Russia - KT3

• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Lenin’s Decrees

  Oct 1917: Decree on Peace- demanding negotiations for peace opened immediately.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Lenin’s Decrees

  Nov 1917: Decree on the Rights of the People of Russia including the abolition of any and all religious privileges/disabilities

  Nov 1917: Decree on Land- seizure and division of private landholdings then handed to the peasants

  Nov 1917: Decree on Workers’ Control- workers’ committees given extra powers to run factories
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Lenin’s Decrees

  Dec 1917: Formation of Supreme Economic Council (SEC), formed to manage key industries nationalised by the Bolsheviks
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Lenin’s Decrees

  Landowners opposed to decree on land, workers committees opposed by business classes
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

  The terms: Finland remained independent, it had been under the control of the Tsars since 1809. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became independent republics and Russian-held areas of Poland became part of independent Poland
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

  Impact: Russia lost 62 million people (1/3 population), 1/3 agricultural land, 2/3 coal mines, 1⁄2 heavy industry, most oil and most cotton textiles.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

  This was strongly opposed by nationalists who wanted to stay in the war. Signed March 1918 after agreement over territory
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Establishment of new govt

  Sovnarkom Established on 26th Oct 1917 and was designed to be the main government organ of the Bolsheviks, directed by Congress of Soviets
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Establishment of new govt

  • Shut down press and arrested Menshevik, SR and Kadet leaders
  • Announced that it would pass legislation without approval of Congress of Soviets
  • Appeared democratic as members were product of chain of elections through soviets, but the soviets were dominated by Bolsheviks
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Establishment of new govt

  The Communist Party seemed to be splitting up internally between those who wanted increased Party democracy, but inside the Party structure (Democratic Centralists) and others who wanted a swift transition to a planned economy and workers’ armies (Trotsky)
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Dealing with Constituent Assembly

  On 5th January 1918, the Constituent Assembly met for the first (and only) time at the Tauride Palace in Petrograd. The SRs dominated with 370 seats, the Bolsheviks in 2nd with 175 seats. Lenin’s justification for disbanding the Constituent Assembly was that the will of the people had already been expressed with the people’s support for the Bolsheviks during and immediately after the October Revolution. He also claimed that the Constituent Assembly had been rigged by the SRs and Kadets.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Dealing with Constituent Assembly

  Opposition from other parties was even greater, particularly the liberals and SRs who saw Lenin as a traitor to the revolution and a German collaborator. A member of the SRs, Fanny Kaplan, attempted to assassinate Lenin in August 1918.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Terror

  The Decree on the Press amounted to a crackdown on opposition newspapers. It stated that any publication that called for “resistance” or “insubordination” to the government could be suppressed.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Terror

  On 7th December 1917, the Cheka was set up to deal with counter revolutionaries, sabotage and ‘class enemies’. In its first few months, it only consisted of around 40 officials, but it quickly became the weapon of choice to deal with any and all political opponents of the Bolsheviks.
• Bolsheviks consolidation of power Oct 1917 - Terror

  By April 1918, the Cheka was already being mobilised to eliminate opposition, for example the Anarchist Club of Moscow, which was destroyed using machine guns.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Leadership

  Admiral Kolchak: November 1918 declared self the supreme head of the white army. January 1920 resigned - later executed

  Denikin: Leader of the White Volunteer Army; Former Tsarist general who supported Kornilov
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Leadership

  White leaders struggled to co-operate and to coordinate their activities. Some Whites were socialists while others were conservatives looking to restore some kind of aristocratic rule.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Leadership

  The level of indiscipline and corruption in the White armies was extraordinary. Denikin said: ‘| can do nothing with my army. l am glad when it carries out my combat orders.’ In Omsk (Kolchak’s base), uniforms and munitions supplied by foreign interventionist governments were sold on the black market, and officers lived in brothels in a haze of cocaine and vodka.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Trotsky

  Trotsky turned the ‘Workers’ and Peasants' Red Army’ into a more professionally organised and disciplined Red Army. This was in response to the apparent weakness of the Red Guard in the face of the Czechs, as Trotsky realised reformation based on the tsarist conscript army was required. By 1920, Trotsky was managing over 3.5 million troops and by 1921 possibly as many as 5 million.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Trotsky

  Former tsarist military officers were also employed by the Reds to counter the experience of military leaders found in the ranks of their opponents. During the Civil War, 75, 000 were recruited by the Bolsheviks.

