NY State Curriculum Notes   

Revolution and change in Russia— causes and impacts

1. Czar Nicholas II

2. The Revolution of 1905

3. March Revolution and provisional government

4. Bolshevik Revolution

5. V.I. Lenin’s rule in Russia

6. Stalin and the rise of a modern totalitarian state: industrialization, command economy, collectivization

7. Russification of ethnic republics

8. Forced famine in Ukraine

9. Reign of Terror

TEACHER’S NOTE: Students should understand that Lenin and Stalin used the work of Marx to create a command economy.

• What were the causes of the Russian Revolution?

• Why did a communist revolution occur in Russia rather than a more industrialized nation?

• What steps did the Communists take to industrialize the Soviet Union?

• To what extent were the human rights of Russians and other ethnic and national groups respected by the Stalinist regime?

• How did various groups view the Russian Revolution?

• How does Russian industrialization compare with that of Western Europe?

Suggested Documents: Communist political posters and art; V.I. Lenin, The Call to Power; Joseph Stalin, The Hard Line; Nikita S. Khrushchev, Address to the Twentieth Party Congress; for the Abdication of Nikolai II see http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dml0www/abdicatn.html

• Russian Revolution on the Web Guide
• The Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Internet Archive  
• The Leon Trotsky Internet Archive  
• The Josef Stalin Internet Archive  
• The Russian Revolution