Bolshevik consolidation of power

Question 1

How was the Sovnarkoms power limited in the beginning?

Answer 1

Many Soviets and bodies such as public safety committees were still in the control of Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries or non socialists and in the countryside Bolshevik presence was virtually non existent. In Soviets controlled by the government there was no guarantee the central government could get its decisions carried out. All over the capital civil servants mounted protest strikes and and the State Bank refused to hand over any money for ten days (armed forces made the staff open the vaults)

Question 2

Describe the Sovnarkom’s land decree

Answer 2

October 1917 Gave peasants the right to take over the estates of the gentry without compensation and decide how to divide it up. Land could no longer be bought or sold or rented. Privately owned Land was not part of their socialist vision

Question 3

Describe the Sovnarkom’s workers’ control decree

Answer 3

November 1917 Factory committees given the right to control production and finance in workplaces and supervise management. This did not give direct management to workers but some committees took it to mean that

Question 4

Describe the Sovnarkom’s Rights of the People of Russia Decree

Answer 4

November 1917 This gave the right of self determination to the national minorities in the former Russian empire, the Bolsheviks did not control areas in which most of these people lived so this was simply a paper measure

Question 5

Identify 3 decrees issued by the Sovnarkom in October 1917

Answer 5

Maximum eight hour day for workers, social insurance to be introduced, opposition press banned

Question 6

Identify 3 decrees issued by the Sovnarkom in November 1917

Answer 6

Abolition of class distinctions and titles, abolition of justice system, women declared equal to men and can own property

Question 7

Identify 5 decrees issued by the Sovnarkom in December 1917

Answer 7

CHEKA set up, marriage and divorce become civil matters not linked to church, church land nationalised, democratisation of army (officers elected, abolition of ranks, and controlled by army Soviets), banks nationalised

Question 8

Identify 2 decrees issued by the Sovnarkom in January 1918

Answer 8

Workers control of factories, creation of red army

Question 9

When was the decree for nationalisation of industry issued by the Sovnarkom?

Answer 9

February 1918

Question 10

What happened to the Soviet after the a Sovnarkom was created?

Answer 10

Sovnarkom passed decrees without seeking approval of the Soviet because Lenin had no intention of discussing policy initiatives with non Bolshevik socialists such as the initiation of peace talks. The Soviet Executive began to meet less frequently (but continued to meet into the 1930s) whereas the Sovnarkom met twice or once a day.

Question 11

What was one of the first measures of the new Bolshevik regime in order to establish authority?

Answer 11

Close down the opposition press: first the newspapers of the centre and the right and later the socialist press

Question 12

How did the Bolsheviks deal with the opposition political parties? 3 points

Answer 12

The Kadet party denounced and outlawed, leading Kadets arrested and two brutally beaten to death by Bolshevik sailors, leading right wing SRs and Mensheviks imprisoned- all before end of 1917

Question 13

When did Lenin set up the Cheka and what was this?

Answer 13

7th December 1917, this was the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter Revolution and Sabotage, a force of dedicated Bolshevik supporters which provided dependable security and brought units of the Red Guard and military units under its control

Question 14

How did Lenin intimidate the middle classes? 6 points

Answer 14

Encouraged class warfare to terrorise then into submission which started with attacks on the kadets as leaders of the bourgeois counter revolution, the legal system was abolished and replaced by revolutionary justice which was violent, anybody accused of being a burzhui (bourgeois) was liable to be arrested and any well dressed person on the streets was at risk of being labelled one, even if not arrested burzhui could be beaten or robbed, the socialist press encouraged the perception of the burzhui as enemies of the people, the state licensed and encouraged people to plunder the houses of middle classes

Question 15

How did Lenin’s use of class warfare play well in Russia?

Answer 15

Workers and soldiers and peasants supported the end of privilege and the moves to a more egalitarian society. The abolition of titles and use of comrade as the form of address gave power and dignity to the once downtrodden.

Question 16

What happened to civil servants when the Bolsheviks got into power?

Answer 16

They were arrested and the civil service was thoroughly purged

Question 17

Describe the bureaucracy that developed under the Bolsheviks in 4 points

Answer 17

Poor quality but obedient. Junior officials willing to support the Bolsheviks were promoted, Bolshevik officials were brought in, often third rate people or corrupt opportunists were put into positions of power

Question 18

Describe opposition to the Bolsheviks when they got into power

Answer 18

Opposition was weak and uncoordinated, Mensheviks and ring wing SRs didn’t want to get involved in organised violence because they were acutely aware of the dangers of civil war

Question 19

What was there enormous pressure on the Bolsheviks to do?

Answer 19

To form a democratic government representing all the socialist parties, hundreds of resolutions and petitions flooded in from factory committees, army units and Moscow and provincial towns demanding that there be co operation between the parties to avoid factional strife and civil war. A petition from the 35th army division made this clear: ‘among the soldiers there are no Bolsheviks Mensheviks or SRs just democrats’

Question 20

Why was there enormous pressure on the Bolsheviks to do this?

Answer 20

The railwaymens union backed by the post and telegraph union threatened to cut off communications if the Bolsheviks did not hold talks with other parties which could paralyse food supplies to Petrograd as well as contact with other cities. Lenin sent representatives unwillingly to talk with other parties about a power sharing government and allowed the planned elections to the Constituent assembly to go ahead at the end of November

Question 21

What were Kamenev and Zinoviev and a few other leading Bolsheviks in favour of?

Answer 21

A socialist coalition government. They were duped by Lenin into thinking he was serious about a coalition and they temporarily resigned when they found out he was not and he engineered the collapse of the talks but he did make an alliance with the left SRs and brought them as junior partners into the sovarknom so he could claim to represent a large section of the peasantry

Question 22

Why did the Constituent assembly pose a great threat to Lenin?

Answer 22

It was elected by the people in the first free elections in government. Bolsheviks found they had won only 175 seats against 410 for socialist revolutionaries including 40 left SRs and nearly 100 for other parties

Question 23

How did Lenin dissolve the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 23

Lenin asserted that his soviet government represented a higher stage of democracy than an elected assembly containing different political parties. The assembly was allowed to meet for one day (5th January 1918) then the doors were closed and deputies told to go home. A crowd which demonstrated in favour of the assembly was fired in by soldiers loyal to the Sovarknom (first time soldiers fired on unarmed demonstrators since the feb Rev)

Question 24

When and what was the Decree on Peace?

Answer 24

Signed 26th October 1917 with a plea to other nations for a just peace with ‘no annexations, no indemnities’, Lenin was convinced that revolutions in Europe would ensue that equitable peace settlements would be reached

Question 25

Why was it difficult for Lenin to end the war?

Answer 25

The Russian army at the front disinterested rapidly as they had no desire to die so wanted to go home. Good news for Bolsheviks that army could not be used against them by Russian generals but bad news that the german army was free to walk into Russia and take what they wanted.

Question 26

What was Trotsky’s role in ending the war?

Answer 26

He was the Bolshevik negotiator and withdrew from the negotiations saying that Russia would not fight the Germans but would not sign the treaty either

Question 27

Identify 11terms of the Brest-Litovsk

Answer 27

In 1918 Germans helped Finns defeat a Bolshevik rising and Finland remained independent under the treaty, Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania became independent republics, Russian held area of Poland became part of the independent state of Poland, Bessarabia handed over to Romania, Germans set up semi independent governments in Belarus/Ukraine/Georgia, lost 62 million people which was one sixth of population, lost 27 percent of farm land, lost 26 percent of railway lines, lost 74 percent of iron ore and coal reserves, had to pay germany 3 million roubles in war reperations, lost Ukraine which threatened to add to food shortages

Question 28

When and why did Lenin sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk?

