Conditions in cities and countryside during the Civil War Flashcards
During the civil war why did industrial production fall? (3)
- disrupted communications causing lack of raw materials
- workers taken to serve army
- non-essential businesses were closed
besides a decline in industrial production, what else contributed to inflation?
peasants with surplus produce were not prepared to sell it to the city
Since money was worthless, what did peasants revert back to doing?
reverted back to subsistence farming, catering just for themselves
How did some peasants do quite well in the early years of the war? (2)
- sold horses for military use
- maintained reasonable diet by killing livestock
What did those in the city have to resort to doing for warmth?
they had to strip their own houses of wood for the winter
What was Russia’s former main provider of grain?
Ukraine
by early 1918 what was the bread ration in Petrograd?
50 grammes per person per day
What fraction of food consumed in the cities came from the back market?
2/3rds
What did urban inhabitants sometimes do?
would go to the nearby countryside to barter goods for produce
Who were sackmen?
these were peasants with sacks of goods to sell
What did peasant sackmen do?
they would go into towns and try to make a little from undercover trading
Who were both sellers and purchases of the black market hounded by?
‘cordon detachments’ of special army units to prevent such illegal activities
When were ‘cordon detachments’ of special army units to prevent illegal activities set up?
1918
desperate for food, who left the cities ?
a good number of workers
Where did the workers who left the cities go to get higher rations? (2)
- villages
- Red Army
According to historian Beryl Williams, what percentage of the Petrograd workforce had left the city by April 1918?
60%
Which historian claimed that 60% of the Petrograd workforce had left the city by April 1918?
Beryl Williams
Between January 1917 and January 1919 how much did Russia’s urban proletarian workforce decline by?
3.6 million to 1.4 million
How did c5 million people die during the civil war? (2)
due to starvation and diseases
Which diseases did people die from during the civil war most commonly? (4)
Typhus, typhoid, cholera, dysentry
How many people died in 1920 due to a typhus epidemic
3 million
Why was there a few doctors to attend to the ill?
- due to the assault on the bourgeoisie
- those left were conscripted to practise on the front line
Why did the nobility and bourgeoisie fared the worst?
they were given no ration cards and so were reduced to begging or selling what few possessions they had
What were the former nobility and bourgeoisie sent to do? (2)
either
- manual tasks of sweeping the streets
- sent to labor battalions on the war fronts
What happened to the large houses and palaces owned by former nobility?
they were divided up by Bolshevik building committees and the former occupants were rescued to occupying one small areas as flats were created in proportion to family size
Why were whole villages in the Ukraine wiped out during the civil war?
due to Cossack attacks
How many times did Kiev change hands?
16 times
What were White pogroms?
an organised massacre of Jews
