2024-09-09 14:20:44

UNB/Year 5/Semester 1/HIST1001/In class notes.md

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+# Russia
 ## Background on Russia
 - Long history of expansion
 - A multinational empire
@@ -16,3 +17,54 @@ Tsar Nicholas II abdicates in 1917, replaced by Provisional government (called t
 - Tradition of autocratic rule and repression
 - Challenges of governing a vast state remain. 
 - Bolsheviks have ambitious international goals
+## The Bolsheviks take power
+Their goals:
+- Lenin and his colleagues 
+	- Revolutionary Marxists: use disciplined party to take power
+- Gain support from workers, other social groups
+- Use force to win and keep power
+- Initially hoped revolution in Russia would spread on an international scale
+## The Russian Civil War
+- Conflict reaches its peak in 1918-1921
+- Reds (Bolsheviks) vs whites
+- bloody conflict, atrocities on both sides
+- Millions of deaths, potentially uncountable more, country in ruins
+- Some nationalities, Poles, Finns , Baltic states, break away and establish states
+- But Bolsheviks/communists emerge victories: authoritarian, repressive tactics
+## Early communist foreign policy
+- Ruthless pragmatism - Lenin's regime signs peace treaty with Imperial Germany in 1918, despite territorial losses, to keep power
+- But Bolsheviks also have revolutionary ambitions - establish communist international (Comintern) in 1919
+- Goal is to encourage formation of communist parties internationally, spread revolution - but proves difficult to achieve
+## Early soviet relations with the west
+- British, French, and Americans, concerned & angered by the Bolshevik takeover in 1917
+- New regime - promotes revolutionary ideas
+- Lenin's treaty with Germany (1918); creates new thread in first world war
+## Intervention in the Russian civil war
+- France, UK, Canada, USA, Japan send troops
+- To protect interest, support whites
+## Soviet union in the 1920s
+- Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) established in 1922
+- Included much of the former Russian empire, but now a federation of republics
+- Western power remain suspicious, but do not see USSR as imminent thread
+- Comintern remains active, but USSR focus on rebuilding after wartime devastation
+## Leadership change from Lenin to Stalin
+- Lenin dies in 1924, Josef Stalin emerges as winner of prolonged power by 1928
+- Promotes Socialism in one Country
+- Imperial Russia - suffered defeats because it was "backward" - Soviet Union must modernize "or the capitalists will crush us"
+## Stalin's Transformation of the USSR
+- Rapid industrial growth through state directed "Five Year Plans" - achieves results but harsh conditions for workers
+- Collectivization of agriculture - to support industrialization, transform society - associated with massive repression, famine
+- Purges - intensive suspicion of conspiracy with foreign power leads to mass arrests, executions in 1930s
+## Stalin's foreign policy in the 1930s
+- Comintern continues to operate
+- Stalin's policies are pragmatic, shift over time
+- Hitler takes power in Germany, 1933 - a serious potential thread
+- Soviet Union calls for "collective security" with Western powers, promotes "Popular Front" policy to oppose fascism
+## On the eve of war
+- 1939 - Second World War looks increasingly likely - Hitler making demands on Poland
+- Stalin - Covets Polish territory, seeks to expand influence, and wants to buy time
+- Negotiations with Britain and France fail; instead USSR signs agreement with Nazi Germany - two countries will not go to war, both to expand influence in Eastern Europe
+## Key points
+- Soviet foreign policy - revolutionary impulse is significant
+- But there is a powerful pragmatic streak - willing to cut deals, shift sides
+- Stalin wants to expand revolution - but also to regain territory, influence of USSR