Conditions in the cities and countryside during the Civil War Flashcards
How did Russia begin to face an acute economic breakdown?
Industrial production fell.
Workers left the factories for the countryside and the Red Army.
Rampant inflation meant peasants reverted to subsistence farming.
Raw materials were in short supply, hindering production further.
How did peasants fare better than urban dwellers?
Peasants could sell horses and kill livestock at the start of the war. When these means ran out, they could scavenge for food and wood nearby.
Urban dwellers faced a shortage of basic necessities:
Some resorted to stripping their houses for wood
Bread rations in Petrograd were 50g per day
The foreign blockade of trade and loss of Ukraine meant less supplies in cities
In what ways did black markets proliferate?
Up to two-thirds of what was consumed in cities came from black markets.
Sackmen travelled into towns
Urban dwellers travelled into the countryside to barter
Why were ‘Cordon detachments’ ineffective in preventing illegal trading?
There was no alternative to the black markets
Many authorities also used black markets
Why did migration occur?
Workers left for villages and the Red Army in search of higher food rations
In what numbers did migration occur?
60% of the Petrograd workforce left by April 1918
From 1917-1919, the Urban proletariat fell from 3.6 to 1.4 million
How many died from disease and starvation during the Civil War?
Nearly 5 million
In what year did the typhus epidemic emerge, and how many deaths did it cause?
1921
3 million deaths
What exacerbated the problem caused by disease?
Soap and medical supplies were in short supply
Few doctors were left because they were dismissed as either bourgeois or used in the Red Army
What kind of atrocities were people subjected to?
Whole villages in the Ukraine were wiped out
Kiev changed hands 16 times
Jews suffered abominably from White Pograms
Looting, murder and rape were commonplace
