Communist Russia

5.01 Authoritarian States

Notes

• Modern Authoritarianism (post-1914)
• 1921-03 New Economic Policy
• 4.01 The Rise of Stalin
  • 1923 Nomenklatura system
  • Party Centralisation of Russia’s Communist Party, post-Civil War
  • Ideological Views and Attitudes Towards Peasants
  • Collectivisation in the USSR
• 4.02 Modernising the USSR
  • Five-Year Plans in Soviet Russia
  • Methods of Soviet control over society (1930s-1940s)
    • 1936 The Great Terror
• Proletarianisation
• USSR and China’s relationship – in relation to 🇨🇳 Communist China

Key historical concepts

• Feudalism/Monarchy: Tsar Nicholas II
• Capitalism:
• Socialism: when workers take control of the state
  • factories + machines are owned collectively and run by the state
  • everybody is equal
  • ends the class system
  • wealth is shared fairly
  • everyone is entitled to good housing and standard of living
• Communism:
  • an ideal utopia
• the size of Russia – it’s really big
  • there’s only one railway – the Trans-Siberian Railway

Important people

• Tsar Nicholas II – last Tsar of Russia,
• ==Joseph Stalin==
• Vladimir Lenin – leader of the Bolsheviks, “Peace, Land and Bread!”
• Leon Trotsky – Stalin viewed him as his greatest threat
  • commanded the Red Army to a win against the Mensheviks
  • an intellectual, strong writer & orator
  • eventually fled Russia, but was still killed in 1940 Mexico by a KGB assassin with an ice pick
    1. even after he fled, he was still Stalin’s No. 1 enemy

Background

• Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905
  • first time in modern history an Asian country defeated a Western empire
  • Japan defeated Russia on both land and sea
    • proved how backwards Russia was