RUSSIAN REVOLUTION STUDY GUIDE

CH. 28

Please write two meaningful sentences that are related to each of the following terms. One can be a definition and the other an example or two of the terms relevance from the text. This discipline insures that you have improved comprehension and command of the material. (Remember to double space between terms for easier viewing).

 

CH. 28

 

Soviet: A soviet is a council of workers and soldiers.  The councils all over Russia were holding power during the revolution times because they were upset with the war, lack of food, and poverty.  

 

Command economy: A command economy is an economy where government officials make all economic decisions.  This is the kind of economy Stalin set up under his 5 year plans. 

 

Collective: Collectives were large farms owned by a large group of peasants and farmers.  The government under Stalin would not allow farmers and peasants to own their own little farms and land because this was a threat to the state power. 

 

Kulak: Kulaks are wealthy peasants.  Stalin wanted to destroy all kulaks because they were a threat to the state.  Stalin would take the kulaks land then send them to labor camps to work till they died. 

 

Totalitarian state: A totalitarian state is where a government tries to control every aspect of everyone’s lives under a dictatorship.  Stalin enforced this with his camps and police.  Stalin kept very strict power through fear and spying on everthing even on letters and what people said with listening devices. 

 

Socialist realism: This was a form of art which showed the Soviet in a positive light.  If arts did not show it in a positive light it was banned. 

 

Lenin: Lenin was the leader of the Bolsheviks and took over the Russian government during the Bolshevik revolution.  He led under many Marxist ideas.  Lenin eventually built a communist state and because very worried about being assonated.  He set up his own little secret police. 

 

Osip Mandelstam: Osip was a poet who wrote a verse showing Stalin in a sarcastic light.  This man was imprisoned, tortured, and then exiled.  Then in fear for his family Osip wrote an “Ode to  Stalin.”

 

Nicholas II: He was a czar of Russia who did not have very much power because he was not supported or trusted by many of his own people.  He lead his people in to WWI, over 2 million of them died, and then he tried going down to the battle field which didn’t work out well either. 

 

Gregory Rasputin: Rasputin was an evil man in disguise of being a “healer.”  Rasputin got a lot of power because Alexandra trusted him very much because he helped her son who had the problem with his blood not being able to clot.  Nobles finally killed this crazy man, but it was difficult because first they tried poisoning him, then shooting him, then he ended up drowning in the river they threw him in. 

 

Joseph Stalin: Stalin was a radical crazy ruler of the Soviet Union who did anything to give himself complete power.  He had peasants and workers give him everything they grew or made and people who had any power at all were either killed or sent to forced labor camps under Stalin.  Stalin tried to enforce Marxist ideas like Lenin.  Stalin was like 10 times as bad as Lenin. 

 

Stalin's 5 Year Plan: Stalin’s 5 year plans were supposed to help the economy by building heavy industry, improving transportation, and increasing farm output.  These plans did help with farming output, but it did not really help with the economy because wages were low and there was a lot of poverty. 

 

Anna Akhmatova: Anna was a poet who was very popular, but then fell out of favor because she did not emphasize communistic views in her poetry.  She continued to write poetry secretly. 

 

Mikhail Sholokhov: He was a writer who wrote a great novel telling of a man who spent years fighting in WWI, the Russian Revolution, and the civil war.  This book passed the censor.

 

Leon Trotsky: Trotsky was a man who worked under Lenin.  Once Lenin died Trotsky competed with Stalin for the position.  Trotsky had many Marxist views and was against capitalism.  Stalin had Trotsky killed by once of his secret police members. 

 

Socialist revolution: This revolution was basically the same revolution as the Bolshevik revolution because Bolshevik was the name given to the socialists.  The socialists were under the leader Lenin.  They wanted Peace, Land, and Bread. 

 

Bolshevik Revolution: This revolution was lead by the powerful leader Lenin.  He led with Marxist ideas and sieged the government.  The Bolsheviks took over.  Lenin gave peasants land, and gave workers mines and factories. 

 

Lenin's New Economic Policy: The NEP made by Lenin kept control of banks, large industry, and foreign trade.  This new economic policy did not require peasants to give them so much grain and also allowed for private businesses to make their own little profits.  Lenin only thought of this NEP as temporary, but it really did improve living and stopped the resistance against the government.  

  

The arts under Stalin: The new form of art was motion pictures, but many of them were banned under Stalin.  Motion pictures that Einstein made showing the cruelty of Stalin were banned.  

 

List three causes of the 1917 revolution in Russia:   Three reasons for the revolution was women demanding food, the army not supporting the czar and just going home, and poverty.  All these problems were made by bad decisions of Nicholas II.