History Flashcards 4 Reverse
“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.
Bolshevik leader Trotsky addressing the dispersed Assembly deputies.
“You are pitiful, isolated individuals. You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong - into the dustbin of history!”
Lenin’s instructions on grain requisitioning.
“Merciless war must be waged against the peasants who hoard grain…Comrades, you must confiscate all grain surpluses from the kulaks.”
Eyewitness account of War Communism policies.
“The confiscation of surplus grain stocks has been carried out with insane cruelty worthy of the barbaric Middle Ages.”
Lenin explaining the broader implications of the NEP.
“The N.E.P. is not a mere economic policy, it is a new political orientation.”
“Kronstadt was the first entirely proletarian revolt against the ruling Communist Party.”
Historian Paul Avrich on the significance of the rebellion.
From the rebels’ manifesto in 1921.
“The workers and peasants have been deceived by the Bolsheviks. The Kronstadt revolt has ripped off the mask.”
Historian Evan Mawdsley on the White forces’ atrocities.
“The White Terror was a policy of deliberate brutality and mass murder.”
Instruction from Bolshevik leader Dzerzhinsky.
“Hang (as many as you can) in order to kill the bourgeois spirit.”
“Comrades! Crush the kulak uprising with massive terror!”
Order from the Bolshevik government in 1918.
Historian Richard Pipes on the origins of the Red Terror.
“The Red Terror became a part of the Bolshevik policy during the Civil War.”
Bolshevik slogan during the Civil War.
“The struggle with the counter-revolution is a struggle unto death, a struggle to the utter extermination of the enemy.”
Cheka founder Dzerzhinsky on ruthless repression.
“There is no place for bourgeois sentimentality. We have to execute not only the guilty, but from the very first day, anyone who baulks.”