  To ensure their loyalty. Trotsky had their families held hostage.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Role of Trotsky

  Discipline was very tough in the Red Army; Trotsky re-established harsh military discipline, bringing back the death penalty for a range of offences. He thought this was essential to make men fight
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Lack of unity

  Some anti-communists forces fought amongst themselves, weakening their chances of defeating the Communists. Ukrainian nationalists, for example, fought both White and Red armies.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Lack of unity

  Brothels; munitions and uniforms sold on the black market; cocaine and vodka. Whites lost the support of nationalist groups. White leaders wanted to restore the Russian empire with its pre-1917 borders
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Lack of unity

  The reds employed a policy called Konarmiia (training and transforming peasants for the war) three-week mutiny by soldiers of the Konarmiia which took place in western Ukraine in late September 1920 as the war against the Poles was coming to an end.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Organisation & Resources

  The Communists dominated the heartland of Russia - an area between Petrograd, Moscow and Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) with a population of approximately 60 million. Moscow and Petrograd were important industrial centres and the area also included most of Russia’s railway network. This territory was continuous and unbroken by areas under opposition control.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Organisation & Resources

  This was a huge advantage to the Communists for the following reasons:

  • They could produce more munitions than the White armies, who had to rely on foreign support
  • They could use the railways to distribute munitions to the various Fronts
  • They could use the railways to quickly send troops to wherever they were needed
  • They could communicate more effectively because their territory was continuous, allowing them to coordinate attacks against their enemies.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Organisation & Resources

  June 1919 to June 1920 as many as 2,638,000 deserters were registered by the central committee for struggle against desertion
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Terror

  Assassination attempt on Lenin prompted the Checka to launch the Red Terror in summer of 1918. Essentially an intensification of what was already happening. From June, SRs arrested in large numbers, along with anarchists and members of other extreme left groups.Executions became common. 1918-1920-: 13, 000 deaths but real figures around 300,000
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Terror

  Assassination of German ambassador (July 1918)

  Petrograd chairman of Cheka murdered (20 August)

  Attempted assassination of Lenin (30 August 1918)

  Evidence of the brutal way the Bolsheviks were willing to use the Cheka to respond to threats to their regime (attacking a whole class, not just individuals)
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Terror

  500,000 people fell at the hands of white terror. Additionally, Colonel Drozdovskii white army general ordered a particularly punitive expedition against a village in which several officers who had been trying to make their way to his unit had been captured humiliated and executed. Finally, The Whitaker Report of the United Nations cited the massacre of 100, 000 to 250, 000 Jews in more than 2,000 pogroms as an example of White terror in Russia
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Propaganda

  The Reds use of ‘Agitprop’ propaganda, trains carrying soldiers were fitted with cinemas where propaganda films were shown which helped to create high morale amongst the soldiers.
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Propaganda

  During the Russo-Polish War 1918, the Political Administration of the Red Army (PUR) claimed that ‘propaganda pamphlets and newspapers were having a wonderful influence on Polish legionnaires, who had then crossed over to the Bolsheviks’ side’
• Why the Whites/Greens lose the Civil War - Propaganda

  Heyman highlights that with 80% of the populace being peasants, it is improbable for propaganda to be the driving force. In Ukraine where two revolutionaries tried to convert peasants to socialism and instead of enthusiasm, they were met with ‘caution, distrust, and sometimes the most natural incomprehension’
• Consequences of War Communism - Social

  The government decided that the Kulaks (alongside peasants) were hoarding their grain. Requisition squads terrorised the countryside. There was no extra grain. Those who refused were condemned as counter revolutionaries.
• Consequences of War Communism - Social

  Widespread famine due to requisitioning, drought and general disruption. Of 10 million dead as a result of the civil war – half were from starvation
• Consequences of War Communism - Social

  By 1921, 1/5 of the population was starving.
• Consequences of War Communism - Social

  The palaces and town houses of the rich were taken over and the living space was divided up amongst poor families. Houses were run by building committees, often controlled by former domestic servants, who relished in the opportunity to humiliate their former masters. Wealthy people were made to clear rubbish in the streets, much to the amusement of the workers and soldiers.
• Consequences of War Communism - Economic

  From 1917 to 1918, about 3⁄4 million ton grain was collected by the state. In 1920 to 1921, this had risen to about 6 million tons.
• Consequences of War Communism - Economic

  1920-21 Grain production was half of 1913. Peasants often refused to produce more food than they needed, until the Bolsheviks were ready to pay the right price.
• Consequences of War Communism - Economic

  Inflation (worth of rouble in 1920 was 1% of worth in 1917).