VCE History Revolutions 2025 Unit 3 AOS 2: 'Consequences of the Russian Revolution'

What was Sovnarkom and how did it operate?

The Government of People’s Commissars. It was made up entirely by Bolsheviks with Lenin as leader, ruling by decree.

What were some of the changes enacted by Lenin and the Bolsheviks after the revolution?

28th October 1917- An 8-hour work day.

November 1917- Decree on Peace withdrawing Russia from the war.

November 1917- Decree on Land.

November 1917- Decree on Press, banning non-Bolshevik papers.

November 1917- Worker’s Control Decree.

December 1917- Decree on Nationalisation of Banks.

December 1917- Decree on Marriage.

When was the Cheka created?

The Cheka was formed in December 1917, headed by Felix Derzhinsky ‘Iron Felix’. In February 1918 the Cheka is granted the authority to arrest and execute. Membership increases from 10,000 in June 1918 to 200,000 in 1921. Its purpose was ‘to fight the counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs.’- Lenin. It ‘continued a long tsarist political police tradition.’- George Legget.

What was the Constituent Assembly?

The representative government promised by Sovnarkom and elected in November 1917. The SRs won 42% of seats, whilst the Bolsheviks received only 24%. It opened on the 18th of January 1918.

What was Lenin’s response to the results of the November elections?

He closed the Assembly on the 19th of January. Red Army soldiers killed or wounded over 100 pro-assembly demonstrators in the following days. The Russian public displayed ‘surprising indifference’- Pipes. ‘We will not exchange our rifles for the ballot.’- Lenin. ‘The machine gun became for them the principal instrument of political persuasion.’- Pipes.

What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

A treaty signed between Russia and Germany upon Russia’s withdrawal from the war on the 3rd of March 1918. Russia ceded 34% of its population to German rule, along with 32% of its farmland and 54% of its industrial enterprises. The Russian Army was disassembled. The goal was to ‘trade space for time.’- Richard Crampton.

What were the immediate economic outcomes of Bolshevik takeover?

War Communism was implemented. ‘Everything to the front.’- Trotsky. Bread rations in Petrograd drop to their lowest ever allocation of 50g per day, and the workforce sinks by 60% by June 1918.

What were the longterm economic outcomes of Bolshevik rule and War Communism.

April 1918- State Capitalism announced.

June 1918- War Communism announced.

June 1918- Committees of the Poor (Kombedy)

July 1918- The class-based food rationing system.

October 1918- Compulsory labour for the bourgeoisie.

November 1918- Private trade illegal, Food Commissariat introduced.

January 1919- Grain requisitioning squads (Prodrazvestka).

October 1920- All factories with more than 10 employees or 5 machines are nationalised. 

What were the effects of War Communism?

Between 1918 and 1919, the Black Market supplies 60% of bread to city-dwellers. 

Agricultural output fell below 60% of pre-war levels. The number of industrial workers halved between 1917 and 1921. Of the 10 million Russians who died during the Civil War, 9.5 of them died of famine resulting from War Communism.

What was the immediate impact of Bolshevik rule on land and farming policy?

In November 1917 ‘Private ownership of land shall be abolished.’ ‘The right to use land will be on an equality basis.’ In June 1918 Committees of the Poor (Kombedy) are created in the countryside to collect surplus grain, but the program was abandoned by December because ‘Instead of splitting the village [the Kombedy] united it- in rage and fury against the Bolsheviks.’- Historian Lars Lih. 

What was the later impact of Bolshevik rule on land and farming?

In January 1919 the Kombedy are replaced with Prodrazvestka. Between 1917 and 1921 land under cultivation dropped by 40%, and the harvest was only around 37% of its usual yield.

What happened to the bourgeoise under Bolshevik rule?

‘He who does not work, neither shall he eat.’- Lenin. ‘Death to the kulaks.’ 100 kulaks were executed on Lenin’s orders.

Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

They had a stronger army, the support of the Cheka, they had the benefit of location, they successfully utilised propaganda, they assassinated the royal family in July 1918, and the White Army suffered many failures.

How did the Red Army influence the outcomes of the Civil War?

Formed in January 1918 and led by Trotsky, by May 1918 over 360,000 men had volunteered to join the forces. By 1920 the Red Army consisted of 5 million men, who swore to ‘give [their] whole strength and life itself’. It was run by 50,000 tsarist officers.

How did the Cheka influence the outcome of the Civil War?

