(7) Lenin + Bolsheviks centralise their control after Civil War + War communism

Political repression during the period of the New Economic Policy
1. Censorship
  1. More Systematic
    1. Spring 1922, oustanding Russia writers and scholars were deported to convince the intelligentsia not to critcise the government
  2. Pre-publication censorship intro.
    1. Books, articles, poems and other writings had to be submitted to the Main Administration for Affairs of Literature + Publishing House (Glavlit) before they could be published
2. Attacks on political rivals
  1. Political pressure on the rival socialist parties was intensified
    1. Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries - more popular in recent strikes and revolts
      1. Arrested some 5000 Mensheviks in 1921 - counter-revolutionary activities
      2. Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries outlawed as political organisations
3. Show trials
  1. Communists rounded up a large number of SR and held a show trial
    1. Former SR who had collaborated with the Cheka accused SR's of heinous crimes
    2. There was claim that the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionaries had authorised assassination attempts on Lenin or collaboration with Denikin
      1. Many in jail when the crimes were supposted to have been committed
      2. 34 SR leaders were condemned as terrorists - 11 were executed
4. Crushing of peasant revolts
  1. Revolting Peasant dealt with harshly
    1. Tambov region was swamped by Red Army troops in 1922, who had destroyed rebel villages in a brutal campaign
    2. Villages support Red got salt (food preservation) Manufactured good and propaganda (NEP benefits)
5. Attacks on the church
  1. Saw as rival to there power
    1. War against religion take form of propaganda (before 1921)
      1. The Union of Militant Godless was established to challenge the Church more directly
    2. 1922 churches were striped of there precious items to help famine victims
      1. Violent clashes when clergy tried to protect there churches
        Death penalties given to leaders of Russian Orthodox Church + 1000's of priests were imprisoned
6. Establishment of GPU
  1. Cheka renamed the GUP
    1. Secret Police grew in importance - Arbitrary imprisonment and the death penalty continued to be applied after 1922 - instrument of social policy
    2. The GUP periodically harassed + arrested Nepmen as speculators and class enemies - to assure left communists and workers they were keeping capitalism tendenies under control
Tsarist autocracy
1. Ruled by a supreme leader, the Tsar, who made major decisions and had power of life and death over his subjects. Given divine status.
2. Tsar supported by an elite – the nobility. Positions in government and society held through the patronage of the Tsar.
3. Huge govt. bureaucracy – slow, unwieldy and corrupt at lower levels.
4. Secret police (Okhrana) used to support the state and deal with critics and opposition.
5. Internal passports, residence permits and visas used to control movement of the population.
6. Lack of free speech – censorship of the press and banning of political parties (except 1906-14)
7. No tradition of democratic political institutions.
8. Tsar’s power underpinned by the Russian Orthodox Church.
9. Sought to modernise the economy through promotion of capitalist enterprise
10. Implemented land reform (Emancipation and Stolypin’s reforms)
How did the centralised state develop in Russia between 1918 and 1924
1. By 1924
  1. Politburo (7 to 9 Senior party leaders)
    1. Industry, banking, transport, and foreign trade were controlled by the government
2. Early stages
  1. In 1918 - Nationalisation and state control were the plan for the economy - they had immediately nationalised banking
  2. Increasing Centralisation
    1. Collapse of industry
      1. The collapse in industrial output had become critical by the summer of 1918.
      2. It was essential to keep certain industries going to fight the Civil War, so the govt nationalised industry and brought it under the control of the Supreme Economic Council (Vesenkha), which reported directly to the Sovnakom.
      3. Worker's desperate to keep their factories going and keep their jobs, literally begged the govt to nationalise their workplace.
