3.2 - Consequences of Russian Revolution Flashcards

1
Q

Immediate Challenges facing Bolsheviks

A
  • Unable to exercise control over civil servants:
    o Civil servants went on strike
    o Key documents were destroyed or hidden
    o Unable to gain access to State Bank until 20th November
  • Union of Russian Railroad Workers threated to halt all deliveries to Petrograd unless negotiations for a coalition government began
  • Lenin and Trotksy’s disinterest in forming a coalition → resignation of Kamenev and Zinoviev
  • Bolsheviks had little experience and had no plans on how to govern
  • Naivety as many Bolsheviks believed that an international socialist revolution would begin, so governing would be easy
  • Bolsheviks lacked influence over rural areas, and generally lacked legitimacy
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2
Q

Violence and Disorder Following Bolshevik Takeover

A
  • Breakdown in law and order occurred after the fall of the PG
  • Wine Riots – where peasants and workers gained access to the wine cellars of the Winter Palace – led to mass drunkenness and violence
  • Bolsheviks lacked power to stop the violence
  • Bolsheviks instead encouraged the violence as it was considered an act of class warfare and would provide an opportunity for workers to establish change
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3
Q

Establishment of Cheka

A
  • 7th December 1917
  • Political police to expose counter revolutionary and criminal activities
  • Meant to be temporary
  • Initially limited in its power
  • Led by Felix Dzerzhinsky (Iron Felix)
  • Assassination attempt of Lenin (Jan 1918) and growing threat of German invasion → significant expansion of powers of the Cheka – now able to operate outside of the law
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4
Q

New Decrees by Bolsheviks

A
  • Bolsheviks aimed to:
    o Ensure a continuation of power
    o Institute radical social and economic change, in order to differentiate it from the PG
  • Initial degrees were designed to encourage popular participation in the Revolution
  • Land Decree (27th October) – gave peasantry the right to seize land → project image of Bolsheviks supporting peasantry
  • Press Decree (27th October) – banned publication of Kadet newspapers
  • 29th October – Workers guaranteed 8 hour work day
  • 2nd November – promised right to self determination → Finland declaring independence on 17th November
  • Workers’ Control Decree (14th November) – allowed workers to apply to form self management committees for their factories
  • 24th November – old criminal justice system preplaced by ‘People’s Courts’ and revolutionary justice
  • Women’s rights enhanced
  • Homosexuality decriminalised
  • All banks, stock companies and financial institutions nationalised
  • Armistice signed with Germany in December
  • Democratisation of the armed forces
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5
Q

State Capitalism

A
  • Formed due to:
    o Major food and fuel shortages threatening production – Bolsheviks needed to address this to protect revolution
    o Social revolution involving workers taking control of production, soldiers forming revolutionary committees, and peasants seizing land → disorder
    o Bolshevik desire for a socialist economy
  • Lenin believed that a temporary compromise of revolutionary ideals was needed to allow for an easier transition to workers’ control = State Capitalism:
    o Government to exercise control over key industries
    o Government would hold a monopoly on trade
    o Financial policy would be directed through a state owned bank
    o Workers’ Control Committees supervise management
    o Businesses retain old owners as ‘bourgeois experts’
    o Free market structure remains
  • 2nd December – Vesenkha formed to manage workers’ committees and management boards
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6
Q

Challenges to State Capitalism

A
  • Workers lacked knowledge to run factories efficiently → workers committees urged for nationalisations from below → removed role of ‘Bourgeois experts’
  • Workers gave themselves unsustainable pay rises and were corrupt – stealing stock and equipment → further declining efficiency and production
  • Higher wages → exacerbated inflation
  • Food shortages caused by falling production = lowest rations yet (50g bread/day)
  • Ultimately, this led to Lenin realising that a stricter approach to the economy was required
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7
Q

