3.14 The Communist dictatorship

Question 1

When was the 1918 Constitution?

Answer 1

July 1918

Question 2

What did the 1918 Constitution do?

Answer 2

• Set up RSFSR
• Supreme power rested with All-Russian Congress of Soviets
• The central executive committee to be the ‘supreme organ of power’
• Congress responsible for electing Sovnarkom for purposes of ‘general administration of the affairs of the State’

Question 3

What was the All-Russian Congress of Soviets made up from?

Answer 3

Deputies from elected local soviets across Russia

Question 4

Although looking highly democratic on the surface, what were the limitations of the new constituion?

Answer 4

• vote reserved for the ‘toiling classes’, not for former ‘exploiting classes’
• In election to the the Congress, workers’ vote weighted 5 to 1 against that of the peasants
• Sovnarkom was, in practice, chosen by the Communist Party’s Central Committee
• Congress was to meet only at intervals, so executive authority remained in hands of Sovnarkom

Question 5

When was the Russian Civil War?

Answer 5

1918-1920

Question 6

What two areas of opposition came together to create a force of ‘Whites’?

Answer 6

• anger at the concessions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)
• existing political opposition

Question 7

Who were the Whites?

Answer 7

Really anyone in opposition to the Bolshevik ‘Reds’ - both right- and left-wing: ex-tsarists, conservatives, ethnic minorities, moderates and liberals, SRs, other moderate socialists

Question 8

Why did Russia’s previous wartime allies - Britain, France and the USA - give support to the Whites?

Answer 8

• ideological, against communism
• to force Russia back into WW1
• to defend their own interests in Russia - Bolsheviks reused to pay back money borrowed in tsarist times

Question 9

By Spring 1918, what had been created?

Answer 9

an anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army in the south of the country, partly financed by Germany

Bolsheviks moved their capital from Petrograd to Moscow in anticipation of the growing threat

Question 10

What was the spark to civil war in 1918?

Answer 10

the spark came from an outburst by the Czech Legion in western Siberia in May

Question 11

By 1918, what did the Czech Legion number?

Answer 11

45,000 soldiers

Question 12

By the end of 1920, what were the general effects of the civil war?

Answer 12

• most of the former Russian Empire was in communist hands
• there had been perhaps as many as 10 million deaths from hunger, epidemic disease, and military action

Question 13

When was the Treaty of Riga?

Answer 13

March 1921 - after the Poles rose again and defeated the Red Army

Question 14

What did the Treaty of Riga do?

Answer 14

granted Poland self-rule, along with Galicia and parts of Belorussia
The independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was also confirmed

Question 15

How was the Party structured?

Answer 15

around annual congresses, elected by the mass membership, but actual policies and decisions were made by the Central Committee.
In 1919, the Politburo (theoretically a subcommittee) was created - became real centre for Party policy

Question 16

How often did the Party Congresses meet during Lenin’s life?

Answer 16

Every year

Question 17

When was the first elected Politburo? Who did it include?

Answer 17

The first elected Politburo of 1919 included Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin among its original members

Question 18

How many members did the Politburo have? How often did they meet?

Answer 18

7-9 members from the Central Committee, met almost daily

Question 19

How many members did Sovnarkom have? How often did they meet?

Answer 19

15-20 members from the Central Committee, issued orders and decrees, met daily (initially at least)

Question 20

Why did the government increasingly become an instrument for carrying out policies made in the Politburo?

Answer 20

Since those in the key government officials were also members of the Politburo (e.g. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin)

Question 21

What happened to the meetings of Sovnarkom during the 1920s?

Answer 21

Sovnarkom gradually met less frequently during the 1920s

Question 22

What was decreed concerning the local soviets? What was the original theoretical purpose of these soviets?

Answer 22

that the local soviets (where in theory, the workers and peasants could show their voice in elections) should only consist of Party members

Question 23

What new post was created to coordinate the workings of the Party, which was growing in complexity? When?

Answer 23

the post of General Secretary was created in April 1922

Question 24

What positions of power was Stalin in?

Answer 24

The only Party member to have a seat on the Politburo and the Orgburo.
He was also a member of the secretariat.

Question 25

When was the nomenklatura system introduced?

Answer 25

1923

Question 26

What was the nomenklatura system?

Answer 26

Official lists of c5500 key Party members were drawn up + appointment to these posts depended on the agreement of the Party Central Committee

Question 27

What was the intention behind the nomenklatura system?

Answer 27

To ensure that people in key positions were trustworthy

Question 28

How did the nomenklatura system work?

Answer 28

Those who wanted to advance themselves sought positions --> they were rewarded with special privileges (e.g. superior housing), in return for ensuring that central directives were obeyed without question

Question 29

What formally established the USSR?

Answer 29

The 1922 Constitution, December 1922

Question 30

What was the USSR?

Answer 30

A federation of republics on a similar footing. The governments of the republics were regarded as regional branches of Sovnarkom, which could, when necessary, be 'coerced' from the centre

Question 31

What statistic shows that Party congresses were called less frequently?

Answer 31

no Party congresses at all were called between 1939 and 1952 (1924, 1925, 1927, 1930, 1934, 1939, 1952)

Question 32

Through his position as General Secretary, what did Stalin control?

Answer 32

Stalin controlled the more important appointments to the Party 'apparat', which, in turn, controlled the nomenklatura This meant that Stalin had vast patronage over all important positions throughout Soviet society

Question 33

What doubled the Party's membership to one million?

Answer 33

the 'Lenin enrolment' in 1924-25, in commemoration of Lenin's death

Question 34

Despite a fall during the period of the Great Purges, how many members of the Party were there in 1940?

Answer 34

3,399,975

Question 35

Who was the 1936 Constitution drafted by?

Answer 35

Nikolai Bukharin

Question 36

What did the 1936 Constitution?

Answer 36

- USSR a federation of 11 Soviet Republics (replacing the previous 7) - ARCS --> 'Supreme Soviet' - promised local autonomy to ethnic groups - promised 4-yearly elections w/ right to vote for all over 18 (including the 'former people' - old elites - who previously had no vote) - accompanied by an extensive statement of rights - freedom from arbitrary arrest + free speech

Question 37

What did Stalin claim of the 1936 Constitution?

Answer 37

'the most democratic in the world'

Question 38

Reality of the 1936 Constitution - promised rights?

Answer 38

largely ignored

Question 39

Reality of the 1936 Constitution - regional independence?

Answer 39

the central control exercised over the republic's budgets ensured the primacy of union laws + very little independence

Question 40

Reality of the 1936 Constitution - right of union republics to leave the union?

Answer 40

When Party leaders in Georgia allegedly planned secession in 1951, they were purged

Question 41

Reality of the 1936 Constitution - right to vote?

Answer 41

elections not contested - so right to vote merely to affirm a choice of representative

Question 42

Reality of the 1936 Constitution - Supreme Soviet?

Answer 42

only met for a few days twice a year - meant that body provided more of a sense of participation, than any actual involvement in policy making

Question 43

What slogan portray Stalin as Lenin's true disciple?

Answer 43

'Stalin is the Lenin of today'

Question 44

When was Stalin outvoted in the Politburo? on what?

Answer 44

1937 - in his plan to replace Nikolay Yezhov as head of the NKVD with Georgii Malenkov

Question 45

What was a limitation on what Stalin might do?

Answer 45

the inefficiency of the bureaucracy at local leve;