Answer 28

No army left to fight the Germans who began to advance into the Ukraine. Lenin feared they may move on Petrograd and throw him and his government out so signed the treaty on 3rd March 1918

Question 29

Identify 3 political consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Answer 29

Many Russians join anti Bolshevik forces which was anathema to the kadets and conservative forced on the right, more splits in the Bolshevik party eg Bukharin and left wing of the party wanted to prosecute a revolutionary war to encourage a European socialist revolution, left wing of SRs also wanted to fight a revolutionary war so left the Sovnarkom in protest

Question 30

What was the CHEKA slogan?

Answer 30

Death to the bourgeoisie

Question 31

What did the CHEKA do?

Answer 31

Plundered bourgeoisie territory, implemented social justice by revenge including violence and looting. Soldiers systematically plundered houses and shops, countryside peasants set fire to local landowners’ houses

Question 32

How did Lenin use class warfare to consolidate power? 5 points

Answer 32

Lenin purged political opposition (SRs, Kadets, Mensheviks purged after dissolution of the Constituent Assembly), rejected all superior forms of authority (judges, officers, priests, squires, employers, anyone well dressed in streets), idea of Burzhui was the driving force of the social revolution and introduced a system of class warfare in Russia, princes/countesses/artists/writers/businessman targeted, Lenin had society at war with itself which kept the Bolsheviks in a strong position

Question 33

Identify 3 examples of CHEKA terror

Answer 33

In Evpatoria a crimean coastal town Bolshevik sailors were allowed by soviet leaders to go on rampage and massacred 8000 officers and bourgeoisie residents, priests/monks/nuns crucified then thrown in cauldrons of boiling tar then scalped then strangled and given Communion with melted lead and drowned in holes in the ice- estimated 3000 dead in 1918, CHEKA placed rats in iron tubes sealed at one end with wire netting and the other end placed against a prisoners body then the tube was heated so the rat chewed through the victims body to escape

Question 34

Give 5 points about how Lenin changed banks

Answer 34

Banks were nationalised, holders restricted to withdraw no more than 1000 rubles per month, gold/silver/foreign money/precious items confiscated (35,000 deposit boxes inspected by 1918), complusory sharing of property and living spaces were common place in countryside, best rooms in house occupied by old servants and owners moved to servants’ quarters

Question 35

How did Lenin replace the Russian legal system with revolutionary justice? 3 points

Answer 35

‘People’s Courts’ replaced old legal system ruled by Bolsheviks of a third class intellect who were guided by their ‘revolutionary conscience’, led to mob rule/mob trials/mob lynchings, courts relied on vendettas and denunciations from revolutionaries

Question 36

Give 4 points about domestic challenges to the Bolsheviks

Answer 36

A main group of enemies was the SRs after they won a majority in the Constituent Assembly then Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly, opposition from supporters of the old provisional government and Mensheviks who had had a significant say in the Provisional government, opposition from supporters of Tsarists supported by landowners who weren’t happy with the peasant land seizure, patriotic Russians (kadets, conservative forces on the right) due to signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Question 37

Describe the treat to the Bolsheviks from the Czech legion

Answer 37

The Czech legion of 40,000 soldiers who had fought on the side of Russians during WWW1 as a means of gaining independence from Austro-Hungary found themselves isolated after Russia and Germany had signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk

Question 38

Describe world opposition to the Bolsheviks

Answer 38

Bolsheviks believed in World Revolution and set up the Comintern (led by Zinoviev) in March 1919 which stated it would try to cause communist revolution all over the world. The Great Powers of Europe sent armies to destroy the Bolsheviks, British, American, French armies attacked from Archangel, Ukraine and Vladivostok

Question 39

What is the Red Army?

Answer 39

Formed from Kronstadt sailors and Red Guards plus workers who volunteered and soldiers from the disintegrating former imperial army. Supporting Bolsheviks, established January 1918

Question 40

What is the White Army?

Answer 40

Made up of liberals, former tsarists, nationalists, separatists, SRs and other moderate socialists. Some wanted to see the Tsarback and others supported military dictatorship until the Bolsheviks were defeated and law and order re established, others keen to see the Constituent Assembly running Russia

Question 41

Identify the four main forces of the Whites

Answer 41

Yudenich’s army, Omsk government, Komuch, Southern Volunteer Army

Question 42

What is Yudenich’s army?

Answer 42

In the north west, a small force which attacked the Reds out of Estonia

Question 43

What is the Omsk government?

Answer 43

Reactionary government mainly Rightists (pro monarchists or supporters of a military dictatorship) under the nominal leadership of Admiral Kolchak, he assumed control in November 1918, it controlled an extensive area in Siberia

Question 44

What is the Komuch?

Answer 44

The Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly composed mainly of Socialist Revolutionaries who claimed to be the legitimately elected government, based on the Samara on the River Volga

Question 45

What is the Southern Volunteer Army?

Answer 45

Formed by Generals Kornilov and Akekseev, based in on the south on the river Don. Thousands of army officers flocked to join them as well as Kadets (although many were already in prison) and other liberals. Both generals died 1918 and army was taken over by General Anton Denikin in February 1919

Question 46

What is the Green Army?

Answer 46

Peasant armies often made up of deserters from other armies, armies fought for the Bolsheviks some against. More concerned with protecting their own area from the ravages of other marauding armies, they raided and looted their neighbours. The most famous of the green armies was that of Nester Makhno an anarchist in the Ukraine

Question 47

What is the Czech legion?

Answer 47

Formed by Czech nationalists hoping to win recognition for an independent Czech state , enlarged by Czech prisoners of war and deserters from the Austrian army, aimed to fight with the Russian army against Austrians and Germans but after the Brest Litovsk took Russia out of the war the legion fought with the allies on the Western front

Question 48

How was the Czech legion transported to the Western Front?

Answer 48

Did not want to cross enemy lines and it was agreed with the Soviet authoritites that they would be transported along the Trans Siberian railway to Vladivostok where they would be taken by ship to Western Europe. The Czechs mistrusted the Bolsheviks so there were clashes along the Trans Siberian railway

Question 49

Describe the clashes between the Czech legion and Bolsheviks

Answer 49

Bolsheviks tried to disarm Czechs but they resisted and took control of large sections of the railway (main route to east) and large parts of western siberia, substantial white forces grew up around them. In May 1918

Question 50

When was the Socialist Revolutionary government established at Samara? What else happened in this month?

Answer 50

June 1918, Tsar murdered as well as his family

Question 51

What event of the civil war happened in August 1918?

Answer 51

Americans arrive in Northern Russia and in the east. British land at Archangel and establish an anti bolshevik government

Question 52

When did the French land at Odessa?

Answer 52

December 1918, establish a major land base

Question 53

When did the Red Army occupy Kiev?

Answer 53

February 1919

Question 54

When was conscription into the Red Army introduced?

Answer 54

May 1918

Question 55

When did Denikin and the Southern Army take Kharkov?

Answer 55

June 1919

Question 56

What events of the civil war happened in July 1919?

Answer 56

Denikin advances from the Caucausas and captures Tsaritsyn, loss of Kharkov and Tsaritsyn leads to criticism of Trotsky so he resigns but this resignation is refused

Question 57

What events of the civil war happened in March 1919?