Constituent Assembly

A
  • Bolsheviks previously supported Constituent Assembly but now held power themselves
  • Election occurs 12th November
  • Results = unfavourable for Bolsheviks
    o Bolsheviks won 9.8m votes = 23.5%, and 175/717 seats
    o Bolsheviks won a majority of votes in urban areas
    o SRs won 17.5m votes = 42%, and 370/717 seats
  • Lenin blamed results on:
    o Lack of awareness of Bolsheviks in rural areas
    o Voters unaware of split of SRs
  • Lenin also claimed that ‘bourgeoisie parliamentarianism’ is outdated and incompatible with socialism, and would restrict power of the Soviet
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8
Q

Bolshevik Dissolution of Constituent Assembly

A
  • Bolsheviks take action before the opening of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918:
    o 28th Nov – Kadets targeted with Decree on Political Parties banning all non-socialist parties
    o 12th Dec – Left SRs joined Sovnarkom → legitimisation of Bolshevik regime
  • 5 Jan – Martial law declared in Petrograd, pro Bolshevik troops brought into Petrograd, ban on public gatherings
  • Lenin calls for CA to recognise decrees made by Sovnarkom – rejection → Lenin issues threat of violence
  • Bolsheviks and Left SRs stage a walkout, with Red Guard and Kronstadt Sailors remaining behind to intimidate
  • Bolsheviks have Red Guard block access to Tauride Palace before second convening
    o Lack of public protest to dissolution of CA
    o Bolsheviks clearly unwilling to give up power
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9
Q

Lead-Up to Treaty of Brest Litovsk

A
  • Expectation that Bolsheviks would end war due to it being a central promise prior to their assumption of power
  • 26 Oct 1917 – Decree on Peace: outlined peace without annexation or indemnities as ideal, and insisted that negotiations should be held speedily and transparently
  • 15 Dec 1917 – armistice signed
  • Division in Bolshevik party as to how to address peace:
    o Left faction demanded a continuation of the war, as a revolutionary war, in order to spread socialism
    o Lenin believed that Bolsheviks needed to consolidate power and not take the risk of continuing the war effort, combined with low morale of war
    o Trotsky called for ‘neither peace, nor war’, which entailed a delay to peace, in the hopes that German forces would collapse first
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10
Q

Negotiations with Germany

A
  • Trotsky led negotiations
  • Prolonged discussions, gave long contradictory speeches and pretended to be close to a deal before rejecting it
  • Trotsky also addressed the German public to promote revolution
  • Strike in Berlin with 400k workers calling for immediate peace without annexations or indemnities → Trotsky believing his tactics were successful
  • However, Germans become increasingly frustrated and question why the losers (Russia) are trying to dictate the peace → ultimatum: sign the peace terms or hostilities will resume
  • Trotsky decides that Russia will withdraw from war and not sign peace treaty → 18 Feb 1918 – 700k German troops advance on Russia without opposition, making 240km in 11 days
    o Democratization of army and low morale → no resistance
  • 12 Mar 1918 – Capital relocated to Moscow
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11
Q

Consequences of Treaty of Brest Litovsk

A
  • Conditions of Treaty:
    o 34% of Russian population no longer under Soviet control
    o 32% of farmland lost, including Ukraine
    o 1/3 of European territory lost, including Poland, Lithuania and Estonia
    o 89% of coal and iron reserves lost
    o 54% of industry lost
    o 26% of railways lost
    o 3bn roubles in reparation (double cost of war effort for Russia)
  • Treaty signed 3 Mar 1918
  • Decision very unpopular in party → Lenin blames Left faction but calls for unity
  • Increased resentment for Bolsheviks from nationalists
  • 19 Mar 1918 – Left SRs leave Sovnarkom → no opposition to Bolsheviks
  • However, Left SRs attempt to restart war
  • 11 Nov 1918 – German surrender → much of the Treaty is renounced
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12
Q

Beginnings of Civil War

A
  • Military opposition to Bolsheviks emerged almost immediately after seizure of power
  • Oct 1917 – Krosnov’s Cossacks take control of towns close to Petrograd and begin preparations for a march on Petrograd
  • Defeat of Cossacks (30 Oct 1917) demonstrated dedication of Red Guards and Kronstadt Sailors and removed chance of PG regaining power
  • Bolsheviks still faced opposition in the Don, Kuban and Ukraine regions
  • Dec 1917 – formation of volunteer army – White Army
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13
Q

