Unit 4 AoS 2 Early Sovnarkom decrees to the end of the NEP

Question 1

SOVNARKOM

Answer 1

• The Bolsheviks formed the Council of People’s Commissars, also known as SOVNARKOM.
• All of the new commissars were revolutionaries
• Sovnarkom inherited the problems of the old regime:
  
  • Failing economy
  • Food shortages
  • Anarchy in the countryside
  • Ongoing WW1
  • Difficulty gaining support from the population:
  • Civil sevants and the state bank refused to cooperate with the party.
  • The October revolution did not give Lenin control of Russia’s other major cities
  • After the October Revolution, Russia was plagued by chaos and disorder:
  • Looting the homes of wealthy nobles and building of the Provisional Governments
  • Violence particularly against members of the bourgeoisie was prevelant
  • Civilians ransacked wine cellars in the Winter Palace

Question 2

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Answer 2

• A peace agreement that ended Russia’s involvement in World War 1
  
  • Signed on March 3rd 1918
  • Controversial due to its costly terms, saw Russia surrender large amounts of territory and people to Germany and her allies.
  • Caused debate and considerable division in the Bolshevik party
  • First offer was quite reasonable but after such delay the second offer was much more harsh.

Question 3

Terms of Treaty of B/L

Answer 3

• Poland, Finland, the Baltic states and most of Ukraine surrendered to Germany.
  
  • It surrendered around 62 million people to German rule, 34% of its population.
  • Lost 89% of its iron and coal reserves.
  • Lost 54% of its industrial enterprises.
  • Lost 26% of its railways.
  • Lost 32% of farmland.
  • Lost 3 billion roubles in war reparations.

Question 4

The Cheka

Answer 4

• The Cheka was formed in the wake of the October 1917 revolution, as a small agency to investigate and deal with threats to the new regime.
  
  • As opposition to the Bolshevik regime grew through 1918, so did the size and power of the Cheka.
  • Between 1918 and 1920, the Cheka balooned from a couple of a hundred investigators to a bureaucratic and parliamentry organisation with over 100,000 agents.

Question 5

Causes for the Terror

Answer 5

• Most believe it began in the summer of 1918, a time when oppostion to Lenin’s regime had increased to the point of an imminent counter revolution.
  
  • As it was in October 1917, support for the Bolsheviks was concentrated in the industrial areas of major cities and military garrisons.
  • Beyond those places, Bolshevik support was limited.
  • Significant factors include:
  • The closure of the democraticallly elected Constituent Assembly (January 1918), the suppression of other political parties in the weeks thereafter.
  • The surrender of massive amounts of Russian citizens and territory of Bresst-Litovsk (March 1918).
  • The revolt of the Czech Legion (May 1918).
  • The introduction of war communism.
  • All fueled opposition to the new regime.

Question 6

Consequences of the Terror

Answer 6

• The Red Terror was a Bolshevik-orderd campaign of intimidation, arrests, violence and executions that began in the mid-1918.
  
  • It marked an attempt by the new regime to eliminate opposition, political dissent and threats to its own power.
  • Cheka agents targeted any individual or group considered a thret to Bolshevik rule or policies.
  • Among the victims of this Red Terror were tsarists, liberals, non-Bolshevik socialists, members of the clergy, kulaks (affluent peasants, foreigners and political dissidents of all stripes.
  • According to official Bolshevik figures the Cheka carries out almost 8,500 summary executions in the first year of the Terror and ten times that number were arrested, interrogated, detained, tried or sent to prisons or labour camps.

Question 7

Constituent Assembly

Answer 7

• On October 27th, two days after seizing power, Lenin announced that elections for the Constituent Assembly would be brought forward to November 12th.
• The Socialist-Revolutionaries – the party of land reform and the peasants – achieved a small majority, winning 370 of the 715 seats.
• In contrast, the Bolsheviks won 175 seats, just under one-quarter of the assembly.
• Breakdowns of voting patterns provide a clear picture of Bolshevik electoral support. They were the most popular party in industrial cities like Petrograd (winning 43 per cent of the vote) and Moscow (46 per cent).
• The Bolsheviks also polled well among soldiers, winning more than three-fifths of the vote in most divisions of the army.
• Outside the military and the large industrial cities, however, support for the Bolsheviks dwindled. In some rural and provincial areas, their percentage share of the vote failed to reach double figures.

Question 8

State Capitalism

Question 9

War Communism

Question 10

Kornstadt Rebellion

Question 11

New Decrees

Question 12

1921 Famine

Question 13

Tenth Party Congress

Question 14

New Economic Program (NEP)

Question 15

Vladamir Lenin

Question 16

Leon Trotsky

Question 17

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Question 18

Alexandra Kollantai

Question 19

Nobles

Question 20

Peasants

Question 21

Workers

Question 22

The Bourgeoisie

Question 23

Women