Lenin's Government of Russia 1917-24 Dates + Killer Facts

How was power supposedly distributed in revolutionary Russia?

Local soviets elects the All-Russian Congress of Soviets

ARCOS appoints the Sovnarkom

Sovnarkom helps to rule Russia

Who really held the power? (Before Orgburo and Politburo)

The Bolsheviks were in a position to make their own rules. Members of government appointed from the Bolshevik Central Committee under Lenin’s direction

What was the transitional state of Russia between the bourgeois and proletarian economy?

State capitalism

What problems had WW1 caused Russia? (4)

A shortage of raw materials

Rocketing inflation

Broke the transport system

Hunger, especially after loss of Ukraine

How short was Russia of grain supplies because of WWI?

13 million tons

When was the Decree on Peace?

October 1917

What was the Decree on Peace?

An international appeal for “a democratic peace without annexations”

When was the Decree on Land?

November 1917

What was the Decree on Land?

Abolished private land ownership, all natural resources owned and used by the state

When was the Decree on Workers’ Control?

November 1917

What was the Decree on Workers’ Control?

Accepted workers’ takeover in February 1917, but instructed the workers’ committees to maintain the ‘strictest order and discipline’

When was Vesenkha set up?

December 1917

What was Vesenkha?

Banks and railways nationalised, foreign debts cancelled, transport system improved

When was the Decree on Nationalisation?

June 1918

What was the Decree on Nationalisation?

Programme for the takeover of industry. Completed within two years

How much of the vote did the Bolsheviks get?

24%

How much of the vote did the SRs get?

52%

When was the Constituent Assembly dissolved, after how long?

January 1918, after 24 hours

How did some Bolsheviks react to dissolving the Constituent Assembly?

Maxim Gorky likened it to Bloody Sunday, describing Lenin as “a cold blooded trickster who spares neither the honour nor the life of the proletariat”

How did people react internationally to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly?

Rosa Luxemburg condemned “the elimination of democracy”

Lenin’s view on peace agreements?

Needed to happen quickly, Russia was exhausted. “Russia can offer no physcial resistance because she is materially exhausted by three years of war”

Trotsky’s view on peace agreeements?

Wanted to buy time, thought that it was possible Germany would collapse on the Western Front

How did Lenin and Trotsky act at peace agreements?

“More like victors than vanquished” - Field-Marshal Hindenburg

Terms of Brest-Litovsk

Russia loses one third of European Russia (including Ukraine) - about 386,000 square kilometres which contained 45 million people

3 billion roubles reparation

How did Left Communists react to Brest-Litovsk?

They opposed it, but Lenin was able to squash it

What did Lenin want from the Civil War?

He wanted destruction so that he could eradicate all opposition to him

Who were the Whites?

Political enemies of the Reds, joined by the SRs after being usurped

What did the SRs do against the Reds?

Set up a coup in Moscow of 2000 people, but was crushed on 7th July 1918. Also tried to assassinate Lenin twice

Who were the Greens?

National minorities: Georgians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs

What was the Czech legion?

A legion of 40000 troops who had volunteered to fight for Russia in WW1. Brest-Litovsk isolated them, so they tried to reach Vladivostok to try and win Allied support for an independent Czechoslovak state

How did hunger impact the Civil War?

Bolsheviks failed to improve on food, Petrograd citizens surviving on 50g per day by March 1918. Worsened by loss of Ukraine

What had happened to Petrograd by June 1918?

Workforce shrunk 60%, total population 3 to 2 million

White weaknessees

Scattered geographically under multiple leaders

No unified purpose

Reliant on foreign supplies

Who were the leaders of the Whites?

General Denikin in Caucasus, Baron Wrangel, General Yudenich, and Admiral Kolchak

Red strengths

Controlled Moscow and Petrograd - major industry and most able population

Controlled railways

Trotsky strong war leader

Lenin strong political leader

Independent

Unified

How was government further centralised after the Civil War?

Politburo and Orgburo replaced Central Committee in 1919

What caused foreign intervention?

Alarmed at Comintern, Russia declared it wouldn’t pay its debts, prevent provided supplies falling into German hands

What were the key foreign interventions?

Britain in Transcaucasia, Baltic, and Black Sea; France in Odessa; Japanese in Vladivostok in 1918

Japan and US in parts of Siberia in 1919

France and US recalled by 1919

All Western forces recalled by 1920

Japan remained until 1922

When was the Cheka set up?

December 1917

What power did the Cheka have?

To arrest, detain and torture

When were the Romanovs killed?

July 1918

How many labour camps were there by Lenin’s death?

315

When were trade unions crushed?

1920

What did Trotsky do to the Red Army?

He turned it into a formidable army of 3 million men. he also introduced political commissars to ensure everything was run correctly

What was Trotsky’s slogan?

“Everything for the Front”

When was War Communism introduced?

Summer 1918

What happened to population of Moscow and Petrograd between 1918 and 1921?

Halved

How much was the rouble worth in 1920 compared to 1917?

1%

Between 1913 and 21, how did gross industrial output, electricity, coal, steel and exports change?

Gross industrial output 1/3

Electricity ¼

Coal 1/3

Steel 1/30

Exports 1/76

Who were the kulaks?

An allegedly rich, hoarding group of peasants who they blamed inflation on. 100 were hanged on Lenin’s command in 1920

When did grain requisition begin?

July 1918

How many were starving in 1921?

1/5. Some were eating human flesh

How many died in the Civil War period, how many to starvation?

10 million, over half starved

When and why were priests shot?

In 1922, to confiscate church valuables

Who liked War Communism, and why?

Bukharin and Preobrazhensky because they saw the centralisation, end of private owenership and squeezing of the peasantry as true socialism

How many uprisings were there because of War Communism?

120

What was the ‘Workers’ Opposition’?

A movement by prominent Bolsheviks Shlyapnikov and Kollontai against War Communism

When was the Kronstadt Rising, what started it?

February 1921, when thousands of Petrograd workers crossed to the naval base on Kronstadt

What was the Kronstadt Manifesto? (5 key terms)

A manifesto produced by the Revolutionary Committee in March 1917. The terms were:

• New elections to the Soviets

• Freedom of speech, press and assembly

• Rights for trade unions

• Rights for political parties

• End to food confiscation

How did the Kronstadt Rising end?

Artillery bombardment and 60000 Red Army troops stormed Kronstadt. “Too little did we shoot at you scoundrels”

How were rebels of the Kronstadt Rising treated?

Ringleaders shot as deemed White reactionaries, Cheka hunted down and executed those who escaped

When was the NEP?

1921

Features of NEP (5)

Economic control relaxed

Grain requisition replaced by a tax

Peasants could keep and sell excess food

Public markets to be restored

Money reintroduced for trade

When did Lenin ban factionalism?

In 1921 in a resolution called “On Party Unity”

How did factory output, electricity and average wages for urban workers change under NEP?

Factory output doubled

Electricity tripled

Wages doubled