Individuals

Question 1

Lenin

Answer 1

• 1917: Early Decrees
• Dissolved the Constituent Assembly
• State Capitalism, War Communism, New Economic Policy
• Red Terror
• Hanging Order
• March 1921: Decree on Factions
• Astute, decisive, pragmatic and authoritarian

Question 2

Trotsky

Answer 2

• Nov 1917: people’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• March 1918: Commissar of War
• Crushed the Kronstadt Rebellion
• Failed to use Testament against Stalin
• Under trotsky, Red Army recruited 5 million men 1920
• Kept families of former Tsarist Generals serving in the Red Army as hostages to ensure compliance
• Reason for Bols. victory in Civil War

Question 3

Dzerhinksy

Answer 3

• Member of the Milrevcom; head of security at Bols. headquarters prior to rev
• Head of the Cheka
• Known as ‘Iron Felix’
• May 1922: Lenin directs Dzerzhinsky to target intellectuals
• Any hint in counter-revolution in writing, art, etc. led to imprisonment or exile
• Many fled in fear of persecution
• Head of the NKVD (The People’s Commissariat of the Interior) responsible for internal security

Question 4

Kollontai

Answer 4

• Commissar of Social Welfare in Sovnarkom (27 Oct 1918)
• Believed gender equality were fundamental to a Communist society
• 1919: Zhenotdel created
• 1920: takes over as leader
• Communal kitchens and laundries to liberate women from housework
• Improve women’s literacy and industrial skills
• Advocated for women’s sexual rights and freedoms (often misinterpreted as endorsement of promiscuity)