Answer 57

Kolchak’s forces cross the Urals but are repulsed by the Red Army

Question 58

When did the allies evacuate Archangel?

Answer 58

September 1919

Question 59

What events of the civil war happened in October 1919?

Answer 59

Denikin takes Orel but is forced back later in the month, Yudenich reaches the outskirts of Petrograd, Yudenich is defeated and Denikin pushed back by November 1919

Question 60

Describe the 1920 events of the Civil War 7 points

Answer 60

Kolchak captured in January then executed by Bolsheviks in February, Red Army invades Georgia, in April Denikin is pursued to the Crimea and succeeded by Wrangel, in May Polish army invades Russia and occupies Kiev, in July Tukhachevsky mounts Red Army counter offensive against Poles, in August Red Army is defeated by Poles outside Warsaw, in November the last surviving white general (Wrangel) defeated by the Crimea

Question 61

When and what was the Treaty of Riga?

Answer 61

1921 March, peace between Poland and Soviet Russia agreed in October then formalised in this treaty

Question 62

Describe the role of foreign armies in the Russian civil war in 6 points

Answer 62

Winston Churchill sent british forces to Murmansk because he was anti bolshevik, French investors were biggest losers when Bolsheviks nationalised foreign businesses without compensation and the French fleet was sent to the Black sea, Japanese forces occupied Vladivostok in April 1918,four months later US forces sent to keep an eye on the Japanese, Czech/Finnish/Lithuanian/Polish/Romanian forces crossed into Russia, 1919 troops from Japan and US occupied parts of Siberia, foreign armies had little effect on the outcome of the civil war because all had withdrawn by 1920 and there was little cooperation between them

Question 63

Why did the Polish War occur?

Answer 63

In December 1919 the British foreign secretary, Lord Curzon, put forward plans for a boundary between Poland and Russia which came to be the Curzon Line but Poles wanted to see it put some 160km to the East, May 1920 Poles ally with Ukrainians to take Kiev from Bolsheviks put Red Army pushed them back to Warsaw where Poles mounted successful defence and war ended in stalemate

Question 64

Describe the beginning phase 3 of the Civil War (Reds vs Greens)

Answer 64

Whites were defeated but the Reds were fully stretched against the Poles and resistance to the Communists was widespread by the end of summer 1920. Plenty of grievances against the communists (harsh discipline in factories, hunger in cities, forced grain requisitions in the countryside), SRs were so weakened at this time they could no launch the coordinated effort needed to oust the Communists

Question 65

Describe the Tambov revolt in 6 points

Answer 65

In august 1920 peasants in a Tambov village 200 miles east of Moscow attacked a red grain requisition brigade and killed several of them, joined by other villagers and by the end of 1920 8000 brigade members killed, some local and former SRs took a leading role but these were peasant risings, cut the whole province off from Communist control for over a year, many similar peasant risings took place all over Russia using guerrilla warfare, peasants of Tambov only crushed when a huge Red Army of 100,000 men moved into the Province in the last part of 1921

Question 66

What 3 examples of guerrilla warfare were used in the Tambov revolt and how did the communists react?

Answer 66

Blowing up bridges, cutting telegraph lines, pulling up railway tracks. Communists mutilated bodies of those they captured in a savage war of vengeance

Question 67

What three events are key to the third phase of the Civil War?

Answer 67

Bitterstrikes in Moscow in summer 1920, appearance of a group called the Workers’ Opposition within the Bolshevik party, Kronstadt mutiny of March 1921

Question 68

Give 4 points about geographical factors which allowed the Reds to win

Answer 68

Bolsheviks helded the central area including Petrograd and Moscow which was less vulnerable to attack, they moved their capital to Moscow at the hub of the railway network making it easier to transport men and munitions to battle fronts, this area contained main armament factories in Russia so Bolsheviks could continue producing artillery/rifles/other military equipment, central area was heavily populated so Bolsheviks could conscript large numbers to fight

Question 69

Give 3 points about geographical factors which caused the Whites to lose

Answer 69

Whites scattered around the edge of the Central area in archangel separated by large distances making communications difficult (especially moving men and munitions), sparsely populated areas, no telephone links so had to use officers on horseback to convey messages

Question 70

How were the Bolsheviks organised? 7 points

Answer 70

Organised by Trotsky into strict hierarchical lines, Trotsky brought back thousands of former tsarist officers who ere now unemployed/hungry/poor to train and command army units and Trotsky held their families hostage to ensure loyalty, Stalin and Zinoviev and other leading Bolsheviks resented the return to a traditional army but Trotsky had the support of Lenin, political commissar attached to every army unit who had to watch and report on actions of officers and make sure they were politically correct, soldiers committees and election of soldiers by soldiers ended, soldiers resented reintroduction of ranks/pay differentials/saluting, formed labour battalions to help at the front comprised of unreliable men or ones who could not fight usually drawn from the bouregoisie

Question 71

How were the Whites organised?

Answer 71

Made up of different groups with different aims so they couldn’t decide whether they were fighting for monarchism or republicanism or the Constituent Assembly, impossible to develop a political strategy, split by their views on national minorities, white generals would not work together as they distrusted or disliked each other so they couldn’t develop a co ordinated military strategy so different white armies given different orders, other generals suspicious of Kolchak’s motives, white armies often fought eachother, no single leader or single orders and no political direction, SRs found it difficult fighting alongside tsarists who wanted to return their land to its owners

Question 72

Describe leadership in the Bolsheviks in 4 points

Answer 72

Trotsky was brave so took his fighting force to parts of the Front where fighting was fiercest, he was able to inspire and rally men, he decided to save Petrograd rom Yudenich when it was under threat, death penalty used frequently in the Red Army, if unwilling peasant conscripts retreated in battle they knew they would be machine gunned by their own side

Question 73

Describe leadership in the Whites in 5 points

Answer 73

Several were cruel and treated men with contempt, reminded soldiers of worst aspects of Russian army and tsarist rule so little natural warmth or support for them, Denikin army was undisciplined he said ‘I can do nothing with my army’, uniforms and munitions supplied by foreign interventionist governments were sold on black market, officers lived in brothels

Question 74

Describe support for Bolsheviks and Whites in 4 points

Answer 74

Peasants had little love for either side but more inclined to support Reds since Lenin legitimated their right to the land whereas whites made it clear that land would be restored to its former owners, whites lost support of nationalist groups such as Ukrainians and Georgians who were looking for more autonomy in their affairs, Bolsheviks had a core support group of workers and soldiers but they did not have widespread support due to war communism and management of cities/food supply, workers and peasants wanted to protect the gains of 1917 so supported Reds

Question 75

How did Bolsheviks and Whites use foreign intervention?

Answer 75

Brought whites supplies and weapons but it was only effective in achieving initial aims, gave Bolsheviks a propaganda coup as they presented themselves as defenders of Russian soil, Denikin and whites did not see how valuable propaganda was, Reds used powerful images (whites taking land from peasants, foreign invaders supporting whites, reds offering a wonderful new society for workers and peasants)

Question 76

Who did the Red Army conscript? 5 points

Answer 76

Peasants when the supply of urban workers ran out, peasants generally unwilling other than when white armies approached they were willing to fight for their lands, often deserted at harvest time, desertion rate just as high for Reds as for Whites, some peasants joined independent green armies

Question 77

Why did peasants stage uprisings against the Red Army?

Answer 77

Anger at mass conscription and seizure of their best horses for food for the army

Question 78

How many troops did the Red Army have?

