The consolidation of the Communist dictatorship (textbook page 36) Flashcards
Who did the Bolsheviks claim to be acting in the interest of?
The Proletariat
What was the first step to true socialism and what would this require (which would create a one party state)?
The establishment of a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ which would require the active repression of counter-revolutionary elements
What were the results of the November 1917 Constituent Assembly vote and was it a fair election?
It was a fair election in which the Socialist Revolutionaries won with 53% of the vote and the Bolsheviks came second with 24%
What 2 arguments can be made to justify Lenin dissolving the Constituent Assembly
1) Voters away from Moscow and Petrograd had little idea of what was happening in the capital
2) Lenin couldn’t afford to be shackles by arguments in an elected assembly
When did the Constituent Assembly meet?
5th January 1918
Which party had Lenin already outlawed by the time the Constituent Assembly met and why?
The Kadets for expressing approval for a Cossack general’s, Alexei Kaledin, counter-revolutionary rebellion in the Don region
Who did the Bolsheviks want to chair the Assembly only to be overruled by right-wing Social Revolutionaries (showing a lack of Bolshevik control in an elected assembly)
The Bolsheviks wanted a left-wing Social Revolutionary, Maria Spiridovna, however right-wing Social Revolutionary majority overruled it and chose Victor Chernov
How did Lenin justify dissolving the Assembly which appeared to be against Marxist principle of ‘power to the people’ in his book State and Revolution?
Lenin writes of the need for a strong party to provide for ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’ and to crush any bourgeois attitudes or values that remained after the revolution
What is an example showing that the people didn’t accept a Bolshevik dictatorship?
Civilians demonstrated against the closing of the Constituent Assembly, they were shot at and 12 were killed
What did the decree on the press in October 1917 do?
It curbed the ability of opposition political parties, such as Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, to publish their newspapers
Who lost their rights to vote in the new July 1918 Soviet government?
Anyone who was regarded as middle class (bourgeois) which also applied to anyone the Bolsheviks deemed untrustworthy
When were all other political parties banned?
1921
Why did Lenin believe a peace agreement and the concessions that come with it with Germany would only be temporary?
Lenin was convinced that Germany would have a Communist Revolution too
Did Lenin believe the Russian army could still stop the Germans?
No, therefore he wanted a peace agreement to preserve what he had already accomplished
Was Lenin still being financed by the Germans by the time the Bolsheviks took power?
Yes, this may be another reason why he wanted peace with Germany as he still financially relied on them
What was the ‘revolutionary war group’ of the Bolshevik party?
A group in the party led by Bukharin which wanted to continue the war to defend socialism and Russia
What was the name for Trotsky’s strategy in peace negotiations with Germany?
‘Neither peace nor war’, delaying the negotiations in hopes that Germany would experience their own revolution
When was the Treaty of Brest Litovsk signed?
3rd March 1918
What were the terms of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk?
Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bessarabia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine so that Germany and Austria-Hungary could later determine the fate of these territories
Russia lost 1/6 of their population and 2 million square km of land including the area which produced 1/3 of agricultural produce
Who in the Bolshevik Central Committee supported the Treaty of Brest Litovsk and who didn’t?
Trotsky, Stalin and Zinoviev supported it but Bukharin, Kamenev and Dzherzinsky did not, the Treaty was only approved by a vote of one
What was the consequence of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk in terms of the Bolsheviks having a one party state?
The Left wing Socialist Revolutionaries walked out of Sovnarkom in protest, Bolsheviks become the only party and rename themselves to the Communist party
What was the separation decree?
Removed the Church’s judicial power, it’s right to own property, seized many of its assets, closed religious printing presses and disenfranchised the clergy
