History of the Soviet Union

This section traces the major developments of the history of the Soviet Union, from the country's founding in 1922 until its breakup in 1991. The section begins with the revolution of 1917, which led to Communist rule in Russia. For the history of Russia before 1917 and after 1991, see Russia (History).

Background of the revolution. Since the mid-1500's, Russia had been ruled by leaders called czars. Under the czars, the country remained far behind the industrial progress made in Western Europe. Most of the people were poor, uneducated peasants. They farmed the land with the same kinds of simple hand tools their ancestors had used. Through the years, revolts against the harsh rule of the czars had occasionally broken out, but these revolts were not successful.

In the late 1890's, discontented Russians formed several political organizations. One group, the Marxists, followed the socialist teachings of Karl Marx, a German social philosopher. The Marxists established the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The Bolsheviks (later called Communists) made up a group within that party. The Bolshevik leader was Vladimir I. Ulyanov, who used the name V. I. Lenin.

After an economic depression began in Russia in 1900, a number of student protests, peasant revolts, and worker strikes broke out. In 1905, two uprisings were crushed by government troops, but the revolutionary movement continued to gain strength underground. The uprisings forced the czar to establish a fully elected lawmaking body, the Duma.

The February Revolution. World War I began in 1914. Germany declared war on Russia in August of that year. During the war, Russia had enormous losses, and the people suffered severe shortages of food, fuel, and housing. Untrained Russian troops behind the fighting lines feared being sent to the front, where they might be killed. The townspeople and soldiers were tense and angry-

Early in March 1917, the people revolted. (The month was February in the old Russian calendar, which was replaced in 1918.) Riots and strikes over shortages of bread and coal grew more violent in the capital, Petrograd. (The city of Petrograd was known as St. Petersburg until 1914, was renamed Leningrad in 1924, and again became St. Petersburg in 1991.) Troops were called in to halt the uprising, but they joined it instead.

The people of Petrograd turned to the Duma for leadership. Czar Nicholas II ordered the Duma to dissolve itself, but the parliament ignored his command. The Duma established a provisional (temporary) government Nicholas had lost all of his political support, and he gave up the throne on March 15. Nicholas and his family were then imprisoned. Bolshevik revolutionaries killed them in July 1918.

A Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was also formed in Petrograd in March. It was a rival of the provisional government. Many similar soviets were set up throughout Russia. In April, Lenin demanded "all power to the soviets," and, in July, armed workers and soldiers tried to seize power in Petrograd. They failed. Lenin fled to Finland. Some of his followers escaped or were jailed. Others were driven underground. Later that month, Alexander F. Kerensky, a socialist, became premier.

The October Revolution. General Lavr Kornilov, the army commander in chief, planned to seize power from Kerensky. But the local soviets throughout Russia rallied behind Kerensky. So did the Bolsheviks. The general advanced on Petrograd in September 1917, but his group broke up before reaching the city. After this episode, the soviets became more radical. Many army units supported the Bolsheviks.

Lenin returned from Finland in October and convinced the Bolsheviks that they should try to seize power. He hoped a revolution would set off other socialist revolts in Western countries. Lenin's most capable assistant, Leon Trotsky, helped him plan the take-over. On November 7 (October 25 in the old Russian calendar), the armed workers took over important points in Petrograd. After a bloody struggle in Moscow, the Bolsheviks controlled that city by November 15.

The Bolsheviks formed a new Russian government, headed by Lenin. The peasants had already seized much farmland from Russian nobles and the czarist state. For a time, Lenin endorsed these land seizures. He permitted workers to control the factories and to play important roles in the local soviets. But after a civil war broke out between the Bolsheviks and their opponents, the government tightened control and forced the peasants to give the government most of their products. The government also took over Russian industries and set up central management bureaus to control them. The Cheka, a secret police force, was established.

After the Bolsheviks seized the government, Russia withdrew from World War I and began peace talks with Germany. In March 1918, Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. Under the treaty, Russia gave up large areas, including the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and Ukraine. After the war, Armenia and Georgia set up independent republics.

In 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the Russian capital back to Moscow, which had been the center of government until Czar Peter I made St. Petersburg the capital in 1712. The Bolsheviks also changed the name of their Russian Social Democratic Labor Party to the Russian Communist Party. They later changed the name to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They organized the Red Army, which was named for the color of the Communist flag. The Communists themselves were called Reds.

Civil war. From 1918 to 1920, Russia was torn by war between the Communists and the anti-Communists, called Whites. The peasants believed they would lose their lands to their old landlords if the Whites won, and so they generally supported the Reds. The Whites were aided by troops from Britain, France, Japan, the United States, and other countries that opposed the Communist government. But these nations helped little because they were unwilling to fight another war after World War 1. The Whites were poorly organized, and the Reds defeated them.

After the civil war, the Red Army invaded Georgia, Ukraine, and eastern Armenia, and helped put down nationalist independence movements in Belarus (then called Byelorussia) and central Asia. Communist rule was gradually established in these areas.

In 1920, Poland invaded Ukraine in an attempt to expel the Communists. The Red Army drove the invaders out and nearly reached Warsaw, Poland's capital. But the Polish troops, with help from France, finally defeated the Red Army. A treaty signed in 1921 gave Poland the western parts of Byelorussia and Ukraine.

The New Economic Policy. By 1921, seven years of war, revolution, civil war, famine, and invasion had exhausted Russia. Millions of people had died. Agricultural and industrial production had fallen disastrously. About 1 ½ million Russians, many of them skilled and educated, had left the country. The people's discontent broke out in new peasant uprisings, in workers strikes, and in a sailors' revolt at the Kronstadt naval base near Petrograd. Bolshevik leaders had to compromise to protect their revolution.

In 1921, Lenin established a compromise called the New Economic Policy (NEP) to strengthen the country. Small industries and retail trade were allowed to operate under their own control. The peasants no longer had to give most of their farm products to the government. The government kept control of the most important segments of the economy—banking, heavy industry, the transportation system, and foreign trade. The economy recovered steadily under the NEP.