The Consolidation of the Communist Dictatorship

Question 1

What were three of the main problems the Bolsheviks faced - threatened to end Bolshevik rule?

Answer 1

The war with Germany was still being fought
Bolsheviks had substantial support within the cities but support in the countryside was still limited
The Bolsheviks faced strikes by civil servants who refuses to cooperate with the new government

Question 2

What three other problems did the Bolsheviks faced - threatened to end Bolshevik rule?

Answer 2

The State Bank refused to provide the Bolsheviks with financial support (only agreed under threat of armed invasion)
There were food shortages in the cities
It had to deal with a large number of strikes which were taking place at this time+ combat Kerensky’s forces

Question 3

What did Bolsheviks change within the government in attempt to move away from Russia’s past?

Answer 3

‘Ministers’ were replaced with ‘People’s Commissars’
The Sovnarkom replaced the Cabinet
An Elite from the Bolshevik Central Committee was formalised into the Politburo in 1919

Question 4

When was the Cheka (secret police) established and why?

Answer 4

December 1917 - to begin supressing all political opponents

Question 5

Who headed the Cheka?

Answer 5

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Question 6

How many employees did the Cheka have in March 1918 v 1921?

Answer 6

1918= 120
1921 = 143,000

Question 7

What was introduced by The Cheka?

Answer 7

Labour camps to imprison political prisoners

Question 8

In 1918 alone how many people did the Cheka kill?

Answer 8

50,000

Question 9

What was the outcome of the November Constituent Assembly elections arranged by the PG?

Answer 9

Bolsheviks secured only 24% of the vote and gained only 1/4 of the seats in the Assembly (outvoted by the SR’s who got 53% of the vote)

Question 10

Despite allowing the Constituent Assembly to meet who did Lenin declare they must be subservient to?

Answer 10

The Sovnarkom and the Soviets

Question 11

On the 5th of January what did the members of the Constituent Assembly do?

Answer 11

Rejected Lenin’s demand by a vote of 237 to 137

Question 12

What was Lenin’s response to the Constituent Assembly’s decision?

Answer 12

He ordered the Red Guard to surround the building where they met and deny the elected representatives entry - this effectively brought the Constituent Assembly to an end after one day 5 Jan 1918

Question 13

How did Lenin justify his action of closing the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 13

Claimed he did it to defend democracy
Claimed the election had been based on old party lists which didn’t recognise the difference between left and right SR’s so it didn’t reflect the will of the people

Question 14

What other argument did Lenin give for ending the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 14

The soviets were a form of radical direct democracy but the Constituent Assembly was a form of bourgeois democracy (people only got a vote every 4-5 years)
Therefore the CA was less democratic than his government that was based on the soviets
People away from the capital may know little about Bolsheviks and what was happening (more convincing argument is Lenin didn’t want to be disputed in an elected assembly)

Question 15

What was one of the first measures of the new Bolshevik regime?

Answer 15

October 1917 - Close down all opposition press - first newspapers of the centre and the right and then the socialist press

Question 16

What happened to opposition political parties?

Answer 16

Kadet party (despite doing well in CA elections) was denounced and outlawed - leading Kadets were arrested and two brutally beaten to death by B sailors
Mensheviks and right SR's imprisoned

Question 17

What did Lenin actively encourage as a means of intimidating middle classes?

Answer 17

Class warfare - started with Kadets as leaders of bourgeois counter-revolution

Question 18

What did the Bolsheviks then abolish?

Answer 18

The legal justice system and replaced it with revolutionary justice - violent in nature

Question 19

What was example of class warfare?

Answer 19

Anyone accused of being Bourgeois was liable to be arrested
Any well dressed person on the street could be accused of being bourgeois and if not arrested could be beaten and robbed
Abolition of titles and use of ‘comrade’ to address people

Question 20

What did the socialist press encourage?

Answer 20

The perception of the bourgeouis as ‘enemies of the people’ and encouraged people to ‘loot the looters’

Question 21

What had the majority of people been in favour of rather than one party rule so what pressure did this build?

Answer 21

Soviet power - railway men backed by the post and telegraph union threatened to cut off communications if Bolsheviks didn’t hold talks with other parties

Question 22

What did Lenin have to do as a result of the pressure?