      4. By the autumn of 1919, it was estimated that 80% of all enterprises were part of a centrally directed economy
    2. Railways
      1. The railway system - essential for the war effort and to maintain food supplies to cities - was collapsing, and the railway union was dominated by Mensheviks who could not be relied on. So transport was taken under direct control
    3. Civil War
      1. The Very nature of the Civil War meant that there was little to carry out consultation with the soviets and other bodies. Emergency decisions, by their very nature, needed to be taken quickly. So decision-making became more centralised
    4. Peasanst
      1. The Peasants were obstinatley unwilling to supply the cities with food. Since the market in food was not working, it became necessary to set up a food supplies directorate to organise the collection and distribution of food centrally
  3. Trends taken place during Civil War
    1. The Communist Party began to dominate Govt
    2. The Communist Party itself became more centralsied, more bureaucratic + less democratic - Power at the top
3. How did the part come to dominate Govt bodies
  1. Party organisation grew at expense of government bodies
    1. At district and local level
      1. The local Communist Party organisations took control of soviets across Russia.
      2. Party officals ran the soviets and obeyed party orders above all else.
      3. So the soviets were now effectively subordinte to the party
    2. In 1919 Politburo was created
      1. .The Politburo took precedence over the Sovnarkom as the key deciston - making body. Sovnarkom meeted less and less important
    3. 1919 onwards
      1. The Central Committee of the party began to appoint its own "trusted" nominees to key positions in soviets. This was done to increase the centre's control over local party apparatus + local govt
  2. Centre did not have any real control to start with
    1. Nizhniny Novgorod - controlled by mafia Bolsheviks and black marketeers - defied Moscow.
4. How did the Party become more centralsied and less democratic between 1921 and 2924
  1. The ban on factions 1921
    1. The splits in the party during 1920 - angered Lenin. The Workers' Opposition and Democratic Centralists ( more democracy in party) - unnecessary distraction given the crises they faced in 1921 (famine, revolt, Kronstadt mutiny)
    2. In 1921, the 10th Party Congress agreed to pass a "ban on factions". Once party policy had been agreed by the Central Committee then everybody was expected to accept it and not form "factions" to challenge the party line. The penalty for factionalism was expulsion from the party
  2. The nomenklatura system
    1. This system was established from 1923 onwards.
      1. The Bolshevik leaders wanted Bolsheviks or pro-Bolshevik workers in key positions. List of 5500 designated party and government posts - the nomenklatura - was drawn up.
      2. posts could only be appointed by the central party bodies. Overtly loyalty counted for more than expertise - did what they were told. This tightened the one-party state internally. The people in the nomenklatura (key posts) became an elite
    2. By 1924, the result
      1. A authoritarian and centralised Communist Party whose members, were less likely to debate issues or challenge the leadership and more likely to carry out instructions through habits of discipline or the change of promotion.
      2. Decision-making was concentrated. The party - out of touch with proletarian base and began to see the workers as "uncultured" (Lenin) because they did not have the origins, experiences or education of the 1917 revolutionary proletariat. The party began to reinterpret its role: it saw itself as having the exclusive right to lead the people into the light of socialism - the party alone knew the right course to follow
5. The Government of the Soviet Union
  1. The Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSPSR) had been proclaimed in January 1918. It constitution, intro in july, defind the state as "a dictorship of the urban and rural proletariat". Its job - ransition to a socialist society. The principle of "he who does not work shall not eat". The "former people" had no right to vote.
  2. During the Civil War, areas conquered by the Red Army were taken into the RSFSR - Ukraine, Belorussia or Georgia , made into separate republic. The RSFSR was regared as "Russia" and was far larger and more powerful than the other republics. The status of the smaller republics -debate between Lenin and Stalin. Stalin wanted all republics to be more directly controlled by Moscow. Lenin wanted a federation of soviet republic in which all were on a more or less equal footing. Lenin won the argument and at the end of 1922 the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally established.
  3. Despite Lenin's victory in the debate, the republics were never really free to govern themselves. The Communist Party organisation Party and the commissariats (governments) of the republics were regarded as regional branched of the Sovnarkom. Both the Sovnarkom and the Central Commitee were controlled by the Politburo
  4. The Commiunists - avoided the idea they controlled the republics similar to the tsarist empire, beacuse led to national revolt. They were all part of a benign brotherhood of different ethnic groups. They deliberately fostered national consciousness, setting up native language schools and encouraging theatre and cultural events reflecting national traditions. Most members of the Communist Party were Russians, so they tried to bring in people of different ethnic groups to train as party officials and run their local party branches. This was called "the planting down of roots."
