Lenin

• Lenin's decrees


  Issued by Lenin's new government, although their ability to make them happen across Russia was limited
• Decrees to improve things for workers


  • Accident insurances
  • 8 hour days/48 hour week
  • Factories placed under worker control
  • Land belonging to landowners and the church given to peasants
• Decrees to improve people's rights


  • Divorce made easier
  • Marriages no longer needed a priest
• Decrees to increase Bolshevik control


  • The Cheka was created
  • All non-Bolshevik papers banned
  • Cadet Party banned and its leaders arrested
• The Constituent Assembly


  Elections were planned by the PG, Lenin decided to let them go ahead. He thought a Bolshevik victory was likely – this would help legitimise his new government.
• The Bolsheviks came a distant second in the election to the SRs, who got 370 seats to the Bolshevik's 175.
• Lenin allowed the assembly to meet once, and then used the Red Guards to close it down.
• Lenin decided to use the Congress of Soviets to pass laws instead, which the Bolsheviks controlled.
• The Sovnarkom


  The "Council of Peoples Commissars", was set up by Lenin in 1918. The Commissars, who all came from the Bolshevik party, were in charge of the different parts of government – e.g. war, foreign policy, and the economy.
• Lenin had promised to end the war during 1917, this gained the Bolsheviks lots of support.
• The Germans were in a position to enforce very harsh terms. Lenin tried to spin out negotiations, hoping for more favourable circumstances.
• In February 1917 the Germans threatened to advance to Petrograd. Lenin accepted harsh terms in order to secure the revolution, he also hoped that Germany would lose the war and therefore the treaty terms would not matter.
• In the treaty of Breast-Litovsk Russia lost 34% of its territory, 54% of its industry, 89% of its coal mines and had to pay 300 million gold roubles.
• The Bolshevik's opponents in the Civil War were the Whites. This included all of those people in Russia opposed to their rule


  • Former supporters of the Tsar
  • Landowners
  • Social Revolutionaries
  • Cadets/Liberals
  • The Czech Legion

  
• Key Factors Explaining the Reds' Victory


  • Geography
  • Foreign Support
  • Trotsky
  • The Red Terror and Cheka
  • Peasant support
  • War Communism
• Geography


  Suited the Bolsheviks and hindered the Whites
• Weaknesses of the Whites


  • Different groups within the Whites had competing aims, e.g. Socialist Revolutionaries and former landowners
  • White generals such as Kolchak and Denikin held tight personal control of their forces. This led to poor coordination
  • Foreign support was half-hearted and served to discredit the Whites, aiding Red propaganda
• Bolshevik Leadership


  Lenin set clear war aims – the survival of his communist government. He also promised peasants could keep their land.
• Trotsky as War Commissar


  • Brought in 50,000 former Tsarist officers to the Red Army
  • Expanded the Red Army using conscription of all males over 18 to over 5 million men
  • Used his armoured train to visit key points of the battlefront, stiffening morale
  • Introduced harsh orders to shoot deserters or those who retreated without orders
• Cheka & the Red Terror


  The Cheka were the Bolshevik's secret police, established following an assassination attempt against Lenin by a Socialist Revolutionary in 1918. By 1921 they had grown to 200,000 members. Used to hunt "enemies" in the areas the Bolsheviks controlled. Terror used deliberately to intimidate the population.
• Aims of War Communism


  • Providing resources to win the war
  • Introduce a communist style economy
• War Communism in the countryside


  • Grain requisitioning was used. All surplus grain could be taken, to be paid for with worthless money. Many peasants hoarded grain.
  • The Cheka was used to seize grain by force. Grain production collapsed, leading to shortages in the city and a famine that killed 7 million.
• War Communism in the cities


  • The government took control of all parts of the economy, directing production centrally.
  • Bolshevik appointed managers took over factories. Harsh discipline used, strikes banned.
  • Free enterprise made illegal, though 'bagmen' traded illegally, bringing some goods to the cities, but at a high price.
  • Economic production crashed – e.g. Steel production in 1921 1/20th of amount produced in 1913.