Opposition Tsars vs Communists

Question 1

Who were more successful in putting down peasant opposition? Tsars or Communists?

Answer 1

The Tsars used reforms and concessions to deal with peasant demands. Communists used repression and methods of terror to stop peasant opposition. They viewed them as necessary to provide food for the proletariat and did not see the importance in modernisation or a rise in their standard of living. Therefore the Communists were more successful as they were pre-emptive rather than reactionary

Question 2

What were peasant opposition aims?

Answer 2

Response to the land question, fairer distribution of land and food, and fair prices

Question 3

What Tsar ruler gave peasant concessions and compare it to a Communist ruler who also gave concessions

Answer 3

Alexander- Emancipation Edict 1861, long-term, freed 23 million serfs. Although superficial
Lenin- NEP 1921 ended grain requestioning, was only short-term and only done to appease peasants after the Civil War upheaval. Stalin soon implemented collectivisation

Question 4

What Tsar ruler gave concessions to peasantry, compare with a contrasting Communist ruler

Answer 4

Nic I, after the Black Earth region revolts in 1906-1907 Stolypin’s land reforms were introduced (encouraged peasants to own land and form wealthy class of kulaks).
Stalin in contrast went through a period of dekulakisation arresting 10 million kulaks. Enforced harsh collectivisation and did not allow peasants to form opposition

Question 5

Who was more successful in putting down industrial workers opposition? Tsars or Communists?

Answer 5

The communists unlike the Tsars did not need to offer concessions to maintain power over the industrial workforce. They used force to suppress opposition and therefore the workers were more successful under the Tsars as long-term concessions were given and were the main force behind the 1917 Revolutions which were a major turning point in the way Russia was governed.

Question 6

Why did the Communists use more repression of opposition towards the industrial workers?

Answer 6

They saw them as the proletariat class, and viewed them as numbers aiming to achieve high levels of industrialisation with this one task only. They did not see them as individuals and their ideology meant that the proletariat should share this aim in common with the Bolsheviks.

Question 7

What were the aims of the workers opposition?

Answer 7

Improvement in wages, working hours and working conditions

Question 8

Compare the success of industrial workers under Nic II and Stalin

Answer 8

During World War One workers strikes broke out due to inflation, wages increased at half the price, and the price of food quadrupled in the first two years. By the 25th of Feb over half of Petrograd was on strike. The workers were the main body for change under Nicolas II, caused the fall of the Romanov Dynasty after 200 years
During the Second World War, under Stalin, there were no workers strikes or opposition. Showing Stalin’s clear consolidation of power and total control over the workers, therefore limiting the effectiveness of their opposition.

Question 9

What were the main industrial workers strikes?

Answer 9

Lena Goldfields 1912
Bloody Sunday 1905
Putilov Works strike in Petrograd 1917
Novocherkassk Massacre 1961

Question 10

Compare the successes of industrial workers strikes

Answer 10

Lena goldfields, 270 were killed and was met with no reforms
Bloody Sunday- 200 killed, 800 massacred, had the most attention, caused strike across all of Russia, permanently damaged the paternalistic image of the Tsar and resulted in the October Manifesto. Caused the 1905 Revolution- MOST SUCCESSFUL
Novocherkassk Massacre- didn’t become public knowledge until the 1990s, killed 26. They were unarmed like the Bloody Sunday/ Father Gapon uprising. Was also met with no reforms instead Khrushchev arrested 200

Question 11

How did Stalin limit opposition from industrial workers?

Answer 11

Show trials e.g. Shakty trial of 1928. 55 were put on trial for alleged sabotage and spying, there was no evidence and can be seen as propaganda

Question 12

Who were more effective at dealing with political opposition? Communists or Tsars?

Answer 12

Opposition was more effective under the Tsars as Alexander II was assassinated by revolutionaries who achieved their main aim and Nicolas II abdicated party because of reformists, whereas the Communists suppressed and banned all revolutionary and reformist groups.

Question 13

What was the extent of industrial workers opposition under the Tsars?

Answer 13

Strikes before the 1880s tended to be localised and small-scale affairs, afterwards grew in size and degree of threat. For example the strike in 1885 at the Morozov dye works which involved 8000 workers.
Strike action after was treated with severity and put down with force.

Question 14

What were the aims of political opposition?

Answer 14

Revolutionaries; Overthrow the Tsar
Reformists; Develop democracy

Question 15

When was political opposition most successful?

Answer 15

The Peoples Will who assassinated Alexander II in 1881 although it was short-term

Question 16

How did Lenin limit political opposition (lay the foundations for a one-party state that Stalin would develop)?

Answer 16

1917-18, Sovnarkon banned all bourgeois parties and their newspapers.
1921 March Decree on Party Unity banned opposition by other party groups and made the Communists the only legal party.
1921, first major party purge when the Red army won the civil war, over ¼ of party members purged
The Civil War eliminated opposition from Whites made of liberal and reformists

Question 17

How did Stalin limit political opposition?

Answer 17

Zinoviev and Kamenev and 14 others were put on show trial in 1936 for complicity with Trotsky in plots to kill Stalin. They were all shot. March 1938 another show trial included Bukharin, Yagod and Rykov, they were all shot.
Dec 1938- only 2 out of 5 marshals remained in place and 2/3 of all senior officers had been arrested or shot
Only 16 of the 71 members of the 1934 Central Committee were alive in 1939.
Similar to Stalin, during the civil war the Cheka shot estimated 50,000 of their own soldiers to ensure discipline, Stalin used terror like this to control his opposition.

Question 18

What were the limitations to the October Manifesto?

Answer 18

The Fundamental Laws 1906 which reinforced the Tsars supreme autocratic power

Question 19

What opposition led to the NEP?

Answer 19

The Kronstadt Mutiny 1921-10,000 Red soldiers were killed, and it took 50,000 Red Army troops to recapture the island base. There were many more executions than under the Tsars, they (Communists ) were more ruthless when dealing with the mutiny.
Peasant opposition- rising Green army threat

Question 20

What were the Black Earth Revolts?

Answer 20

Revolts of the peasantry that needed significant force from Stolypin to be put down then as a result he introduced his reforms e.g. being able to own larger plots

Question 21

When did industrial workers have most success?

Answer 21

Under Nic II- received as the Duma passed a law which introduced insurance benefits in times of sickness and accident. Workers insurance scheme in 1903 and accident insurance in 1912
Riots continued under the P.G as well, which resulted in an 8 hour working day, whereas before it had been 11/12 hours, which then continued to remain at 11/12 hours under Stalin.

Question 22

What political opposition was there to Stalin?

Answer 22

Trotsky began his own Russian magazine Bulletin of Opposition whilst he was in exile and it was strongly critical of the regime and of Stalin. He also had supporters inside the Soviet Union.
1932 the “Riutin Platform” secretly passed around some of the party leaders, it attacked forced collectivisation and demanded more party openness.

Question 23

Why was opposition more successful in 1917 than 1905?

Answer 23

In both 1905 and 1917, when discontent was mounting for anger at military defeat and economic and social grievances, there only developed a critical situation in 1917.

Question 24

What did the NEP do?

Answer 24

It ended grain requisitioning, the legalization of small businesses and allowed peasants to sell their surplus.