Answer 78

3 million by end of 1919 and 5 million by end of 1920. Estimated 1 million deserted in 1918 and estimated nearly 4 million in 1921

Question 79

Why was the Red Army often poorly equipped?

Answer 79

Deserters took their uniform and weapons with them so Trotskys train which carried uniforms and supplies was very important

Question 80

How did the Red Army have its fair share of indiscipline?

Answer 80

There were some full scale mutinies in which burzhui officers were murdered and new officers elected, festering resentment about burzhui officers and a great deal of anti semitism, many commissars were Jews including trotsky

Question 81

How did the Cossacks in the South treat Jews during the Civil War?

Answer 81

Raped and murdered whole villages of Jews in Pogroms that may have taken 115,000 lives in the Ukraine alone, they claimed the Jews supported the Bolsheviks

Question 82

What did Whites do to miners during the Civil War?

Answer 82

Shot those in the Donbass region who did not produce enough coal, buried hundreds of Red miners alive in Rostov

Question 83

What did the Reds do to some officers during the Civil War?

Answer 83

Nailed the epaulets of officers to their soldiers while they were still alive

Question 84

What was the biggest killer during the Civil War?

Answer 84

Disease, especially typhus, which spread rapidly amongst lice ridden troops and civilian population, over 1 million died from typhoid and typhus in 1920

Question 85

Why did Lenin adopt War Communism? 8 reasons

Answer 85

Industry fell apart as workers’ committees proved incapable of running the factories, acute shortages of raw materials caused by civil war, industrial output (particularly consumer goods) shrank in the Bolshevik held central area, soaring price inflation and value of rouble collapsed, peasants wouldn’t supply food to the cities if there were no goods for which food could be exchanged and paper money was worthless, rich wheat areas of the Ukraine outside of Bolshevik control, workers fled from cities which left factories short of workers, Lenin faced with two main problems (keeping workers in cities to produce munitions and feeding them)

Question 86

What was the bread ration in Petrograd in February 1918?

Answer 86

50g per person per day

Question 87

What happened to the proletariat during the Civil War? 4 facts

Answer 87

Population decreased from 3.6 million in January 1917 to 1.4 million in 1919, Petrograd lost 60% of its workforce by April 1918, 1 million left the city by June 1918 to return to villages/join the Red Army/enter the growing bureaucracy, Vyborg district of Petrograd’s population fell 69,000 to 5000 by summer 1918

Question 88

What was war communism?

Answer 88

1918-21. To ensure the Red army was supplied and fed Lenin introduced a decree of nationalisation which established strong centralised control over all areas of production and distribution in areas under his control

Question 89

What problems faced the Reds during the Civil War?

Answer 89

In the West the Germans had occupied Poland and Lithuania and Latvia while the Ukraine had become an Austro-German colony. In the summer of 1918 Czech regiments in the Volga rebelled. In the North the French and English occupied Murmansk and Archangel, the Ural mountains were plagued by Bandits and there was even greater rebellion on the Don

Question 90

What problem faced the Whites during the Civil War?

Answer 90

If the Whites approached Moscow from the east the Germans would come from the West to penetrate the formation of a new Eastern Front

Question 91

Identify 4 key aspects of War Communism

Answer 91

Factories and businesses nationalised in November 1920 (geared to war production) so workers soviets which had run factories were abolished and workers worked excessive hours without wages, Food Supplies Dictatorship set up in May 1918 and grain requisitioning was implemented where peasants were paid a fixed amount but peasants grew less and hid crops and murdered members of requisitioning squads which worsened the food supply so Lenin returned to CHEKA and CHEKA members sized more and offered inadequate vouchers and stole livestock/carts/firewood, ban on private trade and a rationing system was introduced on food and consumer based on class, money lost all value and multiplied some 1917 costs by four million in 1922

Question 92

How many Russians died during the Civil War?

Answer 92

Between 7500000 and 10000000 but very few were battle casualties. There had been an acute food shortage in 1920 and terrible famine in 1921

Question 93

How was the feeding of cities and army dealt with during the Civil War?

Answer 93

A Commissariat of Supplies, Narkomprod, made responsible and in 1918 committees of poor peasants in the villages were organised and detachments of armed workers in the towns to exact grain from the kulaks

Question 94

What happened to the population of cities after people fled to the country where they believed they could avoid starvation caused by War Communism? 4 facts

Answer 94

In December 1920 population of 40 capitals fell by 33% since 1917, Petrograd fell by 57.5%, Moscow by 44.5%

Question 95

What two events led to the outbreak of the Red Terror?

Answer 95

On 30th August 1918,after speaking at a labour rally in Moscow Lenin was shot and seriously wounded by Fanya Kaplan who claimed Lenin was a traitor to the revolution and had served 11 years in a labour camp for the attempt to murder a Tsarist offical, on the same day as the attack on Lenin the head o the Petrograd Cheka was murdered

Question 96

What were the 7 main features of the Red Terror?

Answer 96

Bourgeoisie driven from their homes/deprived of food rations/forced to do degrading work, in august 1918 Lenin ordered the implementation of a ruthless mass terror against the kulaks/priests/white guards by chosen men loyal to Bolsheviks, suspicious persons sent to concentration camps, former officials/landlords/priests executed and whole families wiped out because they had once been rich, peasants who resisted requisitioning were often shot, ex tsar Nicholas and his family were murdered on midnight 16th July 1918 but only the Tsars death was published in the Izvestia three days later (announced his wife and son were in a safe place), during the summer of 1918 units of the Czech legion fighting with the whites closed in on Ekaterinburg (their place of confinement)

Question 97

Describe the events of the Polish War in 5 points

Answer 97

April 1920 the Polish leader Marshal Josef Pilsudski (1867-1935) ordered the invasion of Russia, Polish forces crossed the Curzon line and by June 1920 captured Minsk and Kiev, as the Civil War drew to a close the Red Army recovered and drove the Poles back within a few miles of their capital Warsaw but the Poles were saved by the intervention of France, Poles won at the Battle of Vistula with French help, war ended with Treaty of Riga in 1921 which established a new Eastern frontier some 160km east of the Curzon line

Question 98

Give 2 facts about industrial output after the Civil War

Answer 98

Mines flooded and machinery smashed so the index of gross industrial output fell from 100 in 1913 to 31 in 1921, large scale industrial fell from 100 to 21

Question 99

What happened to Russia’s population between 1913 and 1921?

Answer 99

Fell from 170.9 million to 130.9 million

Question 100

What was the Kronstadt mutiny?

Answer 100

In 1921 30,000 Kronstadt sailors who had been supporters of the revolution demonstrated and made a list of demands including free election, freedom or the press and of speech, end of one-party communism (slogans ‘Soviets without Bolsheviks’)

Question 101

How did the authorities respond to the Kronstadt mutiny?

Answer 101

A leading party member Mikhail Kalinin sent to warn people of Kronstadt, on 15th March trotsky sent them a menacing ultimatum, two days later the red army led by Marshal Tukhachevsky sent by Trotsky to crush rebels, ringleaderds shot and 15,000 rebels taken prisoner eg in labour camps

Question 102

What was the significance of the Kronstadt mutiny for Lenin?

