THE OCT/NOV 1917 REVOLUTION Flashcards
WHAT WAS LENINS DECREE ON PEACE
- promised an end to the war
- an armastice followed in november
WHAT WAS LENINS DECREE TO ESTABLISH THE CHEKA
- created a secret police force known as the cheka to root out opposition
WHAT WAS LENINS DECREE ON LAND
- abolished private ownership of land
- legimtimate peasant seizures of land from landlords
- recued peasant support for the srs
WHAT WERE LENINS DECREES FOR WORKERS
- limited the working day to 8 hours
- social insurance decree, gave old ages health and unemployment benifits
- decree on workers control of factories, allowed workers to supervise managers
WHAT WERE LENINS SOCIAL DECREES
- press decree- banned the opposition press
- judicial decree- established peoples court
- decree to outlaw sex discrimination, gave equal rights for women
- decree on the chyrch- removed marriage and divorce from church control
WHAT EXAMPLES SHOW LENIN WAS CATIOUS ABOUT MAKING RUSSIA FULLY SOCIALIST
- VESENKHA set up, answered the sovnarkom and was responsible for gaining state control over the economy starting with the state bank
- lenin resisted calls to completely nationalise all industry
WHAT STEPS DID LENIN TAKE TO COMBAT BOLSHEVIK OPPOSITON
- the cheka, coud arrest anyone it suspected
- members of oppositon parties were arrested and imprinsoned
- antibolshevik newspapers shutdown
WHAT WERE THE CAUSES OF THE OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER REVOLUTION
- the bols demonated both petrograd and moscow soviets as well as more across russia
- pg very weak, kerenskys credibility reduced after kornilov coup
- bols had red gaurds, armed by kerensky during the kornilov coup
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE MRC
- after the military revolutionary committee was established on October 16th, 15 out of 18 Petrograd garrisons declared allegiance to the MRC, not the PG
- Kerensky attempted to reduce its power, sent troops to cut of bols area of the revolution and ordered two bols newspaper to close
EXPLAIN THE COURSE OF THE REVOLUTION
24th oct- red gaurds supported by soldiers and sailors for kronstadt capture key positons in petrograd
25th oct- after shot from battleship aurora to signal attack, red gaurds enter winter palace, 2nd congress of soviet meets- some Mensheviks and RW SRs protest against bols seizure of power
26th oct- all remaining PG members arrested, congress votes to take power into own hands and agrees unanimously on Lenin’s decree on peace
27th- agree on Lenin’s decree on land, central executive committee set up with majority of members being bols or LW SRs, Sovnarkom set up to run gov
WHAT WAS THE EXTENT OF THE REVOLUTION
- involved 25-35k people at the most
- 10-15k people present during storming of winter palace, but may have been spectators only
- involved very little fighting, no more than 5 deaths
- focused on takeover of few strategic targets, much of Petrograd carried on with life as usual during the rev
WHAT WAS LENINS ROLE IN THE REVOLUTION
DIFFERENT OPINIONS
- soviet historians idealised lenins role and portrayed him as heroic leader of bols party, after lenins death and trotskys fall, these historians downplayed trotskys role in organising the red gaurd and directing actual seizure of power
- critics of the heroic lenin approach argue lenin absent for most of 1917, prioritise the failures of PG over Lenins’s leadership in bringing bols to power
- western historians tended to claim that the revolution was an overthrown of the gov carried out by small group not a popular revolutoion, but recently historians identified there was some radicalism and spontaneous rebellion that the bolsheviks able to exploit
HOW DID THE BOLSHEVIKS ESTABLISH AUTHORITY
- oct/nov rev transfered power to all russian congress of svoiets
- bols won majority on executive committee, mensheviks and RW SRs walked leaving bols and LW SRs in control
- Sovnarkom, set up to take charge of gov with lenin as chairman, initially just bols but lenin allowed 7 LW SRs to join in Nov
- sovnarkom reluctant to share power and sidelined petrograd soviet
WHY DID IT TAKE THE BOLSHEVIKS A WHILE TO ESTABLISH CONTROL
- at first civil servants refused to work for bols gov and bankers refused to allow bols acces to staate funds. took 10 days and threat of armed intervention to persaude the state bank to hand over its reserves
- the bols had to establish authority outside petrograd and combat the opposition forces organsied by kerensky (mainly made up of cossacks)
- the bols military force was also weakened as many petrograd garrisons soldiers went back to their homes in the countryside after the revolution
WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
29 OCT- red gaurds put down army cadet rising against bols
31 OCT- bols take control of baku and 17 provinvial capitals
2 NOV - kerenskys opposition forces are deafeated
3 NOV- Bols gain control of moscow after 10 day battle, kamanev, rykov, zinoviev leave the bols party after lenins ultimatum to end division within it
5 NOV- lenin announces that the revolution has succeeded
