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History Russia > Civil war > Flashcards

Civil war Flashcards

1
Q

Key events of Civil war - 1918

A
  • 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
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2
Q

Key events if the Civil war - 1919

A
  • Sept - Allies evacuate Archangel
  • Yudenich is defeated - Denikin is pushed back
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3
Q

Key events in the civil war - 1920

A
  • 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
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4
Q

Key events in the Civil war - 1921

A

Treaty of Riga - peace between Poland and Soviet Russia

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5
Q

General Tukhachevsky

A

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

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6
Q

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

A
  • 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
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7
Q

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

A
  • 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
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8
Q

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

A
  • some believed the Bolsheviks couldn’t solve Russia socio-economic problems
  • Loss of Ukraine posed risk of food shortages etc
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9
Q

Czech legion provoking war

A

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

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10
Q

Kolchak in the East of Russia

A

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

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11
Q

Yudenich in the west of Russia

A

reached outskirts of Petrograd in October 1919

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12
Q

Denikin and Wrangel in the south of Russia

A

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

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13
Q

Makhno’s insurgent army

A

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

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14
Q

Summer 1918 - July

A

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

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15
Q

Summer 1918 - August

A

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

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16
Q

Trotsky during the Civil war

A

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

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17
Q

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

A
  • 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
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18
Q

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

A
  • Bolsheviks = united command structure
  • Trotsky organised red army effectively
  • white generals would not work together
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19
Q

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Leadership

A
  • Red army very disciplined whereas white army saw many soldiers deserted
20
Q

Why the Reds won and Why the Whites lost - Support

A
  • 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
21
Q

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

A

Foreign intervention used as propaganda against the whites by the Bolsheviks

22
Q

Lenin’s role during the civil war

A
  • concentrated on building and consolidating the Bolshevik state and took charge of day-to-day business in the Sovnarkom
23
Q

What happened to industry in the civil war

A

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

24
Q

What happened to land/food

A

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

25
Q

Problems facing Lenin

A

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

26
Q

Why did Lenin and the Bolsheviks introduce War Communism in 1918

A
  • 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
27
Q

War Communism - Grain requisitioning

A
  • 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
28
Q

War Communism - Banning of private trade

A

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

29
Q

War Communism - Nationalisation of industry

A

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

30
Q

War Communism - Labour Discipline

A

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

31
Q

War Communism - Rationing

A

class-based system with labour force receiving the most rations

32
Q

War Communism - The red Terror

A

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’

33
Q

The red Terror

A

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

34
Q

Red terror - Death count

A

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

35
Q

Cheka

A

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

36
Q

Gulags

A

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

37
Q

Life under war communism

A
  • 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
38
Q

Stop Bag men

A

Cheka raided trains and markets however officials were easy to bribe

39
Q

Living conditions under war communism

A
  • 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
40
Q

Bolshevik corruption

A
  • lived well whilst may starved - 5000 lived in the best hotels
  • bribery rife
41
Q

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

A
  • transport system near collapse
  • industry ceased productions due to a shortage of materials
  • Famine in cities - 5million died from diseases such as Cholera
42
Q

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

A
  • 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
43
Q

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

A
  • harsh winter 1920-21 = repeated strikes - Jan 1921, bread rationing cut by a third
  • factories were a ‘tsarist prison camp’
44
Q

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

A
  • usually support Bolsheviks (July days and October revolution)
  • March 1921 = the sailors mutinied against the Bolsheviks - many shot or sent to Gulag
45
Q

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

A
  • workers opposition group grew under Shlyopnikov and Kollontai
46
Q

Lenin’s will and Testament

A
  • died January 1924 - wanted his comrades to remove Stalin as he was Dangerous
47
Q

Stalin’s response

A
  • Stated Lenin DID want him to be his successor
  • preserved Lenin’s body and put it on display

History Russia (9 decks)

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