Bolshevik Preparations for Civil War

A
  • 16 Dec 1917 – abolition of ranks
  • 23 Feb 1918 – Trotsky creates the Red Army
  • Trotsky implements:
    o Conventional army structure with ranks
    o 50k Former Tsarist officials as ‘military specialists’ but these remain under tight control of Bolsheviks
    o Reinstated conscription due to low numbers of volunteers
    o Strict discipline, including execution for desertion and retreating
  • End of 1920 – Red Army has 5m troops
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14
Q

Czech Legion

A
  • 40k Czech soldiers given permission to cross Russia to travel to the Western Front
  • However, hostilities broke out between Czech soldiers and regional Soviets → battling of local military forces
  • 8 June 1918 – Regional Soviet overthrown in Samara and replaced with SR led governments (Komuch)
  • Komuch established a ‘people’s army’ that advanced on Siberia
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15
Q

White Armies (Key Groups)

A
  • Consisted of 4 groups by 1918:
  • Denikin’s Forces:
    o Largest of the groups – 150k men
    o Based in Ukraine, Caucasus, Kuban and Don regions (South Russia)
    o Came within 300km of Moscow in Nov 1919 but were overstretched and outnumbered → defeat in 1920
  • Kolchak’s Forces:
    o Formed after overthrowal of Komuch
    o Mar 1919 – menaced Red Army from the East
    o However, poor leadership → defeats
    o Gen. Kolchak executed by Bolsheviks in Feb 1920
  • Yudenich’s Forces:
    o Formed in Estonia
    o Small army, with only 14k men at its peak
    o Reached Petrograd in Nov 1919
    o Fled in 1920
  • Foreign Forces:
    o Included Germans, British, Japanese, US and French
    o Allies became involved as they wanted to support any group that would re-enter WWI
    o Japan became involved due to their territorial ambitions in Russia
    o US became involved as they wanted to protect Trans Siberian Railway and limit Japanese expansion
    o Foreign powers also were concerned at anti-capitalist and international revolutionary rhetoric
    o Britain had taken control of northern port cities and Azerbaijan oil fields
    o Japan had taken control of Vladivostok
    o Involvement of foreign forces → strengthened Bolshevik belief that they were fighting capitalist imperial invaders
    o Foreign soldiers were war wearied and lacked numbers → withdrawal as Bolsheviks triumphed
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16
Q

Green Forces

A
  • Peasant insurgent groups resisting both White and Red forces
  • Held control over South-eastern Ukraine throughout 1919-20
  • Powerful as they are able to disrupt food supplies
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17
Q

Soviet Polish War + Impacts

A
  • Poland declare independence from Russia
  • Apr 1920 – Attempt to expand territory into Ukraine
  • Red Army force Polish forces back
  • Belief within Bolsheviks that Red Army could spread international revolution
  • Poles viewed Red Army as invaders → defeat of Red Army in Poland in Mar 1921
  • Treaty of Riga:
    o 30m roubles in reparations to Poland
    o Ukrainian and Belorussian territory to Poland
    o Poland’s eastern border secured
  • Defeat allowed Soviets to focus on short term issues
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18
Q

Reasons for Bolshevik Success in Civil War

A
  • Geography:
    o Population of Soviet controlled areas = 70m vs White controlled areas = 10m
    o Ethnically homogenous → clear direction and unity
    o Soviets controlled key factories
    o Soviets had extensive railway system
    o White armies had difficulty in coordinating attacks and communicating
  • Ideology:
    o Bolsheviks had shared sense of purpose and vision
    o Bolsheviks made effective use of propaganda
    o This provided a reason to fight → proportionally lower rates of desertion
  • Trotsky:
    o Successfully reorganised army
    o Implemented harsh discipline
    o Attached a political commissar to each commanding officer, who would carry out propaganda work and ensure orders were carried out properly
    o Praised and rewarded those who performed their duties effectively
    o Recognised importance of decisive leadership and had strong speaking skills → regularly visiting front lines → generated loyalty and boosted morale
    o Expected that officers and commissars showed the same level of dedication as he did
    o Willing to leave key military decisions to those with greater expertise than himself
  • White Army Weakness:
    o Smaller population
    o Lack of coordination
    o Difficulty motivating troops
    o Unable to articulate intentions
    o Neglected effective government administration in regions under White control
    o Angered peasants by restoring rights of landlords and punishing those suspected of supporting the Reds
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19
Q

