- The armies of Tsar Nicholas II have suffered heavy losses since he took over their command in 1915.
- Workers' demonstrations in Petrograd (February 23-28, 1917), supported by rebellious soldiers, led to the abdication of Tsar Nicolas II on March 2. There followed cooperation between the soviets and the provisional government, which failed to meet the aspirations of the popular masses.
- The Bolsheviks had been led by Lenin since his return from Switzerland in April 1917 and overthrew the provisional government in the October 1917 uprising.
- Finland, which gained independence in 1917, was experiencing a civil war between the “Reds” and the “Whites”.
November 1917 - June 1921
Characters
Nicholas II
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov alias Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Nikolai Yudenich
Joseph Stalin
Procedure
The arrival of the Bolsheviks crystallized tensions:the bourgeois press was muzzled and the Constituent Assembly was dissolved. A civil war broke out in the spring of 1918. It opposed in particular:
- the white armies:the monarchists wanting the return of the tsars. They are anti-communist and supported by some countries like Japan, France, USA and UK;
- and the Red Army:Bolsheviks, opposed to the return of the tsars and in favor of war communism.
The excitement of Petrograd, occupied by the Germans until the signing of the Brest-Litovsk agreements of March 3, 1918, justifies the change of capital in favor of Moscow. Faced with the combination of threats from outside, the Soviet government proclaimed general mobilization and Leon Trotsky took over the leadership of the Red Army in February 1918.
Object of a mass cult and instigator of state propaganda, Lenin establishes a political police (the Cheka), organizes the struggle against the rich peasants (kulaks) and establishes his authority by repressing counter-revolutionary movements. The Cheka inaugurates camps for prisoners and Tsar Nicolas II is assassinated on the night of July 17 to 18, 1918. The civil war is the scene of the establishment of a "war communism" with nationalizations (factories, stores ), the separation of church and state, the collectivization of bourgeois properties and rationing policies. Anti-Semitic pogroms see the light of day like that of Fastov in 1919. The White Army suffers several setbacks in 1919 for lack of coordination and retreats in favor of the Red Army.
However, the civil war is not limited to oppositions between the “reds” and the “whites”. “Green armies” (made up of those resisting military enlistment) are fighting against them simultaneously, in the name of rural autonomy. These movements were severely suppressed in the summer of 1921. The majority of fighting in Western Russia was over by 1921.
Consequences
- The famine of 1920-1921 decimated the country, already diminished and diplomatically isolated. The working class is split between the Cheka, the Party and the Red Army.
- The slowdown in the economy forced Lenin to restore a place for the market economy in planning:this was the launch of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in March 1921.
- The USSR was created in 1922.