The Bolsheviks in power, 1917-24

Question 1

What were the early Bolshevik decrees of November-December 1917?

Answer 1

• Bolsheviks passed decrees at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in November 1917 to live up to their promises
  1- Decree in Peace (8 Nov 1917)
  2- Decree on Land (8 Nov 1917)
  3- Decree on worker’s rights (Nov-Dec 1917)
  4- Decree on Nationalities (Nov 1917)

Question 2

Explain the Decree in Peace (8 Nov 1917)

Answer 2

• all countries should seek peace

- peace to be achieved without annexations (land seized) or indemnities (large fines)

Question 3

Explain the Decree on Land (8 Nov 1917)

Answer 3

• land taken from wealthy landowner now belonged to peasants
• In December, Church land was nationalised, too

Question 4

Explain the Decrees in worker’s rights (Nov-Dec 1917)

Answer 4

• Decree on work - 8-hour day
• Decree on unemployment - unemployment insurance for those unable to work
• Decree on Workers’ Control - worker’s’ committees now ran their own factories

Question 5

Explain the Decree in Nationalities (Nov 1917)

Answer 5

• All different people of old Russian Empire could have their own governments
• However, these governments remained under Bolshevik control

Question 6

Why was the Constituent Assembly abolished?

Answer 6

• Lenin had promised to hold a general election for the Constituent Assembly: however, the SRs won with 53% of the vote. The Bolsheviks got only 24%
• The Bolsheviks then declared that a return to parliamentary democracy was a backwards step when Russia already had Soviets
• The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly after the election was on 5 Jan 1918. It refused to pass the Bolsheviks’ key decrees or accept the principle of all power to the soviets
• After one day, Lenin ordered the Red Guard to shut it down. It never reopened.
• Soon after, all political parties apart from the Bolsheviks were banned

Question 7

Who was the Cheka and what would they do?

Answer 7

• On 7 Dec 1917, Lenin set up the Cheka - the Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation
• Lenin said that the revolution was under threat from the class enemies of the workers and peasants - the bourgeoisie ( people who had been middle class or upper class before the October Revolution
• Bolshevik supporters often attacked anyone they suspected of being a burzhui (bourgeoisie). It was easy to denounce people to the Cheka as being burzhui: they would be arrested and their houses + property could then be taken by poor people
• the Cheka became the main way in which the Bolsheviks used terror to consolidate their hold over Russia and the countries of the old empire.

Question 8

Why was the Tsar and his family executed?

Answer 8

• Former Tsar, Nicholas and his family were kept as prisoners by the Bolsheviks. In 1918 they were held in Yekaterinburg, the aural mountains.
• Nicholas and the royal family were a potential threat to Bolshevik power. Monarchist could use them to rally support for a counter-revolution
• On 17th July 1918, as anti-Bolshevik forces were closing in on Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks executed Nicholas, his wife and children, as well as four servants.

Question 9

What were the reasons for the need to make peace with Germany?

Answer 9

1 - Many Bolshevik supporters were soldiers and sailors who were desperate for an end to war and a ‘breathing space’ as Lenin had promised
2 - Lenin said, ‘ We must make sure of throttling the bourgeoisie and for this we need both hands free.’ Ending the war would mean the Bolsheviks could concentrate all their forces on wiping out political opponents within Russia.
3 - Lenin and Trotsky were certain that there would soon be a revolution in Europe and any treaty they signed with Germany would no longer have any effect

Question 10

How was the treaty of Brest-Litovsk formed?

