Consolidation of power

Question 1

Constituent assembly

Answer 1

November 1917 - Socialist revolutionaries won with 410 seats with the Bolsheviks only winning 175 seats - this was the first free election in centuries - only lasted 8 hours after Lenin declared it to be a Bourgeoise constituent assembly

Question 2

Opposition political parties

Answer 2

The Kadet party was denounced and outlawed

Question 3

Opposition press

Answer 3

The Bolshevik Party invested heavily in their newspapers etc

Question 4

Cheka

Answer 4

set up on 7th December and used by Lenin as main instrument of terror

Question 5

Legal system

Answer 5

Abolished and replaced by a revolutionary justice = violent

Question 6

Treatment of burzhui

Answer 6

anyone accused of being burzhui was liable to be arrested - socialist press presented the middle classes as ‘enemies of the people

Question 7

Civil service

Answer 7

civil service was purged and Junior officials who supported the Bolsheviks were promoted

Question 8

Socialist coalition

Answer 8

few leading Bolsheviks including Kamenev and Zinoviev were in favour of a socialist coalition - believed an isolated Bolshevik party would rely on terror and would almost certainly be destroyed by the civil war

Question 9

Brest - Livtosk

Answer 9

Timeline
- 26th October 1917 - Decree on peace
- January 1918 - unless a separate peace is signed with Russia and Germany, then Germay will invade - Lenin tells Sovnarkom they must sign this treaty
- March 1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed - Lenin refused to go and sent Chicherin in his place

Question 10

Why did Lenin want an end to the war - IDEAOLOGIAL REASONS

Answer 10

• Russian army weak
• Decree of peace signing - “no annexations, no indemnities”
• believed a stop to fighting would lead to a communist revolution in Germany

Question 11

Why did Lenin want an end to the war - PRACTICAL REASONS

Answer 11

• Once Germans got into Ukraine Lenin believed they would be able to get into Petrograd
• Lenin believed it to be a bourgeoise war
• Lenin’s regime couldn’t survive without peace - “ Germany is only pregnant with revolution and we have already given birth to a healthy child”

Question 12

Who supported Lenin

Answer 12

Stalin who argued ‘there is no other way out: either we obtain a breathing or else it’s the death of the revolution’

Question 13

Who opposed signing a peace treaty

Answer 13

• Bukharin and left wanted to turn war inro a revolutionary war
• Trotsky - held negotiations up for as long as possible hoping a communist revolution would break out in Germany and Austria

Question 14

Trotsky’s role in peace negotiations

Answer 14

Was commissar for foreign affairs until Feb 1918 when he became commissar for war

Question 15

Consequences of the treaty of Brest Litovsk

Answer 15

• seen as shameful peace throughout Russia with Lenin agreeing it was a ‘robbers peace.’
• made civil war almost inevitable with a huge loss of resources = encouraged people to join anti-Bolshevik forces

Question 16

What did the left SRs want to do

Answer 16

a revolutionary war and resigned from the Sovnarkom in protest

Question 17

When was the treaty of Brest Litovsk signed

Answer 17

at the seventeenth party congress - March 1918

Question 18

Consequences

Answer 18

Left communists faded and a split in the party was prevented - ‘never again would Lenin be so deeply challenged.’

Question 19

Short-term consequences of Brest Litovsk

Answer 19

• Russia lost territorial claims in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine
• Seat of government moved from Petrograd to Moscow as Lenin worried of a German attack

Question 20

Long term effects of the treaty of Brest- Litovsk

Answer 20

• Germany had plans to still attack Russia
• Only lasted 8 and a half months
• Power vacuum left in the areas where Germany withdrew their forces