- •Unit 13 (Part 1) Soviet Russia: Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Realities (1917–1953)
- •I. Explain the notions of “utopia” and “dystopia”. How are these notions related to the Soviet period in Russian history?
- •II. Read the text to get the general understanding of it and explain the words in bold:
- •III. Fill in the prepositions where necessary:
- •IV. Paraphrase or explain the following word combinations, find how they are used in the text. Make up your own examples with them:
- •V. Summarize the information presented in the text. Text 1 The Provisional Government, Petrograd Soviet, and Dual Power
- •I. Scan the text. Explain the words in bold, use them in your own examples.
- •II. Fill in the prepositions where necessary:
- •III. Discuss the following questions:
- •IV. Summarize the information presented in the text. Text 2
- •Lenin, the Bolsheviks, and the November Revolution
- •I. Scan the text and explain the words in bold:
- •II. Discuss the following questions:
- •(2) Securing Bolshevik Power
- •I. Scan the text to get general understanding of it. Suggest English equivalents in the appropriate form for the words given in brackets:
- •II. Make up five questions covering the major information presented in the text. Let your partner answer them. Text 3 Russia’s Civil War
- •II. Find the English equivalents in the text and use them in the sentences of your own:
- •III. Discuss the following questions:
- •IV. Summarize the information presented in the text. Text 4 The New Economic Policy and the Ban on “Factions”
- •I. Study the text, change the words or phrases in bold to their synonyms listed below:
- •II. Explain or paraphrase the following notions, use them in the sentences of your own:
- •III. Mark the following sentences as True or False:
- •IV. Write five or six summary statements about what you have just read. Then in groups share what has been written. Text 5 Old and New Problems, 1922–1924
- •I. Explain or paraphrase the words and phrases in bold, use them in the sentences of your own:
- •II. Discuss the following questions:
- •Text 6 Lenin’s Last Struggle
- •I. Explain or paraphrase the words and phrases in bold, use them in the sentences of your own:
- •II. Discuss the following questions:
- •IV. Write five or six summary statements about what you have just read. Then in groups share what has been written. Writing
- •I. Write the essay “1917-1924 – Utopian dreams that could (not) come true.” summing-up assignment
- •Essential vocabulary
II. Explain or paraphrase the following notions, use them in the sentences of your own:
Ignite; patrimony; plummet; urbanite; sustenance; dissenter; dissent.
III. Mark the following sentences as True or False:
The Poles welcomed the Red Army because they supported the socialist ideology and the idea of the revolution.
The civil war was advantageous for the Bolsheviks.
After the civil war Russia suffered one of the worst famines in its history.
After defeating the Whites the Bolsheviks faced numerous rebellions that proved the Bolsheviks’ inability to convince the broad masses.
The New Economic Policy was a measure of War Communism as a major step toward socialism.
The NEP consisted of several components such as introducing a progressive tax, returning small businesses to their former owners, legalization of private trade.
Power was not concentrated in the hands of Lenin and his closest associates alone and there was no tight control inside the party.
There was much unease because of the resolution banning factions within the party.
IV. Write five or six summary statements about what you have just read. Then in groups share what has been written. Text 5 Old and New Problems, 1922–1924
I. Explain or paraphrase the words and phrases in bold, use them in the sentences of your own:
The work of building and perfecting the one-party dictatorship continued during and after 1921. Shortly after the end of the 10th Party Congress about a third of all members were expelled from the party, a measure that rid it of many dissenters. In 1922 the Cheka, officially a temporary body, was abolished, only to reemerge instantly with even more powers as a permanent body, the State Political Administration, or GPU (after 1923 the Unified State Political Administration, or OGPU). One of those new powers was the right to arrest party members.
Another crucial development in 1922 was Joseph Stalin’s appointment to the newly created party post of general secretary. Lenin selected Stalin for this position because he wanted someone who could effectively control the annoying dissenters who continued to make their voices heard at major party meetings. Stalin immediately began using this post, which gave him the power to place party members in important jobs, to build a network of supporters in key positions. Lenin meanwhile dealt with defeated non-Bolsheviks whose very presence he considered a threat. Following his call for “model” trials to intimidate any potential political opponents, several SR leaders were tried and convicted on the trumped-up charge of “counterrevolution,” and some were executed. Stalin would use Lenin’s model far more extensively and with much deadlier effect in the 1930s.
As the Bolshevik leadership tightened the political screws, the NEP did its work on the economic front. For the Bolsheviks that was both good and bad news. The good news was the recovery itself. By 1923, as peasants planted their crops and sold their surpluses to private traders, the country had enough food. Industrial recovery, while slower, also continued at a respectable rate. The bad news was that wherever the economy was making large strides it was on the basis of capitalism, not socialism. This applied not only to the peasants and the growing class of prosperous kulaks, but also to private traders and businesspeople the Bolsheviks bitterly called “Nepmen.”
In contrast, the socialist “commanding heights” lagged behind. They lacked modern technology, funds for investment, and skilled managers; the party bureaucrats who ran many enterprises had few business skills. In short, as the Bolsheviks saw it, recovery under the NEP was exacting too high a price: the revival of capitalism in Russia, with the kulaks and Nepmen playing the role of the new bourgeoisie. This was not the Russia they had risked and sacrificed so much to build. The writing of a new constitution for the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),” the official name of the former Russian Empire until 1991, did not change the unpleasant fact that by 1923, in an economic sense, Russia was moving further away from socialism with each passing day.