes of its members; you could go to the Gulag if your relative did or said something bad. 1936, limits on divorce and the state emphasized childbearing as a social duty; promoting women to management positions were also rolled back. Education was often very good but was as much indoctrination as education. Religion was grudgingly tolerated and was used in a program to revive Russian nationalism, this program glorified the Russian past as a prelude to Stalin. Stalin was portrayed as the true ancestor of the great Tsars. This program was contrary to Marx; religion, nationalism, the family: all strengthen the state, it was not withering away.

Now we move on to Stalin’s foreign. Policy. The world saw the USSR as a rogue nation, this sentiment came from both the fear of the spread of communism and moral disgust of the execution of the Tsar. But the USSR was too big and valuable to shove aside. The Treaty of Rapallo was signed between Germany and the USSR, both countries had no other friends so they thought “why not?” From the USSR’s point of view they were the one surrounded by enemies (this sentiment would last until the fall of the Kremlin 1989-1991). In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and created border tensions that erupted into fighting in 1938. Stalin was initially supportive of Hitler as an ally against the Liberal West, but he would grow fearful of Hitler’s anti-communism. By the mid 30s Stalin urged for an alliance against the Axis powers. He begged the League of Nations to do something about the rising menace but they did nothing. In 1938 Stalin offered to defend Czechoslovakia when Hitler wanted Sudetenland and asked the British and French to do the same. Instead they signed the Munich agreement. Western democracies feared Stalin’s international revolutionary communism more than Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s Nazism. This strikes us now as strange and can be explained in the next (video) lecture.

That was the end of this unit. And no, the next lecture of my actual class from my actual professor was not about this, I was just quoting what Dr. Robert Bucholz said. So what did you think? I apologize for this being so long but I went a bit crazy constantly pausing and writing down what was said so I could share it with you. I did a little bit of research on Dr. Robert Bucholz and it turns out he’s a historian of Britain, which makes so much sense.