historical geography of the soviet era

HistoricalHistoricalGeographyGeographyof theof theSoviet EraSoviet Era

MarxismMarxism • Karl Marx’s class analysis

of Germany, Britain

• Working-class power– “Dictatorship of Proletariat”

– “People’s Democracy”

• First need capitalism/

industry to create workers

• Socialism stage to Communism

RussianRussianMarxismMarxism

- Bolsheviks (Majority radicals)

– Mensheviks (Minority moderates)– Also anarchists, other social revolutionaries

Russia hadmainly peasantry

InternationalismInternationalismbefore WW Ibefore WW I

• European socialists vs. “War of the Bosses”

• But when war came, moderates voted for it

• Radicals against war (incl. Bolsheviks)

World War IWorld War I(1914-18)(1914-18)

• Central Powers– Germany, Austria- Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Turkey

• Allied Powers– Britain, France, Russia, Italy, U.S., Canada

• War for democracy?– Russia, Central Powers dictatorships

Russia in WWIRussia in WWI• St. Petersburg (capital) renamed Petrograd

• Losing on Eastern Front

• Immense ruin, hardship

• Bolsheviks looked like prophets

REVOLUTION, 1917REVOLUTION, 1917 • Czar Nicholas II deposed in February; Provisional Gov’t

• Soviets (Councils) of workers, soldiers, peasants govern themselves

• Bolshevik coup in October for Soviets

• Surrender west to Germans, 1918

Russia after WWIRussia after WWI

• Revolutions collapse in Germany, Hungary

• Peasants like breakup of aristocratic holdings, but want to keep their own private land

• Bolshevik (Communist) Party amasses centralized power,

not Soviets

Civil WarCivil War (Reds (Reds vsvs. Whites), 1918-21. Whites), 1918-21

• Brits, French, Poles, Americans, Japanese intervene for Whites

• Russia under siege

• “War Communism,” railroads win it for Reds

Vladimir LeninVladimir Leninera, 1917-24era, 1917-24

• Workers and peasants together (Marxism-Leninism)

• Faced “Socialism in One Country”

• Died 1924; then 3-year power struggle – Petrograd renamed Leningrad

Lenin on national self-determinationLenin on national self-determination• Nationalism of the oppressor vs. Nationalism of the oppressed

• Criticized Russian majority nationalism

• Independence for Poland, Finland, Baltic states

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), 1922

Eastern Europe after WWIEastern Europe after WWI FinlandEstoniaLatviaLithuaniaPoland

CzechoslovakiaAustriaHungaryYugoslavia

Romania gainsBessarabia(Moldova)

Josef StalinJosef Stalinera, 1927-53era, 1927-53

• Centralism of Czarist Russia

• Ruthless murder of dissidents; purges of leaders

• Millions killed

Stalinist “State Socialism”Stalinist “State Socialism”• Central planning of “Command Economy”

• Heavy industrialization to catch up to West

• Forced collectivization of private farmlands

• Discredited socialism as led by The People

• Ukraine (Donbass)

• Urals

• Siberia (Kuzbass)

Industrial regionsIndustrial regions

UkraineUkraine(Donbass)(Donbass)

UralsUrals

SiberiaSiberia(Kuzbass)(Kuzbass)

Stalin on nationalismStalin on nationalism• Ethnic Georgian (Dzhugashvili) but pro-Russian

• Feared, repressed ethnic minorities & religions

• Russification of minorities (Cyrillic)

• Ruled republics through Russified elites, money

Stalin on nationalismStalin on nationalism• Constructed ethnic groups

from local identities

• Divide-and-rule through ethnic boundaries– “Time bombs” of

minorities within republics

• Yet boundaries strengthened identity later

S.S.R.sS.S.R.s

Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR)

_________ Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) :

Ukrainian Kazakh Byelorussian Kirghiz Georgian Turkmen Armenian Tadzhik Azerbaijan Uzbek

Ethnic minority areas within S.S.R.sEthnic minority areas within S.S.R.s

Ethnic minority areas within S.S.R.sEthnic minority areas within S.S.R.s(mainly within RSFSR)(mainly within RSFSR)

• Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR)

• Autonomous Oblast (Region)

• Autonomous Okrug (District)

Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh Ethnic Armenian region, but part of Azerbaijan;

War in 1988-94

WW II, 1939-41WW II, 1939-41 • Pact with Germany (to delay inevitable?)

• Annexed eastern Poland, Baltics, Bessarabia (Moldavia)

• Invaded Finland (Winter War)

• Nazis invade USSR, June 1941

• Stalin allies with Brits, U.S.

WW II, 1941-45WW II, 1941-45 • Germans besieged Leningrad through winter

• Failed to seize Moscow (government moved east)

• Halted at Stalingrad, before Caspian Sea

• 20 million Soviets dead, country devastated

Russian nationalism in WWIIRussian nationalism in WWII• Stalin used “Mother Russia” to rally USSR

• “Traitorous” minority ethnic groups– Some initially welcomed Germans (or outdid them)

– But Nazis wanted Lebensraum (Living Space)

– Stalin relocates ethnic Germans, Chechens, etc.

USSR after WWIIUSSR after WWII(Re)annexed territory

Baltics, Moldavia, E. Poland.Took E. Prussia (Kaliningrad)

Troops stayEast Germany, Poland,Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria

Independent Communist“partisan” states

Yugoslavia, Albania, China (1949)

Poland, 1945Poland, 1945

USSR annexeseastern Poland,which takeseastern Germany

Ivan’s border changes Ivan’s border changes

Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (before WWI)

Grew up in Czechoslovakia (after WWI)

Fought in Hungary (during WWII)

Grew old in the Soviet Union (after WWII)

Died in Ukraine (after 1991)

All without leaving his hometown of Mukachevo

IronIronCurtainCurtain 1946-891946-89

• Churchill speech, 1946

• Divided West from all Communist states

• Berlin Airlift 1948

Cold WarCold WarMassive refugeeCrisis, poverty

Marshall Planfor recovery in West

Western military“containment”

Proxy warsin Greece, etc.

NATO NATO vsvs. Warsaw Pact. Warsaw Pact

W. Germanyin NATO

Warsaw Pactformed 1955

NATO-Sovietnuclear race

Revolts inRevolts inEasternEastern EuropeEurope

• East Germany, 1953

• Hungarian Revolution, 1956

• Broad-based opposition to Stalinism

Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev, 1953-64, 1953-64• Russian from Ukraine

• “Destalinization”: less repressive

• Consumer goods emphasis

• “Virgin Lands” settlement

• Visited, confronted U.S. but backed down in Berlin, Cuba

Leonid BrezhnevLeonid Brezhnev, 1964-82, 1964-82• Stalin & Khrushchev policies

– Economic stagnancy– Military superpower

• Invaded Czechoslovakia, 1968

• Rivalry with China; clash 1969

• Détente with U.S., 1972

• Invaded Afghanistan, 1979

Polish SolidarityPolish Solidarity, 1980-81, 1980-81

• Poles revolted 1956, 1968, 1970

• Poland looser than others, 1970s– Hungary also “Goulash Communist”– Polish Pope, 1978

• Workers strikes spread from Gdansk, 1980

• Polish military crackdown, 1981

Last days of USSRLast days of USSR • Yuri Andropov (ex-KGB), 1982-84

• War fears, spending on “Euromissile” race

• Konstantin Chernenko (Brezhnev clone), 1984-85

• Mikhail Gorbachev (glasnost) 1985-91

Soviet era in your region? Soviet era in your region?