Russia: DP1 - the impact of the Bolshevik consolidation of power, including the creation of the USSR Flashcards
Summary
The Bolshevik consolidation of power was a turbulent period that had an immense impact on Russian society requiring the Bolsheviks to adapt and implement a series of tactics and methods. What was once an industrially backwards autocratic nation with 90% of the population being peasants under the Tsarist regime went through great conflict and radical policy changes under Lenin’s regime and revolution with the creation of the USSR. Lenin’s pragmatic leadership and their success dealing with opposition to the Party through instruments of terror to suppress anti-revolutionaries and the creation of the USSR. These events had monumental impacts on society as did the policies under the Bolshevik regime regarding education, women, religion, and culture.
Key points in the opposition to the Bolsheviks and Bolshevik victory
- Opposition: foreign intervention, internal divisions, “white Russian” resistance groups, Mensheviks, socialist-revolutionaries, Tsarist supporters
- Won the C.W. due to their pragmatic introduction of socialism rather than strict ideological conformity.
- Lenin purged “radishes” (political opp.)
- Promise of PeaceTreaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) saved from impacts of Versailles T.
- Bolsheviks used nationalism and patriotism to unite the people with unity of purpose.
- Red Army (1918), Cheka – instruments of terror, prevented counter-revolutionary activity
- “Peace, land and bread” slogan, Decree on Land, establishment fo the All Russian Council of Supply
Key points regarding War Communism (1918-1920)
- Vesenkha established to nationalise industry, finance and agriculture, policies to mobilise manpower in C.W.
- Conscription to the Red Army, food rationing, “Communist Sundays”, labour camps established for counter-revolutionaries
- “He who does not work, shall not eat”
Key points regarding the New Economic Policy (NEP) (1921 onwards)
- NEP (1921) aimed to solve economic crisis
- Bolshevik management was pragmatic not ideological, the economic policies reflected the parlous state of the nation rather than commitment to ideological reform
Key points regarding the Scissor Crisis of the NEP (1923)
- Agricultural prices halved
- Prices of manufactured goods more than tripled between 1913 and 1925, scarcity
- Policies introduced to rationalise industry, cracking down on profiteering traders, and establishing trading cooperatives
- Historian Hosking states it “restored some equilibrium to rural-urban trade and consumerism”
- Bolsheviks experienced loss of support due to dispersion post C.W
- NEP regained some support
Key points regarding the creation of the USSR (1922)
- Signified thé establishment of a true Bolshevik state, demonstrating their overwhelming control.
- Stalin claimed it would fight international capitalism echoing Trosky’s ambitions for world wide ideological domination
Concluding statement
Solidified the compounding significance of the early political and social reforms and decisions that solidified and represented their immense control over the nation as the uncontested dominant political force.
Policy changes and details regarding women’s rights the Bolsheviks implemented
- Women suffered under oppressive class family structure Tsarist regime
- Bolshevik leader Kollontai aimed to dissolve the bourgeois family
- Removal of traditional restrictions on contraception, marriage, abortion and divorce
- State was to support female workers through maternal services, childcare and welfare services.
- Kommunistka journal – propaganda, woman working tirelessly at her duties
- Radical demands failed
Policy changes and details regarding education the Bolsheviks implemented
- Free of charge public education system, transforming them into working members, developing personalities.
- Secular views introduced, children indoctrinated to Bolshevik ideology
- School participation increased
- Focus on the collective community
Policy changes and details regarding culture the Bolsheviks implemented
- Propaganda needed to instil true revolutionary beliefs as most illiterate
- Arts moved towards social realism and the glorification of Bolshevik leaders
- Prolekult movement, rejected bourgeois creating a culture of the proletariat
- Industry and science prioritised
Policy changes and details regarding religion the Bolsheviks implemented
- Secularisation of Soviet society
- “State atheism”, religious teaching illegal
- Destruction and confiscation of Christian iconography
- Secular anniversaries replaced religious ones
- Some practises did remain (xmas, Easter)
