Consolidate power

Question 1

Cheka

Answer 1

• Created under the direction of Felix Dzerzhinsky
• Answerable only to Lenin
• Granted unlimited powers of arrest, detention and torture
  -Main instrument used by Lenin to terrorise the Russian people into subservience and conformity

Question 2

Labour camps

Answer 2

• Dzerhinksy set up forced labour camps
• 315 at the time of Lenin’s death
• Held White prisoners of war, uncooperative peasants and political prisoners such as SR’s who were a threat to Soviet sovereignty
• Regime of the camps was harsh, severe hunger and beatings

Question 3

Trade unions crushed

Answer 3

• Trotsky used his powers to end the independence of the trade unions
• Early 1920 - workers were brought under military discipline on the same terms as the soldiers

Question 4

Restrictions put into place - trade unions

Answer 4

• A total ban was placed on the questioning of orders and instructions
• Rates of pay or conditions were no longer negotiable
• Severe penalties were imposed for poor workmanship or not meeting production targets

Question 5

Organisation of the red army

Answer 5

• Trotsky supervised the development of a new fighting force in Russia
• Within 2 years turned unpromising collection of Red Guard veterans and recruits into a formidable army of 3million men
• Tolerated no opposition, death penalty for desertion or disloyalty

Question 6

Homo Sovieticus

Answer 6

• Bolsheviks claimed that their proletariat revolution liberated people from the weaknesses that tainted all previous societies - moulded into new species
• Trotsky - aim of communist state was to produce a ‘improved version of man’

Question 7

Treaty of brest litvosk

Answer 7

• Ceasefire between Russia and Germany
• Ends Russia’s participation in the war
• Price of Germany ending the war was high - resulted in the loss of Finland, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine, areas which contained 26% of Russia’s population
• 27% of its arable land
• 74% of its coal and iron ore