Russia AOS2 interpretations Flashcards
Service
Motivation for Initial Decrees
‘They were designed to inspire, to excite and to instigate’
Reforms like the 27th October 1917 Land decree gave the pesantry the right to seize land from the gentry and distribute the estates how they wished
The workers were guarenteed an 8-how working day (29th October)
womens and Gay rights were introduced
the Pesants and Workers in particular gained the most from these benificial decrees
Pipes
Nature of early regime
“The system of legislation the Bolsheviks set in place within two weeks of the October coup, for all of its revolutionary rhetoric, marked a reversion to the autocratic practices of Tsarist Russia before the October Manifest of October 17, 1905. They simply wiped out the eleven intervening years of constitutionalism.”
The Cheka, headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky was created (7th Dec 1917)
it was like a secret police force, and following the assasination attempt on lenin (Jan 1918) +the treat of a german invasion they gained the ability to arrest imprision and execute as well as punish arbitrary with no need to stand trial
Litvin
Nature of early Regime
“The Bolshevik leadership created an extreme situation, and they saw a way out in the organisation of a powerful punitive institution, capable of terrifying and terrorising the population.”
The bolsheviks were deterined to prove that they were a genuinely a revolutionary govenment
They used proppoganda to promote their ideas to the prolatariat
Cheka was created
Pipes on sig of C.A
‘The machine gun became for them [The Bolsheviks] the principle instrument of political persuasion. The unrestrained brutality with which they henceforth ruled Russia stemmed in large measure from the knowledge, gained on January 5th, that could use it with impunity’
Suny on sig. of C.A.
‘Revolution was not like an election campaign in which the party that gains a majority gains the upper hand; rather it was like a military campaign in which the side that can mobilise the greatest physical strength in the most sensitive places wins the day’
Pipes on response to dissolution of the C.A.
‘Surprising indifference’ = evidence that Russia ‘lacked a sense of** national cohesion capable of inspiring the population** to give up immediate and personal interests for the sake of the common good’
Figes on response to dissolution of C.A.
‘workers were preoccupied with securing enough food and fuel for their families, whilst the peasants viewed the CA as a ‘distant thing in the city’
Lynch
discussing the impact of crushing the CA
‘The claim to absolute authority by the Bolsheviks made civil war unavoidable.’
Lieven
argument that lenin wanted war
“The civil war did not occur by accident. In 1917 the other socialist parties, in other words the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, were partly guided by their fear of and revulsion for civil war. In the winter of 1917-1918 the overwhelming majority of Russians supported one of the other socialist parties. An all-socialist coalition would have made counter-revolution inconceivable, particularly since it would have rested on the only legitimate authority in Russia, namely the Constituent Assembly. Some Bolsheviks would have accepted a socialist coalition but Lenin was not one of them. The Bolshevik leader rejected this course and pursued policies, which as he well knew, made civil war inevitable.’
A.J.P Taylor
Significance of Soviet-Polish war
‘After the Treaty of Riga, Soviet Russia retreated… unavowedly and almost unconsciously, the Soviet leaders abandoned the cause of international revolution.’
Allows Lenin to focus on domestic issues -> consolidate power
Pipes
Significance of Trotsky during the Civil War
‘He [Trotsky] provided political linkage and politcal oversight, the lack of which was a major shortcoming of the White armies… he could** assess the situation on the spot**, and, cutting through red tape, solve shortages of man power and material. He was also a spellbinding speaker, able to galvanise dispirited troops.’
Agitprop & agittrains = portray the messages the Bols. needed to rally pop. to their side.
Quick decision to save Petrograd saved faith -> propoganda success
Lynch
Impact of Civil War on Bolsheviks
‘The Civil War proved to be one of the greatest formative influences on the Bolsheviks… of all the members of the Communist Part in 1927, a third had joined in the years 1917-1920 and had fought in the Red Army. This had created a tradition of military obedience and loyalty… No regime placed in the Bolshevik predicament… could have survived without resort to authoritarian measures.’