Answer 102

It served as a warning that Lenin should admit his errors, reverse his policies, make a tactical retreat. He had to win over the Russian peasantry. In April 1920 he acknowledged that they civil war of 1918-20 greatly increased the devastation of the country’, caused divisions in Bolshevik party and ‘Workers Opposition’ group was set up under Alexander Shylapknikov and Aleksandra Kollantai demanding greater worker control

Question 103

Who did the Bolsheviks receive increased opposition inside the cities from? 3 points

Answer 103

Workers who were angry at low rations/state violence and wanted new soviet elections/free press/restoration of the constituent assembly, anarchists who rejected the authoritarian control of the government, left wing SRs protesting about the Treaty of Brest Litovsk

Question 104

What did Lenin and Sverdlov say about the assassination of the Tsar?

Answer 104

It was carried out by the local soviet against their wishes but evidence suggests it came from the centre. Didn’t want to antagonise Germans because Tsar was cousin to the Kaiser and his wife was German

Question 105

How many deaths were there at the hands of the CHEKA?

Answer 105

Official records suggest nearly 13,000 but estimates but the real figure closer to 300,000

Question 106

When was the CHEKA given its new premises and where?

Answer 106

Lubyanka in Moscow in March 1918, by June it had a thousand members

Question 107

What was life like in Bolshevik cities under war communism? 10 points

Answer 107

Less than a third of urban diet came from stage provided rations and the rest from black market, ‘bag men’ travelled between villages and cities to sell produce, urban workers sold or exchanged stolen or handmade cigarette lighters/shoe soles made from conveyer belts and penknives/ploughs/nails made from iron bars for food and this was called ‘cigarette lighterism’, this movement of people caused a high percentage of workers to be absent from factories, Cheka raided trains to stop bag men travelling and raided markets where goods were sold, horses became ‘civil war sausage’, wages in 1919 at 2% of their 1915 level, 3000 wooden houses in Petrograd stripped to provide fuel during winter of 1919-20, water had to be collected from pumps in the streets, harvest of 1921 produced 48% of that of 1913 so millions died of starvation, population fell 170.9 million in 1913 to 130.9 million 1921

Question 108

How were middle classes in a worse place than the workers under war communism?

Answer 108

they were not allowed to work so survived by selling jewellery and clothes for bread, 42% of prostitutes in Moscow were from bourgeois families

Question 109

What happened to the Tsar and his families’ bodies?

Answer 109

Drenched in acid, Thrown into a disused mine shaft and later buried

Question 110

Identify the five key features of the New Economic Policy

Answer 110

Grain requisitioning replaced by a ‘tax in kind’ (peasants give a fixed proportion of their grain to the state which is much less than was taken by requisitioning, peasants sell surpluses on the open market), small scale businesses such as shoe/nail/clothes factories allowed to re open and make a profit because peasants would not sell their produce unless their were products they wanted on sale, ban on private trade abolished and privately owned shops reopened so rationing was abolished and people had to buy food and goods from their own income, state control of large scale heavy industries like coal/streel/oil and of transport and the banking system (industry organised into trusts that had to buy materials and pay their workers from their own budgets), rationing ended and industries required to pay workers out of profits but can pay ‘by the piece’ rather than having central controls of wages

Question 111

What was the significance of the NEP? 5 points

Answer 111

Retreat from Bolshevik policy of state control to a mixed economy where some private ownership existed, devoted Bolsheviks eg Bukharin forced to accept NEP by the realties of Russia in 1921, temporary measure which allowed that the country began an economic revival and concentrated more on important developments like electrification and starting industrial projects, Lenin sought to reestablish trading links with the capitalist world, food supplies were slow to increase and even by 1921 industrial output was only just approaching that of 1914

Question 112

How successful was NEP? 10 points

Answer 112

Impossible for the government to legislate to prevent drought and in the south blizzards/plagues of locusts which led to failed harvests, peasants remained short of seed/implements/fertilisers, by the end of 1921 famine threatened over 36 million Russians, by spring 1922 one million died of starvation, as soon as one area produced its first corn harvest they had to be requisitioned to provide seed for other areas, USA/France/Britain/Germany sent food/medicine clothing and the American Relief Administration provided some £20million worth of aid and help as forthcoming from the International Red Cross who made over 80,000 tonnes of food available, amount of land under cultivation rose from 77.7 million hectares in 1922 to 91.7, increase in grain harvest from 37.6 million tonnes in 1921 to 56.6 in 1923, average monthly wage of urban workers rose 10.2 roubles in 1921 to 15.9 in 1923, coal/steel/finished cloth/electricity saw an increase in output, 1924 factory output 4660 million roubles compared to 2004 in 1921

Question 113

How was the success of NEP limited? 7 points

Answer 113

Industrial workers faced with unemployment, in the twelfth party congress in 1923 Trotsky devised a graph to show rising industrial prices and falling agricultural prices caused by the revival of agriculture after the end of famine, 1922-3 there was an improvement in weather conditions but the increase in the amount of land under cultivation had partly contributed to an increase in productivity that led to a fall in price, scarcity in factory goods pushed up prices, central committee set up a scissors committee in October 1923 to try and improve industrial production, NEP critics formed a rival ‘Platform of 46’ which was 46 party members incl. trotsky who blamed the government for lack of a coherent economic plan, economic recovery in 1923 led to a fall in the price of industrial goods along with a good harvest averting a potential political crisis over the issue of NEP

Question 114

How did industrial and agricultural production change between 1913 and 1928?

Answer 114

1913 is a base year so industrial and agricultural production are 100. In 1921 industrial is 31 and agricultural is 60, in 1928 industrial is 132 and agricultural is 124

Question 115

What percentage of trade did private, state and cooperatives have?

Answer 115

75, 15 and 10 respectively

Question 116

What percentage of distribution of workforce did private, state and co operatives have?

Answer 116

12, 85 and 3 respectively

Question 117

What was the average number of workers in privately owned, state owned and factories owned by cooperatives have?

Answer 117

2, 155, 15 respectively

Question 118

Who were Nepmen? 5 points

Answer 118

Private traders who scoured they villages buying meat, grain, eggs, veg to take to markets and cities. They travelled around workshops picking up nails, shoes, clothes and hand tools to sell in markets and to peasants. Stalls turned into premises then into larger shops and by 1923 nepmen handled as much as 75% of retail trade. They crowded restaurants where dinners with French wine cost $25 a head and then went on to gaming clubs or brothels. Two years after the beginning of the NEP there were 25,000 Nepmen in Moscow

Question 119

How did Nepmen profit?

Answer 119

They crowded restaurants where dinners with French wine cost $25 a head and then went on to gaming clubs or brothels

Question 120

How did the government take action to bring industrial prices down?

Answer 120

Started to take peasant tax in cash rather than in kind to encourage the peasants to sell their produce

Question 121

When did Russia make trading agreements with Germany and Britain?

Answer 121

1922 and 1924 respectively

Question 122

How much did electricity production increase after 1921?

Answer 122

From 520 million kWhs to 3508 in 1926. It was only 1945 in 1913

Question 123

How much did steel production increase after 1921?

Answer 123

From 183 thousand tons to 3141 thousand in 1926

Question 124

How much did industrial production increase after 1920?