Origins of Red Terror

A
  • Cheka created to crush resistance and opposition to the Bolsheviks
  • Cheka targeted more privileged members of society, claiming that this was a class war
  • Cheka’s powers escalated after assassination attempt on Lenin
  • 5 Sep 1918 – Decree beginning of Red Terror
  • Involved creation of concentration camps for class enemies and allowed for execution of anyone involved in White Guard organisations, conspiracies or rebellions
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20
Q

Methods Used in Red Terror

A
  • Shooting victims body part by body part
  • Glove trick, where hands were held in boiling water until skin came off
  • Rolling in spiked barrels
  • Pipes filled with rats so that they would eat through the victim’s body
  • White army had epaulets nailed into their shoulders
  • Shot in back of head
  • Published list of those executed to deter others
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21
Q

Lenin’s Hanging Order

A
  • 8 Aug 1918 – Lenin orders hanging of 100 dissident peasants in Penza for opposing grain requisitioning
  • Lenin hoped that this would deter future opposition, and create support for removing Kulaks
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22
Q

Role of Dzerzhinsky (Iron Felix)

A
  • Idealist and fanatic
  • Viewed his role with great importance
  • However, not all members of Cheka were as virtuous as Felix – corruption commonplace
23
Q

Execution of Tsar

A
  • 17 July 1918 – Tsar and his family executed
  • Intention to not leave a banner for the Whites to rally around
  • Wanted to frighten and horrify enemy but also demonstrate to Reds that there was no way back now
24
Q

Treatment of Peasants During Red Terror (Green Forces)

A
  • Taking and executing hostages in relation to peasant desertions
  • 15k executed following Tambov Rebellion (largest peasant rebellion)
25
Q

Treatment of Workers During Red Terror

A
  • Workers strike due to food shortages and demands for freedom of press and free elections
    o Up to 4k workers killed at Astrakhan Strikes
    o 200 executed at Putilov steelworks
  • Terror does not stop strikes
26
Q

White Terror

A
  • Whites response to Red Terror
  • Involved spiking communists to trees; buried and run over by cavalry, or had limbs cut off
  • Pogroms against Jews – up to 200k killed, and Bolshevik Jews were boiled alive
  • Communists responded by furthering Red Terror
27
Q

Aspects of War Communism

A
  • Nationalisation of industry:
    o State ownership of heavy industry
    o Nationalisation of factories with >10 workers
    o Vehenkha given greater control over economy
  • Militarised workplaces:
    o State control over working hours, conditions and type of work
    o Imprisonment or cut rations if workers did not attend factories
    o Formation of labour armies to build roads, cut trees and unload goods
    o Communist Saturdays
  • Forced labour for the Bourgeoisie
    o Work included shovelling snow and digging graves
    o Bourgeoisie humiliated while working
  • Abolition of money
  • Ban on private trade – Food Commissariat established to supply goods
  • State supplied services:
    o Free post, transport, medicine and food
    o Payments for rent, heating and lighting
    o Food rationing designed to punish Bourgeoisie
  • Crusade for Bread
    o Attempted to increase grain supplies
    o Committees for the Poor established to uncover surplus grain and return it to the state
  • Requisitioning Squads
    o Established out of desperation to increase grain supply
    o Used Cheka and armed workers
    o Often left no grain, thereby limiting future planting
28
Q

Reasons for Introduction of War Communism

A
  • Shortages of raw materials
  • Lack of consumer goods
  • Nationalisations from below
  • Declining grain stocks
  • Civil War – foreign blockage, peasant uprisings, loss of Ukraine and prioritisation of Army
29
Q

