Lenin's Russia and Russian Civil War Flashcards
What were the 3 problems facing the provisional government?
- War- whether to stay in WW1 or not
- Food- how to get food to the factory workers
- Land- How best to divide the land for the peasants
What did the provisional government decide to do initially vs what did the Bolsheviks offer?
Provisional Government:
- Stay in WW1. Continued the food shortage and people kept dying.
- Waited to split land → soldiers came home bc they wanted to make sure they got their split.
- Food shortages not solved.
Bolsheviks:
- Peace, land and bread
- Offering ppl what they wanted
What allowed the Bolsheviks to gain power?
- Offering the people what they wanted
- Simple short slogans
- The Kornilov affair meant that Kerensky armed the Bolsheviks (Red Army)
List the events between the Tsar’s abdication and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk
- March 1917 Tsar abdicates → Provisional government take over
- Bolsheviks start to gain popularity
- September 1917- Kornilov affair
- September 1917- Bolshevik majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets
- October / November Revolution → Bolsheviks took control of post offices, bridges and the State Bank.
- Bolsheviks take over with almost no opposition- they aren’t even that popular
- Late 1917: free elections to the Constituent Assembly
- Lenin shuts down assembly
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 1918 + Start of Russian civil war
When was the Red Army formed?
January 1918 from the Red Guard
When did civil war break out?
March 1918
How big was new Red Army for civil war?
300,000 men
When was the Tsar executed and why was this significant?
Executed in July 1918- Lenin didn’t want to sacrifice him becoming a leader for the Whites
By what year were the Bolsheviks securely in control of Russia?
1921
Why did the Bolsheviks win the civil war?
- Made sure towns and armies were fed by harsh rations on peasants
- Took over factories in Petrograd and Moscow so that they could supply their armies with equipment and ammunition
- Red Terror kept the population under strict control
- Propaganda creating fear around Whites and foreign armies being in league with them- idea that landlords would come back etc.
What weaknesses in the Whites caused them to loose the civil war?
- Not united
- Widely spread- hard to coordinate campaigns
- Limited support
- Whites in general caused more suffering to the peasants than the reds
What were policies of War Communism
- All large factories under government
- Production planned and organised by governent
- Disciplining of workers
- Strikers could be shot
- rations
- free enterprise became illegal
What sparked the end of War Communism?
Krondstadt uprising [1921]-
- Krondstadt sailors had always been big supporters of Bolshevism
- Damaging to Lenin’s party etc.
- Trotsky sent 60,000 troops to put down rebellion
What was the NEP?
1921 onwards-
* Vital industries remained under government control
* No more rationing
* free enterprise became legal- some Bolsheviks felt it was betraying the ideas of communism
