Summary Hoorcolleges (seminars) 20th Century Russian and Soviet History
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20th Century Russian and Soviet History
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Extensive notes from the lectures of teacher Artemy Kalinovsky for the course 20th Century Russian and Soviet History belonging to the Major Eastern Europe.
major oost europa 20th century russian and soviet history russian history soviet history hoorcollege 20th century russian and soviet history oost europa oost europa
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Europese Studies
20th Century Russian and Soviet History
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Lecture 1: Introduction
Periodization of Russian History:
1. Kievan Rus (9th- 13th century): a state is first founded, what is around now Kiev, by warriors and traders from
Scandinavia who organise a state with mostly a Slavic population and the orthodox church
2. Mongol Yoke (13th- 15th century): independent Russian cities keep existing, but they have to pay taxes to the
Mongols and Moscow gains primacy over other cities in the world Moscow defeats the Mongols
3. Rise of Muscovy (15th- 17th century): consolidating its power against its rival principalities
4. Romanov Russia/ The Russian Empire (18th- early 20th century (revolution and formation of SU))
5. The Soviet Union (- 1991)
6. The Russian Federation
Periodization of Soviet History
1. Revolution and Civil War (1917- 1921) after the Bolsheviks come to power in October 1917 Revolution
2. NEP (New Economic Policy) Era (1921- 1928): period of some accommodation to capitalism (free trade,
private industries and cultural forms) because the civil war destroyed the countryside and the cities and
economy wasn’t stable/destroyed
3. High Stalinism and Terror (1928- 1939): radical turn in social and economic policy (collectivisation of land,
famine and political terror)
4. World War II
5. Late Stalinism (1945- 1953)
6. The Thaw (1953- 1964): relative political and cultural opening
7. The Era of Stagnation/ late socialism (1965- 1985)
8. Perestroika and Collapse (1985- 1991): rebuilding
Expansion of Moscow after the 15th century (before, Moscow was a small and irrelevant city)
Moscow’s border is organised around the relationship between the tsar, the nobility and the peasants (three
main social groups) Russia claims that Moscow is becoming the main empire around Christianity (hence
the name tsar, derived from Caesar, and ‘holy Russians’)
Political system: funding the government is difficult due to cultural seasons and distance between people
loyalty through ideas of service and everybody is supposed to serve (Christianity) and in return you receive
lands (nobility)/ rights and you state peasants on your land to collect their production
*possibility for peasants to move around if they didn’t like the nobleman which makes being a nobleman
much less attractive late 17th century: peasants are part of land/ harder to move (less rights!)
Possibility to lose status as a nobleman if you refuse to serve (as an advisor, soldier etc.)
Peter the Great (1672- 1725)
Trying to create a bureaucratic state (rules) by trying to copy western Europe in order to get out of
the system of autocracy
Changing nobility: instead of being conservative, the nobility should be about knowledge and he
encourages education to achieve higher positions)
Breaking with older customs change of relationship between nobility and rest of the population
(peasants): different fashions, languages (French among nobility, not the peasants) and break with
the same heritage (not all Orthodox Christians anymore or having the same moral)
Catherine the Great (1729- 1796): nobility doesn’t have the obligation to serve anymore
19th century: nobility dissatisfied with the state of things in Russia and looks outside for ideas/ models
Four big problems in the 19th century
1. Serfdom: legacy
2. Problems of modernisation: a self-conscious attempt to change the state into a more modern state: military
modernisation (training, hierarchy, technology), economic modernisation (ability to regularly collect taxes)
and political modernisation
3. More efficient government: not based on personal relationships but on institutions)
4. Problem of empire: multinational/ multilingual/ different religions
Top down modernisation is an effort that began under Peter the Great
Emperors in the 19th century (Peter the Great’s changes also done by the emperors!)
, 1. Nicholas I: expansion of government authority, bureaucratic institutions and education expansion of
universities EVEN THOUGH Nicholas was frightened by the radical thoughts that were circling around in
universities
2. Aleksandr II: self- thought reformer and a constitutional monarchy, reform of the court system and he wants
to get rid of serfdom because by the mid- 19 th century many thinkers in Russia saw this as an backward
institution but it resulted in unhappy nobility but Aleksandr still needs the ruling of the nobility
arrangement where in return of freeing the peasantry, the governments will financially help the
nobility/landowners and peasants need to pay the government
3. Aleksandr III: conservative
Russia as an empire (19th century/ 20th century end: 1917)
European power in the wars and winning them, pushing south/east/west/north
Catherine the Great takes a conservative turn due to fear of revolution (French revolution)
War with Napoleon is lost and they have to give up Moscow BUT later emerges victorious/ winning party
a position to start dictating peace and the order of Europe (1815 onwards)
Reasons for expansion/drive of the empire: commercial expansion, furry animals (coats and good for trade)
gaining control
Different arrangements were made with the groups that Russia conquered: differing nobility and peasants in
other states and giving the nobility close to the same rights as the Russian nobility OR nobility could stay in
their own country as long as they recognize Russian power
*problem: Jews (big population of Jews due to Poland) trying to create spiritual leaders and different
government leaders, to try to integrate all new people/groups/religions
Until the late 19th century limited attempts to convey people to the Russian Christianity (Orthodox) BUT a
really diverse empire (different nations, languages, religions, ethnic groups) was later seen as a weakness:
uprisings in Poland in the 19th century against the Russian rule, Jews (question of loyalty to the Russian state)
and Muslim people in the south (loyal to the Ottoman empire or to Russia?) and the Ukrainians Poles and
Ukrainians the biggest problems: the growth of nationalism!
