Lenin

Question 1

Give 5 ways n which the civil war created a totalitarian regime in Russia

Answer 1

Contributed to a centralised goverment

The increasing need for obedience to the party

Increased use of Terror

Centralised government control of industry + agriculture

Nationalities strictly controlled

Question 2

How did the Civil war contribute to a centralised government

Answer 2

Exposed the weakness of Bolshevik control - forced them to create more centralised system

The central Committee of the congress was said to be the “supreme organ of power”.

Not democratic - in theory, the SOvnarkom was chosen by the congress, but in reality, it was chosen by the Party’s central committee. Businessmen, clergy and tsarist officials did not have the vote

Question 3

How did the Civil war contribute to increasing obedience to the party

Answer 3

The concept that the party could never be wrong was born - Ban of factions in 1921

Decreed that local soviets could only be made up of party members

Central committee controlled the appointment if around 5500 key party and government posts, to ensure that people in key positions were trustworthy.

Created a new loyal party elite as the incentives for superior housing + career advancements attracted people to be unquestionably obedient

Question 4

How did the Civil war contribute to the increased use of terror

Answer 4

Powers of the Cheka was extended during the civil war

Mensheviks were destroyed as a political force, with Matrov leaving the country and 5000 arrests

1920 - 70,000 peasants opposed requisition of grain in Tambov - unrest crushed by 100,000 red army troops Poison gas even used (extreme measures)

Martial law declared in January 1921

Question 5

How did the Civil war contribute to centralised government control of industry

Answer 5

War communism introduced (an extension of class warfare to destroy bourgeois attitudes)

It was the war that accelerated this process as the army had to be continually provisioned.

After war ended, Lenin changed course + adopted more capitalist policies - suggest practical need of war = more important than ideology.

Most Industry nationalised and worker rights removed by 1920. Working hours extended + internal passports introduced

Not successful - 1920 industrial production as 20% pre-civil war levels and by 1920 the population o fPetrograd was 57% lower than 1917 (disease and passport not working)

Question 6

How did the Civil war contribute to centralised government control of agriculture

Answer 6

Pewasnat grain requisitioned

High inflation meant peasnats hoarded their grain causing food shortages in cities

1918 - soldiers and workers sent to countryside to ensure grain was sent to the state.

Grain, livestock and firewood often violently confiscated leaving the peasants with insufficient supplies to live on

harvest of 1921 produced 48% of 1913 level and millions died fo famine

Question 7

What was the ban of Factions?

Answer 7

Banned disagreement with party policy within the party once it had been voted upon

Question 8

What was the New Economic Policy created by Lenin in 1921

Answer 8

Temporary retreat to capitalism to restore the economy until international revolutions could come to the aid of the USSR

• Abolition of grain requisitioning (replaced by a grain tax set at a low rate). Gave peasants an incentive to maximise productivity to sell any surpless grain for private profit
• Restoration of private trade + abolition of state monopoly rationing was ended

Question 9

Give some positive impacts of the NEP on the Russian economy

Answer 9

• Production levels for agriculture and industry began to rise
• Worker and peasant unrest fell (at first) due to ending of grain requisitioning and reduction in food shortages

Question 10

Give some negative impacts of the NEP on the Russian economy

Answer 10

• Short term agriculture still devastated by conscription + war requisitioning. Backwards farming practices were re-introduced - the average size of land holding decreased
• 81.6 million tonnes grain produced in 1913 - only 76.6m tonnes in 1926

Workers saw no benefit - the large number of unemployed ensured that wages remained low. 1925 pay for miners and engineers lower than 1914

Factory hierarchy reinforced, unions put under state control,

Question 11

Give two damages war communism had

Answer 11

Runaway inflation led to reduction in use of currency and return of a barter economy

Officially peasants were paid for their produce, but in reality, it was confiscated - Kulaks labelled as enemies of the state and had their provisions seized

Question 12

What was the 1921 crises

Answer 12

Economy had completely collapsed

Heavy industry was 1/5th of 1913 level

The industrial population was 1/3rd of 1917

The economic modernisation of Russia was going backwards

Question 13

Give some peasant unrest 1920-1

Answer 13

Due to Bolshevik grain requisition at a time when harvests had been poor ensuing a widespread famine which killed 2 million in 1920

Thousands of peasants formed the ‘Green Army’ to support villagers against grain requisition. Lenin forced to respond with 100,000 red army troops

Cut stretches of trans-Siberian railway

Question 14

Give some worker unrest 1920-1

Answer 14

Demanded greater worker control, and end to war communism and removal of hierarchy in factories

Strikes erupted in Moscow when bread rations cut b a 1/3rd.

Bolsheviks responded by declaring martial law in Jan 1921, shutting key factories and sending special red army cadets to run them

Question 15

What was the Krondstadt sailor’s rebellion in 1921

Answer 15

The very sailors who had been so crucial to the 1917 Oct uprising demanded new elections and an end to single-party rule

15,000 taken prisoner and leaders shot

Question 16

Which opposition was the most significant in 1921

Answer 16

Peasant - not only did it make up the majority of Russia who, until recently remained largely apathetic to a matter of politics, but instigated the workers strikes from a lack of food