Most members were shaped by ideaology and discipline
Civil War was a bonus for Bolsheviks/positive impacts
Pipes
Purpose of Red Terror
‘The “Red Terror” was not a reluctant response to he actions of others but a… measure designed to nip in the bud any thoughts of resistance to the dictatorship.’
Using fear as a powerful ally to change minds and consolidate power
Threat of force as a means of control
Heller
1921 famine problem
‘The soviet government confronted a problem which, for the first time, they could not solve with resort to force.’
Ryan
Civil war resulting in increased military personnel within the govt.
‘There was a sense that the party was now a militarised fellowship of commissars’
Pipes
War Communism
Pipes argues that the architects of War Communism were not experts in either economic or business management:
‘That such rank amateurs would … turn upside down the economy of tens of millions, subjecting it to innovations never attempted anywhere … says something of (their) judgement’.
Nove
War Communism
Nove: ‘a siege economy with a communist ideology. A partly organized chaos. Sleepless, leather-jacketed commissars working around the clock in a vain effort to replace the free market’.
War Communism = blend of ideological + economic + militaristic ideas.
Many decrees were improvised in the face of crisis + either adjusted according to changing circumstances or not fully implemented
Figes
Soviet Power in rural areas
Soviet power in rural areas ‘virtually ceased to exist.’
Tambov & Ukrainse = no go areas for Reds = open revolt/resistance
McCauley
description of NEP
McCauley: ‘If War Communism was a leap into socialism then the NEP was a leap out of socialism’.
Hill
Lenin and his views of NEP
Hill: ‘(he) always insisted that the NEP introduced in 1921 was really the old economic policy of 1918, but he never attempted to disguise the fact that it was a large-scale retreat, another breathing-space, a Brest-Litovsk on the economic front’.
**
NEP was NOT an end to a centralised economy
Soviet government retained the ‘commanding heights of the economy’ = heavy industry + banking + transport = government owned
BUT NEP was a step backwards from total centralised control – move towards a mixed economy of socialist and capitalism side by side = return to State Capitalism
Fitzpatrick
NEP
A strategic retreat… forced on the Bolsheviks by desperate economic circumstances, and by the need to consolidate the victories that the revolution had already won.
**
Figes
How the Bol party saw the NEP
New Exploitation of the Proletariat
Service
How the party saw the NEP
Service: “Most Bolshevik leaders had never liked the NEP, regarding it as an excrescent boil on the body politic and at worst a malignant cancer”.
Trotsky’s view represented a group within the party (largely Civil War veterans) who had a hard time accepting that the path to socialism might require slow and steady progress.
Lynch
Re: On Party Unity
‘logical climax of the policy… of suppressing all opposition to Bolshevik rule.’
Attempt to achieve internal stability & consolidate Lenin’s power by eliminating organised opposition within the party
Leggett
Comparing the Cheka and Okhrana
‘The Cheka continued a long tsarist political police tradition, but differed both quantitively and qualitatively from its immediate predecessor.’
Similarities: using terror and force to suppress political enemies
Differences: Cheka were bigger and more widespread
Pipes
Re: First Soviet Criminal Code
‘It was hardly possible to have gone further in the destruction of law and due process.’
Bolsheviks were altering the war to benefit them and increase their power with disregard for innocents
Pipes
Re: Artistic Developments
‘At its best, Prolecult provided adult education for people who had never had any contact with art or literature; at its worst, it wasted time in experiments that produced nothing of lasting value.’
Hellbeck
Re: Literacy & Education
‘It is poignantly expressed in the groping autobiographical narratives of semi-literate Soviet citizens who detailed their journeys from darkness to light.’
Clemens
Re: Bolshechki
‘The Bolshevichki were engaged in all the activites that prepared the way for the party’s seizure of power in October.’
Importance & involvement of Women in the party
Edmonson
Re: Women’s Rights
‘The socially more radical possibility that men might take on traditionally feminine roles at home (as women were expected to take on men’s at work) was never explored.’
Limitations of reform
