LENIN OPPOSITION Flashcards
FACTION AND OPPOSITION IN THE 1920S
OPPOSITION AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF POWER
From their earliest days in power, the Bolsheviks faced three types of ‘opposition’:
- from other political groups both on the right and left of politics
- from their many opponents throughout the Empire - from former tsarist officers to capricious peasants who were ultimately to resist the regime militarily
- from the ideological opposition’ (more often perceived than real), the bourgeoisie, and upper classes of society against whom the Bolsheviks had fought
FACTION AND OPPOSITION IN THE 1920S
Political opposition in Petrograd itself was the first concern. The Menshevik and SR opposition in the Soviet Congress of October 1917 destroyed themselves by their walkout, leaving the Bolsheviks with a monopoly of power. On 27 October, Sovnarkom banned
the opposition press, and ordered the arrest of Kadet, Menshevik and SR leaders.
Over the next month, the Bolsheviks skilfully avoided pressure (from striking railwaymen) for a coalition government. So many political prisoners were put in the capitals gaols that criminals had to be released to accommodate them.
FACTION AND OPPOSITION IN THE 1920S
Most provinces had their own Cheka branch, with officials reporting directly to Lenin and the Politburo. From 1922, the Cheka was renamed the GPU and in 1923, the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate). From 1934 to 1943, it was placed under the control of
the NKVD (the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). It was therefore often referred to itself as the NKVD.
FACTION AND OPPOSITION IN THE 1920S
The establishment of the Cheka, under Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky in December 1917, was a sign of the new regime’s determination to destroy its opponents. Combined with the dismissal of
the Constituent Assembly and the extension of the Red Army to deal with rebellion, it soon became clear that the Bolshevik state would do all in its power to destroy all enemies, be they political, military or ideological.
FACTION AND OPPOSITION IN THE 1920S
The consolidation of Bolshevik power was accompanied by a form of ‘class warfare, which was intended to intimidate and exact revenge on the middle and upper classes. Bourgeois
property was confiscated, social privilege ended and discriminatory taxes levied on the burzhui - the enemies of the people.
Ideological opponents as much as political ones were arrested, exiled or executed.
THE RED TERROR
The civil war of 1918-21 was the culmination of the Bolshevik fight against opposition forces. It also brought a new wave of coercion against both real and ‘assumed’ enemies, thus creating the Red Terror.
In August 1918, the attempt on
Lenin’s life provided the excuse for a frenzied written attack on the ‘bourgeois, while the Cheka rounded up thousands on whom this label might be pinned.
Confessions and the names of accomplices were obtained by torture, and so began a ‘terror’ that left hardly any group untouched.
THE RED TERROR
In September 1918, Sovnarkom gave the Cheka authority to find, question, arrest and destroy the families of any suspected traitors. The chairman of the Bolshevik Central Committee, spoke of merciless mass terror against all opponents of the revolution’. All remaining
Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were branded traitors and 500 were shot in Petrograd alone.
FACTION AND CONTROL
By 1921, Lenin’s concerns had turned to the opposition ‘within’ his Party.
In 1920-21 there were some serious disagreements about political and economic policy and groups such as the
‘Workers’ Opposition under Alexandra Kollontai had been set up, demanding that workers had more control over their own affairs.
THE RED TERROR
Merchants and traders (black marketeers, hoarders and NEP men), professors, prostitutes and peasants (particularly those branded as ‘kulaks’) all suffered, as did their families, friends and sometimes entire village. Priests, Jews, Catholics and, to a lesser extent, Muslims were also persecuted. Around
how many priests were exceuted
8000 priests were executed in 1921, for failing to hand over valuable Church possessions, which were supposedly required for the relief of famine victims.
THE RED TERROR
The Red Terror escalated because local Cheka agents, keen to show their zeal, often took matters into their own hands. They sought incriminations and discovered ‘hidden opposition. Victims ranged from the
Tsar and his family, shot on 17 July 1918, to ordinary workers suspected of ‘counter-revolution’ because they had associated with a class enemy or had the misfortune to have neighbours who bore a grudge.
THE RED TERROR
Some were executed immediately and it has been estimated that between
people were shot in the 1918-21 period.
500,000 and a million people were shot in the 1918-21 period.
Others might be tortured and/or sent to labour camps, where many died as a result of the physically demanding work they were expected to perform while living on meagre rations.
FACTION AND CONTROL
Lenin believed such dissension was weakening the Party and was determined to restore Party unity. His ‘ban on factions’ of 1921 meant that
all Party members had to accept the decisions of the Central Committee.
FACTION AND CONTROL
Anyone who opposed was threatened with expulsion from the Party. The opportunity for
debate and challenge was thus removed and, in the highly centralised, authoritarian, one-party state that emerged from the years of civil war, opposition became virtually impossible.
