Bolshevik Consolidation of Power Flashcards
What were the five key policies of the Bolsheviks after the revolution?
-First Decree on Peace
-The Decree on Land
-The Decree on Workers’ Control
-Gosplan/Decree on Nationalisation
-The Decree on The Press
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Who were the ‘whites’
-loose confederation of anti communist forces
List 4 key features of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- handed over Finland, Poland, the Baltic provinces, Ukraine and Transcaucasia to the Central Powers,
- together with one-third of the old empire’s population, one-third of its agricultural land and three-quarters of its industries.
Describe key features of war communism
- Grain requisitioning
- Ban on private trade/nationalisation
- Rationing
What were the problems with War Communism
- Peasant opposition + resentment (refusal,reduction to substinence level)
- famine
- decreased productivity (1920, less than half that it had been in 1913)
Why did the Bolsheviks win the civil war
- disunited whites
- Trotsky as a leader/strategist
- war communism-supplies
- bolsheviks united bcus of terror
- control over main cities(Moscow and Petrograd) + railway
Why did the Kronstadt rebellion occur
-discontent of war communism
Describe the events of the Kronstadt revolution
- sailors of Kronstadt gave set of 15 demands: (e.g: freedom of speech,end of bolshevik complete power)
- they establish control of Kronstadt
- Bolsheviks order black out on the island
- assault of 45,000 troops launched
- March 18-revolt crushed
What were the consequences of the Kronstadt rebellion
- abolition of grain requisition
- the end of war communism in general
How did the NEP differ from war communism
- mixture of privatisation and nat.
- tax instead of grain requisitioning
- small-scale enterprises denationalised
- Money was reintroduced
Why did Lenin introduce the NEP
- Kronstadt Rising–> uprising of those who had been sup. of Oct.R.
- 2 improve the economy crushed by war
- ->IP: 13% of pre-war volume
- 2 keep proletariat + peasantry tgthr
- war communism= iw return to villages due to fs
Why did the Bolsheviks issue decrees?
-in order to deal with the problems created by the war
What did the Decree on Peace call for?
-peace without annexations
What did the Decree on Land allow?
-legalised peasant land seizure
What was the outcome of the Decree on Land?
- won over some peasants
- won over some SRs
What did the Decree on Worker’s Control allow/dictate?
- legalised the takeover of factories
- ordered workers’ committees to maintain ‘the strictest order and discipline’
What was the outcome of the Decree on Workers
Because workers took over the factories and deposed their bosses
- fall in output as
- no one to ensure productivity
What was Gosplan
-The government body responsible for national economic planning
What did Gosplan achieve
- nationalized banks and railways
- cancelled foreign debts
- began to develop the transport network
What put major industrial enterprises under central government control?
-Decree on Nationalization
What was Gosplan?
-The government body responsible for national economic planning
What did Gosplan achieve
- nationalised banks and railways
- cancelled foreign debts
- began to develop the transport network
What nationalised industrial enterprises?
-Decree on Nationalisation
When did they hold constituent elections?
-November 1917
Why did the Bolsheviks hold the constituent assembly?
-hoped to legitimise
What percentage did the Bolshevik win?
-20%
What percentage did the SRs win?
-40%
What were the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty?
- Handed over Finland, Poland,the Baltic provinces,etc.
- 1/3 of the empire’s population
- 1/3 of the agricultural land
- 3/4 of industry
- No propaganda in ceded areas
- follow up agreement: 6 billion marks in reparations
