History Flashcards 4
“The Russian people have been deceived and mocked by the Bolsheviks. The Constituent Assembly is the only authority elected by the whole people.”
Menshevik leader Martov denouncing the dissolution of the Assembly.
You are pitiful, isolated individuals. You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong - into the dustbin of history!”
Bolshevik leader Trotsky addressing the dispersed Assembly deputies.
“Merciless war must be waged against the peasants who hoard grain…Comrades, you must confiscate all grain surpluses from the kulaks.”
Lenin’s instructions on grain requisitioning.
“The confiscation of surplus grain stocks has been carried out with insane cruelty worthy of the barbaric Middle Ages.”
- Eyewitness account of War Communism policies
“The N.E.P. is not a mere economic policy, it is a new political orientation.”
Lenin explaining the broader implications of the NEP.
“The N.E.P. is a respite, a breathing space, a slowing down of the machine in order to gather strength for a new onslaught on capitalism.”
Trotsky on the temporary nature of the NEP.
There is no place for bourgeois sentimentality. We have to execute not only the guilty, but from the very first day, anyone who baulks.”
Cheka founder Dzerzhinsky on ruthless repression.
“The struggle with the counter-revolution is a struggle unto death, a struggle to the utter extermination of the enemy.”
Bolshevik slogan during the Civil War.
“The Red Terror became a part of the Bolshevik policy during the Civil War.”
Historian Richard Pipes on the origins of the Red Terror.
“The workers and peasants have been deceived by the Bolsheviks. The Kronstadt revolt has ripped off the mask.”
From the rebels’ manifesto in 1921
“Kronstadt was the first entirely proletarian revolt against the ruling Communist Party.”
Historian Paul Avrich on the significance of the rebellion.
“The White Terror was a response to the Red Terror, but it was far more cruel and indiscriminate.”
Historian W. Bruce Lincoln
“Hang (as many as you can) in order to kill the bourgeois spirit.”
Instruction from Bolshevik leader Dzerzhinsky.
