Bolsheviks-

● a political party in Russia led by Vladimir Lenin

● Lenin promised to end the war, give farmers land, give workers control of factories, take
control of banks and give power to councils of workers and soldiers in Russia.
● led a coup against the Provisional Government
○ failed to end the war, didn’t give land to peasants, didn’t hold elections, blamed for
food shortages and rising prices
● took control of strategic positions in Russian capital Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), with the
aid of soldiers, and workers who were given weapons
● formed a new government, Lenin in charge
● Bolshevik Russia was later renamed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
● they became more popular after the February Revolution in 1917 to union workers and
soldiers
● Bolsheviks eventually opposed all other political parties
● later became known as the Communist Part of the Soviet Union
● a Bolshevik was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Worker’s Party
● Lenin’s followers won a temporary majority on the party’s committee
● originated at the party’s second congress in 1903
● insisted on a centralized, disciplined and professional party
● Lenin formed the Bolshevik organization with a small minority, splitting the Russian Social
Democratic Worker’s Party
● called their opposition the Mensheviks
● aimed for the government to support the workers/farmers/etc, ‘proletariat’
● opposed the war, advocated for land to be returned to farmers
● Bolshevik Russia- renamed USSR, first Marxist state
○ Bolsheviks advocated for militarism
● In the Russian Social Democratic Worker’s Party, the split between the Bolsheviks (militarism)
and the Mensheviks (democracy, socialism)
● After the February Revolution, power was shared between the weakened Provisional
government and the soviets (councils of soldier/worker committees)
"Bolshevik." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
"Bolsheviks Revolt in Russia." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 03 July 2017.
"The October Revolution 1917." BBC. BBC, 2014. Web. 14 July 2017.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/study-guides/russian-revolution-and-bolshevik-
dictatorship-and-labour-theory-value (July 26)
Gulags-
● officially begun in April 15, 1919
● forced labor camps, from 1930-1955, led by the secret police
● sentences were 5-20 years
● an acronym for the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps
● use of Gulags reduced significantly after Stalin’s death but many remained up until Gorbachev
took control
● in 1936- population about 5 million in Gulags (equaled/exceeded about every following year)
● the average Gulag population- 2,000
● prisoners worked up to 14 hours a day
● physical work- chopping down trees, pickaxes in the ground, mining coal/copper by hand
○ work varied by region (logging, agriculture, railroad tracks, etc)
● prisoners had no value in the camps
● Kolyma was feared, all-year winter
● women would be raped and abused, some had ‘camp husbands’ for protection, many became
pregnant
● prisoners were overlooked by armed guards, some prisoners would look to report their fellow
prisoners
● prisoners received food based on the work they accomplished
● was the Soviet’s main penal system
● robbers, rapists, murderers, and thieves served in Gulags, some were political prisoners
● people could be sent to a Gulag for being late to work and petty theft (stealing bread, for
example)
○ even simple crimes would result in 8-10 year sentences
● some people were political prisoners
○ people who were even slightly connected to anti-Soviets could be imprisoned for years
● prisoners competed for necessities
● violence was common (with prisoners and guards)
● some people lived in solitary confinement
● barracks were smelly, crowded, and poorly heated
● disease/lice were common
● influx of prisoners during the time of the Great Purge
"Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom." Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives.
Gulag Museum of Perm, 2006. Web. 04 July 2017.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag
Joseph Stalin
● dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953
● transformed the SU to an industrial power as well as a military power
● ruled by terror, many deaths occurred because of this
● took control of the Bolsheviks after Vladimir Lenin died
● sent potential enemies to labor camps or killed them
● Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili was Stalin’s real name
○ later took on the name Stalin meaning ‘man of steel’
● worked in the underground political area
● used the name Koba to join the militaristic Bolshevik party
● Stalin’s wife, Ekaterina, died of typhus and his son died in Germany during World War II
○ had three children with his second wife, Nadezhda
● while in exile in Switzerland, Lenin asked Stalin to serve on the Bolshevik party’s Central
Committee
● the Bolsheviks seized the government in November of 1917, creating the Soviet Union under
Lenin
● became the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1922
○ was able to appoint allies to government jobs, to create a base of power
● Stalin eventually overcame his rivals to become the dictator of the Soviet Union in the 1920s
○ he would outlaw/eliminate political enemies
● he was immensely popular. cities were named after him and his past was fictionalized to make
him a more prominent figure.
● Stalin’s government controlled the media in the Soviet Union
● modernized Russia through reign of terror
● helped defeat Germany in WWII
● was associated with the Tiflis Bank Robbery in 1907
● as a result of Stalin’s rule, many people were placed in Gulags and died
● legacy: turned Russia from struggles to industrial/militaristic superpower
● the Great Purge (1934-38)
○ Stalin executed/imprisoned thousands of his opposition
● dreamt of a postwar Soviet Union- expanding the empire
● communist governments through Europe- established
● drew SU into the atomic age with the explosion of an atomic bomb in 1949
● responsible for estimated 20 million deaths

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http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin (accessed July 15)
https://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723 (accessed July 25)

Russian Communism
● party arose to oppose the socialist and capitalist Second International, who supported the
capitalist government during WWI
● the term ‘communist’ enforced the difference between Lenin’s followers and other socialist
Russians
○ advocated for the proletariat government
● the Bolsheviks changed the Russian Socialist Democratic Workers Party to be named the All-
Union Communist party (1925)
● Gulags existed to exercise control over the population
● leaders like Stalin ruled with fear/tyranny
● the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the single most dominant party
○ had control over social, political, and economical aspects of Russia
● laws and policies meant to control and regulate government (constitutions, legal documents)
took second to communist policies and leadership

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Communist-Party-of-the-Soviet-Union (July 26)

“Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 23 Aug. 2002, www.britannica.com/topic/Communist-Party-of-the-Soviet-
Union.

Gulag’s End
● Gorbachev sought to transform the Soviet Union into a more democratic state and reorganize
the economy of the Soviet Union
● the communist party eventually voted to give up their monopoly in government, allowing
other parties to have more control
● a coup against Gorbachev led to the rapid decline of communist popularity
● the communist party’s activity was suspended in August 1991
● when the Soviet Union was dissolved on December 25, 1991, it marked the official end of the
CPSU
○ some leaders of the CPSU still had influence over the rise of the various republics after
the dissolving of the Soviet Union
● Gorbachev pardons political prisoners in 1986
● Gulags began to shrink after Stalin’s death
 ● thousands of prisoners were given amnesty following Stalin’s death
● the Gulag’s activities were absorbed by other organizations following Stalin’s death
● prisoners from Gulags took part in constructing the White Sea Baltic Canal, the Moscow-
Volga Canal, Baikal-Amur railway, hydroelectric stations
● Khrushchev denounces Stalin’s practices with his Secret Speech in February 1956
● Gulags started to decline in 1953
○ political prisoners began to be released in 1954, conditions in camps improve slightly
for prisoners

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http://russiapedia.rt.com/of-russian-origin/the-gulag/
http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/dissidents/death.php
https://www.britannica.com/event/Khrushchevs-secret-speech