Lenin - Politics Flashcards
Second Congress of Soviets
-26th oct 1917
-670 delegates held first session
-500 voted in favour of a socialist government
-Majority of seats in exec commitee went to Bolsheviks + LW SRs, Mensheviks + RW SRs walked out
-Sovnarkom established as new government
Lenins Decrees
-Decree on peace (end to WW1)
-Decree on land (end to private ownership)
-Decree on workers control
-Decree on nationality
-New legal system of elected courts
-gov outlawed sex discrimination
-military removed class ranks, saluting and decoration
-nationalised church land, removed marriage control
-nationalisation of banks
Ideology and end to war
-trotsky began peace negotiations dec 1917
-germans wanted russian land
-some bolsheviks wanted to continue to defend russia
-trotsky, retreat further is necessary, wait for west to win
-lenin argued to accept the germans terms
-eventually brest-litovsk signed 3rd march 1918
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
-most of territory on russia’s western border lost
-lost 1/6 of population, 62 million people
-lost two million square km of land
-26% of railway and 74% of coal and oil supplies lost
Ideology and one party government
-lenin determined to establish one party state
-sovnarkom showed no intent of collab with other parties -sidelined petrograd soviet, ignored constituent assembly
-coalition with SRs broke up, lw srs left sovnarkom
-march 1918 one party state established
Ideology and the preservation of the soviet state
-creation of Cheka dec 1917
-1918-1920 state associated with terror
-lenin allowed some more capitalist practices
-civil war forced a centralised system of governement
-ban on factions within communist party
Lenin’s return
-arrived in russia on april 3 1917
-gave a speech to the crowds, became the april theses
-published in pravda, they demanded that power should be transferred to the soviets, the war should be ended and all land should be redistributed to peasants
-stressed a policy of no cooperation with the prov gov
Initial reaction to Lenins arrival
-some bolsheviks argued lenin had grown out of touch
-allegations lenin was in the pay of the germans
-mensheviks feared lenin would undermine their work
-some thought it was unrealistic to oppose the prov gov
-bolsheviks divided over working with prov gov
Lenins gradual building of support
-claimed credit for what was happening in his speeches
-won over the majority of bolsheviks with his personality
-all russian congress of soviets first met 3rd june, passed a vote of confidence in prov gov, 543 votes to 126
-trotsky decided to support bolsheviks at start of july
July days
-in a response to food/materials shortages 20,000 kronstadt sailors joined workers in a protest
-586 factories had been closed losing 100,000 jobs
-chanted bolshevik slogans and demanded the soviet took power
Increase in bolshevik support
-only group to have opposed kornilov consistently
-support increased 164% june-december
-party membership 23,000-200,000 feb to october
-won a majority in the petrograd soviet in september, trotsky becomes new chairman on 21st
Lenins push to assume power
-bombarded the bolshevik central committee to seize power from mid september
-zinoviev and kamenev believed russia wasnt ready
-15th sept committee voted against a coup
-trotsky believed bolsheviks should wait for congress of soviets and work through the petrograd soviet
Events of early october 1917
-7th, lenin returns to petrograd to persuade them to take power, kerensky sends radical army units out the capital
-9th, bolsheviks set up military revolutionary committee
-controlled 200,000 red guards, 60,000 baltic sailors and 150,000 petrograd garrison members
-10th, lenin persuades central committee to take power
Events of 24th/25th oct 1917
-8000 kronstadt soldiers + sailors moved into petrograd
-surrounded the winter palace on the evening of the 25th
-they broke in, took power and the revolution was done
-small scale in the end only 25-30,000 involved
The 1918 constitution
-supreme power with all russian congress of soviets
-central exec committee of congress like a president
-congress responsible for electing the sovnarkom
