Russia copy 2 Flashcards

Question

PG positives

Answer 1

* They ended capital punishment * They ended press censorship * They released all political prisoners * They disbanded the Okhrana

Answer 2

* Sharing power with Petrograd Soviet * Continuing with war * No clear aims

Answer 3

* March-October 1917 "dual power" * PS more popular with Russians (elected, Order 1, control of army) * PS not blamed for mistakes * Lenin had majority by September

Answer 4

* June Offensive (disaster) * War was highly unpopular * PG felt it was too big to decide themselves * PG wanted to appease Britain and France

Answer 5

Points: * An immediate end to the war as it was a capitalist war * Nationalisation of industry * Land for peasants - nationalisation of land * All power in Russia must be given to the Soviets * End all cooperation with the Provisional Government and any party helping them Simple slogan: "Peace, bread, land" Lenin arrived in Petrograd 3rd April

Answer 6

* Made use of problems (Food shortage, war, delayed elections, land) * Propaganda (widespread by June) * Military (10,000 red guards)

Answer 7

Reasons: * June Offensive * Food shortages * Bolshevik Propaganda Bolsheviks eventually joined the riots 5th July Kerensky sent troops to disperse Important Bolsheviks (Trotsky) arrested Lenin flees to Finland

Answer 8

* September 1917 * Kornilov wanted martial law and military dictatorship * Bolsheviks defended city with 25,000 men * Trotsky sent agitators to make troops desert

Answer 9

* Start of 1917 Bolsheviks 24,000 members * Octover 1917 Bolsheviks 340,000 members * Bolshevils heroes * Army collapsed * 40,000 red guards now armed due to defense from revolt

Answer 10

1. Lenin returns to Russia 2. Military revolution commitee 3. Kerensky tries to stop Bolsheviks 4. Bolsheviks seize control 5. All Russian congress of Soviets

Answer 11

* Mid-october Lenin returns in disguise * Convinced Bolsheviks to revolt * Helped by Trotsky

Answer 12

* Kerensky tries to send all Bolshevik units out of Petrograd * In response PS set up MRC * 21st October Petrograd regiment pledged allegiance to MRC

Answer 13

* Kerensky ordered crackdown (no newspaper, no river crossings) * Trotsky responded by ordering seizure of roads, army HQ and post office by the MRC

Answer 14

* Night of 25-26th October * Seized state bank and winter palace * Propaganda shows as struggle but was really peaceful * Only 5 red guards hurt

Answer 15

* October meeting heard of revolution * Almost all left in protest until only Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries left * Trotsky said the leavers "belonged to the dustbin of history"

Answer 16

* Key individuals (Lenin and Trotsky) * Did not join the PG, not blamed for problems * Weapons and military support

Answer 17

* 15 Bolsheviks * 1922 became USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia and Transcaucasus) * Lenine made the Cheka under Dzerzhisky * 1918 alone executed 50k opponents of Bolsheviks

Answer 18

1. Peace - all countries should seek peace, called for armistic with Germany (Unrealistic) 2. Land - Nov 1917 owning land made illegal, gave 500m acres to peasants 3. Nationalities - ethnic minorities free, meant to prevent revolt 4. Workers' rights - 8 hour day and max 48hour week, pensions, unemployment insurance

Answer 19

* Food supply to cities prioritised * Church - Decree of Freedom of Conscience took away church's priviledge, lost all land and power * Women - Women declared = to men, divorce and abortion legalised * Censorship - Non Bolshevik papers banned and cheka repressed protestors

Answer 20

* Nov 1917 elections held for Constituent assembly * Forced into it by Railway Workers threatining to strike * SRs much more popular * 175 Bolsheviks and 410 SRs

Answer 21

* Met in Jan 1918 * CPC (15 Bolsheviks) proposed that CA passed all their decrees * This was rejected by majority of 100 * Lenin sent in the red guard and dissolved the Assembly * Ban on all opposition parties * No more democratic elections until 1991

Answer 22

* Dec 1917 * Russia lost: Ukraine, Poland, Baltic territories, Caucauses and Finland * Russia had to pay 300million gold rubles

Answer 23

* 62million people lost (1/6 of pop) * 27% of farmland * 26% of railways * 74% of iron and coal ore

Answer 24

* Seen as shameful * Food shortages worsened * July 1918 1mil people left Petrograd and workers reduced 60% * Major cause of Civil War

Answer 25

Opposition within Russia * Political opposition such as SRs * Anger at Brest-Litovsk * These became the whites * Wanted a western style government Opposition abroad * Allies were angry about Brest-Litovsk * Worried about communism spreading * Japan sent 70,000 troops to Siberia * Britain sent £100 million to whites

