LESSON PLAN 7
Date: Friday, February 9, 2007
Subject: Humanities Core – World History
Monday, February 12, 2007
Grade: 10
Unit: WWI
Essential Question: Although war is sometimes inevitable, to what extent is war worth the costs?
Lesson Topic: The Russian Revolution, Part 2 – Structured Academic Controversy
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.
10.7.1 Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution, including Lenin's use of
totalitarian means to seize and maintain control (e.g., the Gulag).
10.7.2 Trace Stalin's rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies,
political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the
Terror Famine in Ukraine).
10.7.3 Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and Communist) in
Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits.
Learning Question and Objectives:
Lesson Topic: Structure Academic Controversy – The Russian Revolution
Content Question: Did Communist leaders use violence to achieve equality for the peasants/working
class or to establish their own personal power?
Two Positions:
“Communist leaders used violence to achieve equality for the peasants/working class”
“Communist leaders used violence to establish their own personal power”
Resources
1. The Russian Revolution SAC – Task Card
2. The Russian Revolution SAC – Primary Sources
Time
Activity
10 minutes 1. 1. Causes and Effects of the Russian Revolution Notes
Students will take notes in their noteboosk on the causes and
effects of the Russian Revolution.
Causes
Effects
1. Poor Leadership
1. Set-up communist
(autocratic ruler) Czar
government.
Nicholas II (political
2. Red Secret Police –
problems)
Cheka – killed all
2. March Revolution
those who opposed
(economic
the government (Red
problems):
Terror.)
government started
3. Increase Russian
rationing bread
patriotism.
because of rising
4. Tensions between
prices. Women
Russia and the Allies
protested, along with
(democracy v
soldiers and workers.
communism)
3. WWI – Russians were
frustrated that
resources and lives
Notes
soldiers and workers.
3. WWI – Russians were
frustrated that
resources and lives
were being lost
fighting in WWI.
4. Bolsheviks wanted to
distribute land to
peasants, transfer
companies and
industries to
committees of
workers, and to
transfer political
power to the Soviets.
10 minutes
communism)
2. Introduce SAC (Structured Academic Controversy)
Question and Documents
Go over the SAC question with the students and the four
documents. Students have to read the documents and answer
the questions in preparation for the SAC.
3. Explain what a SAC is and the basic steps
I. Explain to students that a Structured Academic Controversy
consists of adopting a perspective on an issue, advocating their
perspective, and then adopting a larger view of the issue that
includes the opposing perspective as well. If this is not possible
in the group then come up with your own understanding of the
question. Go over the topic of the SAC, the content question,
and the two positions.
Students will have a Task Card that outlines the directions.
II. Form groups of four. The two students with birthdays closer
to today will argue that Communist leaders were more
concerned about people’s welfare than establishing their own
power (Pair One). The two students with birthdays farthest
from today will argue that Communist leaders were more
concerned with establishing their own power than people’s
welfare (Pair Two).
III. The pairs have 10 minutes to look over their primary and
secondary sources and questions and discuss their position. (8
minutes)
IV. Pairs come together as a foursome and present sides. Pair
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One (Communist leaders were concerned about people’s
welfare) presents while Pair Two listens, then repeats main
argument back to Pair One’s satisfaction. Then Pair Two
presents (Communist leaders were concerned with establishing
their own power), while Pair One listens and then repeats the
main argument of Pair Two until they are satisfied. (4 min.
each, 8 min. total)
V. General discussion between groups of four. During this
point you can abandon your position, come to a consensus, or
reach your own. (10 min.)
5. Explain the Discussion Norms for Participating in a SAC
Go over rules with class.
1. I am critical of ideas, not people
2. I focus on making the best decision possible, not on
“winning.
3. I listen to everyone’s ideas, even if I do not agree.
4. I restate (paraphrase) what someone has said if it is not clear.
5. I try to understand both sides of the issue.
6. I change my mind when the evidence clearly indicates that I
should do so.
Ask students if they have any questions of the rules. (3 min.)