Impacts of War Communism

A
  • Did little to improve economic output:
    o Industrial output at 13% of pre-war levels
    o Steel output at 4% of pre-war levels
  • Working population fell from 2.6m (1917) to 1.2m (1920)
  • Over-bureaucracy slowed down processes
  • Made Bolsheviks less popular with workers and soldiers
  • Black market became the only source of goods
  • More private trade than ever before
  • Grain uncovered during the Crusade for Bread was not returned to State
  • Grain requisitioning united peasants against Bolsheviks
  • Grain requisitioning removed incentive to produce and restricted ability to plant future crops – amount of land under cultivation fell by 40% and harvests were only 37% of usual yields
30
Q

1921 Great Famine

A
  • Natural causes – drought affecting 50% of food producing areas
  • Manmade causes – grain requisitioning → lacked seeds to plant future crops
  • 20% of food producing areas experienced total crop failure
  • Impacts:
    o 20m people affected
    o 5m deaths from disease or starvation
    o Thousands of cases of cannibalism
    o Bolsheviks forced to accept foreign aid from USA and Britain → humiliated regime
    o Demographic shift – Petrograd population fell 70%; Mosco population fell 50%
    o Millions of children either abandoned or orphaned
31
Q

Peasant Unrest during Civil War

A
  • Peasant uprisings, such as in Tambov and Ukraine
  • These areas became effectively ungovernable for Bolsheviks
  • Significant political confusion from peasants
  • Peasants demanded freedom and fair trade
32
Q

Change to Structure of Bolshevik Party

A
  • Increase in military personnel in the party → increased discipline
  • Belief that Communists were the pillar that held up Russian society
  • Communists became accustomed to flexing their political muscle and issuing commands
  • Soviet became irrelevant – only 68/480 decrees considered by Soviet in 1st year of Bolshevik rule
  • Party restructured into 3 bodies following Sverdlov’s death in 1919:
    o Secretariat – administrative wing
    o Orgburo – made decisions about personnel and delegated tasks
    o Politburo – highest decision making body on policy
33
Q

Causes of Kronstadt Revolt

A
  • Not all Kronstadt sailors were Bolsheviks
  • Heard of crackdown on workers in 1921 → angered at conditions, which were described as ‘forced labour prisons’
  • Angered at authoritarian stance of Bolsheviks and their unwillingness to implement the Revolution in full
  • Heard of grain requisitioning and poor conditions in rural areas
  • Public anger at continuation of War Communism despite threat of Whites being removed
  • 118 uprisings in Feb 1921 → Martial law declared in Moscow and Petrograd
34
Q

Events of Kronstadt Revolt

A
  • 28 Feb 1921 – 15 point resolution published
  • 1 Mar 1921 – thousands of sailors rallied in Kronstadt → Soviet Chairman, Kalinin, and Commissar of Baltic Fleet, Kuzmin, warn against further action
  • However, these calls are ignored
  • 2 Mar 1921 – Provisional Revolutionary Committee formed
  • Called for new Soviet elections to ensure greater Soviet power
  • Kronstadt posed a significant crisis for Bolsheviks:
    o Military – only 25km from former capital, Petrograd
    o Traditional supporters had abandoned Bolsheviks
  • Bolsheviks took a hardline approach – argued that Kronstadt were counter-revolutionary, needed to demonstrate strength of Bolsheviks, and needed to prevent resistance spreading
  • 7 Mar 1921 – 50k Red Army troops launch an offensive
  • Outcomes:
    o 10k Red Army and 5k Kronstadt soldiers lost
    o Cheka execute 2.3k sailors and 6.5k sent to labour camps
35
Q

Significance of Kronstadt Revolt

A
  • Bolsheviks broke with revolutionary ideals
  • Demonstrated that Bolsheviks would respond to any challenge with force
  • Lenin realised that Bolsheviks needed to address the causes of the Revolt, and accepted that current economic system was no longer feasible
36
Q