Answer 124

From 1410 million roubles to 11,083 in 1926. In 1913 it had been 10,251

Question 125

When did censorship become more systematic? 3 points

Answer 125

Spring 1922 dozens of outstanding writers and scholars were deported, in the same year pre-publication censorship was introduced, writings had to be submitted to the Main Administration for Affairs of Literature and Publishing Houses

Question 126

Describe attacks on political rivals during the period of the NEP in 3 points

Answer 126

Mensheviks and SRs became more popular during the strikes which they had encouraged, 5000 Mensheviks arrested in 1921 for counter-revolutionary activities, Mensheviks and SRs outlawed as political organisations

Question 127

What were show trials? 4 points

Answer 127

Communists rounded up a large number of SRs and former SRs who had collaborated with the secret police accused old colleagues of heinous crimes, the Central Committee of SRs accused of authorizing assassination attempts on Lenin or collaborating with Denikin, 34 SR leaders condemned as terrorists, 11 executed

Question 128

When was the GPU established and what did it do?

Answer 128

CHEKA renamed GPU (Main Political Administration) in 1922, arbitrary imprisonment and death penalty continued to be applied after 1922, GPU harassed Nepmen as speculators and class enemies

Question 129

How did Bolsheviks reward villages that supported them during the period of the NEP?

Answer 129

With salt (a vital commodity for food preservation) and manufactured goods, they were fed propaganda about benefits of NEP

Question 130

How did the Bolsheviks attack the church during the period of the NEP? 5 points

Answer 130

In 1921 the Union of the Militant Godless established to challenge Church directly, 1922 orders sent out to strip churches of their precious items to help famine victims, violent clashes when clergy and local people tried to protect churches, death penalties handed to leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, thousands of priests imprisoned

Question 131

Why were the Allies angry after the Treaty of Brest Litovsk?

Answer 131

Seperate peace with Germany meant Russia was betraying the Allies’ cause so they were determined to prevent their vital anti-war supplies (previously loaned to Russia and still stockpiled there) falling into German hands

Question 132

What was the one success of the interventionists?

Answer 132

In the Baltic states national forces, backed by British warships and troops, crushed a Bolshevik invasion and forced Lenin’s government to recognise the independence of Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania

Question 133

How was the failure of foreign interventionists a propaganda success for the Bolsheviks?

Answer 133

Soviet propaganda presented Lenin’s government as the savour of Russia from foreign conquests

Question 134

How did the Bolsheviks adjust their foreign policy after the foreign interventions in Russia?

Answer 134

The time was not right for world revolution so the Comintern would keep calling for world revolution but Soviet Russia would soften its International attitud. Western encroachment had been a fear of the Tsars and fear was increased hostility of European governments to the Oct Rev and by their support of the whites during the civil war. Soviet foreign policy activated by the desire to avoid conflict

Question 135

What was the Treaty of Rapallo?

Answer 135

April 1922 the agreement the USSR entered into with Germany because Germany had heavy reparations imposed on it and denied the right to rearm and Russia had earned hostility of capitalist countries by renouncing all Russia’s debts and calling on people in the capitalist countries to overthrow their governments. Terms of the treaty: Russia would provide German forces with military training grounds and resources, Russia would be granted special trading rights in Germany

Question 136

What happened at the conference in Genoa?

Answer 136

Intended to improve financial dealings among the european states, French insisted Russia repay tsarist debts and Germany accept their obligation to pay reparations. Both countries walked out

Question 137

What was the Treaty of Berlin?

Answer 137

A non aggression pact in 1926 which confirmed main terms of the Rapallo treaty, article 2 stated that if one country was attacked by a third party the other country would remain neutral in the conflict, article 3 stated neither would join in any economic boycott organised against the other, USSR received large financial credits from German banks June 1926, Stresemann died 1929 and this combined with world economic crisis led to Stalins more aggressive approach to foreign policy and Hitlers rise to power strained relations

Question 138

When and what was the trade and diplomatic agreement between Britain and Russia?

Answer 138

1924 when Britain was under its first labour government. Main terms: Britain agreed to advance £30 million loan to the Soviet Union, Soviet Union would pay compensation for the British financial assets the Bolsheviks had seized after the Oct Rev

Question 139

What was the Zinoviev letter issue?

Answer 139

On 25th October 1924, four days before British general election, Daily mail carried headline ‘Soviet Plot: Red Propaganda in Britain: Revolution urged in Britain’ and a letter (purportedly written by Zinoviev who blamed it on White Russian Emigres, anti Bolsheviks who fled Russia after Oct Rev) adressed to British Communist Party ordering its members to infiltrate the Labour Party and use it to bring down the British state in an armed insurrection, the labour party were defeated in the election. The letter provided ammunition for people in Britain who believed relations between Labour government and revolutionary Russia were too close

Question 140

When did Stalin disagree with Lenin over the issue of foreign trade and what happened after?

Answer 140

October 1922, Stalin’s policy was accepted rather than Lenin’s so Lenin wrote to Trotsky asking for his support out of fear that Stalin was taking over leadership of the party. At the next meeting of the central committee the decision was reversed. Lenin wrote to trotsky congratulating him on his success and suggested they should work together in the future against Stalin

Question 141

What did Stalin do after Trotsky and Lenin agreed to work against him?

Answer 141

Stalin’s wife Nadya Alliluyeva worked in Lenin’s private offers and discovered the letters contents. Stalin realised that if the two worked against him his political career would be at an end. He made an abusive phone call to Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, accusing her of endangering Lenin’s life by allowing him to write letters when he was so ill

Question 142

When did Lenin make the decision that Stalin was not the man to replace him as the leader of the party and what did he do afterwards?

Answer 142

After hearing of the abusive phone call Stalin made to Lenin’s wife. In December 1922, while recovering from a stroke, Lenin wrote his 600 word Testament in which he proposed changes to the structure of the party’s central committee and commented on its individual members, opening it with his concerns over the open antagonism between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin fearing that this could cause a split in the Central Committee. He proposed doubling the membership from 50 to 100

Question 143

What did Lenin say about Trotsky in his last will and testament?

Answer 143

‘Distinguished not only by his outstanding ability…the most capable men in the present CC but he has displayed excessive self assurance and shown excessive self assurance and shown excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work’

Question 144

What did Lenin say about Bulgarian in his last will and testament?

Answer 144

‘He is rightly considered the favourite of the whole party but his theoretical views can be classified as fully marxist…there is something scholastic about him’

Question 145

What did Lenin say about Pyatakov in his last will and testament?

Answer 145

‘Unquestionably a man of outstanding will and outstanding ability but shows far too much zeal for administrating’

Question 146

What did Lenin say about Kamenev and Zinoviev in his last will and testament?

Answer 146

They had dared to doubt Lenin following the Bolshevik seizure of power in the October revolution of 1917 and resigned from the central committee (Lenin called them ‘deserters’) but recanted and were welcomed back. He mentioned the ‘October episode’ in his testament to ensure their temporary loss of faith was not forgotten

Question 147

What did Lenin say about Stalin in his last will and testament?

Answer 147

He had been appointed General Secretary eight months earlier but described him as having ‘unlimited authority concentrated in his hands… I am not sure he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution.’ Stalin suffered only criticism but the other members received both criticism and praise

Question 148

What did the postscript added to Lenin’s testament ten days later say?

Answer 148

Stalin is too rude, and this fault is intolerable in the office of Secretary. Therefore I propose to comrades that they find a way of removing Stalin from his post and appointing another man who is more patient, more loyal, more polite and is considerate to his comrades

Question 149

When was Lenin’s last will and testament due to be read?

Answer 149

Entrusted to his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya who hoped her husband would recover so kept it secret even though it was supposed to be read out at the Twelfth party congress in April 1923. Lenin died 21st January 1924 so it was due to be read out at the thirteenth party congress in may 1924

Question 150

What happened after the last will and testament was read out?

