Topic 7: Lenin's Achievements Flashcards
When did Lenin die?
January 1924
What happened to Lenin’s body?
He was embalmed and placed in a special mausoleum
What was Petrograd renamed to?
Leningrad
What made Lenin a good leader?
Modest with no personal ambition
Powerful speaker
Decisive
He persuaded others to launch the revolution
Superb organiser and planner
What made Lenin a bad leader?
Dictatorship
Would now share power with other socialists
Ruthless and used the Cheka
Banned other political parties, only Communist newspapers, and religion was banned.
He was prepared for millions to suffer for his ideology
How did life change for the aristocracy under Lenin?
Land taken and redistributed
Lost huge political power
Many did not survive the Red Terror
Industrialists lost their factories
A new middle class emerged under the NEP
How did life change for political opponents under Lenin?
Parties were banned
Leaders arrested and executed by the Cheka
Kronstadt rebels destroyed
Lenin banned any form of leadership discussion
How did life change for the peasants under Lenin?
Suffered badly during the Civil War, under War Communism, and during the 1921-22 famine.
Requisitioning meant they could not sell surplus crops
Literacy levels increased
Kulaks re-emerged
How did life change in towns and cities under Lenin?
Maximum 8 hour work day and 48 hour work week
Pensions and employment insurance
Women declared equal
Abortion available on demand
Workers prioritised for food
How did education change under Lenin?
The Young Communist League (Komsomol) set up
Children often did work in the factories and wrote reports on it for school
How did the arts change under Lenin?
Creativity was encouraged
New artists rejected old forms of Tsarist art
Einstein’s films: October and Battleship Potemkin
How did life change for national minorities under Lenin?
Bolshevik control was weaker in these areas
They sent the Red Army to stir up trouble (worked in Azerbaijan and Armenia but not in Georgia)
As time went on, Lenin was harsher with national minorities
What was the New Constitution?
- It stated that Russia was a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russia, Belorussia, the Ukraine, and the Caucasus)
Each republic had its own government but supreme power was still held with Moscow