Aspects of New Economic Policy

A
  • Grain requisitioning replaced with a tax in kind
  • Peasants able to keep surplus and sell it → incentivised production
  • Government rationing and distribution of food was phased out
  • State supplied services phased out
  • Cash wages reintroduced
  • New currency backed by gold standard → inflation brought under control
  • Markets and private trade legalised
  • Small businesses could reopen
  • Smaller factories leased or sold by Government
  • Economic ties with foreign nations resumed – trade deal with Britain in 1922
  • Militarised workplaces abolished
  • Economy and heavy industry still under Government control
37
Q

Results of New Economic Policy

A
  • Success in manufacturing, electricity and oil production
    o Electricity – increased from 1945kWh (1913) → 3508kWh (1926)
  • Failures in heavy industry
    o Steel production at approx. 75% of pre-war levels
  • Lacked capital to finance expansion of industry – foreign investors unwilling to invest due to previous nationalisations
  • Reduced discontent amongst workers, leading to a decline in strikes
  • Progress in agriculture:
    o Grain production at similar levels to pre-war
    o Greater variety of crops – potatoes, cotton and sugar beets → reduced potential for famine
    o Consolidation of strips of land
    o Crop rotation to improve soil quality
    o By 1920, rural sector outproducing the manufacturing sector
38
Q

Scissors Crisis

A
  • 1923 – gap between rising industrial prices and falling agricultural prices
  • Factories struggling to produce enough goods to sell to the peasantry
  • Concern that if peasants had nothing to buy, they would be less willing to produce → shortages of food
  • Response to Scissors Crisis:
    o Resumed grain exports in 1923
    o Set ambitious targets for under-performing industries, and attempted to increase efficiency
    o Stores selling goods at inflated prices were shut down – equal to 250k stores in 1923/4
    o Commissariat of Trade expanded role as distributor and retailer of goods → reducing impact of NEP men
39
Q

Tenth Party Congress

A
  • 8th March 1921
  • Lenin argued for stricter discipline and unity
  • Opposition groups began to emerge – workers’ opposition and democratic centralists
40
Q

Opposition Groups (10th Party Congress)

A
  • Workers’ Opposition:
    o Led by Alexandra Kollantai
    o Campaigned for greater proletarian involvement in the running of the economy, rather than Veshenka control
    o Concerned at attempts to militarise the workplace, put unions under the control of the central government, and involve non-communists in the running of factories
    o Believed the party was becoming overly-bureaucratic and out of touch with workers
  • Democratic Centralists
    o Shared concerns about the rise of bureaucracy
    o Argued that the element of democratic centralism in the party had been lost
41
Q

Response to Opposition Groups (10th Party Congress)

A
  • Opposition groups struggled to gather considerable support
  • Lenin denounced these groups and labelled them as anarcho-syndicalists
  • Lenin called for the party to put stop internal disagreements to ensure the long-term survival of the party – need to present themselves as united
  • Two decrees introduced:
  • On Party Unity:
    o Declared that the demands of all opposition factions were inconsistent with the membership of the communist party
    o Promotion of ideals of opposition factions became illegal
    o Still allowed for individuals to voice their ideas but not as a faction
    o Ultimately created a highly centralised state
42
Q

Evolution of the Cheka

A
  • Feb 1922 – Cheka replaced with State Political Administration (GPU)
  • Change described as one from violence and expediency to legality, unity and conformity
  • GPU lost policing powers – only able to enforce crimes against the state and counter-revolutionary threats
  • July 1923 – GPU enshrined into the Constitution
  • GPU aimed to infiltrate all areas of society
  • GPU preferred not to use terror
43
Q

First Soviet Criminal Code

A
  • June 1922
  • Defined political crimes as propaganda and agitation or participation in organisations that help the international bourgeoisie
  • Punishments included execution or forced labour
44
Q

