Terror and Opposition under Lenin

Question 1

What were the 3 types of opposition the Bolsheviks initially faced?

Answer 1

1. other political groups
2. opponents throughout the empire e.g. peasants/former tsarist officers
3. perceived ideological opponents, the burzhui

Question 2

What happened with their political opposition in Petrograd in October 1917?

Answer 2

Mensh & SR opposition walked out of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, leaving a Bolshevik monopoly

Question 3

What happened on the 27th October 1917?

Answer 3

The sovnarkom banned opposition press and ordered the arrest of Cadet/Mensh/Sr leaders

Question 4

What happened in December 1917?

Answer 4

The cheka was established under Dzerzhinsky

Question 5

What, alongside the creation of the cheka, did the Bolsheviks use to consolidate power?

Answer 5

The dismissal of the constituent assembly in Jan 1918 and the extension of the Red Army to deal with rebellion

Question 6

What happened in regards to class warfare in the early years of Bolshevism?

Answer 6

Bourgeois property confiscated, social privilege ended and discriminatory taxes levied on burzhui, as well as ideological opponents being arrested/exiled/executed.

Question 7

What happened during the Civil War (1918-1920)

Answer 7

The Red Terror

Question 8

What sparked the Red Terror?

Answer 8

An attempt on Lenin’s life was an excuse for the cheka to round of thousands of bourgeoise people, with confessions & names of accomplices stained by torture

Question 9

What did the Sovnarkom give the cheka permission to do in September 1918?

Answer 9

the authority to find, question, arrest and destroy the families of all suspected traitors - commonly these were SRs/Mensh who were all branded traitors

Question 10

How many SR/Mensh party members were shot in Petrograd for being ‘traitors’?

Answer 10

500

Question 11

Why did the Red Terror escalate?

Answer 11

Because zealous local cheka agents sought incriminations and discovered hidden (imaginary) opponents

Question 12

When was Tsar Nicholas II and his family murdered?

Answer 12

17th July 1918

Question 13

What groups of people suffered particularly badly during the Red Terror?

Answer 13

Merchants, professors, prostitutes, peasants (especially kulaks), as well as priests, Jews, Catholics and Muslims

Question 14

How many priests were executed in 1921?

Answer 14

8,000

Question 15

What was the official death figure of the Red Terror, and what is the realistic one?

Answer 15

official records say 13,000; more likely around 500,000

Question 16

What percentage of Moscow prisons did children make up in 1920?

Answer 16

5%

Question 17

What did the Bolsheviks set up to house all dissident workers & peasants etc.?

Answer 17

labour camps

Question 18

How many people deserted the Red Army in:

• 1918
• 1919
• 1921

Answer 18

• 1 million
• 2 million
• 4 million

Question 19

When did political opposition and Red Terror come to an end?

Answer 19

1921 - 34 SRs were given show trials & made to admit crimes/denounce others

Question 20

What year were the SRs and the Mensheviks outlawed, and what happened to members of the parties?

Answer 20

• Outlawed in 1921
• some executed immediately (500,000 - 1m shot between 1918 and 1921)
• others tortured or sent to labour camps

Question 21

What did Lenin’s concerns turn to by 1921?

Answer 21

Opposition within the Bolshevik party

Question 22

Who led the ‘Workers’ Opposition’ Group and what did they demand?

Answer 22

• Kollontai and Shlyapnikov

- demanded more workers control over their own affairs

Question 23

What did Lenin introduce in 1921?

Answer 23

The ‘ban on factions’ to restore party unity

Question 24

What did the ‘ban on factions’ mean?

Answer 24

All party members had to accept the decisions of the central committee - anyone who opposed was threatened with expulsion

Question 25

What was the status of Russia by 1924?

Answer 25

Highly centralised, authoritarian, one party state