History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–1927)
| 1917–1927 | |||
| |||
Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution | |||
| Location | Soviet Russia → Soviet Union | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Including | February Revolution Revolutions of 1917–1923 | ||
| Leader(s) | Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin | ||
| President | Mikhail Kalinin | ||
| Key events | World War I October Revolution Russian Civil War Polish–Soviet War Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics New Economic Policy Death and state funeral of Vladimir Lenin | ||
| Part of a series on the |
| History of the Soviet Union |
|---|
| Soviet Union portal |
| History of Russia |
|---|
| Russia portal |
The ten years 1917–1927, saw a radical transformation of the Russian Empire into a socialist state, the Soviet Union: initially called Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1922 and then the Soviet Union from 1922 onward. This period spanned the 1917 Russian revolutions to Joseph Stalin's rise to power in 1927.
Following the February Revolution in 1917 that deposed Tsar Nicholas, a short-lived provisional government had given way to Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. After winning the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), the Bolsheviks solidified their political control. They were dedicated to a version of Marxism developed by Vladimir Lenin, promising the workers would rise, destroy capitalism, and create a socialist society under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The awkward problem, regarding Marxist revolutionary theory, was the small proletariat, in an overwhelmingly peasant society with limited industry and a very small middle class.
The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (RCP). All politics and attitudes that were not strictly RCP were suppressed, under the premise that the RCP represented the proletariat and all activities contrary to the party's beliefs were "counterrevolutionary" or "anti-socialist." Most rich families fled to exile. During 1917 to 1923, the Bolshevik government capitulated to Germany in World War I, then fought an intense civil war against multiple enemies especially the White Army. They won the Russian heartland but lost most non-Russian areas that had been part of Imperial Russia. One by one defeating each opponent, the RCP established itself through the Russian heartland and some non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Caucasus. It became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) upon the creation Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the CPSU, became the leader of the USSR, being general secretary from the early 1920s to his death in 1953.