Two revolutions in one year

In 1917 Russia was ruled by Tsar Nicholas II, but the strain of the First World War — defeats, hunger and misery — destroyed people's faith in him. There were two revolutions that year:

• The February Revolution (1917) — the Tsar abdicated. A Provisional Government took over, sharing "dual power" with the Petrograd Soviet (a council of workers and soldiers).
• The October Revolution (1917) — the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seized power in an armed rising.

Note: because Russia then used the old Julian calendar, the two risings are called the "February" and "October" Revolutions — but both happened in 1917.

October 1917

By late 1917 the Provisional Government (led by Kerensky) was weak and unpopular — it had kept Russia in the war. The Bolsheviks seized their chance.

• Lenin was the leader and driving force of the Bolshevik party.
• Trotsky organised the Red Guards who carried out the takeover in Petrograd.
• The Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government and set up a communist government.

Watch out: it was the Bolsheviks (not the "Communists" by that name yet, and not the Provisional Government) who took power in October 1917 — under Lenin.

Who took power in October?

Lenin's first steps

Once in power, Lenin moved quickly to secure control and end Russia's part in the war:

• The Bolsheviks closed the Constituent Assembly (the elected parliament) when they did not win a majority — a sign they would rule alone.
• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) took Russia out of the First World War, but at a heavy price: large areas of land were handed over to Germany.

Why Brest-Litovsk mattered: peace let Lenin focus on holding power at home — but giving up so much land angered many Russians and helped spark civil war.

Reds against Whites

From 1918 to 1921 Russia was torn apart by civil war between the communist Reds and their many enemies, the Whites.

• Trotsky built and led the Red Army, which held the central heartland and defeated the divided Whites.
• War Communism — harsh state control of the economy, including seizing grain from peasants — kept the army fed but caused hardship and famine.
• The Cheka (secret police) enforced the "Red Terror" against opponents.

Who led the Red Army?

Name the Red Army leader

The New Economic Policy

War Communism had caused terrible hardship — including famine — and unrest such as the Kronstadt Mutiny (1921) by sailors who had once backed the revolution.

In 1921 Lenin changed course with the New Economic Policy (NEP):

• It allowed some private trade and small businesses again, and let peasants sell surplus grain for profit.
• The aim was to let the shattered economy recover after years of war.

Key idea: the NEP was a partial, temporary retreat from strict communism — a step back to let the economy heal. It was not a return to full capitalism.

The year of revolution

Name the Bolshevik leader

Lenin dies — Stalin rises

Lenin died in 1924. This left a struggle for power at the top of the party, above all between Stalin and Trotsky.

• Stalin used his position and cunning to outmanoeuvre his rivals one by one.
• Trotsky was expelled from the party and later forced into exile.
• By around 1928–29, Stalin was firmly in control of the USSR.

Misconception alert: Lenin did not choose Stalin as his successor — in fact Lenin's "Testament" warned against him. Stalin won power through political manoeuvring, not by being picked.

Name Lenin's successor

Industrialising the USSR

Stalin was determined to make the USSR a modern industrial power — fast. From 1928 he launched the Five-Year Plans: government targets for rapid industrial growth.

• Huge increases were demanded in coal, steel, oil and electricity.
• New industrial cities were built, such as Magnitogorsk.
• Workers who beat their targets were praised as heroes; those who missed them could be punished.

Why industrialise? Stalin said the USSR was "50 to 100 years behind" the West and must catch up or be crushed. Industry also meant weapons to defend the revolution.

What did the Plans aim to do?

Collectivising the farms

To feed the new industrial cities and control the countryside, Stalin forced through collectivisation of agriculture from 1929.

• Peasants were forced off their own small plots and into large collective farms (kolkhoz), sharing land and machinery.
• The kulaks (better-off peasants) resisted — so Stalin had them persecuted and "liquidated" as a class.
• Chaos and grain seizures caused a terrible famine (especially in Ukraine, 1932–33) in which millions died.

Human cost: collectivisation gave the state control of grain, but at the price of millions of deaths and lasting bitterness in the countryside.

What was collectivisation?

Who were the kulaks?

Policy / event ↔ meaning

Tap a policy or event on the left, then tap what it means on the right.

The Purges and the Great Terror

To crush any possible opposition, Stalin unleashed the Purges, reaching a peak in the Great Terror of 1936–38.

• Show trials of "Old Bolsheviks" — leading Party members were forced to confess to invented crimes, then executed.
• The army, the Party and ordinary people were all hit; the secret police (the NKVD) arrested millions.
• Victims were shot or sent to the Gulag labour camps.

Effect: the Terror left Stalin with total control through fear — but it also killed many of the USSR's most experienced officers and officials.

What were the Purges?

Total control

Alongside terror, Stalin controlled how people thought and what they saw:

• A cult of personality — Stalin was praised everywhere as a wise, heroic, almost god-like leader.
• Propaganda, censorship and tight control of art, film, books and even history.
• The 1936 "Stalin Constitution" promised rights on paper — but real power stayed with Stalin and the Party.

Interpretation point: official Soviet images showed a happy, thriving country. Historians read them as propaganda that hid terror and hardship — always ask who made a source and why.

Timeline: 1917 → 1941

Put the events in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

Sources and interpretations

In the exam you handle sources and interpretations about the Soviet Union. Two quick habits win marks:

• Ask who made it and why (provenance). An official Soviet photo of a "happy" collective farm was made as propaganda — it will not show the famine.
• Use your own knowledge to judge it. Support or challenge a source with facts you know (dates, policies, events).

Interpretations differ: some historians stress Stalin's brutality; others how the USSR was transformed into an industrial power. Being aware that interpretations vary — and why — is exactly what the exam rewards.

The essentials to remember

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