Answer 22

Forced him to send representatives to talks about power-sharing government with other parties
Unwillingly allow the planned CA elections to go on in November

Question 23

Which Bolsheviks supported the idea of shared power government and why - what did they do?

Answer 23

Leading Bolsheviks including Kamenev and Zinoviev believed isolated Bolshevik party would have to maintain itself by terror and be destroyed by an inevitable civil war - temporarily resigned when they learned Lenin wasn’t serious about a coalition

Question 24

After engineering the collapse of talks how did Lenin solve the one party rule problem?

Answer 24

Made an alliance with the left SR’s and made them junior partners of the Sovnarkom so could claim to represent a large section of peasantry

Question 25

How did the Bolsheviks deal with opposition to the closing of the CA?

Answer 25

Crowd of demonstrators was fired on by Sovnarkom and 12 killed (first time soldiers fired o unarmed demonstrators since Feb 1917)

Question 26

How did Lenin’s government based on ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ make it difficult for other parties to exist?

Answer 26

Decree on press October 1917 = couldn’t publish own newspapers
Bourgeois lost ability to vote in new social government structure July 1918
1921 all other political parties were banned

Question 27

What was the role of the Cheka?

Answer 27

During civil war = protect communist rule
Helped red army take grain from peasants (war communism)
Used extreme violence against enemies of the Communist party
Priests crucified and white army members frozen
Imprisoned opposers and killed people who refused to fight
Ran concentration camps
Closed down socialist newspapers

Question 28

What was the Red Terror?

Answer 28

Period of political repression and mass killings carried out by Bolsheviks after beginning of civil war

Question 29

Who did the Cheka target?

Answer 29

Counter-revolutionaries / anti-communists
Socialists
Priests
White soldiers

Question 30

Within the Cheka what was the Red Army responsible for?

Answer 30

Defending and enlarging communist held territory

In 1918 Cheka and Red Army closed down the CA

Question 31

What happened after the civil war regarding the Cheka?

Answer 31

Red terror brought to an end

Socialism hadn’t worked so still a need for Cheka - continued to attack government opponents during the NEP

Question 32

In 1922 what did Lenin order Dzerzhinsky to do?

Answer 32

Set up an agency within the GPU to monitor the press

To supervise the deportation of professors and engineers who were suspected of anti-communist ideas

Question 33

What else did the GPU?

Answer 33

Kept former tsarist officers, who now served in the red army under control

Question 34

What three other things did the GPU do?

Answer 34

Had power to intercept the mail and other forms of communication
Send surveillance reports to central committee
Reported to Central Committee abut drunkenness, gambling and any signs of inequality

Question 35

Why did Lenin organise political trials and what happened?

Answer 35

Insecure about future of revolution - ordered Dzerzhinsky to set up political trials of leading social opponents (SR leaders) , they were accused of treason, sabotage and plotting to other-throw soviet state at end of trial in August 1922 all defendants were sentenced to death

Question 36

What were some of the consequences of religious, moral and economic crimes?

Answer 36

Imprisoned NEP men who had grown too rich
Harassed women who dressed in western styles
Persecuted young people who listened and danced to Jazz
Persecuted Priests

Question 37

What military problem did the Bolsheviks initially?

Answer 37

Since many soldiers from the Petrograd garrison returned to their homes in the countryside immediately after the revolution and Lenin had no direct contact with troops at the front, his forces were smaller in number than those of his opponents

Question 38

What was the Sovnarkom?

Answer 38

The cabinet, made up of key government ministers who, between them, would run the country

Question 39

What claim did the Bolsheviks come to power on?

Answer 39

That they were acting in the interests of the proletariat

They encouraged people to think the Oct/Nov revolution was a popular rising

Question 40

What was Lenin’s view on democracy?

Answer 40

Democracy in the way it is defined in western 'liberal democracies' like Britain was alien to Lenin
For Lenin - trying to compete for votes of ordinary citizens and allowing other views to exist and policy to emerge through discuss belonged to an old class ridden world

Question 41

What was Lenin convinced that the establishment of a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ (first step to true socialism) would require?

Answer 41

The active repression of 'counter-revolutionary' elements 
Driven by Marxist ideology he argued that 'revolutionary mortality' justified strong action - he had always been ruthless as he believed the Bolsheviks were acting in the interests of the working class which was all the authority he needed.

