HISTORY CH-2

SOCIALISM IN EUROPE &

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
 AGE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
▪The French Revolution of 1789 gave momentum to the ideas of
freedom and equality in Europe.
▪In India, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
popularized the ideals of the French Revolution.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Henry Louis Vivian Derozio

▪ But not all people were in favour of complete transformation of society .
▪ Responses varied from those who accepted that change was necessary to those
who wanted to restructure the society radically.
▪ The 3 categories of people included :

LIBERALS EUROPE CONSERVATIVES

RADICALS
 RADICALS
LIBERALS • They were opposed to
CONSERVATIVES
concentration of power in
• They were opposed to the few hands.
• They were opposed to • They were opposed to
absolute power of the
privileges of landowners & the liberals and radicals.
monarch.
wealthy factory owners. • They accepted some
• Wanted to safeguard
• They were not against the change was inevitable in
individual rights through existence of private 19th century.
an elected parliamentary property. • They believed the past
system of government & • They wanted a nation in had to be respected &
independent judiciary. which government was
change had to be brought
• They did not believe in based on majority of the
about through a gradual
universal adult franchise. country’s population.
• Favoured women’s process.
• Wanted voting rights for
men of property only. suffragate .
 INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND CHANGE
▪ This was the period of industrialization when new cities and new
industrial regions developed, railways expanded and the Industrial
Revolution started .

▪ Men , women and children worked in the factories.

▪ The working hours were long and wages were low.
▪ The main problems faced were :
1. Unemployment 2. Housing 3. Sanitation
▪ The Liberals and Radicals who were factory owners opposed
the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy on the basis of birth.
▪ They stressed that the benefits of industrialization should be
passed on to the workers.
 COMING OF SOCIALISM TO
EUROPE
▪ The idea of Socialism attracted widespread attention in mid 19th
century Europe.
▪ Socialists were against private property and saw it as the root of all
social evils.
ROBERT OWEN
▪ Socialists had different visions of the future.
▪ Robert Owen sought to built a cooperative community called New
Harmony in Indiana (U.S.A.).
▪ In France, Louis Blanc wanted the government to encourage co-
operatives to replace capitalist enterprises.
▪ Co-operatives were associations of people who produced goods
together and divided the profits amongst the members according to
the work done by them.
LOUIS BLANC
 COMING OF SOCIALISM TO
EUROPE

▪ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels added their own ideas.

▪ Karl Marx argued that industrial society was capitalist,
where the capitalists owned the capital invested in
factories. They were the ones who earned all profits.
KARL MARX
▪ Marx argued that to free themselves from capitalist
exploitation , workers had to construct a radically socialist
society where all property was socially controlled.
▪ This would be a Communist Society – considered as the
natural society of the time.

FREDERICK ENGELS
 SUPPORT FOR SOCIALISM
▪ By the 1870s, Socialist ideas spread throughout Europe.
▪ To co ordinate their efforts, Second International – an international body was
formed.
▪ Workers in England and Germany began to form associations to fight for
better living and working conditions.
▪ They demanded reduction of working hours
and the right to vote.
▪ Example –Social Democratic Party in Germany
Labour Party In England in 1905
Socialist Party in France in 1905
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
 RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN 1914
▪ In 1914, the Russian Empire was ruled by Tsar
Nicholas II, who was a corrupt & oppressive ruler.
▪ The Russian empire included Moscow, Finland, TSAR NICHOLAS II
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland,
Ukraine and Belarus.
▪ Russian empire stretched to the Pacific and
comprised Central Asian states like Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
▪ The majority religion was Russian Orthodoxy
Christianity.
▪ Empire also included Catholics, Protestants,
Muslims & Buddhists.
 ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
▪ At the beginning of the 20th century, 85% of the Russian population
were agriculturists.

▪ Russia was a major exporter of grain.

▪ Prominent industrial areas were Moscow and St. Petersburg.

▪ In 1890s Russia’s railway network expanded and foreign investment

in industry increased .

▪ Industries were controlled by industrialists.

▪ Workers were divided into groups on the basis of their skill.

▪ Women made up 31% of the factory labour force by 1914.

