Government from 1917-1924 (Lenin) Flashcards
What is the Sovnarkom?
The Sovnarkom was the government in Russia, it means the Council of People’s Commissars. This was meant to oversea the running of the government.
What was Lenin’s ideology?
Lenin wanted to replace capitalism with socialism. Lenin was a marxists and believed history progressed through a series of stages and would end with the proletarian overthrowing the bourgeoisie in a violent revolution. Lenin also believed that socialism could only be built in an advanced industrial economy.
The October Revolution
In October 1917, Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets. The October Revolution formally handed power to the Al-Russian Congress of Soviets, which met in Petrograd in October 1917. The congress created Sovnarkom, a new government to replace the Provisional Government. Lenin was elected as the first head of government.
What are some of the influential decrees passed in the early months of Bolshevik rule?
Decree on Land (October) - This gave peasants the right to seize land from the nobility and the Church.
Decree on Peace - Which committed the new government to withdrawing from WWI
Worker’s Decree (November) - Established an eight-hour maximum working day and a minimum wage. Gave power to the workers.
The Russian Civil War, Key facts, which army is what ect?.
The Russian Civil War allowed Lenin to establish Communist control over the whole of Russia. It radically changed the nature of the Communist Government; it led to the emergence of authoritarian, centralised and bureaucratic regime.
The Red Army - Communist forces
The White Army - Liberals, Tsarists or those who wanted to establish a military dictatorship.
The ‘Greens’ - associated with the peasants and the left social revolutionaries (SRs) or anarchist groups. They fought for the autonomy of local groups of peasants.
Political centralisation under the Civil War
Centralisation of power was Lenin’s key method to ensuring victory. During the Civil War, power moved from the Sovnarkom, which was technically accountable to the soviets, to the Politburo - the most powerful committee of the highly centralised Communist Party. The Party had to become centralised to win the war and operate effectively and this method of retaining power just increased massively.
Bureaucracy in the early years of Governance
The Civil War created another aspect of the Communist Government which manifested much further in the future. the new government became increasingly bureaucratic as it relied on the administrators to run the economy and the army during the war. The Communist, Nomenklatura dominated government. Educated members of the former middle class, economists, statisticians and engineers ran the government.
Authoritarianism under Lenin
Lenin and the Communists had promised a democratic regime, but after the use of terror and oppression it was clear that this would not be the case. In February 1921 Lenin went further and authorised the creation of the Cheka to destroy remaining opposition political parties. This highlights the foundations of authoritarianism in the Soviet government.
The 1921 Party Congress, what did it address and put forth
The Party Congress needed to address the problems created by Civil War such as War Communism which led to a famine and the Red Terror. Lenin stated that he was going to replace War Communism with the New Economic Programme
What were the uprisings/rebellions/strikes which led to the 1921 Party Congress
The Tambov Uprising - 1920 peasants in the Tamboc rebelled against War Communism and the brutality of the Cheka. By 1921 a rebel force of 50,000 was fighting the Communists
The Kronstadt Mutiny - Sailors in the Kronstadt naval base rebelled against Communist brutality. The mutineers demanded an end to War Communism and a restoration of democracy.
Strikes - In early 1921 there was a wave of strikes across Russia’s main cities. In Petrograd the Red Army responded by firing on the workers
The ban on factions in 1921
At the Party Congress Lenin banned factions, this was because he faced opposition from two separate factions,
- The workers opposition wanted to reintroduce workers’ control of industry
- The Democratic Centralists wanted more democracy
Lenin introduced a resolution, ‘One Party Unity’ which banned factions.
Lenin’s Legacy
Lenin dudes in 1924 and left a highly authoritarian political legacy. Lenin had succeeded in creating a dictatorship of the proletariat to defend revolution. He had destroyed soviet democracy and replaced it with a one-party state.
The decline of the Sovnarkom
Lenin did not abolish the Sovnarkom but instead made its function an empty formality. Rather than it being the centre of government, it became useless as the Politburo is where all decisions were now made. From 1920 the Politburo effectively became the government of Russia.
The ‘party-state’
By 1921, the government was based on two parallel structures: the Communist Party, and the Soviet State. From 1921 official oppositions parties were banned and the Communist Party consequently came to dominate the Soviets, creating a new form of government known as the ‘party-state’.
A new elite under Lenin
In 1918 the Communist Party was a group of workers and revolutionaries, because of the Civil War, by 1921 the Party was dominated by administration from the former middle class. The Party used its power to ensure that the members got better food and accommodation. By the 1920’s it was clear that the Party was becoming a privileged elite, not ruling on the workers behalf.
