Russia Unit 1

• Soviet state creation

  Creating a ‘Soviet-state’:

  • In October 1917, Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets – small democratic councils emerge in Russia after February.
  • Additionally, the local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. (ARCOS)
  • They met in June 1917 to discuss Russia’s future.
  • As the ARCOS was too big to meet regularly, they elected the Council of People’s Commissars – Sovnarkom to govern Russia on a day-to-day basis.
• • First Sovnarkom was made up of 13 People’s Commissars.
  • Lenin was elected Chairman of Sovnarkom.
  • Trotsky-head of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
  • Decree on Land (October 1917) – seize church land
  • Decree of Peace (October 1917) – WW1 withdrawal
  • Workers’ Decrees (November 1917) – 8 hour maximum working day and a minimum wage.
  • Decree of Workers’ Control (April 1918) – which allowed workers to elect committees to run factories.
  • For the first few months, Sovnarkom had little real power.
• Broad-based support:

  • There is evidence that the new government was actually democratic.
  • The first decrees were popular and reflected the needs of what the majority of workers, peasants and soldiers wanted.
  • According to the Constitution of 1918, Sovnarkom was responsible to the Congress of Soviets – which contained representatives of many parties including the Mensheviks.
  • In Nov, Lenin’s new government was dominated by people who wanted the Bolshevik Party to govern alone.
  • Genuine support for a Bolshevik-dominated government along the workers of Petrograd in the early days of the revolution.
• Lenin's lack of democracy

  • Lenin refusal to recognise nationwide Nov 1917 election result
  • Election created Constituent Assembly with Bolshevik minority, met for the first time in January 1918 and closed after one day
  • In March 1918, Lenin approved the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
  • Lost large land to Central Powers to end Russian WW1 involvement, unpopular, Bolsheviks lost Apr and May 1918 election - L refused to recognise, saying was unfair
  • Mensheviks and SR’s expelled from the soviets.
  • Lenin postponed elections because of Civil War.
• The impact of the Civil War, 1918-21

  • The Civil War allowed Lenin to establish communist control over Russia.
  • It radically changed the nature of the Bolshevik Party and the new government.
  • The Civil War led to the creation of a ‘party-state’ and, as a result of the Civil War, the state became increasingly authoritarian and centralised.
• Factions in the Russian Civil War

  • Senior members of the Russian army wanting to re-establish Tsarist rule
  • Others wanting dictatorship or democracy
  • The SRs and Mensheviks wanting a more democratic type of socialist government
  • The SRs and Mensheviks later set up rival governments
• Countries that sent troops to fight the new Bolshevik government

  • Britain
  • France
  • USA
  • Japan
  • The reason for sending troops was fear that the revolution might spread
• General Kornilov organised an anti-Bolshevik army in the Don region

  January 1918
• A full scale civil war broke out in summer of 1918

  It was only by the next summer that the Red Army began to win

  Lenin's objective was to ensure government survival
• Armies defeated by the Red Army

  • Makhno's anarchist army in the Ukraine
  • Kolchak's authoritarian government in Siberia
• Changes to government as a result of the Civil War

  1. Lenin's government became more centralised

  2. The Communist Party became more powerful

  3. Centralised control of the economy with War Communism

  4. Relied on political centralisation, working through loyal Party nomenklatura rather than the more democratic soviets

  5. Used terror to suppress opposition
• Trotsky's changes to the Red Army

  • Made it more authoritarian
  • Introduced conscription
  • Harsh punishments
  • Relied on former Tsarist generals to lead the army
• Centralisation

  Kept the government and economy in shape, and helped the army win the war

  Centralisation took power away from the workers, peasants and soldiers who the communists claimed to represent
• The emergence of a 'party-state'