In September 1918 the Decree on Red Terror was launched. The Cheka conducted over 140,000 executions during the 3 years of Civil War, with another 140,000 killed in the process of eliminating uprisings- the Okhrana had executed just over 14,000 people in 50 years.

How did location influence the outcome of the Civil War?

Soviet controlled areas had a population of 70 million, along with control of Petrograd and Moscow, whilst White-controlled areas contained only about 8 million.

Why did the Whites lose the Civil War?

They had no agreed ideology, they relied on foreign support, they had poor location and strategy, and they did not have the Cheka or the Red Army.

How did a lack of unity affect the White Forces’ ability to win the Civil War?

The White Army was made up of four distinct groups by 1918. General Denikin stated that he ‘would not fight for any particular form of government’. ‘The White leaders… failed to adapt to the new revolutionary world.’- Figes.

What was Admiral Kolchak’s Eastern Threat and how did it affect the failings of the White Army in the Civil War?

In March 1919, an army of 100,000 soldiers supported by the Allies advanced on the Trans-Siberian Railway. By 1920 80% of the peasant conscripts had deserted from the White Army and Kolchak resigns.

What were the outcomes of the Russian Civil War?

The Bolsheviks reinforce their power. Many White Emigres flee Russia. 12 million are killed on both sides. War Communism leads to starvation and Famine. 

What were the causes of the Great Famine?

The average rainfall in Russia in May is 38.8 mm, but in May 1921 it only received 0.3 mm. This resulted in 1921 total crop yield in Russia being ½ of that in 1913. Additionally, grain requisitioning practices and the banning of private trade exacerbated the effects of the famine.

What were the outcomes of the Great Famine?

5 million Russians die of starvation, with some areas seeing up to 35% population loss. Russia is forced to accept aid from the American Relief Association in 1921. New Economic Policy is introduced.

Who were the Kronstadt sailors?

Bolshevik supporters who manned the gunship Aurora during the 1917 October Revolution. Trotsky described them as ‘the reddest of the red’.

What was the Kronstadt Revolt?

On the 1st of March 1921, Kronstadt sailors mutinied and wrote the Kronstadt Manifesto. ‘The autocracy has fallen. The Constituent Assembly has departed to the realm of the damned.’ ‘The moment has come for a true government of toilers, a government of Soviets.’ ‘The sickle and the hammer- have actually been replaced… with the bayonet and the barred window.’

What was the Bolshevik response to the Kronstadt Revolt?

‘Only those who surrender unconditionally may count on the mercy of the Soviet Republic.’ Those who do not ‘will be shot'.- Trotsky.

The Red Army attack on the 7th of October and take the base within a week, and over 5,000 Kronstadt sailors and 10,000 Red Army soldiers are killed.

It was ‘the flash which lit up reality better than anything else.’- Lenin.

What were the results of the Kronstadt Revolt?

10,000 members of the Red Army were killed, the Bolsheviks reinforced their power, and Lenin becomes wary. ‘Now is the time to teach this public a lesson so that… they will not dare to even contemplate resistance.’ ‘The Bolsheviks broke their last true links with the working class and with the ideals of October.’- Tom Ryan. The 10th Party Congress is called. 

When was the 10th Party Congress and what occurred there?

It was held in March 1921, and Lenin published his decree ‘On Party Unity’, further centralising leadership. War Communism is reversed for ‘an economic breathing spell’, and New Economic Policy is introduced as ‘a temporary deviation’ from Communism.

What were the results of New Economic Policy?

Grain requisitioning was abolished and replaced with a fixed tax, and private trade is legalised. Grain outputs rise 40% from Civil War levels, and by 1927, the amount of land under cultivation in Russia reached pre-war levels. Wages for factory workers increased by 150%. A Scissors Crisis was created. The ‘scissors opened and never closed.’-Richard Malone. For traditional Communists, the ‘NEP was nothing short of treason.’

How did propaganda help to reinforce Bolshevik power during the 1920s?

Christenings were renamed ‘Octoberings’ and weddings became ‘Red Marriages’.

How did the Bolsheviks transform education?

In May 1918 schools are standardised. Education becomes compulsory and free. The literacy rate rises from 28% in 1897 to 50% by 1927. ‘The illiterate person stands outside politics. First it is necessary to teach him his ABCs.’- Lenin.

How did the Bolsheviks transform women’s rights?

The Decree on Civil Marriage in December 1917 gave women the right to no fault divorce and equal pay, and abortion was legalised with the Decree on Women’s Healthcare in October 1920. However, only 12.8% of Party members were women by 1928.