Civil war

Question 1

Key events of Civil war - 1918

Answer 1

• Jan - Red Army established
• May - Czech legion rebels and captures large section of Trans-Siberian railway - conscription into Red army also introduced
• June - Tsar is murdered
• Aug 30th - assassination attempt on Lenin

Question 2

Key events if the Civil war - 1919

Answer 2

• Sept - Allies evacuate Archangel
• Yudenich is defeated - Denikin is pushed back

Question 3

Key events in the civil war - 1920

Answer 3

• February - Kolchak is executed by the Bolsheviks and Red army invades Georgia
• May - Polish army invades Russian occupied Kiev
• August - Red army defeated by Poles outside Warsaw

Question 4

Key events in the Civil war - 1921

Answer 4

Treaty of Riga - peace between Poland and Soviet Russia

Question 5

General Tukhachevsky

Answer 5

Officer in Red army from 1918 - led the defence of Moscow
- also led the modernisation of the Red army

Question 6

Why was there a Civil war in Russia? - Political reasons

Answer 6

• Bolshevik’s political opponents were not prepared to accept their absolute rule
• the policies and actions of the Bolsheviks resulted in them having more enemies e.g. decree on land

Question 7

Why was there a Civil war in Russia? - Military reasons

Answer 7

• intense anger within Russia over the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Britain sent £100mn of supplies to the white army (crusaders against Bolshevism)
• France = anti-Bolshevik due to lost money from investment into Russia
• Japan sent forces into Siberia to grab valuable territory

Question 8

Why was there a Civil war in Russia? - Social//economic reasons

Answer 8

• some believed the Bolsheviks couldn’t solve Russia socio-economic problems
• Loss of Ukraine posed risk of food shortages etc

Question 9

Czech legion provoking war

Answer 9

Bolshevik forces tried to arrest some Czech soldiers - fighting broke out - Czech legion then gathered anti-Bolshevik forces and began to advance towards Moscow

Question 10

Kolchak in the East of Russia

Answer 10

built on the successes of the Czech legion - 1920 Kolchak was caught and shot with internal-quarrels destroying the group

Question 11

Yudenich in the west of Russia

Answer 11

reached outskirts of Petrograd in October 1919

Question 12

Denikin and Wrangel in the south of Russia

Answer 12

came within 320km of Moscow before Denikin was replaced by Wrangel

Question 13

Makhno’s insurgent army

Answer 13

successfully used guerrilla warfare against the whites and reds and strongly supported by the Ukrainian peasants

Question 14

Summer 1918 - July

Answer 14

Murder of Tsar and his family by Cheka - Bolsheviks killed the Tsar as they believed they would become a focus for resistance against their party

Question 15

Summer 1918 - August

Answer 15

Attempt to assassinate Lenin by Fanny Kaplan - the bullet would later leadto Lenin’s death in 1924

Question 16

Trotsky during the Civil war

Answer 16

Was made commissar for war in 1918 - he restored professionalism and discipline in the war and re-introduced former tsarist officers - Stalin and Zinoviev didn’t like this
- also reintroduced pay differentials an ranks into the army
- held families hostage to ensure loyalty
- supported by Lenin
Trotsky’s strengths = energy, passion and organisational structure - Had a specially equipped train to take him to the frontline

Question 17

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Geographical factors

Answer 17

• Bolshevik held central area (Petrograd and Moscow) - hub of railway network and contained lots of the country’s armament factories - heavily populated area whereas whites were scattered around a central area

Question 18

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Unity and organisation

Answer 18

• Bolsheviks = united command structure
• Trotsky organised red army effectively
• white generals would not work together

Question 19

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Leadership

Answer 19

• Red army very disciplined whereas white army saw many soldiers deserted

Question 20

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Support

Answer 20

• peasants made up main body on both sides = high desertion rates - however Lenin legitimised their right to land whereas the whites would return land to former owners
• White lost support of nationalist groups

Question 21

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Other factors

Answer 21

Foreign intervention used as propaganda against the whites by the Bolsheviks

Question 22

Lenin’s role during the civil war

Answer 22

• concentrated on building and consolidating the Bolshevik state and took charge of day-to-day business in the Sovnarkom

