The Russian Revolution
It all started with the oppression of the people. Poor treatment of Russian civilians by the czar and his government caused much displeasure within the population. Horrible working conditions for the majority of the workers class were largely ignored by the government, and only became worse when Russia entered World War I.To make matters worse, on January 22, 1905, thousands of innocent civilians were gunned down during a peaceful protest, futher fueling the flames of revolution. As a result, they became furious with the ruling government and craved for change. All they needed was a strong leader to help them achieve their goal.Lenin was that leader.
Lenin Leads a Revolution
After the execution of his brother by the czar, Lenin joined up with the Bolsheviks and soon became their leader. He believed that Russia should become a mix of socialism and communism, calling it Marxism-Leninism. He was a strong leader, and was effective in convincing people to join his cause. A part of one of Lenin's speeches is a great example of his goals for Russia in the future and his charismatic powers.
"Sailors, comrades, we have to fight for a socialist revolution, to fight until the proletariat wins full victory! Long live the worldwide socialist revolution!"
With the help of the people and a majority of the Russia's military, which defected from the tzar to aid the common people, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were able to not only overthrow the tzar, but the provisional government set up in his stead as well. Lenin now had full control over the Russian government. Not everyone was happy about this though, but most were either powerless or not strong enough to overcome the power of the Bolsheviks. He would be the undisputed leader of Russia until his death in 1924.
"Sailors, comrades, we have to fight for a socialist revolution, to fight until the proletariat wins full victory! Long live the worldwide socialist revolution!"
With the help of the people and a majority of the Russia's military, which defected from the tzar to aid the common people, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were able to not only overthrow the tzar, but the provisional government set up in his stead as well. Lenin now had full control over the Russian government. Not everyone was happy about this though, but most were either powerless or not strong enough to overcome the power of the Bolsheviks. He would be the undisputed leader of Russia until his death in 1924.
Birth of the U.S.S.R
After losing so much money in WWI and on the revolution, the Russian economy was spent. Lenin realized this and knew that it was not yet time for his socialist plan, instead deciding to fix the economy first with the help of capitilism. This plan worked well and allowed him to move forward with his plan. From the beginning, Lenin had wanted to make Russia a socialist country, after hearing so much about it from the man who introduced socialism to Russia, Georgy Plekhanov, and from his wife, who was an activist for socialism. He renamed the whole continent of Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( the CCCP in Russian) and officialy changed the Bolsheviks into the communist party. They created a socialist constitution, but the USSR was far from a democratic country. Lenin had succeeded in creating a socialist dictatorship in which he held all the power.
Post-Lenin, Stalin Takes Center Stage
Lenin died of natural causes on January 21, 1924. The individual chosen to take over was Joseph Stalin, the man of steel. Interestingly, Lenin did not care for Stalin at all. In a document resembling a testament written by Lenin, he writes that Stalin had "personal rudeness" used "unnecessary roughness" and had a "lack of finesse". However, these characteristics that worried Lenin were disregarded by the other members of the communist party and Stalin was chosen as the next leader of the USSR. One of Stalin's first actions was to increase the size and power of the secret police. Over the span of his reign, thousands of people would be sent to gulags or killed by this secret police, the reason for this being Stalin's fear of losing power. He ordered all of the members of Lenin's cabinet to be assainated, excecuted, or imprisoned in order to secure his own position as the leader of the USSR. Along with them, any of their followers or suspected followers suffered the same fate. On top of this, Stalin developed an over inflated ego, ofter portraying himself as a godly figure. One of the ways he achieved this was by editing history to make himself sound like a hero in the revolution, when in reality he played a very minor role. This happened often in Stalin's USSR. The government controlled all sources of media, and would edit anything that the government felt would hurt them or that disagreed with communist ideals. Coupled with massive famines throughout the land, and people had a very good reason to revolt. And revolt they did, even though they all were very unsuccessful.
The People Rise Up, and Then Fall Back Down
Driven by famine, harsh government crack downs, and media censorship, the citizens of the USSR staged multiple revolts, all of which ended the same. One such example is the Pitchfork uprising of 1920. When Soviet troops demanded a portion of a small towns already limited supply of food, they declined. As a result, the soldiers detained some of the villagers, which did not please the rest of the town. They rose up against the soldiers and were able to kill them armed with only common farm tools. Soon, the revolution spread to other small towns in the area. They were able to take down about 800 soldiers, but at the cost of 3000 civilians. In the end, the civilians were forced to submit to the soldiers, and the revolution was quelled. This is just one example of many smaller revolts that took place under Stalin's leadership, and they are all important because they show how displeased the common man was with the government. Even though they might not have had a large impact immediately, over the course of Stalin's rule the small instances of defiance stack up and have some larger effects in the long run. These would occur even after Stalin died in the year 1953.