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The Soviet Union - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Soon party split into two: MODERATES - MENSHEVIKS (achieve victory through the ballot) and the RADICALS - BOLSHEVIKS (wanted a radical revolution)
      - During party congress, radicals > moderates
      - Lenin was clear about the political ambitions of the Bolsheviks - "Only fools can imagine that the proletariat is obliged first to obtain a majority in elections organised under the yoke of the bourgeoisie, under the yoke of wage-slavery, and only afterwards to gain power. We maintain on the contrary that the proletariat must first bring down the bourgeoisie and seize power, and afterwards use that power, i.e. the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the instrument of its class in such a way as to gain the sympathy of the great majority of working people”
  - - - Russia was involved in the Russo-Japanese war. Russian defeat in the war against Japan → riots, strikes, mass demonstrations and organisation of Soviets
      - 1906 - Nicholas II grants a Constitution and a bicameral system
        
        Duma - members elected by the people
        
        Duma was obedient to the Tsar, who dissolved it whenever there was a political issue
        
        Diet - members represented various regions of the empire which were partly elected by the people and partly appointed by the Tsar
    - - Also this crisis was caused by a war, WW1 - Russian military defeats in WW1 & the great misery of soldiers → food riots, revolts and mutiny → the Duma demanded political and social reforms, however the Tsar dissolved the Duma.
      - March 15th - rebellion and mutiny became so wide spread, the Duma openly opposed the Tsar inducing him to abdicate the same date - FIRST REVOLUTION - MARCH REVOLUTION
        
        Outcome: Provisional government composed of liberals and moderate socialists, SR and Mensheviks. KERENSKY -> PM of PVG, leader of the SR
        
        Bolsheviks considered PVG as too liberal, western, and insufficiently radical in its social and economic policies
      - 16th September - proclamation of the Republic -> put end to four centuries of monarchy
        
        OCTOBER REVOLUTION
        
        PVG wanted to continue WW1 with the Western allies -> huge issue -> as main cause of crisis was the war's effect on society
        
        Bolsheviks promised to end the conflict asa they came to power -> Bolsheviks started to become an opposition to the government. Bolsheviks mainly worked through Soviets of workers, gaining control in many cities of the Russian empire
        
        6th November - storming of the Winter Palace (house of the monarchs and seat of the PVG) -> PVG surrendered that very day -> Bolsheviks rose to power
        
        October Revolution ≠ directed towards the Tsar, as he was out of the political scenario. Rather, it was against the bourgeoisie regime of the provisional government, against the SR, Mensheviks and Kerensky
        
        Outcome from an institutional POV: November 1917 Russia really passed from imperial absolutism to proletarian dictatorship, missing out the intermediate stage of bourgeois capitalism
- - - - Soviet of the Nationalities contained all the different ethnic components irrespectively of demographic data
      - Soviet of the Union - proportional to the population
      - Supreme Soviet has the highest legislative authority
- - - - Soviet constitution of 1918 - “The separation of powers in legislative, executive and judiciary branches corresponds to the structure of the state of the bourgeois. The Russian Soviet republic has only one aim: the establishment of a socialist regime. This struggle needs unity and concentration of power, rather than separation”