Question 42

Why did Lenin allow elections for a Constituent Assembly go ahead in November and how many people voted?

Answer 42

He had previously attacked Kerensky for postponing them

Over 41 million votes were cast in the election

Question 43

What had happened by the time the CA met on 5th Jan 1918 and who chaired the meeting?

Answer 43

The Kadet’s had been outlawed for expressing approval of Alexei Kaledin (a Cossack general who had begun a counter-revolutionary rebellion in the Don region)
Bolsheviks proposed it be chaired by a left-wing SR (Maria Spirindovna) but were over-ruled by the right wing SRs majority who chose Victor Chernov

Question 44

What was the reaction to the CA being closed and what were these actions viewed as?

Answer 44

Civilians demonstrated against this action and they were fired on with 12 being killed
Although these actions seemed to contradict Marxist ideology ‘power to the people’, Lenin had written for the need of a strong party to provide for the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ and crush any bourgeoise attitudes that remained after revolution

Question 45

What did Lenin claim government represented?

Answer 45

The ‘people’ and a higher form of ‘democracy’ but some Bolsheviks and some foreign socialists expressed concern at Lenin’s actions

Question 46

Who lost what in July 1918?

Answer 46

The Bourgeoise (including employers, priests anyone viewed as ‘middle class’ or anyone the Bolsheviks mistrusted) lost the right to vote in the new socialist government structure

Question 47

What was banned in 1921?

Answer 47

All other political parties

Question 48

What did the dissolution of the CA show?

Answer 48

The disregard for other political parties - it was made increasingly difficult for groups like Mensheviks and SRs to exist at all
Showed how the Bolsheviks understood what a government based on ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’ would mean

Question 49

What happened in January and March 1918?

Answer 49

Jan - workers put in charge of railways and the old Red Guards were demobilised and a new Red Army of workers and peasants was formed to protect the regime (Red Guard were the base of the new army)
March 1918 - Trotsky placed at the head of the army and the capital was transferred to Moscow to be more central

Question 50

What happened to the Church?

Answer 50

The Church and the state were also separated- religion was not banned but Russia became a secular state with the government giving no furthers support to the Orthodox church
The separation decree removed the Church’s judicial powers and its right to own property and many of its assets were seized

Question 51

What else happened to religion?

Answer 51

Religious printing presses were closed down and the clergy disenfranchised, left without civil rights and subject to persecution
Some priests were drafted into the Red Army and others (including prominent bishops) were imprisoned
Russia’s move to the Gregorian calendar in Feb 1918 was partly to bring Russia in line with the majority of Europe but was also a statement against traditional religious practices

Question 52

What decree helped to remove the appeal of SRs?

Answer 52

Abolishing land ownership because land was given to ‘those who wish to cultivate not for personal profit but for the benefit of the community’ this policy of ‘socialisation of land’ was the programme long advocated by SRs

Question 53

What was proclaimed in July 1918 to oversee the transition to a socialist society and what did it state?

Answer 53

The first Soviet Constitution for the ‘Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic’
Stated that supreme power lay with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (made up from deputies from elected local soviets across Russia)
The central executive committee of that Congress was to be the ‘supreme organ of power’ - acting like a president
The congress was also made responsible for electing the Sovnarkom for the purposes of the ‘general administration of the affairs of the state’

Question 54

Despite the new constitution looking democratic on the surface what were the limitations?

Answer 54

The vote was reserved for the ‘toiling masses’ so members of the bourgeoise excluded from voting or holding office
The workers vote was weighted five to one against that of the peasants in the election to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets
While Sovnarkom was officially appointed by the Congress, in practice it was chosen by the Bolshevik Central Committee
The Congress was only to meet at intervals so executive authority remained with the Sovnarkom
The structure was centralised and the real focus of power was the party

Question 55

What serious threat was given out?

Answer 55

‘He who does not work shall not eat’ - at the time the population largely depended on ration cards so serious threat

Question 56

Despite the term ‘Russian; who did the constitution welcome and what was the problem with this?

Answer 56

The non-Russian nationalities that had been a part of the old Russian empire into the new Soviet state
Many people among these national groups who didn’t want to be part of a Russian controlled state - the extent to which they should be forced to join this new organisation or not became a source of friction between leading Bolsheviks