1.1 Establishing Communist Party Control, 1917 - 24 Flashcards
By what year was Russia a communist one party state?
1922
How did Bolsheviks prevent other political parties gaining influence?
- Banned bourgeois from voting (did not agree with Bolsheviks seeing as they were redistributing bourgeois possessions)
- Did not allow other parties to publish their own newspapers
- April 1921 stated SRs’ and Mensheviks belonged in prison 1921 other parties banned
Why and when was the Treaty of Brest Litovsk signed, and what were its consequences?
1918 - Lenin needed troops out of WW1 so they could fight in the civil war. Russia lost control over Baltic states and lots of land and industry - was humiliating and created enemies
How did the Civil War consolidate Bolshevik power?
They had won over the whites. People unlikely to switch sides and not be a Bolshevik because of their experiences in the Civil War
What was life like for people in Russia at the start of the 1900s?
Over 85% of the population were peasants who had few rights, they were legally tide to their home village and forced to work for the landowners without pay - instead they were given poor housing which were cramped and had to grow their own food
What was farming like at the start of the 1900s?
Most peasants farmed land, but the farming techniques were outdated and slow.
When famine happened in 1901, the government still made peasants give up some grain to sell abroad for money
How did WW1 impact the economy?
There were shortages of raw materials so weapons and supplies for the army could not be produced.
The railway system was underdeveloped and had been taken over for the war effort so it could not longer be used to get supplies to cities causing shortages.
In the countryside, millions of peasant farmers had been conscripted into the army so there was not enough people to grow food making food prices rise quickly
What happened on the 24th of October 1917?
The October revolution, where the armed Bolsheviks stormed the winter palace which led to their takeover of the government
What were the positive impacts of the revolution?
- Lenin dismissed the constituent assembly and the old Duma, and delated the dictatorship of the proletariat
- There was a huge campaign to teach everyone to read, and learn about communism
- Women’s rights improved - childcare was freely provided and divorce and abortion was legalised
- Lots more factories were built in an effort to improve Russia’s development which created for many people who then had benefits of an 8 hour day, as well as unemployment pay and pensions, but the working conditions were often unsafe
What were the negative impact of the revolution?
The cheka was the secret police formed in December 1917 to deal with counter-revolution by arresting, torturing and killing anybody who tried to destroy the communist state. However, it was soon operating outside the law when implementing Bolshevik terror.
Lenin used the gulag, a network of prison cramps, for criminal and political prisoners. Prisoners faced harsh conditions and hard labour.
Countries such as Britain sent large sums of money to help the Tsar’s supporters fight the Bolsheviks. This made the USSR suspicious of the West for years to come.
The Russian economy dropped, causing some skilled workers to flee the country. This meant that, for a while, only essential items were available, and luxury goods could not be bought.
What type of government system did the Bolsheviks want?
The Bolsheviks wanted a democratic system that would rule on behalf of the people, for the people, by establishing a one-party state where all other political groups were banned. Communist rule under the Bolsheviks was to be authoritarian, highly centralised and supplemented by heavy use of terror.
What were the difficulties the Bolsheviks faced when securing power?
Although the Bolsheviks claimed to represent the interests of the proletariat, they did not have enough support to lead a popular revolution so therefore used force to seize power which led to opposition from
left-wing groups such as the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks
Right-wing groups such as Tsarist supporters, liberal groups who often represented the interests of the middle class – the Marxist ideology represented a challenge to the rich and privileged.
Nationalist groups such as Ukrainians, Poles and Finns, who saw the collapse of the Tsarist regime as a chance to assert their independence.
Who were the Mensheviks?
A communist group that had split from the Bolsheviks in 1903, they were prepared to work with the bourgeoisie in order to bring about gradual reform.
How did the Bolsheviks deal with the other left-wing groups?
Other left-wing groups shared many of the socialist aims of the Bolsheviks, but Lenin made it clear that there would be no sharing of power.
The election of the Constituent Assembly, in January 1918 resulted in the Bolsheviks having 175 seats and the socialist revolutionaries having 410 seats.
This posed a threat to continued Bolshevik rule, so Lenin dissolved the Assembly and condemned it as an instrument of the bourgeoisie and replaced it with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets where the Bolsheviks had more influence. This ensured that there was to be no real forum for opposition.
Who were the socialist revolutionaries?
- A group committed to democratic socialism
- Believed in right of groups to govern themselves for example peasant organisations
How did the Bolsheviks deal with other political parties?
- The removal of the vote from bourgeois classes ensures opposition parties did not have support
- Restrictions imposed on the Mensheviks and SRs - difficult to publish their newspapers
- In March 1918, the Bolshevik party renamed itself the Communist Party and, by 1921, all other parties were effectively banned
- In April 1921, Lenin declared that the Mensheviks and the SRs belong in prison. From Jan-Mar. 5,0000 Mensheviks were arrested
What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918?
- The Treaty took Russia out of WW1
- Russia subsequently lost control over the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland, Ukraine and parts of the caucus region
- It was a national humiliation for the conservatives - the only way to restore pride was to overthrow the Bolshevik regime and reject the Treaty
- Lenin signed it to concentrate on dealing with internal enemies
- Provided incentives for the whites to fight against the Bolsheviks because the allied powers wanted to keep Russia in WW1 and were willing to provide arms, money and troops to those who would ensure Russia joined the fight
Summarise the Russia Civil War, 1918-1921
A war between the Bolsheviks (Reds) and the Whites, but also other groups not aligned with either (ie the Greens) who fought for their won objections, such as independence
Who were the Whites in the Civil War?
Whites were largely conservative groups within Russia who did not want the old social order changed
Who were the Reds?
The Bolsheviks and their supporters
How did the Bolsheviks win the civil war?
The area controlled by the Bolsheviks was limited from Moscow to Petrograd directly - They were surrounded by White forces.
The Bolsheviks were more organised in military, economic and political terms whereas the Whites were an amalgam of different groups united only by their desire to get rid of the Bolsheviks. These divisions were reflected in the military strategy of the Whites, with a lack of Cooperation, and corruption and inefficiency that undermined the help from Russia’s former Allies in the First World War.
Leon Trotsky (Commissar for War) - turned the Red Army into an effective fighting machine. Conscription was introduced to swell the number of soldiers to over five million
The Bolsheviks had support from the workers who saw the Bolsheviks as the best guarantors of their gains from the Revolution and peasants because of the Land Decree of 1917.
What was the results of the civil war?
- The Bolshevik state had become highly centralised due to the demands of the civil war. Power was now firmly in the hands of the government (Sovnarkom) and party leadership (Politburo) based in Moscow
- The Civil War had set the tone for the development of the party by the Bolsheviks use of extensive terror against their political opponents
- The Civil war created a generation who did not buckle under pressure and who did not think twice about using force and terror
Summarise the Tenth Party Congress, 1921
- The Civil War had seen a huge growth in Party membership, from 300,000 at the end of 1917 to over 730,000 by 1921- posed a threat to party stability
- Lenin banned the formation of factions within the Party (One Party Unity) - an attempt to improve Bolshevik anxiety over their hold over Russia
Describe the apparatus of government
The Sovnarkom was the Council of People’s Commissars, consisted of top government ministers responsible for making key decisions and giving government orders. 20 members in total elected by the Central Executive Committee.
The Central Executive Committee oversaw the work of the government and its administration and was elected by the Congress of Soviets.
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was the supreme law-making body of the state.
Provincial and city soviets conducted the administration of government at local level.
