The Communist Dictatorship

Question 1

The early months of Bolshevism 1917-1918
What did the Bolsheviks overcome
What did they prevent
What dissolved in Jan 1918

Answer 1

• stokes and protests from the working class in cities were soviets were favoured
• prevented other political parties (expect left wing SRs)from sharing power and issues decree designed to win support for the new regime
• the constituent assembly

Question 2

When was tsar Nicholas murdered 
When was the communist party recognised 
When was ban of factions introduced 
When did the nomenklatura system come into place 
When did Lenin die

Answer 2

July 1918 
1919 
1921 
1923 
1924

Question 3

Name the early decrees of the Bolsheviks party in the months October, November, December 1917 and January and February 1918

Answer 3

October 1917
- maximum 8 hour day
- ban on opposition press
- decrees on land and peace
- social insurance allowed old age, health and unemployment benefits
November 1917
- rights of people of Russia decree gives self determination to minorities in empire
- workers controlled factories
- abolition of legal system
- women given the same rights as men to own property
- abolition of titles and class ranks
December 1917
- Cheka establish
- church land nationalised
-banks nationalised
- marriage and divorce out of the hands of the church
- army placed under control of army soviet - offices to be elected and ranks abolished
January 1918
-Workers contorted railways, the red army established, church and state separated
February
- nationalisation of industry
- socialisation of land

Question 4

Who were the whites
Why were they created
Why did the USA Britain and France give support to the whites

Answer 4

Opposition the the Bolsheviks ‘reds’ insisted of both right and left wing political groups. Eg- ex tsarist, conservatives, ethnic minorities, moderates and liberals, social revolutionaries and other moderate socialists.

Anger towards Brest- litovsk and existing political opposition.

• ideological, they opposed communism
• to desire to force Russia back into the fight against Germany
• to defend their own interests in Russia ( the Bolsheviks refused to pay back any money from tsarist times and nationalise foreign own industries)

Question 5

When was the FSFSR proclaimed and what did it state

What was the congress responsible for

Answer 5

July 1918
This stated that supreme power rested with the all Russian congress of soviets which was. Add up of deputies from elected local soviets across Russia.
Responsible for electing the sovnarkom for the purpose of the ‘general administration of the affairs of the state’

Question 6

Despite the constitution looking highly democratic what were the limitations

Answer 6

• the votes were reserved for the toiling measures, the exploring classes were excluded from voting or holding public office
• in the election of the all Russia congress the workers vote was weighed in the proportion of 5 to 1 against the peasants
• while the sovnarkom was officially appointed by the congress it was in practice chosen by the Bolsheviks communist party’s central committee
• the congress was only to meet at intervals so the executive authority remained in the hands of the sovnarkom
• the structure was centralised and the real focus of power was the party.

Question 7

Where did the spark of the civil war come from

Where did the Bolsheviks move the capital to

Answer 7

From an outburst by the Czech Legion in western Siberia in may. A group formed by Czech nationalists. By 1918- 45,000 soldiers . In march 1918 the Bolsheviks gave permissions for the soldiers to fight enemies on the western front, as they travelled through the trans- Siberian railway some soldiers were arrested by Bolshevik officials and the fighting broke out. With this they abandoned previous plans and joined the anti Bolsheviks and began to advance westwards towards Moscow .three years of fighting followed.

Moscow

Question 8

What happened to the tsar and his family in 1918

Answer 8

Murdered in Yekaterinburg in the Urals
In theory this was carried out by over-zealous local soviets officials afraid that the tsar would return by the white army. In practice it is extremely unlikely that Lenin did not authorise these assassinations - their bodies were drenched in acid and thrown into a disused mine shaft

Question 9

Why did the Bolsheviks victory in the civil war

Answer 9

Geography- the reds commanded the hubs of communication, the armament factories and the most densely populated regions of central Russia, the whites were widely dispersed in less developed parts.
Unity and organisation- whites generally operated independently and fought for different objectives. The reds had a unified command structure.
Leadership- the red army came extremely disciplined under Trotsky’s leadership. The whites had few competent and I’ll discipline was rife.
Support - although peasant support varied, generally red land policies prevailed over the whites associated with traditional tsarists polices
Other - hostility to foreign involvement gave the reds a propaganda platform.

Question 10

What was the treaty of Riga

Answer 10

Granted Poland’s self rule along with Glacia and parts of Belorussia after they defeated the red army. The independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was also confirmed.