Answer 26

* Made up of several groups on several fronts with no clear goal * Wrangel, Denikin, Yudenich, Kolchack each wanted personal control * Mutual mistrust * Reds were a tightly unified force

Answer 27

* Central area had more railways, population, industry, weapons etc. * Red army was 5.4 million men (1921) from central russia * Whites never had more than 250,000 together * 2.2m rifles from Tsarist stores, 12,000 field guns

Answer 28

* Brilliant organiser * Used 50,000 former Tsarist officers * Harsh military discipline * Used an armoured train for mobile leadership

Answer 29

* Grain requisitioning * Peasants refused to grow excess as it was taken (Production was 37% of what it was in 1913) * Famine of 1921 (No storages of grain) * US sent 1m tonnes of grain and 300 aid workers * 5 million died

Answer 30

* Black market supplied 70% of food * 70% of Petrograds population fled, 50% of Moscow * 4:3:2:1 Rationing * Many anti-communists fled Russia * Strikes = execution

Answer 31

* Sailors previously called "reddest of the red" turned against Bolshies * February 1921 mutiny on Petrpavlovsk which spread to whole naval base * 15,000 mutinied

Answer 32

* Put down with 50,000 soldiers * Majority of rebels killed or exiled * 800 fled to Finland * Made Lenin realise War Communism was not working * Led to NEP March 1921

Answer 33

* Industry 60% of 1913 * 40% of industrial areas lost in B-L * 1919 workers can be moved sectors * 1920 anyone of age could be made to work for state

Answer 34

* Peasants only had enough to feed themselves * 1918 state collecting less than 1m tonnes of grain * by 1920 6m (still too little)

Answer 35

* Peasants in Tambov rebelled and killed requisitioning squads * 50,000 troops sent * Other rebellions cost reds 250k men

Answer 36

* Famine in the Volga region killed 5mil and affected 20mil * Hopes that NEP would restart economy * Element of private ownership would provide incentive for small bussiness * Needed food supply for cities and to increase farm production

Answer 37

* Bolsheviks could not blame Whites for suffering * 1920, 75% of Petrograd factories striking * Tambov uprising and Krostandt revolt

Answer 38

* 10th party congress March 1921 * Free market, no requisition squads * Factories with <20 workers privatised * Experts, 1920-25 20k experts brought from US and Canada * Money * Traders introduced called Nepmen

Answer 39

* Increased production but only to pre-WW1 levels * Few industries reached 1913 production * Grain from 50 to 72 mil tonnes but still not back to 80mil in 1913 * By 1925 Russias imports 9x higher than 1921-22 * Pig iron production in tonnes: 1913 (4 mil), 1921 (0.1 mil), 1925 (1mil)

Answer 40

* NEP was based on prodnalog, a grain tax * Taxed grain in 1922 was 1/2 of volume taken in requisitioning in 1920 * Redistribution meant that by 1927 there were 25m peasant holdings and many earned decent livings * 1928, 5.5m households still used sokha (strip farming)

Answer 41

* 1923 food production meant prices in cities declined * Low industrial production meant high prices of goods * Peasants refused to sell grain as they could not buy goods * Trotsky called it the scissor crisis as food production went down and industry prices went up

Answer 42

* Emergence of Kulaks and Nepmen highly unpopular * Steps taken in 1925 to curb their profits * Old bolsheviks felt it was a betrayal - Kamenev "New Exploitation of the Proletariate" * Lenin had to ban all inter-party groups

Answer 43

* Lenin aimed to have a working light bulb in every Russian household * 1921, 50% of Russian trains off tracks due to damage and lack of workers * 1923, rail system carried 45% more passengers and 59% more goods * 1927 number of passengers and goods passed 1913 levels

Answer 44

1. Personal - He was modest, a powerful speaker, decisive and a superb organiser and planner 2. He was decisive and was clear in shaping the Communist government 3. Without him, there would not have been a revolution in 1917. He persuaded other Bolsheviks to seize power 4. It was largely due to Lenin that the Communists were able to stay in power after 1917 e.g. abandoning War Communism and introducing the NEP 5. He began to allow more freedoms after 1921. Arguments made for him having to use the Cheka to stop chaos.

Answer 45

1. He seized power with a small group which led to a dictatorship 2. He would not share power with other socialists which made the Civil War worse 3. He was ruthless and used methods of terror to stay in charge. Tens of thousands were murdered by the Cheka 4. He stopped other people expressing their opinions. A ban on political parties, no elections, only Communist newspapers and religion was banned 5. He made the Communist Party an organisation for carrying out orders. Members could not disagree with each other 6. He was prepared to see millions of Russians suffer for his ideals e.g. the peasants