Answer 10

• Lenin gave Trotsky the responsibility of negotiating a treaty with the Germans. None of the other allies came to the conference
• Trotsky demanded a peace treaty with no losses to Russia. The Germans ended the ceasefire and advanced into Russia. It seemed possible that they would capture Petrograd.
• Russians couldn’t do anything to stop German advance. Lenin demanded that Trotsky get a peace deal at any price.
• The treaty was signed on 3 March 1918

Question 11

What was the significance of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 11

In exchange for peace, Russia lost a huge area of its former western territories: Ukraine and the Baltic provinces, Finland and parts of Poland. It also lost Georgia (Stalin’s homeland’.
This meant the loss of:
- 74% of Russia’s coalmines and iron or
- 50% of its industry
- 26% of its railways
- 27% of its farmland
- 26% of its population: 62 million people
Russia also had to pay the Germans 300 million gold roubles

Question 12

What were the reactions by different groups of people to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 12

Happy:

• Soldier pleased that war had ended, Russian (and Bolsheviks) were relieved that threat of German invasion was over
• Bolsheviks believed that German workers would be disgusted by harsh terms of treaty. This would then be another reason for German workers to rise up in revolution, like the Russian workers.

Unhappy:

• Left SRs walked out of the government in protest at the treaty and then even assassinated the German ambassador, hoping to re-spark the war.
• Nationalists and conservatives were horrified at the losses to Russia and its empire. It became vitally important for many Russians to fight to stop the Bolsheviks, so that Russia could be saved from humiliation and destruction. They began to form into armies, the ‘White armies’, to fight the Bolsheviks, the ‘Red Army’.

Question 13

What were the reasons for the Civil War?

Answer 13

• huge territorial losses from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk appalled many Russians
• Nationalists and conservatives had everything to lose from the Bolshevik’s plans for a workers’ and peasants’ Russia
• Former moderates, Mensheviks and some SRs opposed the Bolshevik dictatorship - they had wanted the Constituent Assembly
• Bolsheviks also made enemies of ‘Czech legion’, 40,000 Czech troops who took control of the Trans-Siberian Railway
• Nationalities within old Russian Empire wanted to break away from Russian control
• Monarchists wanted to reinstate Tsar

Question 14

What were the effects of the Civil War on the Bolsheviks?

Answer 14

• Terror tactics to ensure control. Once they had captured an enemy area the Cheka hunted down any suspected opponents and executed them
• Harsh discipline to ensure obedience. Red Army deserters were shot. If a Red Army unit retreated, one man in every ten would be executed.
• Ideological victory. Winning civil war against so many opponents strengthened the Bolsheviks’ belief In their revolution
• Centralised control. War strengthened Bolsheviks’ belief in highly organised control from the centre
• Russia under threat. Involvement of former allies like France and Britain made Bolsheviks fear foreign invasion

Question 15

What were the key events of the Civil War?

Answer 15

• General Yudenich led a White army from the west, nearly capturing Petrograd but was defeated by the Red Army in October 1919.
• The red army also fought a Green Army made up of peasants and others looking for freedom from government control
• General Denikin led a White army from the south and was close to Moscow before being forced to retreat by the Red Army in 1920.
• Admiral Kolchak led a White army from the east but was beaten by the Red Army in 1919

Question 16

What were the Bolshevik strengths in the civil war which led to their victory?

Answer 16

• War communism: introduced by Lenin to tackle the economic crisis
• Control of central Russia + this meant shorter distances to supply their armies
• Central Russia also contained most of Russia’s population - who could be conscripted into the Red Army
• Control of most of Russia’s industries (for weapons) and railways
• Tactical alliances that meant not having to fight everyone at once
• Effective propaganda: a constant message that only the Bolsheviks would look after ordinary Russians
• Trostky led the Red Army and reintroduced discipline, making it an effective and unified fighting force
• The Red Army - conscription built the army up to a powerful fighting force of over 5 million soldiers

Question 17

What was the role of Trotsky in the Civil War?

