Professional Documents
Culture Documents
the creation of a revolutionary elite over open democracy and the minority of the
actual part becomes the Bolsheviks (majority) and the opposing party Mensheviks
(minority- it was compromised of the majority of the original party)
-Bloody Sunday (1905): tens of thousands of workers (& their families) led by Father
Gapon fired upon by troops: leads to the October Manifesto (promise for reform w/
provisions for constitution, civil liberties, a legislature (Duma) … these were all
demands from the Zemstov (the provincial council)
- 1917: October Revolution: Lenin returns to Petrograd w/ his slogan “Peace, Land,
Bread” and takes over the Winter Palace (headquarters of Kerensky’s provisional
gov’t –it was in place after the tsar’s abdication) and institute the Leninist doctrine
the following year (doctrine called for industries to be nationalized, the church lands
to be seized, Russia to drop out of WWI and surrender Poland and many other
places to Germany under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)
1918-1922: Russian Civil War fought between communists and the others (including
tsarists, peasants, kulaks etc) with the Communists claiming victory and in 1922 the
USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was formed; 1924: The Constitution
under USSR
Trotsky vs. Stalin: Trotsky was a Jew and pushed for worldwide Revolution; Stalin
was already a secretary of the Communist party and thus had a lot of power (could
appoint important offices) and he wanted to industrialize Russia (and thus
strengthen it) before trying to spread Communism further; sent pro assassin to
murder Trotsky in 1940 in Mexico
*Tsar Nich. II is weak and incompetent and listens to his wife (who’s under Mad
Rasputin’s influence); Provisional gov’t = moderates; Russia in trouble as shown
during Russo-Jap War; Sergei Witte (financial Minister, 1892): led Russia into
Industrial Age; All the economic problems lead to radical ideas (anarchy as shown
by Bakunin etc)
England (1920s):
France (1920s):
Poincare, the French PM, sends troops to occupy the Ruhr Valley when Germany
fails to pay all of the years (1922) reparation; the Dawes Plan (lowers the overall
German debt and persuades private investors to buy bonds etc –basically invest- in
German Economy) a bit successful; However, France’s economy still in trouble and
German Reparation still can’t help it and their foreign policy is the same (they can’t
really enforce anything when it comes to Germany)
US (1920s):
The Dawes Plan is named after the American who came up with it in hopes of
diffusing tension (and most of the investors were American bankers); refuse
membership in the League of Nations (which is a fail anyways), they also try to stop
further wars by asking Nations to scrap their warships and weapons etc through
treaties (for ex. The Five Power Treaty which was aimed more at stopping Japanese
Expansion in the Pacific)
US – fall of stock market (so bad that people jump out of windows etc) and start of
Great Depression