HISTORY!! QUOTES AND STUFF

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

"[it will 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 Tenth Party Congress… 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

“the second historic resolution of the Tenth Party Congress, the replacement of food requisitioning by a tax in kind …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 … leadership of the Red Army was a 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

1794-1795 winter McPhee quote

arguable the worst havest of the century

brissot war quote

we cannot be calm, … until europe… is in flames

clerical oath quote

they had to swear to "be loyal to the nation" and to "maintain the constitution declared by the national assembly"

Danton on Terror

"let us be terrible, in order that the people are not so"

David andres lafayette quote

lafayette was "attempting to save the monarchy in spite of itself"

Doyle on clerical oath

the constituent assembly's "most serious mistake"

doyle quote civil consitution of the clergy

caused a chorus of compaints

Doyle quote September massacres

in the paranoid atmosphere of Paris the revolutionary activists of the Commune sought revenge on those who in the past opposed them

Frank Adhock louis exercution

left "a terrible legcy of bitterness" in the assembly

John Bosher quote representatives on mission

effectively 'terrorised the nation'

Manon roland - war

"peace will set us back"

Marat after the fall of verdun

let the blood of traitors flow, that is the only way to save the country

Marie Antoinette war quote

"they cannot see that [the war] will serves us[, the royals,] well"

McPhee war quote

"the war was one the major turning points in the revoltion"

meat prices at the start of 1795

rose 300%

Number of active citizens

4.3 million

offically executed during the terror

17000

Peter McPhee august 10 quote

leaders such as Maximilien Robespierre understood the insurrection of 10 August as an expression of the people's will

prices 1793

the price of good like, soap, candles sugar and firewood had risen 45%-50% since 1790

Robespierre louis quote

"if the king is not guilty than the people that dethrowned him are"

Robespierre war quote

he wanted to "to restore order at home before taking liberty elsewhere"

Saint just louis quote

"no man can regine innocently"

schama economics quote

"the real crisis of 1793… was inflation"

Schama quote violence in the revolution

bloodshed was not the unfortunate byproduct of revolution, it was the source of its energy

simon schama quote louis and war

Louis XVI could have been convinced that he had hardly anything to lose

William Doyle quote Federalist revolt

what the federalists' appear to gave resented if anything more than the grip of the sans-culottes on the elected deputies was the range of emergency measures

William Doyle sans-culottes quote

they demanded their enemies be silenced

Figes on the October Revolution

"the October revolution was a coup d'etat… but it took place during a social revolution"

Alexandra on the progressive bloc

"fiends worse than the duma"

Lenin Slogans

"Peace! Bread! Land!" and "All power to the soviets"

Pipes - October revolution

"October was a classic coup d'état"

Battle of tsushima deaths

10000 Russians

Alan Wood - fundemental laws

"the notion of a "constitutional Autocracy' was not only impractical [but a]… political absurdity doomed to fail"

Troksy - April theses

"produced the impression of an exploding bomb"

Battle of tannenburg deaths

70000 russians killed

Fundemental Laws article 4

"the tsar is the supreme authority… god himself"

Fundemental Laws article 87

the tsar can dismiss the duma at any time

How many different nationalities within russia

60

Nicholous II - representative government

"i shall never under any circumstance agree to the representative form of government because I consider it harmful."

Nicholous II - october manifesto

"there were only two ways to open… crush the revolution by sheer force … this would mean rivers of blood … or give the people their civil rights"

Chamberlin - Lenin's leadership

"without [lenin's] … extremist leadership it is at least conceivable that the explosive mood of the masses would have evaporated."

Pipes - Lenin going to finland after July days

"the flight of the shepard (lenin) could not no effect but to deliver a heavy blow to the sheep (bolsheviks)"

Lynch - Russo-japanese war

"the incompentence of the government, which the war glaringly exposed, excited the social unrest that it had been specifically designed to dampen"

how meny marching on international womans day 1917?

100000

Ministerial leapfrogging

28 ministerial changes, (including 4 different prime ministers) in 18 months

food prices WW1

4 times higher than before the war by late 1916

Figes - Nicholas

"Nicholas was the source of all the problems"

Lenin - October 10 quote

"history will not forgive us if we don't take power now"

What percent of russia was urban workers before revolution

4%