Political Repression

A
  • Dissenting voiced exposed and censored
  • Removal of members of the Mensheviks and SRs from the Communist Party:
    o 1921 – both parties declared illegal
    o 2000 Mensheviks arrested following the 10th Party Congress
    o 34 SRs involved in show trials in 1922
  • May 1922 – Lenin orders GPU to examine academic and literary journals → 120 intellectuals imprisoned by Sept 1922
  • Orthodox Church targeted:
    o Confiscation of all valuable religious items
    o At least 1400 violent clashes with the Cheka
    o 7000 priests, monks and nuns killed
45
Q

Bolshevik View on Culture

A
  • Believed that a new culture would need to express values of the proletariat and remove religion
  • Believed that cultural developments were needed to create the ‘New Soviet Man’
46
Q

Artistic Development

A
  • Art began to express utopian and socialist themes
  • New movements included:
    o Futurism – glorified technology and rejected past traditions
    o Proletarian Culture Movement (Prolekult) – involved proletariat working to create a new proletarian culture
    o Constructivism – believed that art was constructed with political and social purpose
  • Sculptures of Tsarist figures were replaced with revolutionaries
  • Revolutionary themes including industry and civil war
  • Orchestras performed without conductors (persinfants)
47
Q

Propoganda

A
  • Used visual imagery due to low literacy rates
  • Included Rosta posters
  • Agitational propaganda (agitprop) trains used to broaden reach of cultural changes into rural areas
48
Q

Revolutionary Theatre

A
  • Nationalisation of Russian theatre → greater communist influence
  • Creation of a ‘people’s theatre’ to portray revolutionary tales to a mass audience
  • Glorified actions of Bolsheviks and Civil War
49
Q

Changes to Daily Life

A
  • Cities renamed to commemorate Communist leaders
  • Christenings replaced with Octoberings
  • Red Marriages
  • Christian holidays replaced with May Day
  • Use of ‘comrade’
  • Refinement of language to increase efficiency and reduce ‘coarseness’
50
Q

Literacy

A
  • Low levels of literacy – only 25-30% were literate, and only 3% in Central Asian Russia
  • Viewed that literacy was essential for masses to participate in the development of a socialist society
  • Early campaigns focused on the Red Army – including compulsory reading lessons
  • Literacy training became essential for all Russian aged between 8 and 50
  • Introduction of 40k liquidation patrols to identify and remedy areas with low literacy
  • 16k reading rooms established
  • Intensive courses offered for those who appeared to be learning quickly
  • Standardisation of school curriculum
  • Free and compulsory schooling introduced → 49% (1915) → 80% (1926) attended school regularly
51
Q

Women’s Rights

A
  • Lenin was very proud of female party members (Bolshevichki)
  • Party campaigned for emancipation of women and gender equality
  • Women granted right to act as head of household and rights over land ownership
  • However, peasants were suspicious so change was limited
  • Decree on Marriage (Dec 1917) → easier divorce and ensured consent
  • Women afforded right to equal pay and improved working conditions; however, these were rarely enforced
  • Russia was the 1st country to legalise abortion
  • 1919 – Zhenotdel formed to promote women’s rights
    o Led by Kollontai after 1920
    o Developed creches and communal kitchens and laundries to liberate women
    o Worked to improve female literacy and industrial skills
  • However, developments to women’s liberation were limited due to:
    o Lack of funding
    o Traditional patriarchal attitudes being maintained
    o Declining role of Kollontai due to her participating in the Workers’ Opposition
52
Q

Electrification

A
  • Inspired by utopian vision and a quest for modernisation and a better life
  • Lenin believed electrification was key to overcoming the backwardness of the countryside
  • 1920 - GOLERO (Commission for Electrification) established to establish a long term plan
  • Some scepticism existed on the ability to electrify Russia
  • Invested around 1bn roubles into electricity
  • Electricity production: 1.9MW (1913) → 0.5MW (1921) → 3.5MW (1926)
  • Electricity would be able to bring head, light, sanitation and efficiency
53
Q

Death of Lenin

A
  • Died 21st Jan 1924
  • Had been ill since 1922
  • Lenin believed that leadership after his death should be collective
  • Over 500k people visited Lenin’s body on display