Bolsheviks

Bolsheviks

Came into power October 1917
Problems facing Lenin on sucession
1. Russia at war
2. Peasants siezing land
3. Rise in inflation/unemployment
4. Employees on strike
5. No experience of governing
6. Poor support
7. State bank refused to fund them
3 Decrees
1. Confiscation of private land, given to peasants
2. Peace decree
  1. Ending the war
    1. War was unpopular and major factor for fall of PG
    2. Needed military resources
    3. December 22nd 1917
      1. Ceasefire agreed, Bolshevik peace delegation began
    4. January 8th 1914
      1. Lenin persuaded government to continue negotiations
    5. January 27th 1918
      1. Trotsky signed peace treaty with Ukraine
    6. March 3rd 1918
      1. Bolsheviks ended war in treaty of Brest-Litovsk
        Meant Russia lost territory and economic wealth
        Annulled
3. Organisation of new government
  1. Sovnarkom > All Russia congress soviets > Representations from cities
Constituent Assembly
1. Promised by PG
2. 12th November 1917
3. January 5th 1918
  1. Constituent assembly met for first time in Petrograd
  2. Bolsheviks demanded the assembly should be subservient to the 3 decrees
    1. Rejected by 237 votes to 137
  3. Bolsheviks and left SRs walked out
  4. Remaining members removed by red guards
4. Opposition split into 2 factions
  1. Left and right SRs
5. Bolsheviks joined left SRs in coalition
6. Bolsheviks begam communist dictatorship
Civil War
1. Causes
  1. October revolution
  2. Desire of nationalities to form states
  3. June 1918 SRs launched attack on communist rule
  4. Brest-Litovsk split left revolutionaries
  5. Whites formed force to takeover Petrograd
  6. Lenin moved his capital to Moscow early 1918 out of fear
2. 1919
  1. Kolchak's campaign
    1. Attacked with 3000 foreign troops
    2. Captured important cities
    3. Red army persuaded Kolchak forces to change sides
  2. Deniken's Campaign
    1. Agreed to support Kolchak
    2. Attempted to fight reds but not enough troops so it failed
  3. Yudenich's campaign
    1. Launched attack on Petrograd
    2. Trotsky made the troops retreat
3. Russo-Polish War
  1. 1920-21
  2. Polish forces captured Kiew in Ukraine
  3. Lenin ordered invasion of Poland
  4. Reds defeated at Warsaw
    1. Biggest communist defeat in civil war
  5. Treaty of Riga
    1. April 1921
    2. Poland given Western Belorussia
4. Against Whites
5. Why they won
  1. Weakness of oposition
    1. Whites divided
      1. Fought internally
    2. Unpopular to peasants
      1. Some wanted return of Tsarism
    3. Poor use of propaganda
  2. Terror
    1. Cheka politial police force
      1. Executed enemies of communists
      2. Burnt villages
      3. Offered choice of reds or execution
  3. Geographics
    1. Communists dominated Petrograd and Moscow
      1. Densest populations
      2. Large industrial production and transport networks
        Good communications across Russia
        Good weapon production
    2. Whites dispersed across Russia
      1. Lack of unity
    3. Reds controlled grain requistioning
    4. Reds controlled central economic activity
  4. Trotsky
    1. 1921 Red army had 5 million members
    2. Recruited former officers of Tsarist army
    3. Held members families' hostage to ensure loyalty
    4. Trotsky checed up on red army units
    5. Gave strong poitical speeches
War Communism
1. Aims
  1. Supreme economic council formed (vesekha)
  2. Nationalisation of industry
  3. Private trade banned
  4. Decline in use of money
  5. Use of terror
  6. Grain seized from peasants
  7. Rationing of food/resources
  8. Lenin wanted more control
2. Impact
  1. 1921 Famine due to poor rationing
  2. Peasants stopped producing so much grain
  3. Deaths of 2 million
  4. Economy under communist control
    1. Organised around civil war
  5. Lenin focused on production of military equipment
  6. Peasant uprisings
  7. Grain requisitioning
    1. Peasants resentful
  8. Faill in industrial production
  9. Allowed communists to win the war
3. 1921 Abandoned by Lenin
  1. Rebellions and failures
  2. Turned to New economic policy
New economic policy
1. Causes
  1. Failures of war communism
  2. End of civil war
  3. Kronstadt rebellion 1921
    1. Demanded end to position of communists
    2. Rebellion against Lenin
    3. Trotsky put down rebellion
2. Tactical retreat from communists
3. Peasants only had to give part of produce
4. Allowance of private trading led by nepmen
5. New currency in 1922 ended inflation
6. Democratic centralism
  1. NEP split communists
  2. Ban on factions in party
  3. All other political parties banned
  4. Political dictatorship
7. Impact
  1. Markets returned to Russian towns
  2. Peasants gained more land
  3. Scissor crisis
    1. Gap between agricultural prices and industrial prices
      1. As production rose, prices fell
  4. Nep accused by many communists of greed and self interest
USSR
1. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
2. December 1922
3. Lenin's solution of multi national communist state
4. 1921 - only communist party was allowed in USSR
  1. Communist party controlled government
5. Lenin's control
  1. Over government
  2. Over communists
  3. Cheka terror police
    1. 1922 - replaced by GPU another political police force
  4. Over media
    1. Only newspaper Pravada allowed
  5. 1924 - Gulag labour camps imprisoned tens of thousands of opponents

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