Lenin 1918- 1928 (including power struggle)

Question 1

1918 Part 1

Answer 1

• War Communism= quickly ideologically justified.
• Main features; grain requisitioning, nationalisation of industry, banning of private trade, labour discipline and rationing.
• Resulted in an economic collapse which included; shortage of raw materials, shortage of goods, no food in cities and workers beginning to flee

Question 2

1920

Answer 2

• Poor harvest, leaves peasants without any grain = violent reactions and requisitioning is picked up = Bad winter due to this
• 13,000 killed between 1918 to 1920 by the Cheka as a way of terror= those who refused to hand over food with the grain requisitioning

Question 3

1921

Answer 3

• End of the Civil War= Cost Russia up to 10 million deaths due to hunger, epidemic disease as well as the army. Saw the Bolsheviks abandon their promise of ‘self-determination’ which they promised in 1917
• Food shortages= strikes in Petrograd results in revolts amongst the people = peasants had very little grain and bad winter over 1920-21
• Factory workers uprisings= important but easily resolved = shot/imprisoned for not reaching production targets
• Kronstadt sailors support this and had an uprising in March = 10,000 killed and 2,500 later shot
• By 1921, the Cheka have 31, 000 agents
• NEP introduced due to the strikes. This included; grain requisitioning being abolished, state control of the commanding height of economy, small businesses reopened and the ban on private trade removed

Question 4

1922

Answer 4

Nep has good results= food back in markets in cities

• Stalin elected general sectary, head of the secretariat and in charge of the general organisation = only member to be in all 3 of executive bodies
• Bolshevik attack on the church = items stripped from the church to help famine victims

Question 5

1923

Answer 5

• Cereal production increases by 23% compared to 1920
• Left opposition formed within the party= central committee condemns this as a ‘fractional move’
• Half of the number of children in school than there was in 1920. This was due to the NEP

Question 6

1924

Answer 6

• Lenin dies
• Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin turn against Trotsky = he believes this links back to the October Revolution
• Small industries had begun to recover

Question 7

1925

Answer 7

• Stalin allies with Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky against Zinoviev and Kamenev
• Zinoviev and Kamenev outvoted of the 14th party congress
• By the 1920s, Russia has the highest divorce rate in Europe = 25x more than UK
• Problems begin to occur with the NEP = gap between grain and peasant desired goods = increasing reluctance to give the peasants concessions

Question 8

1926

Answer 8

• By the end of 1926= 14% of the population were unemployed = higher than before the war
• Left wing of the party= Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev want to end the NEP and start rapid industrialisation
• Right Wing of the party= Keep the NEP going and encourage richer peasants
• Leadership of Leningrad party purged

Question 9

1927

Answer 9

• 5 million inefficient wooden ploughs still in use

- Start of the grain crisis = 3/4 of what it had been in 1926

Question 10

1928

Answer 10

• Relationship between the peasants and the government had started to deteriorate = due to NEP
• Real wages only pass war levels
• Clear that Stalin had gain authority= due to peasant support and his rapid industrialisation
• 300 million cinema tickets sold

Question 11

1918 part 2

Answer 11

• Brest-Litovsk Treaty= 62 million people lost, 27% of farm land, 26% railway and 74% of iron ore and coal reserves = 1/2 of Nicholas 2s empire lost
• Start of the Civil war = Reds (Bolsheviks), Whites (Tsarists) and Greens (Peasants) = won due to; geographical hold, unified command structure, good leadership and good properganda
• Constituent Assembly= democratically decided the make up of the government= Lenin and the soviet assembly felt that it wasn’t democratic enough (Bolsheviks had a minority) = abolished in 1918

Question 12

1918 part 3

Answer 12

• Cheka’s Red Terror= due to an assassination attempt on Lenin
• From June extremist Right groups were shot and Tsar and family also shot
• Estimated that 500,000 shot from 1918 to 1920 = against social groups such as prostitutes, judges and children
• Cheka also helped collect grain requisitioning quotas from the countryside

Question 13

1917

Answer 13

-First measures included a decree on peace= immediate truce and pulling out of Russia in the war
decree on land= gave peasants the right to take over land
decree on workers control= factory committees controlled the factories, putting workers into control
-Red Terror starts= shutting down of anti-Bolshevik newspapers as they caused a threat to the party
-Class Warfare= Marxist ideology of intimidating the middle classes ‘bourgeoisie’ = workers/peasants called each other ‘comrades’ = general distrust of the middle classes in society