Answer 150

Kamenev and Zinoviev and Stalin formed a ruling triumvirate to keep trotsky from assuming power, the testament had criticised them all so they could not allow it to be made public. Stalin offered to resign over the issue but trotsky and the committee refused. Only edited highlights of the testament were read out to party officials

Question 151

What were Stalin’s 7 strengths as a contender for power?

Answer 151

Was General Secretary when the Party bureaucracy was expanding rapidly and was good at gaining loyalty of trusted subordinates because he had the power to advance careers of those in the party rapidly, worked hard to master theories of Marxism, underrated by his opponents because good at concealing his intentions and waiting a long time to take revenge on his enemies, deliberately placed himself close to Lenin at his time of illness 1922-3 so knew what he wanted, fear of Trotsky aided him to make an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev (Triumvirate), referred to by Lenin once as ‘that wonderful Georgian’ because Lenin relied on Stalin’s loyalty and administrative skills, prepared to appeal to the national pride of those he sought to lead

Question 152

What were Stalin’s 4 weaknesses as a contender for power?

Answer 152

Most colleagues see him as crude and violent, only played a minor role in the 1917 revolution so was overshadowed by Trotsky etc, once Lenin became ill Stalin started to oppose him (disagreement between Stalin and Lenin’s wife) so Lenin was critical of him in his last will ‘concentrated an enormous power in his hand’, Lenin’s last essay ‘Better Fewer, But Better’ was highly critical of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate of which Stalin was at the head

Question 153

What were Trotsky’s 6 strengths as a contender for power?

Answer 153

Had many admirers such as Viktor Serge and Karl Radek who backed Trotsky on revolutionary ideology and Party deomocracy, extraordinary organisational skills/political skills/ruthlessness/authority, leading figure in the short lived St Petersburg Soviet of November 1905 which organised a general strike amongst the St Petersburg workers, revolutionary heroism in 1905/1917/civil war won him the loyalty of the Red Army, inspiring speeches won him the support of young communists, Lenin singled Trotsky out in his last will as ‘the most able man in the present Central Committee’

Question 154

What were Trotsky’s 8 weaknesses as a contender for power?

Answer 154

Jewish, in 1903 he had sided with the Mensheviks and rejected Lenin’s belief in a disciplined and secretive professional political party so he was late to join Bolshevism but had Lenin’s support as well as important positions which the party resented, time in exile (New York, Paris, London) made him one of the most ‘Western’ in party leadership, the most urban in a country that was predominantly rural and proud of its national identity, Lenin noted his ‘too far reaching self confidence’ in his last will, no serious attempt to build support in the party and had many enemies, inconsistent and opportunist (opposed the Triumvirate but later allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Stalin), arrogant and dismissive of less able people

Question 155

What was Vesenkha?

Answer 155

The Supreme Soviet of the National Economy set up in Dec 1917 which answered to the sovnarkom and was responsible for gaining state control over the economy starting with the State Bank

Question 156

What was Gosplan?

Answer 156

The economic planning committee established in Feb 1921 to advice on NEP which was introduced at the tenth party congress in March 1921

Question 157

Identify the 8 factors allowing Bolshevik consolidation

Answer 157

Ruling by decree, dissolving the constituent assembly, ruling by Red Terror and class warfare, ending WW1 with the treaty of Brest Litovsk, winning the civil war, replacing Russian legal system with revolutionary justice, implementing war communism, implementing NEP

Question 158

What was the GOELRO?

Answer 158

Plan for the electrification of Russia 1920

Question 159

What was the Prodrazvyorstka?

Answer 159

Policy and campaign of confiscation of grain and other agricultural products from peasants at nominal fixed prices according to specified quotas

Question 160

What was the role of culture in soviet Russia? 6 points

Answer 160

Culture to be an expression of society’s soviet values, has to be shaped the same way agriculture and industry has been, stalin believed in creating the first truly socialist state there had to be a cultural Revolution to accompany the economic and political one, all cultural works in all their forms has to conform to standards set by stalin, Stalin’s terror pervaded realm of arts just as in political and industrial worlds, artists who did not conform likely to be purged as much as politicians and industrial managers

Question 161

What did Lenin and the Bolsheviks believe about culture after the October Revolution?

Answer 161

Bolsheviks claimed it was their role to liberate the people from weaknesses that had tainted all previous societies, people now ready to be moulded into a new species. Lenin reported to have said ‘man can be whatever we want him to be’ and trotsky claimed the aim of a communist state was to produce ‘a new version of man’, this needed a dominant role of the state, proletkult movement (proletarian cukture) evolved, they understood that each ruling class created its own culture, works of writers and artists would now express values of revolutionary Russia or be deemed unacceptable

Question 162

What was set up by 1922 to create the new type of culture? 5 points

Answer 162

A range of Proletkult organisations including writers circles, art studios, amateur dramatic groups and musical appreciation societies, Lenin felt proletkult was becoming independent within the state so instructed it be brought under much tighter supervision within Lunarcharsky’s Commissariat of enlightenment, end of 1922 proletkult disbanded, Lenin ordered strict censorship be imposed on press and academic publications due to criticisms by writers and academics about NEP and war communism, hundreds of writers and university teachers branded as ‘counter revolutionists, spies, Corrupters of student youth’ and imprisoned or exiled

Question 163

Describe religion under Lenin

Answer 163

Karl Marx described religion as the opium of the people, believed religious belief and worship were what people turned to in order to deadens the pain of life. Lenin put this Marxist notion into action and wished for Russia to be a secular state with no organised religion. Lenin declared in the decree of separation or church and state that there were two aims: break hold of clergy and undermine religious faith of peasants

Question 164

5 key features of Lenin’s Decree of Separation of Church and State

Answer 164

Church properties no longer owned by clergy but local soviets, clergy no longer paid salaries of pensions by state, church no longer had central authority over local congregations, churches rented from local soviets for public worship, religious teaching forbidden in schools

Question 165

What happened to churches over the three years that followed the decree of separation from church and state?

Answer 165

Leaders who dared to speak out subjected to show trials and Imprisoned, common practice for churches and monasteries to be looted and desecrated by Cheka, religion too deeply embedded in Russian tradition so peasants continued to pray and worship but just in private

Question 166

describe the role of women under Lenin

Answer 166

Firm Marxist belief women were abused under capitalism particularly marriage which was one sided social contract turned women into victims since it made them the property of their husbands, on taking power Bolsheviks took immediate steps to raise status of women and undermine marriage as an institution, in the two years after 1917 decrees introduced such as legal divorce if either partner requested it, recognition of illegitimate children, legalising abortion, state to be responsible for raising of children

Question 167

Describe state capitalism 1917-8 in 5 points

Answer 167

1917 Lenin spoke out against danger of moving towards socialism too quickly, there was to be a strong degree of state control over economic affairs but private markets would still exist, December Veshenka (Council of National Economy) set up to supervise economic development, December nationalisation of banks, Bolsheviks were to continue using existing structures until transition to ‘state capitalism’ was complete and then fully fledged socialist system could be adopted, Bolshevik authority did not run much beyond Petrograd and Moscow so until they could exercise much wider political and military control their economic policies would have to fit prevailing circumstances

Question 168

How did the war against Germany affect Russia economically? 5 points

Answer 168

Severe shortages of raw materials, inflation rocketed, transport system crippled, grain supplies over 13 million tons short of nations needs, 1920 Bolsheviks set up the GOELRO (special state commission) to organise production and distribution of electricity which was one of their most significant achievements

Question 169

Describe labour discipline under war communism in 7 points

Answer 169

Strikes forbidden, working hours extended, ration card workbooks issued replacing wages, fines for absenteeism or being late but hard work rewarded by more rations and bonuses, food/clothing/lodging controlled through centralised distribution, strict checks on freedom of movement and internal passports introduced to stop employees drifting back to countryside, obligatory labour duty demanded of working class

Question 170

Who got most and least rations under war communism?

