Lesson Two: The Russian Revolution

In 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR or Soviet Union) was created with Vladimir Ilich Lenin as the first leader of the communist country.  Under his leadership the people of the Soviet Union saw many positive changes:

• Land was redistributed to the people

• Factories were given to the workers so that they could make decisions about wages and and working conditions

• Men and women were considered equal and valuable contributors to society

• Art and music flourished as there were no longer restrictions on what one could create

Lenin's application of Marxist values had given many poor and working class people much more power over their lives than they had known under czarist rule.  This came to an abrupt end after Lenin died from a stroke in 1924.