Question 23

What happened to industry in the civil war

Answer 23

fell apart as workers’ committee’s proved incapable of running the factories

Question 24

What happened to land/food

Answer 24

shortage of goods = inflation made money worthless - peasants would not supply food to the cities - bread rationing at all time low of 50grams per person per day

Question 25

Problems facing Lenin

Answer 25

1 - Keeping workers in cities to produce war supplies - Petrograd lost 60% of its workforce by 1918 2 - Feeding the workers

Question 26

Why did Lenin and the Bolsheviks introduce War Communism in 1918

Answer 26

- to squeeze - out counter-revolutionary forces - Terror outside of the party was essential for this - other Bolsheviks supported war communism as they hated the market system

Question 27

War Communism - Grain requisitioning

Answer 27

- Red guards sent into countryside to find grain - May 1918 food supplies dictatorship set up to establish the forcible requisitioning - Peasants divided into 3 categories 1 - Poor peasants 2 - medium peasants 3 - Kulaks

Question 28

War Communism - Banning of private trade

Answer 28

state trading organisation was chaotic and industry was not producing enough goods - black market developed which helped most survive - Control of railways also state controlled to aid the Red army

Question 29

War Communism - Nationalisation of industry

Answer 29

industry controlled by the supreme council of national economy (Vesenkha) - this was the only way to stop the chaos caused by factory workers

Question 30

War Communism - Labour Discipline

Answer 30

internal passports introduced to stop fleeing to the countryside strikes forbidden and working hours extneded

Question 31

War Communism - Rationing

Answer 31

class-based system with labour force receiving the most rations

Question 32

War Communism - The red Terror

Answer 32

used to deal with opposition with the workers angry at economic plight and low food rations - 'down with Lenin and the horsemeat, give us the Tsar and Pork'

Question 33

The red Terror

Answer 33

began in the summer of 1918 after the assassination attempt in Lenin - Cheka established in December 1917

Question 34

Red terror - Death count

Answer 34

1918-1920 = nearly 13,000 with the victim being workers and peasants - Children made up 5% of prison populations in 1920

Question 35

Cheka

Answer 35

Based - Lubyanka in Moscow with a thousand members by June 1918 - Head of Cheka = Dzerzhinsky ( Iron Felix) who reported back to Lenin - very active in the countryside as Bolsheviks were at war with the Peasants

Question 36

Gulags

Answer 36

used to house workers and peasants who didn't comply with the rules - machinery of terror which were created under Lenin not Stalin - First was in in the white sea

Question 37

Life under war communism

Answer 37

- less than one third of the urban diet came from state rations with the rest coming from the black market - sold by 'Bag-men' - filled trains - Cigarette lighterism = factory workers made goods to trade for foods

Question 38

Stop Bag men

Answer 38

Cheka raided trains and markets however officials were easy to bribe

Question 39

Living conditions under war communism

Answer 39

- horses used as food - Civil war sausage - wages 2% of 1919 levels - 3000 houses stripped for wood in Petrograd - Worse for middle class who had to sell jewellery etc to get by - houses of the rich divided up amongst poor families - 3million former people fled abroad

Question 40

Bolshevik corruption

Answer 40

- lived well whilst may starved - 5000 lived in the best hotels - bribery rife

Question 41

Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921 - Problems with the economy

Answer 41

- transport system near collapse - industry ceased productions due to a shortage of materials - Famine in cities - 5million died from diseases such as Cholera

Question 42

Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921 - Threat from peasants

Answer 42

- Tambov rebellion - Peasant army led by Alexander Antonov and supported by the green army fought the red army for almost a year (1920-21) - Poor harvest in 1920

Question 43

Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921 - opposition from workers

Answer 43

- harsh winter 1920-21 = repeated strikes - Jan 1921, bread rationing cut by a third - factories were a 'tsarist prison camp'

Question 44

Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921 - Problems from Krondstadt

Answer 44

- usually support Bolsheviks (July days and October revolution) - March 1921 = the sailors mutinied against the Bolsheviks - many shot or sent to Gulag

Question 45

Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921 - Divisions in the party

Answer 45

- workers opposition group grew under Shlyopnikov and Kollontai

Question 46

Lenin's will and Testament

Answer 46

- died January 1924 - wanted his comrades to remove Stalin as he was Dangerous

Question 47

Stalin's response

Answer 47

- Stated Lenin DID want him to be his successor - preserved Lenin's body and put it on display