Answer 17

• he was appointed Commissar for War in 1918 and was more influential than Lenin in winning the Civil War
• he organised the mobilisation of the Red Army into a huge fighting force
• he realised the Red Army needed experienced ex-tsarist officers and kept their families hostage to ensure loyalty
• his commissars (political officers) kept strict discipline in the army and also spread Bolshevik propaganda
• he encouraged soldiers to learn to read and write and taught them about the aims of the Bolsheviks
• he introduced a Socialist Military Oath for all Red Army soldiers to swear. This was to encourage loyalty to the Bolsheviks

Question 18

What foreign intervention was there during the civil war?

Answer 18

• British, French, Japanese and US soldiers were all sent to help the Whites, and also to defend allied weapons dumps which had originally been sent to help Russia by its WW1 allies
• The foreign interventions helped the Whites for a while, and made them seem stronger than they really were
• Bolsheviks used foreign intervention as propaganda: they urged that Russians should help the Reds prevent the foreign invasions

Question 19

What were the weaknesses of the White in the civil war?

Answer 19

• Geographically very spread out - supplying White armies was difficult
• The Whites did not have large populations to conscript soldiers from; many troops would fight only for their own area
• they didn’t control many industrial areas so supplying armies was more difficult
• They weren’t popular with workers and peasants
• They didn’t share the same aims: monarchists, liberals and left wingers all disagreed about how they would run Russia
• There was no single White leader: instead the leaders competed with each other
• Far fewer Whites than a Reds: maximum 250000 soldiers
• Foreign intervention to aid the whites was a propaganda gift to the Reds

Question 20

What was the Red Terror?

Answer 20

• Lenin introduced the Terror after surviving an assassination attempt by an SR, Fanta Kaplan
• The Bolsheviks called on all workers to report anyone who made any remarks against soviets or their government . These ‘class enemies’ often went to prison camps
• Red Terror grew rapidly in Civil War. As Reds win back areas from White control, the Cheka was sent into the area to arrest anyone suspected of supporting the Whites or helping them in any way. Many were executed
• The Terror was also used in the Red Army. Cheka shot any deserters they recaptured
• Red Terror lasted from September 1918 to February 1919, but in fact its methods never went away under Bolshevik dictatorship

Question 21

What was the role of the Cheka?

Answer 21

• Cheka grew rapidly during Civil War: by 1919 it had 100000 employees
• Cheka had enormous power: after 1918 the Cheka could arrest, imprison, torture or execute anyone they suspected
• It was possible that as many as 12000 people were executed by Cheka between 1918 and 1920

Question 22

What is the timeline for the growth of the Bolshevik dictatorship?

Answer 22

Oct 1917 - Bolsheviks gained power
Nov 1917 - Revolutionary tribunals introduced, replacing courts and lawyers
Dec 1917 - Liberal leaders arrested; non-Bolshevik newspapers banned. The Cheka established
Jan 1918 - Constituent Assembly shut down
Feb 1918 - ‘The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger’ decree (allowed forced labour and execution for those who resisted8
June 1918 - SRs and Mensheviks were arrested
Aug 1918 - Fanya Kaplan tried to assassinate Lenin: he survived being shot
Sept 1918 - Start of the Red Terror
1921 - All other politics parties banned
March 1921 - The Kronstadt mutiny
1922 - Show trial of leading SRs - carried out as an example to others. SRs deported

Question 23

What was the Kronstadt mutiny?

Answer 23

• Kronstadt naval base guarded Petrograd. It’s sailors fought in Feb revolution, July days and Oct revolution
• It was a shock to senior Bolsheviks, therefore, when the Kronstadt sailors rebelled against Soviet gov on 28th Feb 1921
• Like many former Bolsheviks, the sailors were sick of War communism, the way Bolsheviks requisitioned food, the Red Terror and the lack of political freedom
• Trotsky sent 50000 Red Army soldiers to take back base
• There was fierce fighting and it took until 17 March for sailors to be defeated: 500 were executed by Cheka
• The Kronstadt Mutiny did undermine the Bolsheviks’ claim to be acting for the working class and peasants. There were more protests against Bolshevik dictatorship and calls for ‘soviets without Bolsheviks’

Question 24

What was the communist party in control of?

