Early Consolidation Of Power 1917-18

Question 1

What was the sovnarkom and when was it setup?

Answer 1

Its short for council of people’s commissar, and was set up in november 1917

Question 2

Whi controlled most of russia after the revolution and what was the issue with this?

Answer 2

Soviets joined in with the bolsheviks took take control of towns and cities but not all soviets supported the bolsheviks, some supported the socialist Revolutionaries. So in the upcoming comstituent assembly Lenin feared that the SRs would win more votes

Question 3

Why did lenin issue decrees?

Answer 3

To keep his promosis in the april thesis

Question 4

What did the november decree state?

Answer 4

decree on land- land from UC to peasants
decree on unemployment insuramce - insurance for ill
decree on peace - peace with russian opponents
decree on work - 8 hour a day
decree on titles - all titles abolished, men and women are equal
decree on the press - non-bolshevik papers banned

Question 5

What did the december decree state?

Answer 5

Decree on workers - factories under elected commitees of workers
Decree to set up the political police - cheka
Decree on banking - all banks under sovnarkom rule
Decree on marriage - coupled could have non-religious weddings and divorces

Question 6

What happened at the constituent assembke in November 1917?

Answer 6

SRs got majority of the seats in the assembly

Lenin worried as bolsheviks only got a quarter of votes and were mostly from the working class

Question 7

What did lenin do as a result of getting such few seats?

Answer 7

He wrote sn article for the pravda saying that because there were soviets in russia, there no need for the Constitutent assembly

Question 8

What happened at the constituent assembly 18th jan 1918?

Answer 8

Proposed that power of the assembly is to be limited. But this was rejected so lenin dissolved the assembly.
red guard killed more than 100 people who demostrated outside the tauride palace in support of the assmeb,y

Question 9

What happened to the Tsar and his family from 1917-18?

Answer 9

After the abdiaction the family lived int he royal palace Tsaroye selo which was close to petrograd, PG was afraid they may e attacked so moved them to Tobolsk in siberia
April 1918, the white armies gained control of siberia in the civil war, so bolsheviks moved Tsar and family to ekaterinburg in th eural mountains. They were imrpisoned in a huge white house

Question 10

What are the reasons for exucuting the royal family?

Answer 10

The czech legion was surrounding the city. The bolsheviks only had a few hundered red guards which was not enough to safely evacuate the family
If the white got a hold of the family they would have too much leverage over the bolsheviks so executing the family was the only way.

Question 11

What were the events of the execution?

Answer 11

4th july - local cheka led by yakov yurovsky took responsiblity for executing family
2 am 17th july - family was told to go hide in the basement for safety, but instead they were murdders by yurovsky and his team
There bodies were driven out in a lorry, they were burried and sulfuric caid was thrown on their faces to hide their identity
The murder was a decleration of terror

Question 12

When was the treaty of brest-livosk signed and why?

Answer 12

In March 1918, signed with germany to formally end russian involvment in the first world war

Question 13

Reasons for the treaty?

Answer 13

• lenin opposed war from the beggning - him not agreeing with war was the reason he gained publicity, feared he would lose support from the army
• sovnarkom issued a decree of peace in november to show intention to end war
• peace talks with germany began on 3rd december 1917, and were held at best-livosk near the german border

Question 14

Terms of the treaty?

Answer 14

• russia had to surrender huge tracts of land from the baltic sea to the baltic
• russis had to pay reperations amounting 3 billion roubles

Question 15

What were the people of Russia’s reactions to the treaty of brestlivosk

Answer 15

Patriotic russiand were horriefied by the terms of the agreement
This encouraged people to join anti bolshevik groups
They didnt like…
the way lenin and trotsky were prepared to sacrifice national interest to secure peace at any price
The amount of reperations
The amount of population and land lost
The dictated nature of the treaty
He was critised for accepting the treaty
Bukharin saw it as shameful
Hwoeer lenn won the debate about the treate on the central commitee

Question 16

Significance of the treaty?

Answer 16

Lenins decision to make peace was a huge gamble because it relied on germany loosing - his gamble paid off
The defeat of germany meant the treaty had no legaloty - however signing the treaty gave lenin and his gov beathing time
With US troops on the western front and failure of german spring offensive war in europewas over in autumn 1918, and the treaty became meaningless