Bolshevik rule: lead up and early years under Lenin

What is Marxism?

What is Marxism?

The belief that the proletariat would rise up and seize power from the bourgeoisie. All property could then be owned by the government on behalf of ‘the people’ (in a system of socialism) until communism developed whereby people co-operated and worked collectively.

What was the Soviet Union?

Refers to Russia under communism. A soviet was a workers council, formed by the workers for the workers. Based in cities so the country was a union of workers.

What was the New Economic Policy? (NEP)

1921- A policy of compromise to restore the economy after the civil war. It involved privately owned small-scale trading and shops

When did the tsarist regime collapse?

February 1917

What was the October Revolution 1917

The Bolsheviks seize power from Provisional Government.

What was Marx’s view of history?

1) Primitive communism

2) Feudalism

3) Capitalism

4) Socialism

5) Communism

Define Proletariat

The Working classes (emerged as a result of the Industrial Revolution)

Define Bourgeoisie

Factory and business owners. (Own means of production)

Define Dictatorship of the proletariat

A government that rules on behalf of the proletariat. Overthrows bourgeoisie and prevents counter-Revolution.

What was communist rule like under the Bolsheviks?

Authoritarian, highly centralised and supplemented by use of terror.

What opposition did the Bolsheviks face in 1921?

. Other left-wing groups (Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks)

. Groups on the right (Tsarist supporters and liberal groups- supported middle classes)

. Nationalist groups within the Russian Empire (Ukrainians, Poles and Finns - wanted to assert independence)

Constituent Assembly

A Parliament elected by the people of Russia - Lenin agreed to hold elections November 1917

How did Lenin destroy the other political parties?

. No vote from bourgeois classes

. Mensheviks and SRs newspapers were censored

. Left-wing SRs lost influence after a walk out in protest of Bolshevik decision to withdraw from War

By 1921 all other parties= banned (5,000 Mensheviks arrested along with SR supporters)

What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

1918- A treaty to withdraw Russia from the war. Russia lost control over the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and parts of the Caucasus region. It was a national humiliation for the conservatives.

Who were the ‘Whites’?

Bolshevik opposition during the civil war of 1918-20. Mostly conservative groups lead by generals and military leaders from the Tsar’s armed forces. Didn’t want old social order to change.

What methods did the Bolsheviks use to deal with other political groups between 1917-1921?

. Terror

. Arrested opposition and their supporters

. Banned parties

. Censored opposition media

. ‘On Party Unity’: banned factions to maintain authority

How did the Bolsheviks win the civil war?

. More organised in a military, economic and political sense.

Vs the whites: couldn’t co-operate, stretched across long front, aid from allies = useless due to corruption and inefficiency.

What was the Kronstadt mutiny?

A mutiny of sailors against the imposition of orders on the local soviet by the Bolshevik’s. ‘Soviets without Bolsheviks’.

(Shocking as had previously been strong Bolshevik supporters)

What was the Tambov uprising?

A peasant uprising sparked by Bolsheviks requisitioning grain for cities and the army. Took 50,000+ Bolshevik troops to put down.