HIST 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Political Commissar, Winter Palace, War Communism
Document Summary
Russian society in 1914 cadets= liberals who want restructure with a parliament and keep tsar. Social revolutionaries= take over at first but go away once bolshiveks take over. Bolsheviks= led by lenin; radical marxists want to be small, conspiratory party. Mensheviks= radical but willing to run openly and hear others to some degree. Lenin= star college student but lacked practical work skills; brilliant philosophically and a chess player. Nicholas bans vodka to help soldiers but it bankrupts the tsarist govt. The duma can only criticize, calling him stupid. Nicholas abdicates at peak, his brother won"t accept the throne, no one in charge. Govt implodes; duma and soviets becomes provisional govt. Throughout russia, soviets (city councils) emerge on their own. Soviets (mostly conservative, want radical change) vs duma (liberal) Bolsheviks seize winter palace, with relatively little fighting they seize power and begin. In 1917, proposal for congress of soviets to develop the soviet state.