Answer 24

• Bolsheviks called themselves the communist party from 1918, and believed that the state should control the economy, society and culture of the Soviet Union from the centre
• Members of Communist Party would elect Party Congress who decided the policies of the party
• The Party Congress would elect the Central Committee who would run the different areas of the party
• The Central Committee would elect the Politburo who would make the big decisions for the party
  Only Communist Party members could stand in elections - so they were also in charge of the Soviet government

Question 25

What was the Soviet government in control of?

Answer 25

• Only Communist Party members could stand in elections
• The elected local soviets would elect the All-Russian Congress of Soviets who would make the national laws
• The All-Russian Congress of Soviets would elect the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) who would run the gov departments

Question 26

How did Bolshevik centralisation occur?

Answer 26

• The Communist Party was the only political party. There was no political choice
• The All-Russian Congress of Soviets became a ‘rubber stamp’: it simply agreed whatever the gov told it to do. This made the Soviet Union a centralised dictatorship
• In 1919, the Communist Party elected a 5-man Politburo; the 5 members were Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin
• This became a central committee that decided party policy. Their decisions determined what happened in the Soviet Union. Ultimately, the soviets had no power at all

Question 27

What did the Setting up of the USSR consist of?

Answer 27

• 1924 - lands of old Russian Empire reorganised into USSR
• The USSR was initially made up of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), the Belorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR.
• the communist parties that ran the other republics all followed the order of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) - the new name for the Communist Party from 1925-led from Moscow
• The parliament met infrequently, had very little power and all decisions were controlled by the party

Question 28

What were the Features of War Communism?

Answer 28

• introduced in 1918 - it put Russian economy under gov control - Lenin believed it was necessary if Bolsheviks were to win Civil War
  Meant everything in economy was geared to meeting the needs of the military first.
• Peasants not allowed to sell their crops. Cheka requisitioned their crops fro a fixed low prices and left peasants a small amount for their own needs (so peasants tried to hid grain and if they were suspected they would be shot)
• Industries were nationalised and given production targets by gov (targeted for military needs and so production for consumers was not a priority)
• People’s rights + freedoms were restricted: strikes were banned and any suspected political opposition was dealt with by Cheka (Red terror) - (opposition continued to increase e.g. the Kronstadt Muntiny)
• Money was abolished and people were paid in kind (paid in good and services rather than cash). Labour was also conscripted; the gov forced people to work

Question 29

What were the reasons for War Communism?

Answer 29

The Bolsheviks needed control over industry to supply Red Army with weapons and resources:

• Transport problems meant industries didn’t get the raw materials they needed
• Workers started to leave the cities-either going into Red Army or returning to villages to find food
• After Oct revolution, banks stopped lending money to the gov or industries
• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk meant the loss of 40% of Russia’s industries

The Bolsheviks needed control over food supply in order to feed soldiers and workers:

• The collapse in industrial production meant there was nothing for the peasants to buy, so they stopped growing crops to sell to the cities
• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk meant the loss of major food production regions
• The Whites co trolled some key agricultural regions

Question 30

What were the Consequences of War Communism?

Answer 30

• In 1920, farm production had fallen to 37% of 1913 levels
• The no.s of people working in factories fell by half, and production halved too
• Food shortages turned into famine. People were dying from starvation: in some areas people resorted to cannibalism
• Industries were producing almost no consumer goods, increasing hardships in the cities
• A black market developed: an illegal way of finding the consumer products and food that people needed, for high prices
• In areas that the Reds did not control, and where money continued to be used, prices rose
  Overall, War Communism was an economic disaster and deeply unpopular, and it had to be abandoned.

Question 31

What political crisis was there over War communism?

