Government And Control During Wartime Flashcards
1
-the civil war increased centralisation of power and greater party control of the government
- the bolsheviks has originally formed as a group of ‘disciplined revolutionaries’ spearheading revolution, and trotsky and Lenin continued to maintain this approach
-the centralisation of power was established early in the civil war when Moscow replaced petrograd and capital, partly because petrograd was closer to russias western frontier and more vulnerable to attack than moscow.
-also a symbolic change from a city that has been built to open Russia up to the western world to a regime which believed itself superior to that world
-from moscow a military style of government with constant ‘battles’
2
-over 1/2 a million party members fought for the red army in the civil war. They became used to obeying orders and acting with whatever force necessary.
-for government to function effectively the soviets bureaucracy grew enormously during these years to the point were officials outnumbered workers 2 to 1 this extension of government created a ‘dictatorship of the bureaucracy’
- the party structure appeared quie democratic. It was based on annual Congress, elected by mass membership but actual policies and descions were made by the party’s central committee
3
-1919 another body was created and this became te real centre for party policy called te politburo, its first elected members included Lenin, trotsky and stalin. As politburo members were often also key gov officials the sovnarkom gradually met less frequently in the 1920s
-although Lenin spoke of democratic centralisation the hold of the one-party state was therefore tightened
4
-between 1918 and 1921 the impact of fighting a civil war associated with the new communist state more firmly with reppression and terror. The demand for obedience for the new party tightened , new central controls were brought in to manage the economy and deal with food shortages. Terror was used to eradicate the oposition
5
-the bolsheviks adopted a seige mentality as they faced internal and external enemies bent on their destruction-this mentality never left the party even when war was over
-as a result of the civil war areas conquered by the red army either became apart of the russian soviet federal socialist Republic or allowed to remain as seperate soviet republics such as Ukraine, Georgia and Belarussia
-stalin disagreeded with Lenin and wanted them directly controlled by Moscow . Lenin wanted ussr