Question 11

Where were actual policies and decisions shaped
What was the politiburo and when was it created
What did the creation of this mean

Answer 11

The central committee

• 1919 this became the real centre for party policies. The first elected politburo included Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin 7-9 men
• the sovnarkom met less frequently. Further it was declared that the local soviets should only consists of party members.

Question 12

What was the nomenklatura

Answer 12

A category of people who held key administrative positions In the government, industry, agriculture and education and whose positions were granted only with the approval of the communist party in the region
1923- official list of 5500 key party and government posts were drawn up. This was to ensure that people in key positions were trustworthy

Question 13

What did Lenin’s ban on factions mean

Answer 13

It was difficult to criticise the party decisions anywhere in the party structure.

Question 14

What post became available in 1922

Answer 14

General secretary- filled by Stalin and was the only member to have a seat in the politiburo and the orgburo

Question 15

What was the orgburo

Answer 15

1919- to supervise the work of local party committees and to supervise the permanent secretariat which was concerned with day to day running of the party

Question 16

What was democratic centralism

What was this combined with

Answer 16

The communist idea of democracy was that because workers and peasants elected members of the local soviet who elected who sat in higher seats such as the all Russian congress of soviets they therefore exerted an influence on policy decisions.

Centralism - because the central authorities passed decisions down to the masses

Question 17

What impact did the civil war have on national minorities

Answer 17

The communists government banned its earlier support for national a self determination in the decree promised November 1917
Independent movements were denounced as ‘counter revolutionary’ in 1922 demands for greater independence in Georgia were crushed on the orders of Stalin.

Question 18

What impact did the civil war have on the 1922 constitution

Answer 18

The constitution was changed and the USSR was established in December 1922 replacing the RSFSR. In practice the difference was minimal. The states which mirrored up the union were kept under strict Control

Question 19

What was the political structure of the communist state under Stalin

Answer 19

The structure ‘rule by one party and centralised control’ were extended by Stalin who asserted a dominant personal influence.
Control was ensured through parallel structure and the dual membership of party and government officials held by trusted members of the nomenklatura.
Party congresses were called less frequently

Question 20

How many times did the party congress meet between 1924 and1952

Answer 20

90 times

Question 21

Who did Stalin prefer to work with

How did an expansion of party membership begin

Who were the new members

Answer 21

• Personally selected committees rather than the full politiburo
• began with the ‘Lenin enrolment’ 1924-25. The party almost doubled its membership to one million. Further extensions increased membership to 1,677,910 by 1930 and 3,555,338 by 1933. Although there was a decrease during the great purges.
• younger and less well educated urban workers and ex peasants who were less interested in ideology and more interested in their career

Question 22

What did Trotsky identify in his book ‘Revolution betrayed” in 1936 about Stalin

Answer 22

Identified the bureaucratised society that had emerged as a result of stalin’s centralism

Question 23

What was the 1936 constitution and its promises

Answer 23

New constitution drafted by Bukharin
Lenin claimed to be “the most democratic in the world”
Proclaimed the USSR was made up of 11 soviet republics, each republic had its own supreme soviet.
It promised
-local autonomy to ethnic groups and support for national cultures and languages.
- 4 yearly elections with the right to vote for all over 18 including former people
- freedom from arbitrary arrest and the right to free speech

Question 24

How was the 1936 constitution contradictory

Answer 24

• the constitution acknowledged the right of any republic to leave the union, when party leaders in Georgia allegedly planned sessions in 1951, they were purged
• elections were not contested so the right to vote was just to affirm a choice of representative.

Question 25

What was stalins cult of personality

What did this lead Stalin to be referred to as

Answer 25

Promoting an image of himself that helped to inspire confidence during a period of rapid change.
Painting, pictures, posters and sculptures were produced to glorify stalins role as the mighty leader.
His cult was fully established in the years 1933-39 although it did not reach its height till after the Second World War.
The history of the all union communist party was published as the main history text book for institutions in 1938, Trotsky and other communists were portrayed as “enemies of the people”

The red tsar - many were convinced he would look after there interests and any fault in the system was a fault of the lesser officials. He was regarded as a gold like figure, and his portrait was carried and displayed in the manor of a religious icon

Question 26

How was stalins rule different to that of Lenin’s

Was stalin invisible ?

Answer 26

Stalins rule was a personal rule, where he was above the party and no longer depended on it. The atmosphere of crisis brought around by Stalin enforced collectivisation and his new economic plans for the industry helped increase his power.

No others still might act against him. He was out voted in the politburo to replace yezhov with malenkov as head of NKVD.