14. LENIN AND STALIN Flashcards
LENIN
THE EARLY MONTHS, 1917-18
The Bolsheviks survived the first months in power by a mixture of concession and ruthless action.
- They overcame the strikes and protests from the working classes in the cities (who favoured Soviet rather than Bolshevik rule) and by-passed the Soviet to establish a Bolshevik-dominated government headed by Sovnarkom.
- They prevented other political groups (except a few left-wing SRs) from sharing power and issued decrees designed to win support for the new regime.
- The Constituent Assembly was forcibly dissolved in January 1918 while the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave the government the peace it needed in order to survive, despite having been controversial even with the Bolsheviks.
LENIN
lenin decrees 1917-8
Oct-Nov 1917
Maximum eight-hour day for workers
Decree on Peace
Decree on Land
Rights of the People of Russia Decree gives self-determination to minorities in Empire
Abolition of titles and class ranks
Workers’ control of factories
Abolition of old legal system
Women given equality with men and right to own property
December: 1917
Cheka established
Banks nationalised
Jan-Feb 1918
Workers’ control of railways
creation of Red Army
Church and State separated
LENIN
THE 1918 CONSTITUTION
RSFSR) was proclaimed in July 1918. This stated that supreme power rested with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which was made up of deputies from elected local soviets across Russia.
established the
- The central executive committee of that congress was to be the supreme organ of power’ - acting like a president. The congress was also made responsible for electing Sovnarkom for the purposes of the general administration of the affairs of the State
LENIN
On the surface, the 1918 constitution looked highly democratic. However, there were limitations:
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- The vote was reserved for the toiling masses. Members of the former ‘exploiting classes’ (which included businessmen, clergy and tsarist officials) were excluded from voting or holding public office.
- In the election to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the workers’ vote was weighted in the proportion of five to one against that of the peasants.
- While Sovnarkom was officially appointed by the congress, in practice it was chosen by the Bolshevik/Communist Party’s Central Committee.
- The congress was only to meet at intervals - so executive authority remained in the hands of Sovnarkom.
- The structure was centralised and the real focus of power was the Party.
LENIN
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR 1918-20
The greatest test for Bolshevik survival came in 1918, when anger at the concessions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 merged with the existing political opposition to create a force of ‘Whites’.
Russia’s previous wartime allies, Britain, France and the USA, gave support to the Whites for various reasons:
ideological - as capitalist nations they opposed the doctrine of communism - they desire to force Russia back into the fight against Germany in the First World War to defend their own interests in Russia (since the Bolsheviks refused to pay back money borrowed in tsarist times and nationalised foreign-owned industries).
LENIN
By the spring of 1918, an anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army had been created in the south of the country, partly financed by Germany.
In anticipation of the growing threat, the Bolsheviks moved their capital from Petrograd to Moscow in March 1918.
However, the spark to war actually came from an outburst by the Czech Legion in western Siberia in May; three years of fighting followed.
The Czechoslovak Army of Liberation, or the Czech Legion, had been formed from Czech nationalists in Russia during the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.
By 1918 it numbered 45,000 soldiers.
In March 1918, the Bolsheviks gave permission for this army to travel eastwards, through Siberia, to continue the fight against their enemies on the Western Front.
In May, as this force travelled along the Trans-Siberian Railway, some Bolshevik officials tried to arrest some of the soldiers and fighting broke out, as a result of which the Czech Legion seized the railway line through much of western Siberia and parts of eastern European Russia. With this, they abandoned their original plans, joined forces with anti-Bolsheviks and began to advance westwards towards Moscow.
LENIN
why did the reds win?
Geography, Unity and organisation, Leadership, Support, Other
Geography
The Reds commanded the hub of communications, the armaments factories, and the most densely populated regions of central Russia (including Petrograd and Moscow). The Whites were widely dispersed in less-developed parts.
Unity and organisation
White generals operated independently and fought for different objectives. The
Reds had a unified command structure.
Leadership
The Red Army became a well-disciplined fighting force under Trotsky’s leadership.
The Whites had few competent commanders and ill-discipline was rife.
Support
Although peasant support varied, generally Red land policies prevailed over the Whites’
association with traditional tsarist policies.
