Establishment of Bolshevik Goverment Flashcards
What was Lenin’s ‘April Theses’
The demands he made to crowds in Petrograd
Power transferred to the Soviets
War ended immediately
Land redistributed to the peasants
What were Lenins slogan for 1917
‘Peace, bread and land’ and ‘All power to the Soviets’
What was the Bolshevik reaction to Lenin turning up in 1917
Some feared he had become out of touch, was in the pay of the germans, would undermine what the mensheviks had been doing and his calls for revolution were unrealistic as he only had 26,000 members
Who were the first two bolsheviks in the capital and who did they support
Stalin and Lev kamenev, they supported the provisional govt
How did lenin build support throughout 1917
He took credit for things that were already happening e.g. peasants seizing land(they kinda just did that when the tsar govt collapsed)
Who importantly fully threw their weight behind the bolshevik cause in mid 1917
Trotsky
Why did the July Days rioting take place
Grain prices had more than doubled and shortages caused nearly 600 factories to close
What was Lenins reaction to July Days
He fled, as he was held responsible for stirring up the masses, and the Bolsheviks were subject to strict measures
Why did the Kornilov Coup benefit the Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks were the only faction to oppose Kornilov from the start, and they started being elected in larger numbers
What was Bolshevik membership in oct 1917
200,000
Who urged Lenin that the time for revolution was not right
Zinoviev and Kamenev
Which key bolshevik became leader of the Petrograd soviet in septmeber 1917
Trotsky
What was the pretext for the Bolsheviks setting up a military revolutionary council
Kerensky sent the more radical units out of the city as he knew the bolsheviks wanted to seize power
How many people did Trotsky claim were involved in the october revolution at most
25 to 30 thousand
Who made a famous 1927 propaganda film about the storming of the winter palace
Sergei Eisenstein
Why did the Bolsheviks claim the number of people involved in the October revolution was larger than it actually was
It was important to them that they came into power by popular revolution
Why is the heroic lenin view of the 1917 revolution critiqued
Russia was already on the way to socialist takeover, Lenin just ensured it was a bolshevik one
Since he was absent for 1917, he mostly reacted and took credit for events, rather than driving for change himself
Oct revolution was closer to a coup than a true peoples revolution, Lenin staying in peotrograd reinforces this; it was just a small minority who overthrew the tsar
When the All Russain Congress of the Soviets was held after the revolution, who expressed disdain for the revolution
Mensheviks as a whole condemned it, and so did Zinoviev and Kamenev. The SRs were split.
Despite a majority of votes at the All Russain Congress of the Soviets being for a new socialist goverment, who did the majority of eecutive committee seats go to, and what was the response.
Bolsheviks and extreme left-wing SRs
The moderates walked out of the congress, leaving a left wing and bolshevik dominated Soviet. Trotsky told them they were a ‘pitiful bunch of Bankrupts’, that would soon be consigned to the ‘dustbin of history’
What did the executive committee establish as the new soviet goverment in 1917
Sovnarkom
What were Lenins first decrees in charge of Russia
Promised Peace, with an armistice established in November and demobilisation programs
Private land ownership was abolished and peasant seizures were legitimised, increasing peasant support for bolsheviks and buying them breathing room
Workers given control to supervise their won factories(backfired as workers did not work hard and did stuff like take conveyor belts to make shoes(shows shortages at that time))
Gender equality granted
Banks and Church land nationalised
How many days did it take the bolsheviks to convince the state bank to hand over its reserves
10 and only with the threat of armed intervention
Why was Lenin not overthrown pretty much immediately by Kerensky
He agreed to inter-party talks, many of Kerenskys troops were convinced to desert and defect, and workers and soldiers repulsed the rest from petrograd
Did lenin brook cooperation with other parties in 1917
No, the only other party allowed in Sovnarkom was left wing SRs and even then they were expressly told to follow the bolshevik lead. Lenin would accept no efforts to dilute his control.
