HIS 102
Unit 11:
Russian Revolution

This statue of Lenin stands proudly in a dramatic action pose in front of the Smolny Institute from where Lenin directed the Bolshevik seizure of power on the night of 25/26 October (5/6 November according to the European calendar) 1917.  There were no such dramatic poses that night for Lenin, just sitting behind a desk issuing orders, pacing the Bolshevik offices and anxiously awaiting reports from throughout Petrograd to see if the Bolshevik gamble had succeeded.

• Review chapter 24, especially the section on The Russian Revolutions of 1917, and in chapter 25 read the section "The Russian Revolution under Lenin and Stalin" in the textbook.
• Read my remarks on the Russian Revolutions of 1917, then the period of NEP in the 1920s followed by Stalin's revolution in the 1930s and watch my short video on the Russian Revolution.
• Professor Campbell has a video from his B.S. series, Was The Russian Revolution Of 1917 B.S.?
  
• Read my additional note on 1917.
• Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week.

• Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file.  You can also read the information as a txt file.
• Check out this website on the situation of the large Jewish population in the Russian Empire, Beyond the Pale: The History of Jews in Russia.

• See the videos dealing with the Russian Revolution in the HIS 242 course.
• For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the URL and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, write a one-page paper (maybe two pages if they are exceptional) that provides a detailed comparison of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Russian Declaration of the Rights of the Russian People.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World (free at www.bartleby.com/79/) and explain Reed's explanation of why the Bolsheviks were able to seize power successfully.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the Franco-Russian Alliance Military Convention (1892), and write a paragraph that answers the question, How did this convention fit into the pre-1914 diplomatic scene?
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read a newspaper account of the Kishinev pogrom and write a paragraph explaining the impact of the pogrom on Kishinev.
• For up to 5 points of extra credit, you can submit the answers to the Russian Declaration of the Rights of the Russian People study questions.  Please write in formal, complete sentences.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to (1) demonstrate a knowledge of the important historical developments of the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the ensuing civil war and (2) provide some factors contributing to the successful seizure of power by the Bolshevik party.