Similarity between the Tsaries and Lenin's state
1. The General Secrearty ( Lenin) was seen as a living revolution god
2. Lenin needes support by the Party leaders
3. The govt bureaucracy grew and was loyal to the Communists
4. GPU was the secret police
5. Lenin nationsied land
6. reintroduction of Internal passports
7. Censorship increasted - Main Administration for Affairs of Literature
8. Lenin wanted to industrialize the economy - NEP
9. The Soviet Govt was increasing Undemocratic and Centralised - One Party state
The Relationship of the Government to The Communist Party
1. Communist Party
  1. Politburo
    1. Role:
      1. This was the leading decison-making body of the Communist Party - the inner cabinet. Set up in 1919, it took over from the unwieldy Central Committee as the most influential body of the Communist Party. It increasingly took power from the Sovnarkom. The key decisions were made in the Politburo
    2. Membership:
      1. Around 7 to 9 members chosen by the Central Committee. It meet on an almost daily basis
  2. Central Committee
    1. Membership:
      1. Around 30-40 members
    2. Role:
      1. It ran party affairs when congresses were not sitting . It was the main party body until 1919 and continued to discuss and vote on key party issues, although power lay increasingly with the Politburo
  3. Congress
    1. Membership:
      1. Representatives were chosen from city and regional party organisations
    2. Role:
      1. It debated issues facing the Party and voted on the main policies. In the 1920's under Lenin, debates could be fierce and open, although the "ban on factions" in 1921 mean that decisions could not be questioned once a vote had been taken. In practice, this gave more power to the centre. It elected members of the Central Committee and Politburo
  4. City and provincial parties
    1. Party secretaries at this level were often very powerful. Kamenev and Zinoviev derived much of their support from their control of the Moscow and Leningrad parties. Whoever was party secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, for example, was often just a step away from joining the Politburo. The central party organisation took an interest in appointing party members to key posts at this level, especially after Stalin became the General Secretary. Delegates to the party congress came from this level
  5. Local parties
    1. People often joined local parties for the advantages they could get from being a party member, such as election to the local or district soviet or other govt jobs
2. Soviet Government
  1. Council of People's Commissars (sovnarkom)
    1. Membership:
      1. Around 15 to 20 members under Lenin, who was chairman. Members came from the Central Executive Committee.
    2. Role:
      1. Key decision-making body - it issued orders and decrees. It met daily and decided important aspects of policy. It became less important in the early 1920's as the Communist Party took more control.
  2. Central Executive Committee (former executive of the Soviet)
    1. Membership:
      1. Elected by Congress of Soviets
    2. Role:
      1. It made laws and oversaw the administration of the govt when the Congress was not meeting. Its functions overlapped with those of the Sovnarkom. In practice, it had little power.
  3. All-Russian Congress of Soviets
    1. Membership:
      1. Delegates were elected by city and provincial soviets, although membership was weighted in favour of the cities. It met twice (later only once) a year.
    2. Role:
      1. It was the supreme law-making authority
  4. Provincil and city soviets
    1. Membership:
      1. Members were elected from local and district soviets to the soviets to the soviets representing regions or larger cities like Leningrad and Moscow
    2. Role:
      1. They oversaw administration of the cities and regions, and carried out policy decisions made at the centre. They also fed back to the centre the specific needs and problems of the regions and cities
  5. Local and district soviets
    1. Membership:
      1. This was the lowest level of soviet - made up of representatives from a local area elected by local people. In the later 1920s, only Communist Party members could be elected to soviets . Soviets because less important in relation to the local Communist Party.
    2. Role:
      1. Local soviets were the point of contact for people who wanted to put their needs and wishes forward to higher levels of authority, who could take action on their behalf. They put policy decisions into action at district and local levels.
3. Key officials in the Govt were members of the Communist Party. Senior members of the Govt were usually senior members of the party. Increasingly, govt bodies became simply the instruments for carrying out the polices made in the Politburo and higher levels of the party

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(7) Lenin + Bolsheviks centralise their control after Civil War + War communism

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	Created by Marcus Danvers over 9 years ago