r2 quotes

Figes - holding of power by the bolsheviks

“The holding of power by the bolsheviks was far greater an achievement than the taking if it”

james white - the initial problems faced by the Sovnarkom

“few Bolsheviks had any experience whatsoever in practical economics, law, military matters or business. they were revolutionaries not politicians”

Elections results

bolsheviks 24% SRs 52%

dissolution of the Constituent Assembly - pipes

“Machine guns became for [the bolsheviks] the principal method of political persuasion."

dissolution of the Constituent Assembly - figes 

“[the bolsheviks] couldn’t bring themselves to exchange their leather jackets for ministerial suits”

reactions dissolution of the Constituent Assembly- figes 

“workers were preoccupied with securing enough food and fuel for their families, whilst the peasantry saw the assembly as a distant thing in the city”

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk losses

89% iron ore, 6% railroads, 34% Russia's population, 32% farmland, 3 billion roubles in reparations

the treaty of brest-litovsk lenin

“The temporary sacrifice of hard peace seemed to me preferable to the continuation of war”

the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, - Orlando Figes

“Essential for the survival of the Bolshevik regime.”

Orlando Figes - the Civil War

" As the Bolsheviks saw it, a civil war was no more than a violent form of class struggle."

Lincoln - the white army

“the only ideal uniting the Whites was their opposition to the Bolsheviks”

 lynch - the Civil War

"There was no doubting that Trotsky's organisation and leadership of the Red Army was the major factor in the survival of Bolshevik Russia."

 Vladimir Lenin - the Civil War,

“ In the end, the Soviet Government will win the fight... civil war is inevitable before the bourgeoisie is finally crushed.”

the Civil War deaths

10 million deaths

Robert Service - civil war

"Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky believed that over-killing was better than running the risk of being overthrown."

Red Terror - pipes

The bolsheviks had turned into tyrants

figes - red terror

"Terror was an integral element of the Bolshevik regime from the beginning."

lenin - red terror

"Special measures must be taken to fight counter-revolution and sabotage."

the White Terror - figes 

"the White Terror, …was a mirror image of the class resentment and hatred that drove the Red Terror. Terror lay at the heart of both regimes.

the White Terror - pipes 

"The White Terror was … mere 'repressive violence' to re-establish a previous status quo.”

Battle of march 7 -16 1921

50000 red 16000 kronstad

Battle of march 7 -16 1921 deaths

Dead - 10000 red 5000 kronstad

lenin kronstad revolt

“It was the flash that lit up reality better than anything else”

Trotsky kronstad saliors

“The reddest of the red”

Felix Dzerzhinsky - cheka

"...the Cheka must defend the revolution and conquer the enemy even if its sword falls occasionally on the heads of the innocent."

pipes - terror

"[the cheka was] designed to nip in the bud any thoughts of resistance to the dictatorship."

fitzpatrick - cheka

"organ of terror."

decrees amount

116 decrees in the first 3 months 

issuing of New Decrees, - robert service

"designed to inspire, to excite and to instigate"

lenin - state capitalism

"State capitalism would be our salvation. [it would make] the transition to full socialism … easy, "

War Communism, - trotsky 

“Everything for the front”

fall in urban population by 1920

70% fall in Petrograd

50% fall in moscow

lenin - war commuism

“Had we not done [war communism], we would have been unable to vanquish the landowners and capitalists in a ruined small-peasant country.”

Pipes- war communism

“ideological fanaticism rather than a credible response to circumstance”

Alec Nove - war communism

A partly organised chaos

grain production 1920-21

Half as much grain was produced in 1920-21 compared to 1913

1921 famine deaths

5 million deaths

Maxim Gorky - 1921 Public Appeal

"The corn-growing steppes are smitten by crop failure, caused by the drought. The calamity threatens starvation to millions of Russian people."

outlawing of factions - Richard Pipes

“One important … consequence of this conflict [with the Workers’ Opposition faction] was the adoption by the Tenth Party Congress of a secret resolution outlawing the formation of factions…”

Richard Pipes - the 1921 Famine

“ a turning point in the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet state”

Orlando Figes - NEP

“ No less monumental was the second historic resolution of the Tenth Party Congress, the replacement of food requisitioning by a tax in kind. This abandoned the central plank of War Communism. “

NEP - pipes 

"necessary step to save the revolution."

Trotsky, - NEP (later in his life)

“the first sign of the degeneration of Bolshevism”

fitzpatrick - NEP

“The beneficial impact on the economy was swift and dramatic.”

schooling rates 1915 - 1926

1915- 49%

1926- 80%

litercy rates

By 1926 literacy rates had more than doubled since 1900

what% of bolsheviks were women. 

12.8% of party members were women. 

Micheal Lynch - trosky leadership

"Trotsky's organisation and leadership of the Red Army was the major factor in the survival of Bolshevik Russia."

figes - continuity

By 1921, the revolution had come full circle and a new autocracy had been imposed on Russia."

pipes - ideals of the revolution

The Communist regime was a monumental failure. It succeeded in one thing only - staying in power."

white terror deaths

at least 20000