Pressure on the empire in the early 20 th century: growing confrontation with the Japanese empire
*Japan was a colonial empire due to the need of resources for projects colonisation of Korea which leads
Japan and Russia to confrontation and war Japan won: first non- European country which defeats a
European power
*for Russia the first time they had to mobilize people to a distant part of the nation and the sudden loss
undermines the authority of the tsar which leads to uprisings and protest better educated and more
radicalism/terrorism brought in by students, with the expectation that when the government responds with
force, people will see their pour situation and the oppression of the government because people didn’t
protest at first demand of reform: political reform (constitutional monarchy), economic reform (bad
working and living conditions) and widening of ideas such as socialism: power to the workers
*students convinced the workers to stand up and protest against their poor conditions
*students usually know English or French which made them able to read literature from abroad and they
started to think of change in the Russian empire
Beginning of the 20th century: spontaneous uprisings (1905)
*organise banquets to collect money, food, support etc. for helping people/workers which strengthens the
relationship with them
*experimentation of a constitutional monarchy (more freedom): Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (1906-1911
assassinated by radicals): reforms, pushes for liberalism and increases the possibility of farming due to
Western ideas (small landowners and sell of the surplus on the market)
Russia’s Revolutionary Groups
1. Constitutional Democrats: liberals and respect of the rights and rules idea: wait for capitalism to collapse
2. Social Revolutionaries: priority is to bring socialism to the countryside idea: focus on the people in the
countryside and not the cities
3. Russian Social Democratic Labour Party split in 1903
*Bolsheviks (majority): take power and then built an industrial bases of a socialist society, instead of waiting
for the fall of capitalism due to potential consolidation of the regime
organisation of a party of professional revolutionaries
First World War puts pressure on the Russian empire: need for labour, collapse of the home front end
of the monarchy in 1917
, *Mensheviks (minority)
Lecture 2: Social History
Functioning of the Soviet state
Trying to build the base for communism : communism comes after capitalism and after transition to socialism
*the state should always work on behalf of the working class and the party will make sure of this at a
certain point the state and party merge together (the party- state) because many people in the agencies are
also party members but the distinction keeps playing a role because the party’s job is keeping ideological
goals in mind while conducting work
Professional revolutionaries are in power and Lenin is the first leader Lenin’s health declined, and he died
in 1924 and his successors all have built their personal and political credibility: two people emerged as the
most likely successors
1. Trotsky: Jewish, with parents who were farmers, and later as a socialist in power of the red army and
taking personal risk and courage in the war himself
2. Stalin: merges from the margins of the empire and he starts as a Georgian nationalist and later turns to
socialism (Bolsheviks) and the task that Lenin gave him was working on nationality issues
Stalin was appointed the Secretary of the Party which gave him power of appointments so to build up
support for him within the party, mostly from young people who wanted to start their big carrier, and he
uses this later to take over the power
*political struggle in 1921: discussion in the party should be allowed after the war according to some
socialists but Lenin is opposed to this because he doesn’t want factions to arise and there was an uprising
and the party choses to crush the workers due to fear of a weak rule which can get challenged easily
Stalin outmanoeuvres Trotsky by shedding a dark light on Trotsky because he has the military behind him
(his support base) which is dangerous according to Stalin AND Stalin was able to build a support base by his
power of appointment Stalin consolidates his rule and he is good at managing rivalries and getting
security services to scare people
Stalin’s successors: Beria (last security service chief under Stalin), Mikoyan, Molotov and Kaganovich
Khrushchev comes to power surprisingly by making alliances and outmanoeuvring the rest and has a peasant
working class background
Revisionists and Social History
1970s: Revisionists History and revisionists challenged the premise that it was only a totalitarian state AND
Social Historians looked at the social groups more and they turned to questions of gender, new workers,
taking advantage of educational opportunities etc.
The Vidvyzhentsy: people who, because of social mobility, come up from the lower classes (peasants,
soldiers, minorities and workers) and they take advantage of career and education opportunities in 1920s
and 1930s
*educational program de- emphasizes higher education, but creates courses for workers that enable them to
rise to managerial positions
*party enrols new members throughout the 1920s: party membership brings prestige, access to jobs,
resources etc.
Many of the former and older elite is pushed out such as the aristocracy, clergy and educated elite unwilling
to work with the Bolsheviks which lead to a huge emigration stream and people trying to hide their social
origins
Period direct after the Civil War (1918-1921) Huge famine, not much of the working class since industry collapsed,
soldiers leaving the military and disorder
Socialist ideology trying to pursue the peasants to the ideology by exposing peasants to the new and modern
technology of machinery, but it doesn’t really work
The party was concerned at the beginning that the capitalists instead of workers benefit from the revolution
Social leadership decided that they couldn’t fight another war with an agricultural background, so
industrialisation is necessary need of resources by selling off riches such as paintings etc. and buy
machinery and experts abroad AND need of agricultural products to be the main export product and the
Bolsheviks turn to collective farms in late the 1920s (radical move) because the production is too little
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