56 minutes
6. SAC
During this time students will be gathering their information,
presenting their argument, and coming to a consensus. If
groups finish early they can start writing the reflection. Follow
the times on the Task Card
7. Discussion on SAC
Ask students what they learned from the activity and how they
like the format as opposed to a debate.
Homework
1. 1-page SAC Reflection
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The Russian Revolution: A Structured Academic Controversy
(SAC)
Content Question: Did Communist leaders use violence to achieve equality for the
peasants/working class or to establish their own personal power?
Two Positions:
“Communist leaders used violence to achieve equality for the peasants/working class”
“Communist leaders used violence to establish their own personal power”
Directions: Read and answers the questions on the primary in preparation for the SAC.
Document #1 - F.F. Raskolnikov: “The Tale of a Lost Day” (1918)
Raskolnikov was a leader in the Red Navy during the Russian Civil War and is regarded as an authentic
chronicler of the October Revolution. In this description of the Constituent Assembly meeting of Soviet
officials, he retells what Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, the chairman of the Central Executive
Committee, had to say about the revolution.
Vocabulary
Constituent Assembly: meeting of Soviet (a type of communist) leaders
Exploit: to take advantage of, to oppress
Lenin, wearing a padded overcoat with a lambskin collar and a big fur hat with earflaps, entered at a
brisk pace, nodding to comrades and shaking their hands quickly, and modestly went to his seat….
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, in a glossy black leather jacket, placed his warm fur hat on the table and
declared the meeting open. …Comrade Sverdlov went on, undisturbed, “The October Revolution has
kindled the fire of socialist revolution not only in Russia but in all countries.”
“We do not doubt that sparks from our [revolution] will fly all over the world, and that the day is not far
distant when the working classes of all countries will rise up against their exploiters just as in October
the Russian working class rose up, followed by the Russian peasantry.”
“We do not doubt,” Sverdlov went on, “that the true representatives of the working people who are
sitting here in the Constituent Assembly will help the Soviets to put an end to class privileges. The
representatives of the workers and peasants know the rights of the working people to the means of
production and ownership, which before the Revolution was controlled by the ruling classes to exploit
the working people in every way.” …
“Long live the Soviet Republic!” Once more the slogan rose from our benches in a unanimous,
triumphant shout. And, in our enthusiasm, we fervently clapped our hands.
[Source: F.F. Raskolnikov’s Works - http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/red-
army/1918/raskolnikov/ilyin/index.htm]
Guiding Questions:
1. Lenin says the peasants have been “exploited” in every way by the “ruling classes”. In what ways
do you imagine the peasants and working classes have been exploited?
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2. Given your answer to question #1, what “rights” do the Soviet communist leaders want to give to the
working people?
3. Based on this quote, do you think the Soviet Communist leaders were using violence to achieve
equality for the peasants/working class or to establish their own personal power? Explain.
Document #2 - Marie Sukloff: The Story of an Assassination (1914)
Russia lagged far behind Western Europe in implementing reforms. As each generation of protesters
and reformers was repressed, dissent turned more and more radical out of desperation. Marie Sukloff
joined an organization, which believed that leaders who oppressed people had to be assassinated. The
target on this particular occasion was a governor notorious for leading pogroms (murderous raids of
theft and extermination) against Jews. Her vivid account of her own participation in this event brings to
life the kind of person who was going to launch the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Vocabulary
Reformers: people trying to create change
Dissent: groups/people against the government
Radical: extreme, often violent
Raids: to go into a place uninvited
Extermination: to kill
It was New-Year's eve...and there was only one thought in my mind: he must die. All doubts had
disappeared. I knew. I felt that it was going to happen.
At midnight I carefully removed the tube from the bomb, dried the powder, and reloaded the bomb. I put
the four-pound tin box in a fine hand-bag specially bought for the occasion, and again read over the list
of the peasants murdered by the governor. I set everything in order, wrote a letter, and left money for the
landlady. Then I went to bed.