▪ Despite divisions, workers united to strike work when they were WORKERS ON STRIKE
unhappy with the working conditions and working hours.
 RUSSIAN PEASANTS
▪ In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land.
▪ The Russian peasants had no respect for the nobility.
▪ They refused to pay rent.
▪ They wanted lands of the nobles to be given to them.
▪ The peasants even murdered the landlords, particularly in
1902 and 1905.
▪ Russian peasants unlike the European peasants pooled
their land together periodically and the commune (Mir)
divided it according to the needs of the individual families.

RUSSIAN MIR
▪
 SOCIALISM IN RUSSIA
▪ All political parties were illegal in Russia before 1914.
▪ The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898.
▪ It struggled to give peasants their rights over land that belonged to the
nobles.

▪ As land was divided among peasants periodically, it was felt that they were
the natural socialist and they were the main source of the revolution.

▪ Socialists founded the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900.

▪ But the Social Democrats disagreed with Social Revolutionaries about

peasants being one social group & were divided over the strategy of
organisation.

▪ The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was divided into 2 groups .
▪ RSDLP

LENIN

BOLSHEVIKS MENSHEVIKS

VLADIMIR ALEXANDER
LENIN KERENSKII

KERENSKII
 THE 1905 REVOLUTION

▪ Russia was an autocracy.

▪ The Tsar was not subject to the Parliament.
▪ The liberals wanted to end this state of affairs.
▪ They worked towards demanding a Constitution during the Revolution
of 1905.
 BLOODY SUNDAY
▪ Prices of essential goods rose so quickly by 1904 that the real wages
declined by 20 %.
▪ During this time, 4 members of the Putilov Iron Works were
dismissed.
▪ There was a call for industrial action.
▪ Over 110,000 workers went on strike demanding a reduction in
working hours and increase in wages.
FATHER GAPON
▪ The procession was led by Father Gapon.
▪ The procession was attacked by the police and Cossacks.
▪ Over 100 workers were killed and 300 wounded.
▪ This incident known as Bloody Sunday started a series of events
that became known as 1905 Revolution.
 REVOLUTION OF 1905

▪ People demanded the creation of a Constituent assembly.

▪ The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.
▪ The Tsar dismissed the First Duma within 75 days and announced the election
of a Second Duma.

RUSSIAN DUMA
 FIRST WORLD WAR & RUSSIAN EMPIRE
▪ In 1914, First World War broke out between 2 European alliances-
Central Powers and Allied Powers .
▪ Central Powers – Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey
▪ Allied Powers – England, France, America and Russia ( later Italy and
Romania).
▪ In Russia, the war was popular at the beginning and people rallied
around the Tsar.
▪ But later the support grew thin
▪ There were 7 million casualties and 3 million refugees in Russia.
▪ Anti German sentiments ran high.
▪ Russian armies lost badly in Germany and Austria between 1914
& 1916 .
EUOROPE DURING FIRST WORLD WAR
 FIRST WORLD WAR & RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
▪The first world war (1914-18) had a severe
impact on industry.
▪By 1916, railway lines began to break down.
▪Able bodied people were called up to the war.
▪Large supplies of grain were sent to feed the
army.
▪So bread and flour became scarce in the cities.
▪By 1916, bread riots became a common feature.

BREAD RIOTS
 FEBRUARY REVOLUTION IN
PETROGRAD IN 1917
▪ In the winter of 1917, conditions in the capital
Petrograd (St. Petersburg) were grim.
▪ In February 1917, acute food shortages were felt in
the worker’s quarters.
▪ On February 22, a lockout took place at a factory
on the right bank of the River Neva.
▪ Workers of 50 other factories joined in sympathy.
▪ Women also led and participated in the strikes.
This came to be called the International Women’s
Day.
 FEBRUARY REVOLUTION IN PETROGRAD

▪ On 25th February, 1917 the government suspended the

Duma.
▪ On 27th February,1917 the police headquarters were
raided.
▪ The streets were crowded with people raising slogans
about bread, wages, better hours and democracy.
▪ On 2nd March, the Tsar finally abdicated his power and
the Soviet and Duma leaders formed a Provisional
government for Russia.
 EFECTS OF FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
1917
▪ Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.
▪ Soviets like the Petrograd Soviet were set up everywhere.
▪ No system of election was followed.
▪ In April 1917, the Bolshevik leader Lenin returned to Russia from his
exile.
▪ He made three demands known as the April Theses . These demands
were -
1 . War should be brought to an end.
2. Land should be transferred to the peasants.
3. Banks should be nationalized.
LENIN ADDRESSING THE
WORKERS
EFFECTS OF FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

