League of Nations, NEP, Five-Year Plan, Treaties, and Russian Revolution
League of Nations (SDN)
The League of Nations was an international organization created by the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. It aimed to establish the foundations for peace and reorganize international relations after World War I. The Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted in the first sessions of the Paris Peace Conference by President Woodrow Wilson (USA). After World War II, it was dissolved in April 1946 and succeeded by the United Nations (UN).
New Economic Policy (NEP)
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was an economic policy implemented in Soviet Russia, and later in the USSR, starting in 1921. It was enacted by decree on March 21, 1921. The decree required farmers to give the government a specified amount of agricultural products. The direct conversion of Russia to a communist system had failed, and the NEP was introduced as a temporary measure.
First Five-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan was a series of centralized national projects aimed at the rapid economic development of the Soviet Union. The objective of the First Five-Year Plan (1928-1932) was to develop the USSR’s heavy industry without relying on foreign aid. However, the USSR was still primarily an agricultural country, so significant land reform was deemed necessary. Parallel to the collectivization of land, there was a rapid process of industrialization. The plan had mixed results.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed in March 1918 in the Polish city of Brest-Litovsk between the German Empire, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Soviet Russia. In the treaty, Russia renounced several territories. Germany reinforced its western front with troops from the east. The German defeat in World War I nullified the treaty, and most of Russia’s territorial losses were recovered by 1940. Only Finland and Turkey retained the territories gained in Brest-Litovsk.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that officially ended World War I between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination in Sarajevo. It demanded that Germany and its allies accept full responsibility for causing the war, disarm, make significant territorial concessions, and pay reparations to the victors.
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Tsarist regime faced numerous challenges ripe for revolution: corruption, unequal income distribution, widespread poverty, high population growth, industrial backwardness, and rising nationalism. These issues were compounded by Russia’s defeat in World War I, as the country desperately needed peace.
The war put the Tsarist regime to a test it could not withstand. The disastrous battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes were followed by the Central Powers’ advances into Russia in 1915. In September of that year, the Duma (the lower house of parliament) was suspended and would not meet again until November 1916. Discontent grew, leading to the assassination of Rasputin and the Tsar’s subsequent suspension of the Duma.
Workers in Petrograd, facing severe shortages due to poor supply, initiated a strike. The February Revolution spread to Moscow and other cities. A Soviet was organized in Petrograd, with deputies representing workers and soldiers. This Soviet formed a provisional government under Prince Lvov, which was to call a National Constituent Assembly. This created a situation of dual power. Kerensky was admitted into the government. On March 17, 1917, Russia became a republic. Lenin then returned to Russia (presenting his April Theses). In July 1917, Kerensky became head of government. On October 9, 1917, Lenin returned secretly and proposed that the Bolshevik Party stage a coup before the Second All-Russian Congress met, where Kerensky was expected to be strengthened. This occurred on October 25th.
On the morning of October 25th, Bolshevik troops seized strategic points throughout the city. Kerensky fled, and many members of the provisional government were arrested. Many parties left the Parliament, leaving the Bolsheviks in control. They issued three decrees:
- Immediate peace without conditions.
- Land expropriation without compensation to the peasants’ Soviets.
- Establishment of the Council of People’s Commissars, which would control the executive branch until the Constituent Assembly.
Once in power, the Bolsheviks sought to end the war. In December 1917, they signed an armistice, followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers on March 3, 1918. The Cheka (secret police) was created to suppress counter-revolutionaries. This was followed by civil war and Stalin’s rise to power.