Establishing Communist Party Control 1917-24

Question 1

How many revolutions did Russia have in 1917?

Answer 1

Two

February Revolution— downfall of Tsar

October Revolution— creation of radical new communist government, Lenin

Question 2

What did the Communist promise of their government?

What was the reality of their government by 1922?

Answer 2

A radical democratic government: workers, soldiers and peasants governed themselves through Soviets

A Communist dictatorship: one-party state

Question 3

What was Lenin’s ideology?

Answer 3

Seized power to replace capitalism with socialism (a new social system, allow all people to be genuinely free and equal)

A Marxist— history progressed through a series of stages:
• Russian economy was only beginning to industrialise
YET
• Socialism could only be built in an advanced industrial economy

Question 4

What happened in October 1917?

Answer 4

Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets

Handed power, formally, to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (met in Petrograd that month)— the Congress:
• created SOVNARKOM— new government to replace the Provisional Government
• elected Lenin as the first head of the new government

Question 5

Lenin’s first government passed a series of decrees.

Were they popular?

What did they include?

Answer 5

YES- genuinely

• the Decree on Land: gave peasants the right to seize land from nobility/the church
• the Decree of Peace, committed the new government to withdrawing from WWI and seeking peace

• Workers’ Decrees (November 1917) established:
— 8-hour maximum working day
— minimum wage

Question 6

How much power did Sovnarkom have for the first few months?

What made this change?

Answer 6

Little real power outside Petrograd and Moscow

The Russian Civil War: it allowed Lenin to establish control over the whole of Russia

Question 7

How did the Civil War change the nature of the Communist government?

Answer 7

Radically: led to the emergence of a regime that was—

• authoritarian
• centralised
• bureaucratic

Question 8

Tell me about the Russian Civil War

Answer 8

Mid-1918 to Early-1921
Ended in Communist victory
Number of different groups fighting:

• REDS: Communist forces
• WHITES: liberals, Tsarists, military dictatorship
• “GREENS”: associated with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchist groups. Fought for the autonomy of local groups of peasants.

Question 9

What happened to the government during the civil war?

Political Centralisation

Answer 9

POLITICAL CENTRALISATION:
• Lenin’s prime method of ensuring victory.
• Power passed from the Sovnarkom (technically accountable to the Soviets) to the Politburo
^^^^^^^^^ (the most powerful committee of the highly centralised Communist Party)

Question 10

What happened to the government during the civil war?

Bureaucracy

Answer 10

Became increasingly bureaucratic

Relied on the skills of administrators to run the economy & army during the Civil War
^^^^
The Communist nomenklatura who dominated the government were EDUCATED members of the FORMER MIDDLE CLASS: economists, statisticians, engineers who had worked for the Tsar’s gov

Question 11

What happened to the government during the Civil War?

Authoritarianism

Answer 11

Lenin and the Communists PROMISED a radically democratic regime

YET

Used terror and repression against their opponents
^^^^^^^^^^^ Feb 1921: Lenin authorised the Cheka to destroy the remaining opposition parties

Question 12

What did Lenin argue about democracy and the civil war?

Answer 12

The nature of the communist party changed radically during the civil war.

Lenin constantly argued: the abolition of democracy was a temporary measure to win the Civil War
BUT
After the Communists won: Lenin introduced a series of measures that RESTRICTED DEMOCRACY FURTHER!!!