▪Slowly, the Bolshevik party

was becoming powerful .
▪To reduce its power,
Provisional Government
arrested Bolshevik leaders. PRO BOLSHEVIK DEMONSTRATION
▪Hence many Bolshevik
leaders had to go into hiding
or flee.
 OCTOBER REVOLUTION,1917
▪ On 16th October ,Lenin persuaded Petrograd Soviet and Bolshevik party to
agree to a socialist seizure of power.
▪ A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviets to
organise the seizure.
▪ The uprising began on October 24, 1917. KERENSKII
▪ Sensing trouble, Prime Minister Alexander Kerenskii left the city to summon
troops.
▪ Military men loyal to the government seized the buildings of two Bolshevik
newspapers.
▪ Pro government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph
offices and protect the Winter Palace.
▪ Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to seize government offices and
arrest the ministers.
LENIN
 OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN 1917

▪Aurora ship shelled the Winter Palace in

Petrograd.
▪Other ships sailed down the Neva river
and took over strategic points.
▪By night , the city was under the AURORA SHIP
Committee’s control and the ministers
had resigned.
▪All Russian Congress of Soviets in
Petrograd approved the Bolshevik
action.

WINTER PALACE
 EFFECTS OF OCTOBER REVOLUTION
▪ Most industries and banks were nationalized in November
1917.
▪ Land was declared as social property and peasants were
allowed to seize the land of the nobility.
▪ Use of old aristocratic titles was banned.
▪ New uniforms were designed for the army and the officials.
▪ Russia became a one party state.
BUDEONOVKA
▪ Trade unions were kept under party control.
▪ The Secret Police ( called Cheka first, later OGPU and
NKVD) punished the anti Bolsheviks.
 CIVIL WAR
▪ When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army
began to break up.
▪ Non Bolshevik socialists, liberals, supporters of autocracy condemned
the Bolshevik uprising.
▪ The Socialist Revolutionaries formed their troops and were called
Greens, who would fought against Bolshevik Red.
▪ The Pro Tsar Whites controlled most of the Russian empire.
▪ They were supported by French, American, British and Japanese
troops.
▪ All these fought a war with the Bolsheviks.
▪ By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled the former Russian
Empire.
▪ In 1922, the Bolsheviks created the Soviet Union (USSR) from the
Russian empire in Dec 1922.
 MAKING OF A SOCIALIST
SOCIETY
▪ A process of centralized planning was introduced.
▪ Five Year Plans were introduced.
▪ This led to economic growth.
▪ Industrial production increased.
▪ An extended schooling system was developed .
▪ Arrangements were made for factory workers and
peasants to enter universities.
▪ Collectivisation of farms started.
 STALIN AND COLLECTIVE FARMING
▪ By 1927-28, towns in Soviet Russia were facing acute problem
of food shortage.
▪ Stalin who headed the party after Lenin introduced firm
emergency measures.
▪ He believed that rich peasants and traders stocked supplies to
create the shortage of grains.
▪ Hence Stalin introduced collectivization programme.
▪ Kulaks (well to do peasants ) were eliminated.
▪ From 1929, peasants were forced to cultivate in collective farms
.
▪ Bulk of land and implements were transferred to the JOSEPH STALIN
ownership of collective farms.
▪ Those farmers who resisted collectivization were punished,
deported or exiled.
 GLOBAL INFLUENCE OF
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION & USSR
▪ Russia became the first country to establish a communist state.
▪ Bolsheviks encouraged colonial people to follow their experiment.
▪ Many non Russians participated in the Conference of the Peoples of the East
(1920) .
▪ Bolshevik founded Comintern, an international union of pro Bolshevik
socialist parties.
▪ By end of 2oth century, international reputation of USSR as a socialist party
had declined.
▪ But socialist ideas still enjoyed respect among people.
THANK
YOU