Other
Hostility to foreign involvement gave the Reds a propaganda platform.
It did not greatly aid the Whites as foreign help was not extensive and was withdrawn after peace was concluded in the West.
LENIN
The war continued into 1921 but as more of a nationalist struggle against Polish armies. Under direct orders from Lenin, Tukhachevsky mounted a successful communist counter-offensive against them.
However, Lenin’s hope that a communist revolution would break out in Poland and spread westwards into Europe was proved false.
The Poles
rose again and defeated the Red Army. This led to the Treaty of Riga (March 1921), which granted Poland self-rule along with Galicia and parts of Belorussia.
The independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was also confirmed. Subsequently, this meant that Lenin’s order to ‘drive into Poland’ was controversial, and split Bolshevik ranks.
LENIN
THE IMPACT OF THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR ON GOVERNMENT AND THE PARTY
The Russian Civil War brought greater centralisation and Party control.
The Party structure was based on annual congresses, elected by the mass membership (these met every year during Lenin’s life but actual policies and decisions were shaped by the Central Committee.
In 1919, another body, known as the
Politburo, was created and this became the real centre for Party policy.
The first elected Politburo of 1919 included Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin among its original members.
Since these were also key government officials, the government increasingly became the instrument for carrying out policies made in the Politburo (of seven to nine men) and the Party Central Committee.
Sovnarkom gradually met less frequently during the 1920s.
LENIN
An organisational bureau, the Orgburo, was also created in 1919 to supervise the work of local Party committees and supervise the permanent secretariat which was concerned with the day-to-day running of the Party.
and.. 2
- Furthermore, it was decreed that the local soviets should only consist of Party members.
- Added to this, Lenin’s 1921 ban on factions meant that any decision taken by the Central Committee of the Communist Party had to be accepted by the whole Party, on pain of expulsion.
This made it difficult to criticise Party decisions anywhere within the government structure.
LENIN
The Party grew in complexity, and in April 1922 a new post of ‘General Secretary’ was created to coordinate its workings. This added another layer to the Party structure.
This post was filled by
Stalin, who was already acting as General Secretary, and was the only Party member to have a seat on the Politburo and the Orgburo. He was also a member of the secretariat.
LENIN
In 1923, the introduction of the nomenklatura system added to the Party’s domination. Official lists of 5500 key Party and government posts were drawn up, and appointments to these posts depended on the agreement of the Party Central Committee.
* This measure was intended to ensure that people in key positions were trustworthy
- a new loyal Party elite was created, to impose Party control.
- Those who wished to advance themselves enthusiastically sought positions were rewarded with special privileges, such as superior housing, in return for ensuring that central directives were obeyed without question.
Although Lenin spoke of ‘democratic centralism, the hold of the one-party state was therefore tightened.
LENIN
THE IMPACT OF CIVIL WAR ON THE NATIONAL MINORITIES AND THE 1922 CONSTITUTION
The Civil War saw the communist government abandon its earlier support for ‘national self-determination’ as promised in the decree of November 1917.
Although displays of national culture and native languages were permitted, independence movements were
example - georgia
denounced as counter revolutionary:
In 1922, demands from Georgia for greater independence were brutally crushed on the orders of Stalin, although his actions were condemned by Lenin.
LENIN
The constitution was changed and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally established in December 1922, replacing the RSFSR.
In practice, the difference was minimal. Although Lenin prevailed over Trotsky in creating a federation of republics on a similar footing, rather than
imposing direct control from Moscow which would have mirrored tsarist imperialism, the states which made up the union were kept under very strict control.
The governments of the republics were regarded as regional branches of Sovnarkom which could, when necessary, be ‘coerced’ from the centre.
STALIN
THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF THE COMMUNIST STATE UNDER STALIN
The structures established by Lenin - rule by one party and centralised control - were perpetuated and extended by Stalin who asserted an increasingly dominant personal influence.
The Party continued to predominate over state institutions.
Control was ensured through both the use of
parallel structures at most levels, and the dual membership of Party and government offices held by trusted members of the nomenklatura.
However, Stalin was increasingly concerned that the Party should reflect his wishes. Consequently, Party congresses were called less frequently - and none at all were summoned between 1939 and 1952.
