Lenin

Question 1

To what extent does Lenin’s use of terror explained the establishment of Bolshevik rule in Russia

Answer 1

Worker’s Repression:
Peasants Repression:
Centralising power 
Use of NEP to create genuine support
Controlling minority

Question 2

Worker’s Repression:

Answer 2

End of worker’s control in 1918 June with Warcomm
Krondstadt Rebellion 1921 March raided by 60,000 Red Arm
Worker’s opposition by Kollanti and Shlyapnikov denounced at 10th party congress

Question 3

Peasants Repression:

Answer 3

1918 245 uprisings brutally suppressed
Tambov revolt by Antonov
Decree on Land Nov 1917

Question 4

Centralizing power

Answer 4

Red Terror 500,000 executed by Cheka
5 men politburo and orgburo
By 1921 750,000 in the party with 5.4 million working for the party state

Question 5

Use of NEP to create genuine support

Answer 5

With overall industrial output rose by 2500 million
Grain requisitioning replaced by a 10% tax in kind
Only exception being harassment of NEPman by GPU

Question 6

Controlling minority

Answer 6

Policy of indigenisation encouraging local languages in schools and governance,
Muslim religion allowed in central Asia with Bolsheviks trying to emphasise the collectivist excerpts frmo the kuran
Exception being Stalin’s Georgian Affair

Question 7

How did Lenin establish power

Answer 7

Legal methods
Brutal repression/terror
Genuine support
Weakness of rival parties
Concessions to urban workers and peasants

Question 8

Legal methods

Answer 8

Decree on Land October 1917, land to be taken

Decree on Peace Novemeber 1917

Question 9

Brutal repression/terror

Answer 9

Shut down national constituent assembly 6th Jan
Creation of Cheka as early as December 1917
1918 245 uprisings brutally suppressed

Question 10

Genuine support

Answer 10

volga region 60% of the members of the volost Soviet executives were aged between 18 and 35.
generally viewed as the leaders of their villagers as older peasants were not literate enough for complex administrative tasks
Were popular in urban areas, won over 70% of the vote in some parts of Petrograd in the Constituent Assembly

Question 11

Weakness of rival parties

Answer 11

Bolsheviks banned the Kadet party which only had 5% of the votes
SR’s and Mensheviks underestimated Bolshevik’s ability to survive as they believed Bolsheviks would collapse and the the Constituent Assembly would triumph

Question 12

Concessions to urban workers and peasants

Answer 12

3 SR member in Sovnarkom until March 1918
Gave workers’ control,8 hour working days
Lenin took the SR’s land policy(Peasants kept the land they took)

Question 13

Why Did the Bolsheviks win the CW

Answer 13

Trotsky’s military leadership
Weakness of the Whites
Lenin’s leadership 
Foreign intervention’s ineffectiveness
Bolshevik unity
Geographical factors

Question 14

Trotsky’s military leadership

Answer 14

Abolished army ranks and added in political commissars
Formed labour battalions with unreliable soldiers
Travelled with special armoured train, defending Petrograd in Nov 1919

Question 15

Weakness of the Whites

Answer 15

White generally had small armies with generals like Deniken leading less than 100,000
White leaders generally distrusted Kolchak
Kolchak’s base in Omsk saw foregin uniforms and munitions sold on black markets

Question 16

Lenin’s leadership

Answer 16

Introduction of Warcom
Decree on land November 1917 to gain peasant support
Extensive propaganda portraying Bolsheviks as defenders of Russia against imperialists

Question 17

Foreign intervention’s ineffectiveness

Answer 17

Japan and US troops nvaded Vladivosk Aug1918 but did not fight much
French troops landed in Odessa Dec 1918 but the fleet in Balck Sea experienced mutiny
British sent 100 million pounds to whites

Question 18

Bolshevik unity

Answer 18

Bolshevkis were all revolutionaries but whites were liberals, nationalists, Tsarists and SRs
Whites had different aims such as restoring monarchism, republicanism, or constituent assembly

Question 19

Geographical factors

Answer 19

Whites were fighting on 4 separate fronts, with horses running between sections
Bolsheviks occupied populus area, having more than 60 million in population
Petrograd and Moscow areas had extensive factories and railway

Question 20

Who was responsible for CW

Answer 20

SR opposition
Peasant Opposition 
Tsarist General opposition
Worker opposition
Minority Opposition
Czech Legion opposition

Question 21

SR opposition

Answer 21

Won election with 40% of the votes against Bolsheviks 24%

Policy debates SR wanted socialisation of land while Bolsheviks wanted nationalisation, also SR wanted join provisional govt while Bolsheviks wanted single party

Foregin policy debate with Treaty of Brest-Litovsk giving land to imperialists, also SR wanted to continue fighting central powers while Bolsheviks wanted to withdraw