Introduction: Russia, 1900-22

Russia – The Rule of Stalin, 1922-41

In this course, Dr Arfon Rees (University of Birmingham) thinks about Stalinist Russia in the period 1917-41. We begin by providing an overview of Russian history from the late 19th century up to the end of the Russian Civil War in 1922. After that, we turn to the economic policies of the period 1917-28, from the war communism of 1917-22 to Lenin's New Economic Policy of 1922-28. In the third module, we think about Stalin's rise to power after Lenin's death in 1924, before turning in the fourth module to the key policies of industrialisation and collectivisation, and the theory of Revolution from Above. In the fifth module, we think about the growth of increasingly autocratic, repressive policies in the 1930s, before moving on in the sixth and final module to focus on Russian foreign policy – especially in the context of the Second World War.

Introduction: Russia, 1900-22

In this module, we provide an overview of the events from the turn of the 20th century to the adoption of Lenin's New Economic Policy in 1922, focusing in particular on the problems faced by Tsarist Russia and the attempts to modernise both politically and economically, the impact of the First World War, the Revolutions of 1917, and the consolidation of Bolshevik power in the period 1917-22.