Survey: the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Civil War and the introduction of the New Economic Policy Flashcards
What was the treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)
Lenin and the Bolsheviks see no need to continue what they see as capitalist slaughter, and also see no reason to honour obligations to previous allies. The soviet state was to weak to continue war and with the advancing of Germany and Austria, Russia had to protect their land.
● Lenin demanded peace with Germany ‘whatever the cost’
● Russia lost 62 million of its people
● Lost 32% of its land
● Lost 89% of iron and coal
● Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine were independent from Russia
● Russia had to pay 3 million roubles in reparations
● The Treaty was an aspect that caused the Civil War as many Russians were outraged with the losses
● Allied nations landed troops in Russia to push them back into the war
● The Treaty had no long-term significance, by November 1918 Lenin could ignore it with Germany’s loss
What did Russian civil war include?
The Russian Civil War (1918-1922)
Lasted from middle 1918 – early 1921.
Cost Russia nearly 1,000,000 lives.
Half a million civilians displaced.
Reds (Bolsheviks) vs. Whites (anti-Bolsheviks) vs. Greens (peasant armies protecting their local areas.
Reds outnumbered and facing intervention from Allies and Whites had experienced Generals.
Despite this, the Reds emerged triumphant through War Communism
Victory gives Bolsheviks the opportunity to consolidate power in Russia and establish the first long term communist state
Bolsheviks established system of centralised power, coercion over population and arbitrary bureaucratic power as the norm
What were the reasons for the civil war?
- The bolshevick faced plenty of opposition
- This opposition included rival political parties, social opponents and foreign forces angered with by Russias early exit from WW1
Who were the armies?
The white army:
Composed of groups that opposed the Bolshevik regime
A disorganised force with many different leaders which stretched across large parts of Russia
The red army:
pro-Bolshevik army, efficiently commanded by Trotsky Leon Trotsky
The green army:
An unofficial band of peasants who defended their own interests, fighting against the reds and whites
What was war communisim?
From March 1918, Lenin initiated extreme policies to control the economic and military situation
Aims:
To introduce a new socialist order? Or was it a pragmatic response to the problems of war?
Nature:
State control over economic production, distribution and grain output
Control over manpower
Move from private trade to non-market methods of exchange
Blurring of party and state organisations as Bolshevik party members apply government policies
Accompanied by state terror campaigns and coercive enforcement (e.g. grain requisitions and use of state repression)
To achieve military victory, the army and urban workers supplying the army had to be fed.
Extreme economic policies of war communism introduced.
- All industrial enterprises nationalised under the Vesenkha.
- Imposition of strict labour discipline.
- A strict system of rationing brought in class based.
- End to the market economy.
Grain requisitioning (prodrazverstka).
The Kronstadt revolution?
March 1921 Kronstadt sailors rose up in revolt against Lenin’s government.
Demands revealed anger the impact of War Communism.
Lenin ordered its suppression with whatever brutality was required.
Marked a turning point in the party’s relationship with the people as the idealism and genuine link to the proletariat were destroyed.
Lenin realised there had to be a change in policy direction.
Kronstadt gave birth to the New Economic Policy (NEP).
What was the impact of war communism?
Was successful in terms of keeping workers fed and enabling the Red Army to operate effectively.
Some looked positively on War Communism, believing it looked like the birth of Socialism.
However, it produced a social, economic and humanitarian catastrophe.
Peasants resisted any way they could burning crops, killing livestock etc.
Intensified Cheka violence.
First Soviet Labour Camps appeared during the Civil War
By 1921 ag output plummeted and large-scale starvation swept many areas
B/w 5-8 million people died due to famine
Outline the NEP?
Introduced gradually from March 1921 to the end of 1922, as a replacement to War Communism. Facing rising opposition and rebellion and economic collapse, the NEP was to be a “temporary measure” to ensure the survival of the regime. Overall effect was to create a mixed economy in Soviet Russia, with both a state controlled public sector and a private sector operating on the basis of supply and demand under market forces (elements of capitalism).A ‘limited’ form of capitalism, it makes way for a new class of Nepmen.
- Principal decision at the 10th Party Congress in March 1921 was the introduction of the NEP.
- Russia’s industrial output was 16% of the 1912 level, mining 29%, oil 36% and grain 48%.
- In Petrograd birth rate fell 50% while the death rate increased fourfold.
- NEP was a partial return to capitalism was unpalatable for Bolshevik ideology but necessary in the short term.
4 main elements:
Grain requisitioning was abolished and replaced by a ‘tax in kind’. Some grain had to be given to the state (a smaller amount than during WC), and surpluses could be sold on the open market.
Private trading and the ownership of small businesses became legal.
Heavy industry and systems remained under state control (coal, steel, railways, banking).
Industries under state control after 1921-22 were still expected to trade at a profit. If they failed to manage their budgets, there was no government bail outs.
Short term impacts of NEP?
Within 1 year, there was enough food again. Shops had reopened around the country.
Industry began to recover: up by 200% within 3 years
NEPmen (people who bought up surplus goods and sold them) appeared…the evils of capitalism
Long Term impacts of NEP?
It didn’t address Russia’s main problem of modernising and industrialising the economy.
Leads to extreme tension within the Party, esp. between Lenin and Trotsky. Many believe it is a betrayal of socialist economic principles
Important features of the NEP?
Dramatic and immediate.
Food began to flow into the cities.
Shops and restaurants reopened.
Famine and starvation began to recede.
Peasant opposition ended.
Economic revival through accompanied by rampant corruption.
Private trade fell into the hands of NEPmen who made big profits and became the new bourgeoisie + the kulaks.
Major increase in crime.
Scissor Crisis widening the gap between agricultural and industrial prices.
As agricultural production increased, there was a consequent fall in the price offered for the goods.
Conversely, prices for industrial goods rose because of shortages caused by inefficient production methods and the civil war.
Peasants had to pay more for manufactured goods yet had a lower income from their own produce.
Concern that regime would lose peasant support again.
Upturn of economy in mid-1920’s stabilised the situation.
Overall NEP did not offer an answer to Russia’s long-term development
Summarise the most important aspects?
Lenin’s ruthlessness and Trotsky’s military and organisational skills were crucial in the consolidation of power.
The NEP was crucial as despite victory in the civil war, the Bolsheviks may have been unable to maintain power in the desperate situation they faced in 1921.
The consolidation of Bolshevik power saw the movement to ‘dictatorship of the party’ and away from the claimed ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’.
Lenin was forced to take backward ideology steps leading to centralisation as opposed to the idea of representing the workers ‘democratically’ (all power to the soviets).
Ideology was of major importance to the Bolsheviks; however, they were always ready to compromise on ideology if practical politics made it necessary.
Their prime aim was maintenance of power.