  1. Lenin preferred working with the Politburo to Sovnarkom

  2. Politburo could reach decisions much quicker

  3. Lenin did not abolish the Sovnarkom

  4. From 1920, the Politburo effectively became the government of Russia

  5. Dominance at local level as well
• Senior Communists

  • Preferred to work through the Communist Party, which had branches all over the country
  • Didn't trust the local soviets, as SRs and Mensheviks were still present on many of them
• As the Civil War continued and other political parties were increasingly excluded from the government

  The soviet-state lost power to the Communist Party

  Soviets were often bypassed in favour of the communist nomenklatura
• Red Terror:

  • In December 1917, Lenin created the All-Russian Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage – Political police force which was tasked with defending the revolution.
  • During the Civil War Chekists responsible for raiding anarchist organisations, closing down opposition newspapers and expelling Mensheviks and SRs from the soviets.
  • The Cheka was willing to imprison, torture or kill anyone who was viewed as a threat to the communists..
  • Lenin argued that during a revolution, civil war and terror were necessary to protect the government from its enemies.
• Building the Red Army:

  • Following the February Revolution, the Russian army had been democratised:
  • Soldiers’ committees were empowered to elect senior officers.
  • Lenin abolished the system and Trotsky put back Tsarist Generals in charge of the army.
  • This created outrage among idealists in the Party, who accused Lenin and Trotsky of betraying the principles of the revolution.
  • Abolishing democracy and putting highly trained experts in charge of the army paid off.
  • The Red Army became a disciplined and successful fighting force.
• Changing nature of the Communist Party:

  • By 1921, the Communist Government was no longer a government of the workers, peasants and soldiers.
  • While the soviets had been made up of working people, the communist nomenklatura, who administered the policies of War Communism, were largely educated members of the former middle class – economists, statisticians and engineers.
  • They had all worked for the former provisional government.
  • The communists needed their administrative and technical expertise to help run industries and supply the army during the war.
• Droughts threatened famine

  1920 and 1921
• Peasants in Tambov

  Led by Aleksandr Antonov, began a rebellion against communist grain requisitioning and Cheka brutality

  By January 1921 Antonov had a force of 50,000 anti-communist fighters

  The Red Army was equally ruthless in Tambov -in May they suppressed the rebellion by deporting 100,000 people in labour camps and attacking peasant villages with poisoned gas
• Peasant attacks on government grain stores all along the Volga River, March 1921

  In the major cities there were strikes against communist policies in early 1921

  In Petrograd the Red Army responded by opening fire on unarmed workers

  Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base rebelled, horrified by the communists' suppression of the Petrograd strikes
• Demands of the Kronstadt sailors

  • Immediate free and fair election of new soviets
  • Release of all anarchist, Menshevik and SR political prisoners
  • Restoration of freedom of speech and the press
  • Abolition of the Cheka
  • End to War Communism
• In essence, the Kronstadt sailors wanted a return to soviet democracy: 'Soviets without Communists'
• The Red Army had crushed the Kronstadt uprising

  By mid-March
• One-party state:

  • Lenin responded to the unrest by suppressing opposition political parties.
  • In doing so, he created a one-party state.
  • During the Civil War, opposition political parties were often persecuted by the Cheka.
  • In spite of this they had survived the Civil War and therefore were able to play a key role in the strikes of early 1921.
  • From February 1921 Lenin authorised the Cheka to destroy opposition political parties.
  • At the end of February 1921, all Mensheviks in Petrograd and Moscow, including one of the Mensheviks’ leaders, Fyodor Dan, were arrested and sent to the Butyrka Prison.
• Lenin recognised unrest in Tambov, Petrograd and Kronstadt reflected Russian's dissatisfaction with the regime
• Factions that opposed Lenin


  • The Workers' Opposition
  • The Democratic Centralists, group who wanted to make the Communist Party more democratic
• Resolution "On Party Unity"


  • Banned factions inside Party
  • Party members guilty of forming factions expelled from the Party as punishment
  • Ban on factions strengthened Lenin's position within the Party
• The elimination of Stalin’s opponents:

  • Between 1923 and 1928, the leadership struggle changed the nature of the Communist Party ,before Lenin’s government was quite pluralistic.
  • Pluralism denotes a diversity of views or stands rather than a single approach or method
  • Stalin had transformed the Party in four ways:
  • He had established an ideological orthodoxy.
  • Destroyed the authority of the other main contenders.
  • He changed the nature of Party membership.
  • He had created the patronage system.
  • By doing so, he took victory and destroyed the political authority of his key rivals.
• Leadership in the Soviet Union:

  • Lenin’s leadership based on personality and authority
  • Able to lead as he had respect of all his senior colleagues - masterminded the revolution
  • Replacing Lenin was not a matter of winning a post in the government - each of the contenders had to persuade the Communist Party that they were a true Leninist
  • The Politburo had emerged as the most powerful part of the government
  • Winning a majority in the Politburo meant winning votes at the Party Congress as the Party Congress elected the Central Committee - they in turn elected the Politburo.
• Stalin’s rivals for power in 1923:

  • Leadership struggles prompted by Lenin’s declining health.
  • Lenin had become unwell towards the end of 1921, in May 1922, he had the first stroke that left him unwell to work.
  • By mid-1923, it was obvious that Lenin would never return to government.
  • A struggle began at the top of the Party which had a big impact on the government of the USSR.
  • From 1923 there were 4 key contenders who had a chance of becoming leader:
  • Zinoviev, Bukharin, Trotsky and Stalin.
• Zinoviev

  • Supported Lenin since the beginning of the Bolshevik movement in 1903
  • Became Lenin's right hand man
  • Emerged as the front-runner to lead the USSR in 1923
• Zinoviev's role 1923-1925


  1. Led the Triumvirate with Kamenev and Stalin

  2. Formed a majority in the Politburo

  3. Kept Trotsky out of power

  4. Laid the foundations for Stalin's power
• Zinoviev and Kamenev


  Persuaded the Central Committee to ignore Lenin's Testament which contained an instruction to sack Stalin
• Nikolai Bukharin


  Prominent figure in soviet government from 1925 to early 1928

  Many believed Bukharin was too young and inexperienced to be leader

  Bukharin formed an alliance with Stalin known as the Duumvirate in 1925

  Bukharin claimed to be a true Leninist:

  • Joined the Bolshevik faction in 1906
  • Supported Lenin until his death
  • Lenin and Bukharin were close

  Bukharin and Lenin disagreed

  In 1918 over ending WW1

  In 1921 over the introduction of the NEP

  Bukharin's roles:

  • Editorship of the Soviet newspaper Pravda
  • Entrusted with a series of important jobs by Lenin
• Duumvirate


  • Gave Bukharin and Stalin a majority in the Politburo
  • Many junior members were allies of Bukharin
• Trotsky


  Well known as a revolutionary hero due to the role he played in the Revolution as well as the Civil War, had also been Lenin's right man

  Trotsky was not popular within the Communist Party

  Many communists remembered that between 1903 and 1917 Trotsky had opposed Lenin

  Trotsky had joined the Bolsheviks in mid-1917 and many Bolsheviks believed he joined the Party to gain power rather than because he was a true Leninist

  There was a lot of evidence that Zinoviev was right and Trotsky was not a true Leninist and therefore did not deserve to lead the Party
• There was a lot of disagreement about the timing of the October Revolution and the NEP in 1922
• Stalin:

  • Stalin was a big part of the Politburo majority between 1923 and 1928.
  • Played a supporting role, letting Zinoviev and Bukharin play the leading roles in the Triumvirate and the Duumvirate.
  • Stalin claimed to be the true Leninist for a lot of reasons.
  • He joined the Bolsheviks at the very beginning in 1903 and loyal to Lenin, "Wonderful Georgian".
  • Stalin began to be disloyal to Lenin in 1922 when Lenin was too ill to fight back.
  • Lenin trusted Stalin in high regard and trusted him with important administrative tasks.
  • Lenin promoted him to the position of General Secretary in 1921.