Answer 170

Red Army soldiers and factory workers got most but smaller allocated to white collar workers such as administrators and doctors, little to no rations allocated to nobility/bourgeoisie/clergy

Question 171

How did the government deal with the Scissors Crisis?

Answer 171

Feared peasants would hold back grain if there was a lack of industrial goods to buy so they capped industrial prices and replaced peasants’ quotas with money taxes in 1923, by 1926 production levels of 1913 reached again

Question 172

What was the ban on factionalism?

Answer 172

To many Bolsheviks the introduction of NEP was a retreat back into Capitalism, Lenin argued ‘one step backwards, two steps forwards’ and Zinoviev and Bukharin tried to appease the discontented, 1921 Lenin introduced ban on factions so senior party figures could discuss policy but once Central Committee agreed on a policy every Party member had to obey decision otherwise they were forming a ‘faction’ that would result in expulsion from party

Question 173

How was a one party state established? 5 points

Answer 173

Workers put in control of railways, government support for Church ended and Russia became secular state, industries nationalised and land ownership was abolished so only the state owned land and made it available to those who would farm it for the good of the community, march 1918 Trotsky became head of Red Army after Red Guards were disbanded and capital was moved to Moscow (more central to country), followed by imposition of Red Terror by Cheka

Question 174

What was the 1918 Constitution?

Answer 174

July 1918 Soviet Constitution set out structure of new regime: Sovnarkom at top (appointed by Congress and ran country when congress not in session), then Central Executive Committee (congress deputies elected this), then All Russian Congress of Soviets (deputies from local soviets elected to this), then local soviets (elected by workers and peasants)

Question 175

How did Lenin and the Sovnarkom hold most of the power in practice? 6 points

Answer 175

Congress of soviets met at intervals through year but Sovnarkom ruled between intervals, Sovnarkom actually chosen by Bolshevik Central Committee, consisted solely of Bolsheviks after left wing SRs waled out protesting about Brest Litovsk treaty, July 1918 members of former ‘exploiting classes’ banned from voting/holding office, workers votes worth five peasants votes, in elections to congress of soviets electorate were invited to choose between Bolshevik nominees (no free choice of candidates)

Question 176

Three causes on the left of the Civil War

Answer 176

Lenin forced Kadets and right SRs out of government, Lenin sidelined soviets and imposed one party dictatorship, Lenin closed Constituent assembly after SRs won most seats

Question 177

Three causes on the right of the Civil War

Answer 177

Some wanted to see a Tsar back running Russia, bourgeoisie hit hardest by food shortages as they were allocated smallest rations, bourgeoisie and aristocrats tended to lose everything under Bolshevik economic and social policies

Question 178

Four other causes of the Civil War

Answer 178

Bolsheviks seized power by force so had no right to rule Russia as hadn’t been submitted to popular elections and largely ignored Petrograd soviet who helped them into power, many angered by concessions of Brest Litovsk treaty, ongoing food shortages and severe rationing exacerbated by distribution problems and loss of argicultural lands, national minorities didn’t believe Bolshevik promises so saw opportunity to fight for independence

Question 179

Describe government and control during wartime in 7 points

Answer 179

Half a million party members fought in war so became used to obeying orders, to organise war Soviet bureaucracy grew to point where there were more bureaucrats than workers, policies created in centre and carried out without question at local levels, 1919 Politburo formed from Central Committee and took over running of party and government and increasingly bypassed Sovnarkom to give orders directly to government ministries represented in Central Committee, ‘central controls’ brought in to deal with food shortages and central control of economy increased after war, Bolsheviks adopted ‘siege mentality’ while surrounded by enemies in Civil War and this mentally continued after, Bolsheviks used terror so nobody disobeyed orders from centre and to eliminate opposition

Question 180

What happened to areas conquered by the Red Army after the Civil War?

Answer 180

became part of Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (name given to Bolshevik state in jan 1918) or allowed to remain as separate republics eg the Ukraine and Georgia, end of 1922 Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR) OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHED

Question 181

What impact did foreign intervention have in Civil War?

Answer 181

Mainly too small scale to have an impact, large scale intervention such as the Japanese invasion of eastern Siberia was in Far Eat so didn’t threaten Bolshevik control of Russia

Question 182

What were 5 reasons for foreign intervention in Civil War?

Answer 182

Countries like France/Britain/USA wanted whites to win so Russia would remain in the war and prevent Germans moving troops from Eastern to Western Front, Allies had sent huge amount of ammunition and weapons to Russia during WW1 and didn’t want this falling into Bolshevik hands, after Armistice Nov 1918 between Germany and West reasons for Allied intervention changed to combating Bolshevism, none of the Western nations prepared to fight a major war and there was little coordination between foreign forces and uncertainty over which non Bolshevik leaders to support, there was strong support for Bolshevism in British trade union movement and public opinion was divided in France and in America President Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to intervene

Question 183

What was the Founding Congress of the Communist International (Comintern)?

Answer 183

In Moscow March 1919 Lenin promoted soviet system as best way of spreading Marxism, positive response from delegates who were convinced world wide communist revolution was imminent despite civil war and spartacist uprisings

Question 184

What was the Second Comintern Congress?

Answer 184

In Petrograd July-August 1920, Lenins ‘21 Conditions’ outlined the requirements to become member of the Comintern, mixed response as it caused some parties to break away from the Comintern but Bolshevik victory in Civil War seemed certain

Question 185

What was the Third Comintern Congress?

Answer 185

In Moscow June-July 1921 focused on recovery of the bourgeoisie in countries like Poland and Germany, delegated disappointed as expected revolutions had turned into support for bourgeoisie democracies eg Germany ruled by ‘bourgeois-democratic’ Weimar Republic so Bolshevik left alone in capitalist world

Question 186

Three problems with state capitalism

Answer 186

Many Bolsheviks didn’t want a ‘halfway house’ but wanted state control of every part of economy, allowing workers to control factories caused sharp drops in production as workers didn’t have correct management skills, peasants had control over selling of grain so prices increased but state controlled industries needed cheap grain so they didn’t have to pay workers high wages

Question 187

What was the nomenklatura?

Answer 187

Introduced 1923 during NEP, this was a system by which influential posts in government and industry were filled by Party appointees so when any of the 5000 jobs needed replacing only central party bodies could nominate new post holders whom they chose from list of approved party members, this ensured party loyalty over everything

Question 188

Who disagreed with NEP?

Answer 188

There was a widespread feeling that the NEP was sacrificing the workers’ interests to the peasantry, which was growing rich at their expense, because of higher food prices. It seemed to them that the boom in private trade would inevitably lead to a widening gap between rich and poor and to the restoration of capitalism. They dubbed the NEP the ‘New Exploitation of the Proletariat’. Much of their anger was focused on the ‘NEPmen’, the private traders who thrived in the 1920s.

Question 189

How many troops were there in the white armies?

Answer 189

Never more than 100,000 in denikins army, 14,000 in yudenichs

Question 190

Why were the royal family killed?

Answer 190

They could have been the figurehead for the white army