Consolidation of Bolshevik Power

Question 1

Key chronology of Bolshevik consolidation

Answer 1

Jan 1918 - Constituent Assembly meets and is dispersed; Decree on workers; control of the railways; creation of the Red Army; Separation of Church and State

Feb - Decree of nationalisation of industry

March - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; Bolsheviks became the Communist Party

July - Constitution of Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic adopted

Question 2

What did historian John Reed say about the reason behind Bolshevik success in the OctRev?

Answer 2

‘The only reason for Bolshevik success lay in their accomplishing the vast and simple desires of the most profound strata of the people’

Question 3

What did Lenin consider to be the first step to true socialism and what was the necessary by-product of this?

Answer 3

A ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ was, according to Marxist theory, the first step to true socialism and this would require the active repression of counter-revolutionary elements.

Question 4

What did Lenin argue in his book ‘State and Revolution’?

Answer 4

‘Revolutionary morality’ justified strong action (i.e. the removal of political opponents)

Question 5

When did Lenin permit Constituent Assembly elections to go ahead?

Answer 5

November 1917

Question 6

How many votes were cast in the Constituent Assembly elections?

Answer 6

Over 41 million

Question 7

What % of the vote did the Bolsheviks win?

Answer 7

24% (175 seats)

Question 8

What % of the vote did the Socialist Revolutionaries win?

Answer 8

53% (410 seats)

Question 9

How do some historians justify the Bolshevik losses in the election?

Answer 9

The election was held in a crisis situation and it is likely that those who lived outside of Moscow and Petrograd knew little about the Bolsheviks and what was going on in the capital.

Question 10

What did Lenin declare after the election?

Answer 10

‘We must not be deceived by the election figures. Elections prove nothing.’

Question 11

When did the Constituent Assembly meet for the first (and only) time?

Answer 11

5th January 1918

Question 12

Which party had already been banned ahead of the first Constituent Assembly meeting?

Answer 12

The Kadets (who had won 17 seats), because they expressed approval for Alexei Kaledin, a Cossack general who had begun a counter-revolutionary rebellion in the Don region.

Question 13

Who did the Bolsheviks want to chair the meeting?

Answer 13

Left-wing Social Revolutionary Maria Spiridonova

Question 14

Who did the SRs chose as chairman?

Answer 14

Viktor Chernov (right-wing)

Question 15

What happened to the Constituent Assembly almost immediately?

Answer 15

It was forcibly closed

Question 16

What did some civilians do after the Constituent Assembly was disbanded?

Answer 16

Some civilians demonstrated against this action, but were fired on and 12 were killed.

Question 17

How might Lenin justify the disbandment of the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 17

In ‘State and Revolution’, he wrote of the need for a strong party to provide for the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’

Question 18

What did Lenin say about the Constituent Assembly in 1919?

Answer 18

‘The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly means the complete and open repudiation of democracy in favour of dictatorship. This will be a valuable lesson’

Question 19

What did Trotsky refer to the Constituent Assembly as?

Answer 19

‘The cumbersome mechanism’

Question 20

What did Rosa Luxemburg (German socialist) say about the Bolshevik’s treatment of democracy?

Answer 20

‘The remedy which Trotsky and Lenin have found, the elimination of democracy as such, is worse than the disease it is supposed to cure’

Shows concerns of foreign socialists about Lenin’s actions

Question 21

Who lost the right to vote in July 1918?

Answer 21

The bourgeoisie - including employers, priests and anyone regarded as middle class.

Question 22

When were all other political parties banned?

Answer 22

1921

Question 23

What were the differences in opinion between Lenin and Trotsky about making peace with the Germans?

Answer 23

Trotsky - hated the idea of making a peace that involved harsh terms for Russia

Lenin - less concerned on ideological (thought that the revolution would soon engulf Germany and thus the peace agreement would be temporary) and practical grounds (knew a compromise with the enemy would be the only way forward)

Question 24

When had Trotsky signed an armistice with the Germans?

Answer 24

December 1917

Question 25

How did Bukharin divide the Bolsheviks over the issue of peace with Germany?

Answer 25

Led the ‘revolutionary war group’ of those who believed that Russia should fight on

Question 26

When was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed?

Answer 26

3rd March 1918

Question 27

What territories did Russia lose in the Treaty?

Answer 27

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bessarabia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine

Question 28

How much of Russia’s population was lost because of the Treaty?

Answer 28

1/6 of the Russian population (62 million people)

Question 29

How much land did Russia lose in the Treaty?

Answer 29

2 million square kilometres (including the area that produced almost a third of Russia’s agricultural produce)

Question 30

How much of Russia’s railway lines were lost in the Treaty?

Answer 30

26%

Question 31

How much of Russia’s iron ore and coal supplies were lost?

Answer 31

74%

Question 32

How much money did Russia have to pay Germany in reparations?

Answer 32

3 billion roubles

Question 33

What did Lenin say about the Treaty of B-L?

Answer 33

It was a ‘robber peace’, but Russia had to accept the ‘naked truth’.

Question 34

Who on the Central Committee eventually supported Lenin about passing the treaty?

Answer 34

Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev

Question 35

Who voted against the peace?

Answer 35

Bukharin, Kamenev and Dzerzhinsky

Question 36

By how many votes did the treaty pass?

Answer 36

Only by a majority of one (even after Lenin had threatened twice to resign)

Question 37

How did the Treaty of B-L confirm that Russia would be a one-party state?

Answer 37

The left-wing Social Revolutionaries walked out of Sovnarkom in protest

Question 38

When did the Bolsheviks adopt the title of the ‘Communist party’?

Answer 38

March 1918

Question 39

How did the Bolsheviks remove the appeal of the Social Revolutionaries?

Answer 39

Enacted the ‘socialisation of land’, which had long been the major appeal of the SRs.

Question 40

When was the first Soviet Constitution proclaimed?

Answer 40

July 1918

Question 41

What did the 1918 Constitution declare?

Answer 41

Power rested with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the central committee of that congress was to be the ‘supreme organ of power’. The congress was also made responsible for electing Sovnarkom.

Question 42

What were the limitations of the constitution?

Answer 42

The vote was reserved for the ‘toiling masses’ - members of the former ‘exploiting classes’ (e.g. businessmen, clergy and tsarist officials) were excluded from voting or holding public office

The workers’ vote was weighted in the proportion of five to one against that of the peasants in elections to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets

The Congress was only to meet at intervals - so executive authority rested in the hands of the Sovnarkom

Question 43

When was the USSR officially established?

Answer 43

End of 1922

Question 44

Evidence of atrocities during the Red Terror

Answer 44

During the Red Terror (September 1918 to February 1919) between 50,000 and 140,000 people were executed and concentration camps were established on the Solovetsky islands.