Answer 31

• Factory workers organised protests and strikes over their falling living standards and lack of food. The Kronstadt Mutiny was linked to strikes in Petrograd: strikers had come to naval base to ask for elk
• Communist Party members protested at the way they were excluded from decisions
• There was a peasant uprising in Tambov Province

War Communism was unpopular, but the Communist Party was able to blame a lot on the Whites and their occupation of farming and oil regions

Question 32

What were the reasons for the NEP?

Answer 32

The main reasons for the implementation of NEP in 1921 were:
1 - the disastrous economic consequences of War Communism
2 - the political opposition caused by War Communism
Lenin recognised that the drive to socialism had been too fast and too rigorous

Question 33

What were the features of the NEP?

Answer 33

War Communism had introduced socialist features to the USSR. NEP reversed these:

• The free market was reintroduced. Now peasants could sell their produce and decide what price to sell it at.
• The state stopped requisitioning grain and other crops from the peasants: now peasants paid tax on what they sold
• money was reintroduced; workers were paid wages again
• The state kept control of big factories, but small businesses and farms could be privately owned and run to make a profit
• Foreign experts were brought in to improve how factories were run. These experts were paid more than ordinary workers.

Question 34

What were the economic effects of the NEP?

Answer 34

1- Agricultural production increased as peasants began to produce more. Grain production in 1921 was 37 million tonnes. By 1923 it was 56 million tonnes (although it had been 80 million tonnes in 1913).
2- Industrial growth increased, but more slowly. The shortage of industrial products kept them expensive while food became cheaper. This was called the ‘scissors crisis’. It meant peasants stopped producing so much food, leading to fears of more famine. The government cut prices for industrial products.
3- Some traders (NEP-men, NEP-women) made profits from the shortages of food and manufactured goods. Wealthier peasants also did well as they had the most surplus produce to sell. But this led to inequality within the USSR, which was not socialist.

Question 35

What were the reactions to the NEP?

Answer 35

For
- NEP was popular with peasants and traders. Although wealthier peasants did best from NEP, all peasants preferred the freedom to sell what they wanted rather than see the state requisition almost everything they produced.

Against
- Many Communist Party members didn’t like NEP as it was a backwards step that seemed to bring capitalism back to the USSR. It also gave the peasants what they wanted at the expense of the workers.

Question 36

What was the impact of Bolshevik policies on women from 1918 - 1924?

Answer 36

1917 - Women declared equal to men. ‘Post-card divorces’ made divorce easier. Non-religious marriage introduced.

• Bolsheviks wanted to liberate women from oppression by men
• ‘Post-card divorces’ cost 3 roubles and other partner was informed by post

1919- Zhenotdel, a women’s organisation, was set up to increase freedom, equality and influence of women

• leader of Zhenotdel - Alexandra Kollintai
• her influence was limited as she opposed Lenin by demanding more democracy in the Communist Party.
• she became first woman ambassador; however very few other women were promoted to top gov positions

1920 - Abortion made legal. Women’s literacy increased with Civil War literacy campaigns
- in spite of improvements in women’s rights under NEP, the no. of crèches declined, as did factory work for women, and they were still expected to do all domestic work, even if they had a job as well

Question 37

What were the Communist education polices, 1921 - 24?

Answer 37

• Co-education was introduced as a way of reducing discrimination against women
• there was a major literacy drive in the Red Army
• Peasants were encouraged to read and write
• By 1926, about 58% of the population was literate, a big increase from before the revolution

Although literacy rates increased, it was difficult for the Communist Party to make as much progress as it wanted, as economic problems limited investment

Question 38

What were the Communist cultural polices, 1921-24?

Answer 38

• Communist Party understood power of propaganda in convincing people to support their revolution
• Agitprop was party’s propaganda wing
• it used art, literature, film and music to promote communist ideas and portray the USSR’S communist future

1920s was a time of great artistic freedom as artists experimented with different ways to represent communism.
But the Communist Party made the state department Glavlit censor all artists, which ensured that all art forms showed communism in an accessibility and very positive way, called ‘socialist realism’