Chapter 5 - The consolidation of the Communist dictatorship 1918-24

Question 1

Who had the Bolsheviks seized power in the name of?

Answer 1

The proletariat

Question 2

What did the slogan ‘all power to the soviets’ imply?

Answer 2

That councils of working people would help to run all aspects of Russia, from its factories to its national government

Question 3

What vote happened on the 25th of October?

Answer 3

The second All-Russian Congress of Soviets voted 500 to 170 for a socialist government to replace the overthrown PG
They expected this to be a coalition government, along the lines of the PS

Question 4

What did Lenin belive?

Answer 4

That the Bolsheviks were acting in the interests of the working class and that this gave him complete authority

Question 5

What was the outcome of the elections to the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 5

SRs → 53% (410 seats)

Bolsheviks → 24% (175 seats)

Mensheviks, Kadets and others → 23% (97 seats)

Question 6

How did Lenin react to the outcome of the elections to the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 6

He immediately declared that ‘elections prove nothing’

Question 7

What happened to the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 7

They met for one day, attempted to redraft the Bolshevik decrees, then were closed by troops and never opened again

Question 8

What did the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ mean?

Answer 8

That Lenin’s government had taken control of the state on behalf of the proletariat and would use state power to turn everything to benefit workers and peasants instead of the bourgeois

Question 9

How did Lenin justify what happened to the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 9

By saying Russia was now governed by a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’

Question 10

What were Lenin’s reasons for ending Russia’s involvement in WWI?

Answer 10

• The Bolsheviks had promised peace
  
  • much of their support came from soldiers who were tired of fighting
• Lenin knew that the Russian army couldn’t stop a German invasion, which would end Bolshevik control
• He belived that national boundaries were less important than the proletariat’s shared common values
• Believed that the end of the war would allow workers everywhere to rise up against the oppressive capitalist classes
• He was convinced that Germany was about to have its own revolution

Question 10

What did Lenin think would happen ‘when’ Germany had their own revolution?

Answer 10

Both Russia and Germany would be a part of a new international communist system, which meant that any peace-deal terms which negatively impacted Russia would only be temporary

Question 11

Why was agreeing an acceptable peace treaty with Germany so difficult?

Answer 11

• Germany already occupied lots of Russian territory and demanded major concessions as the price of a ceasefire
• Lenin and Trotsky did not agree on their negotiating stance
• There were further splits in the Central Committee once negotiations began
• Trotsky was put in the charge of the Bolshevik negotiating team but he dragged proceedings out
• Lenin demanded that Trotsky negotiate peace at any cost but the harsh terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk were very unpopular
• It took extreme negotiating within the Party to get support for the Treaty

Question 12

Why did Lenin and Trotsky not agree on their negotiating stance?

Answer 12

Trotsky opposed agreeing to a peace deal that would involve harsh terms for Russia

Lenin was less concerned about the peace terms because he thought Germany would have a revolution soon anyway

Question 13

What was the split in the Central Committee over the peace negotiations with Germany?

Answer 13

Bukharin led the ‘revolutionary war group’ which argued against peace with the Germans at all

Others saw this as betraying the Bolshevik’s promise to end the war

Question 14

Why did Trotsky drag out the negotiations and what was the effect?

Answer 14

Presumably because he hoped that the German revolution would’ve started before any peace terms had been agreed

Trotsky’s delaying tactics annoyed the Germans. They ended the armistice and began to advance into Russia again

Question 15

When was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed?

Answer 15

3 March 1918

Question 16

How did the Treaty get approved?

Answer 16

The left-wing SRs walked out of Sovnarkom in protest (left the Bolsheviks fully in power)

Lenin only convinced the Bolshevik Central Committee to agree by threatening to resign, and even then only by a majority of one

Question 17

What were the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Answer 17

• Loss of a huge area in the west of Russia
  
  • 62 million people (1/6 of the population)
  • 2 million square km of land
    
    • responsible for ⅓ of Russia’s agricultural production
  • ¼ of Russia’s railway lines
  • ¾ of Russia’s coal and iron supplies
  • Russia to pay 3 billion roubles in war reparations

Question 18

What new decrees from Sovnarkom helped define the one-party state?

Answer 18

• workers put in charge of the railways
• govt support for the Church ended and Russia became a secular state
• industries nationalised and land ownership abolished
  
  • only the state owned land and made it available to those who would farm it for the good of the community

Question 19

What replaced the Red Guards?

Answer 19

The Red Army

Trotsky became head in March 1918

Question 20

Where was the capital moved to and why?

Answer 20

Moscow to be more central to the country

Question 21

When was the first Soviet Constitution proclaimed?

Answer 21

July 1918

Question 22

What occured in the background during the consolidation of the one-party state?

Answer 22

There was a background of crisis

Left-wing SRs tried to seize power in Moscow but were crushed

Followed by the imposition of the Red Terror by the Cheka

Question 23

What would have to happen for the Constitution to become a reality?

Answer 23

the Bolsheviks would have to win a civil war

Question 24

How did the Soviet Constitution look on the surface?

Answer 24

Like a fully democratic system

• Sovnarkom → appointed by Congress, and ran the country when Congress was not in session
• Central executive committee → elected by congress deputies
• The All-Russian Congress of Soviets → deputies from local soviets were elected to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets
• Local soviets → Workers and peasants elected by local soviets

Question 25

What did the Soviet Constitution do?

Answer 25

Set out the power structure of the new regime

Question 26

How was the division of power that actually occured different to the Soviet Constitution?

Answer 26

• The Congress of Soviets only met at intervals throughout the year → Sovnarkom mainly ruled Russia
• Sovnarkom was actually chosen by the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, not the Congress of Soviets
• Sovnarkom consisted solely of Bolsheviks
• Members of the former ‘exploiting classes’ banned from voting or holding office after July 1918
• Worker’s votes worth 5 peasant votes
• No free choice of candidates in the elections to the Congress of Soviets (electorate invited to choose between Bolshevik nominees)

Question 27

What was the situation for the Bolshevik regime at the end of 1918?

Answer 27

Still in power but threatened by a range of hostile forces in a developing civil war

The process of consolidating power was far from complete