AOS4: Consequences of Russian Revolution

Question 1

1) When was the Decree on Worker’s Control/Nationalisation of Private Property + Peace?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 1

1) November 1917

2)

• Fulfilment of Bolshevik’s ‘Land’ promise
• Legalised peasant ‘Land grab’
• Provided necessary reforms

3)

Question 2

1) When was the CHEKA created?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 2

1) December 1917

2)

• Created to suppress counter-revolutionaries/protect Bolsheviks
• Used torture and execution methods
• Oppressive, reminiscent of Okhrana

3)

Question 3

1) When was the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 3

1) January 1918

2)

• Soviets take ultimate power in Russia
• Centralised, one-party government
• Supported by CHEKA + Red Army

3)

Question 4

1) When was the Red Army established?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 4

1) January 1918

2)

• Forced conscription (workers/peasants) = discontent
• Led by Trotsky through harsh disciplinary measures
• Defenders of the revolution

3)
- 5 million soldiers (1920)

Question 5

1) When was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 5

1) March 1918

2)

• Fulfilment of Lenin’s ‘Peace’ promise
• Major economic loss (precipitates famine)
• Forced to adopt State Capitalism

3)

• 3 billion roubles lost
• 64 million citizens lost
• 30% territory lost
• Ukraine ‘Bread basket’ lost
• 84% coal + iron reserves lost

Question 6

1) When was State Capitalism?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 6

1) 1917-18

2)

• Government controlled industry
• Appointment of ‘bourgeoisie specialists’ to run factories
• Betrayed Communist ideals in favour of Capitalism

3)

Question 7

1) When was the Civil War?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 7

1) 1918-21

2)

• Widespread opposition (Whites = feudalists/Tsarists, Greens = peasants, Foreign Interventionists = UK, USA, France, Japan, Germany)
• Caused Terror, War Communism, Famine
• Bolshevik victory = seen as invincible/impregnable

3)

Question 8

1) When was War Communism?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 8

1) 1918-21

2)

• Failure of State Capitalism = famine, lack of goods
• Solution = centralised economic policy
• Militarised industry, grain requisitioning, elimination of roubles
• Harsh conditions/treatment causes workers to flee to countryside, industry slumps

3)

• Harvest decrease 37%
• Industrial output 13% of pre-war rates
• Exodus of 50% workers (2.6 mil to 1.3)
• 1920 = rouble 1% 1917 value
• ‘War Communism was a means of making civil war.’ (Figes)

Question 9

1) When was the Polish War?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 9

1) 1920

2)

• Attempt at international revolution
• Lost, proved revolution could not be forced and would be limited to Russia
• Ended with Treaty of Riga (March 1920)

3)

Question 10

1) When was the Tambov Rebellion?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 10

1) 1920-21

2)

• Peasant uprising against Bolsheviks
• Displayed widespread discontent
• Assisted in formation of NEP

3)
- 40,000 peasants

Question 11

1) When was the Kronstadt rebellion?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 11

1) March 1921

2)

• Sailors feel betrayed by Bolsheviks (heard about industry conditions/Kulak hunts)
• Revolt against the Bolsheviks, ultimately being crushed by Red Army
• Bolsheviks seen as turning on their own/betraying patriots

3)

• They were ‘the reddest of the red’ (Trotsky)
• 14,000 casualties for Kronstadt

Question 12

1) When was the 10th Party Congress/establishment of NEP?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 12

1) March 1921

2)

• Necessary reform to economy, concession of War Communism failure
• Seen as retreat to Capitalist elements
• ‘On Party Unity’ = no factionalism/Bokshevik opposition
• Political repression begins as Bolsheviks use ‘On Party Unity’ to silence opposition/critiques

3)

• ‘Concession of the failure of War Communism’ (Pipes)
• Industrial increase 68%
• ‘Bolsheviks surrendered to the peasantry.’ (Figes)

Question 13

1) When was the Samara Famine?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 13

1) 1921-22

2)

• Result of War Communism/Civil War
• Mass discontent and calls for reform
• Driving factor of rebellions (Tambov)

3)

• Famine bread (clay + grass)
• Harvests down 37%
• 5 million peasants starved

Question 14

1) When was the formal constitution of the USSR?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 14

1) February 1922

2)
- Full adoption of Communism

3)

Question 15

1) When was the Soviet criminal code?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 15

1) February 1922

2)

• Increases factors for which political crimes can be considered
• Increased political repression
• Suppression of opposition

