Notes

Russia before 1917,
- Russia had the largest landmass on earth
- They had the largest army and largest population in Europe
- They had the largest supply of grains in Europe
But they had a lot of political problems. The farmers had very low wages and the landlords mistreated them badly. Tsar was ruling Russia in absolute power. He lost the support of his people in 1905, when he used violence in a peaceful demonstration in St Petersburg. So that is why Tsar was kinda forced to create the Duma (Russia parliament), the problem of the Duma was that it lacked power, because eventually all the decisions came to Tsar.

The February Revolution
- Around 1905, Russia still wasn't doing well, farmers were still earning low and landlords were also still mistreating them. Russia was also having a war with Germany, in which they lost millions of soldiers and also lost territory. It became even worse when Tsar made himself leader of the army, he proved to be very bad.
- In 1917 of February, there was a big woman protest for bread, land, piece. When Tsar heard about this he told the soldiers to kill all the protesters, but the soldiers resisted and some even joined the protest. Within days the whole imperialism collapsed and Tsar had to resign, and the government was given to the socialist group. Also the soviets were created which were given to the larbourers and soldiers.

Lenin
- Lenin was a guy who was banished from Russia from going against Tsar. He was highly revolutionised by Karl Max. Lenin dreamed of leading a communist empire. So the Germany contacted him and asked that if they fund him and make sure he becomes the leader of Russia, that he will sign a peace treaty with the Central powers. Lenin agreed. Also already had a party named the Bishoviks.
- So when Lenin arrived in Petrograd, he already had hundreds of supporters waiting for him. And he instantly started telling the people that if he would become leader, he would give the people piece, land, and bread and end the war with Germany. This is what the people wanted so after Lenin gained enough supporters, he attacked the Winter Palace. And the government was given to Lenin. He also created the elections just to show that the people wanted him. But to a surprise the bishoviks didn't win. So he just said that the elections were a fraud and made himself dictator of Russia, he thought this was nessesary to run a communist state.

Civil War
- Lots of people were against Lenin so Lenin right hand guy had created the Red army and the White army were pro-tsarists, basically everyone against Lenin. They had a war, and britain and france helped the white army because they wanted their ally back, but eventually the Red army still won. The was named the USSR.

New Economic Rule
- So the civil war had caused lots of destruction to the agricultural lands and Lenin forcefully stole food from the peasants to feed the Red army.
- To repay for all of this, he created a the New economic rule (this was a rule in which Lenin stepped a step backwards from communism and a step forwards into capatilism. The peasants had the right to produce their own food and also business men (ig) were allowed to own industries (not factories). The factories became public property and were given to the workers.
- Some people thought that this was too early, and that Lenin should have waited till the country would have become the great communist Empire.