Establishment of a 1 Party State

Question 1

what was ‘on party unity’?

Answer 1

ban on formation of factions - everyone has to do what the leader says

Question 2

growth in party membership stat

Answer 2

300,000 (1917) to 730,000 (1921)

Question 3

what did growth in party membership cause & what did they do to prevent this?

Answer 3

• a threat to party stability
• introduced the nomenklatura system = drawing up lists of approved party members suitable for certain jobs from which appointments could be made

Question 4

terror

Answer 4

the CHEKA = based in lubyanka building - arrests planned & prisoners tortured, executions without official courts

Question 5

chistkas

Answer 5

• ‘cleansing’ of the party
• 1918 & 20 = killed 1/3 of the party

Question 6

structure of the soviet government beginning with the highest bit

Answer 6

• sovnarkom = council of peoples commissars, elected by…
• central executive committee = oversaw law making process & co-ordinated gov administration
• all russian congress of soviets = supreme law making body elected by local soviets

Question 7

structure of the communist party starting with the highest bit

Answer 7

• politburo = key decision making
• central committee = a large number which became useless
• party congress = representatives of local party branches

Question 8

what was the new constitution & when?

Answer 8

1924
- forming of the USSR
- created a federal state made of lots of mini-states but in reality each of the party bodies were strictly controlled by the central party structure
- the states weren’t actually governing themselves
- 90% of USSR was Russia
- 3/4 of the party were russian

Question 9

how did location help the bolsheviks win the civil war?

Answer 9

• their area was small = easier communication, less maintenance, good transport
• whites had a massive area = communication took ages, hard to plan attacks, mostly trees & tundra, lack of transport

Question 10

how did leadership help the bolsheviks win the civil war?

Answer 10

• trotsky made the red army into an effective fighting machine
• politburo was decisive with everyone wanting the same thing
• whites = disorientated, drunk, wanted different things

Question 11

how did foreign aid help the bolsheviks win the civil war?

Answer 11

• whites had aid from western powers but it wasn’t helpful
• lenin used this foreign aid as propaganda to say that the whites were ‘puppets’ of the west

Question 12

how did support help the bolsheviks win the civil war?

Answer 12

• workers saw them as the best guarantors of their gains from the revolution
• whites wanted the old regime which was rubbish for the workers

Question 13

impact of the civil war

Answer 13

government becomes much more highly centralised so decision making is carried out by the leader & the politburo

Question 14

how did the bolsheviks deal with opposition from other left wing parties?

Answer 14

SRs & Mensheviks (marxist)
- lenin dissolved constituent assembly
- first 3 months of 1921 = 5000 mensheviks arrested
- restrictions meant they struggled to publish their newspapers
- sent to the ‘dustbin of history’

Question 15

how did the bolsheviks deal with other political opponents?

Answer 15

• removal of vote from ‘bourgeois classes’ like employers & priests
• liberals & monarchists were removed from jobs, killed etc

Question 16

what ended involvement in WW1 & when?

Answer 16

TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK 1918
- provided a spur to those who wanted to fight the Bs as it offered foreign help
- strain on economy –> lower living standard –> increased chance of civil war
- lost control of baltic states, ukraine & finland
- pulled out of war to focus on internal enemies - eg civil wars

Question 17

what was democratic centralism?

Answer 17

• claimed the gov was based on it = soviets used as bodies which represented workers locally
• concerns could be passed to them & then decision making could happen in the higher bodies

Question 18

what was the reality of democratic centralism?

Answer 18

• wasn’t actually democratic
• soviets were instead dominated by the Bs & undermined
• local gov soviets firmly controlled by local party bosses
• this turned representative bodies into people who simply carried out orders given by the state