3)

Question 16

1) When were the show trials of the SRs?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 16

1) 1922

2)

• Bolsheviks purge opposition (SRs)
• Suppress counter-revolution through publicly exemplifying treatment of opposition

3)
- 2,000 arrested

Question 17

1) When was the Scissor Crisis?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 17

1) 1923

2)

• Agriculture prices drop (surplus being produced)
• Industrial prices increase (not enough produced, increased demand)
• Peasants unable to afford equipment/food as products are not selling highly
• Party divided (Trotsky believed betrayed Socialism)

3)

Question 18

1) When was the end of NEP/Stalin’s control of USSR?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 18

1) 1927

2)

• Stalin’s influence spreads to Secretariat, Orgburo, Politburo
• Stalin appoints friends (Zinoviev, Kamenev) and blocks Trotsky’s policies
• Trotsky criticises party structure, Zinoviev and Kamenev join Trotsky
• All 3 expelled from party in 1927

3)

Question 19

1) When was the Red Terror?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 19

1) 1918-21

2)

• CHEKA execute and torture suspected counter-revolutionaries
• Hunt for ‘Kulaks’, requisitioning furthers famine
• CHEKA acts reminiscent of Okhrana/old regime abuse
• Led to abolition of CHEKA (replaced w/ GPU in 1922)

3)

• 100-500k people executed
• Lenin orders to kill 120 kulaks per village
• ‘Forced to subjugate a society they could not control by other means.’ (Figes)

Question 20

1) When was Lenin’s death?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 20

1) January 1924

2)
- Suggests Trotsky as leader, denounces Stalin
- Leaves party ambiguous (question of leadership)
- Trotsky fails to act and Stalin begins his rise to power

3)

Question 21

1) When was the formation of SOVNARKOM?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 21

1) 27 October 1917

2)

• Highest branch of authority
• Dominated government structure
• Mainly Bolsheviks = consolidated power

3)

Question 22

1) When was the decree on Nationalisation?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 22

1) 28 June 1918

2)

• All industry became centralised under Bolshevik control
• Precipitated worker exodus/rebellion
• Attempt to address fiscal crisis

3)

• Industrial output = 30% pre-war levels
• ‘Subbotniki’ = forced voluntary work

Question 23

1) When were Committees of the Poor established?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 23

1) June 1918

2)

• Peasants forced to watch over fellow peasants
• Unsuccessful attempt at monitoring kulaks
• Led to the use of requisitioning squads instead

3)

Question 24

1) When was the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 24

1) July 1918

2)

• Exemplified the use of executions/torture in the Terror
• Caused resentment for White Armies = escalated war

3)

Question 25

1) When was the mobilisation of requisitioning squads?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 25

1) January 1919

2)

• Spread of use of terror/executions
• Created kulak hunts
• Spawned peasant uprisings (Green Armies)
• Led to agricultural slump (peasants refused to grow excess)

3)
- Land cultivation fell by 40%

Question 26

1) When were the February Worker Strikes?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 26

1) February 1921

2)

• Protested famine = demanded bread
• Precipitated NEP

3)

Question 27

1) When was Lenin’s testament?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 27

1) December 1922

2)

• Condemned Stalin
• Recognised Trotsky as successor
• Created power struggle between the two

3)

Question 28

1) When was the 14th Party Congress?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 28

1) December 1924

2)

• Stalin announces ‘Socialism in one country’ = no spread of revolution until Russia consolidates their own
• Kamenev and Zinoviev turn from Stalin and form group with Trotsky (United Opposition Group)

3)

Question 29

1) When was the replacement of Trotsky as Commissar of War?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 29

1) January 1925

2)

• Loss of political influence for Trotsky
• Contributes to Stalin’s rise to power

3)

Question 30

1) When was the expulsion of Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev?
2) Significance
3) Stats/Quotes

Answer 30

1) 1927

2)

• Stalin takes complete control (no opposition)
• Precipitates role as Supreme Leader

3)
- ‘A triumph not of reason, but of organisation.’ (Carr)

Question 31

What were some early problems faced by the Bolsheviks?

Answer 31

• Looting
• Drink pogroms
• Famine
• Inexperience of ruling
• Blue/white collar strikes (Civil Servant’s strike)

Question 32

What were some positive effects of the NEP?

Answer 32

• Electrification
• Literacy rates improved
• Women’s rights movements (legalisation of abortion)