…I opened my eyes, and the thought of what was going to happen on that day filled my soul.…I left my
house holding the bag in my hand…A few minutes later I saw Comrade Nicholai walking with slow and
careful steps toward me. In his hand he held a box tied with a red ribbon: that was a bomb. He crossed
the bridge, and stopped about seventy or eighty feet from me. I knew then that he would throw the bomb
from there…I continued to walk back and forth in the direction of the governor's house…
I followed him with my eyes…. The street still remained deserted. Suddenly a mounted policeman
appeared, and behind him a carriage. Comrade Nicholai immediately stepped down from the curb, and at
that moment the carriage approached him.
He raised his hand, and threw the bomb under the carriage. The bomb fell softly on the snow and did not
explode…The carriage stopped for an instant; but then the coachman began to whip the horses and
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drove at full gallop straight in my direction. I stepped into the middle of the road, and with all my might
hurled the bomb against the carriage window. A terrific force instantly stunned me. I felt that I was lifted
into the air.
When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes there was nobody around. I lay on the road amid a
heap of debris. Blood was streaming down my face and hands. I tried to lift my head and lost
consciousness. . . .
[The governor died; Marie was imprisoned.]
[Source: Marie Sukloff, “The Story of an Assassination,” in Paul Brians, ed., Reading About the
World, Volume 2. New York: Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing, 1999.]
Guiding Questions
1. Why did Marie Sukloff take part in trying to assassinate the governor Comrade Nicholai? What did
he do which had made her so angry?
2. Based on what he had done, do you think she had a right to use militancy (violence) in the revolution
to assassinate him?
3. Based on this quote, do you think she was using violence to achieve equality for the peasants/working
class or to establish their own personal power? Explain.
Document #3 - V. I. Lenin: Hanging Order (1918)
When Lenin tried to organize a Marxist revolutionary party in Russia he faced a dilemma. The ultimate goal of
Marxist Communism was absolute freedom; but in his view, the only realistic way to attain that goal
was to have a disciplined party without opposition. In this famous letter Lenin orders the hanging of
kulaks—a derogatory name for the prosperous landed peasant class who did not want Lenin or the
Bolsheviks in power. Like all Marxists, Lenin believed that, in the first period after a revolution, there
must be "a dictatorship of the proletariat," when the government, on behalf of its working-class
supporters had to take stern and cruel measures against counter-revolutionarie, the forces of the
capitalist classes who would try to regain power. He justified the repression outlined here by arguing
that a dictatorial Communist government was capable of leading the people for their own good, even if
they disagreed.
Vocabulary
Kulaks: wealthy peasants who opposed the Russian Revolution
Proletariat: workers or working-class
Counter-revolutionaries: those opposed to the Russian Revolution
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Guiding Question:
1. How did Lenin justify the violence used to accomplish the goals of the Russian Revolution?
November 8, 1918
Send to Penza To Comrades Kuraev, Bosh, Minkin and other Penza communists
Comrades! The revolt by the kulaks must be suppressed without mercy. The interest of the entire
revolution demands [that we take action in this] decisive battle with the kulaks. We need to set an
example.
1. You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the
rich, and the bloodsuckers.
2. Publish their names.
3. Take away all of their grain.
4. Execute the hostages.
This needs to be accomplished in such a way that people for hundreds of miles around will see, tremble,
know and scream out: let’s choke and strangle those blood-sucking kulaks.
Telegraph us to let us know you executed this order.
Yours,
Lenin
P.S. Use your toughest people for this.
[Source: Lenin’s Writings - www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/ad.html]
Guiding Question
1. Do you think Lenin’s order in this telegraph matches Marx’s idea of revolution? Or does this show
that Lenin was just power-hungry? Explain.
Homework Assignment:
Write a 1-pare response to the SAC (to be turned in on a separate sheet of paper.)
What is your answer to the content question? Did this activity help you gain a broader understanding of
the motives Communist leaders had in organizing the Russian Revolution? Did your group reach a
consensus at the end of the SAC? What did you learn from this activity?
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