LENIN: Communist government in the USSR

When was the Bolshevik party established?

1903

When did the Tsar regime collapse?

Feb 1917

What are the stages of Marx’s historical change?

• Primitive communism

• Feudalism

• Capitalism

• Socialism

• Communism

How large was the Bolshevik party at the time of the 1917 October Revolution?

300,000

How propaganda portrayed the Oct rev vs reality:

Mass heroic storming of the Winter Palace, in reality the guards (Women’s Death Battalion) let them in.

Who were the Bolshevik’s opposition?

Lest wing groups:

• Socialist revolutionaries

• Mensheviks

Right wing groups/liberals

• Tsarists

National groups w/i the Russian Empire:

• Ukrainians

• Poles

• Finns

Explain the Jan 1918 Constituent Assembly:

• SR/Mensheviks hoped to regain initiative

• To be democratically elected

• Bols 175 seats (9m votes)

• SRs 410 seats (21m votes)

How did Lenin respond to the 1918 Constituent results?

• Dissolved Assembly after one meeting (called it an instrument of the bourgeoisie)

• Replaced with the All Russian Congress of Soviets (instrument of popular support) no real forum for opposition

How did the Bolsheviks deal with opposition?

• Disenfranchised the bourgeoisie

• Restricted the press

• SRs stripped of all powers March 1918 (walked out of govt over WW1 withdrawals)

• March 1918 Bols renamed to the Communist Party

• 1921 all other parties banned

• April 1921 Lenin: ‘The place for the Mensheviks and the SRs is in prison’

How many mensheviks were arrested from Jan-March 1921?

5000

Who were the SRs?

• committed to democratic socialism

• rights of groups to govern themselves

• Peasantry support-stirred discontent

• Populism

• Won Constituent Assembly election

• Weakened by left/right splits

When was Fanya Kaplan’s assassination attempt on Lenin?

30th of August 1918, SRs involved, wave of arrests followed

Who were the Mensheviks?

• More moderate Communist group

• Split from Bols 1903 (differences in policy)

• Prepared to work w/ bourgeoisie for gradual reform

• 1917 larger membership than Bols

• Weakened by co-op w/ Provisional govt

• Opposition to Bol rule weakened by divisions in leadership

• Rival factions led by Dan and Mortov reunited May 1918

• Sept 1920 Mortov left Russia for Germany

• 1921 Dan arrested and exiled

Explain the Treaty of Brest-Litovst, 1918:

• Ended Russian involvement in WW1

• Russia lost Lithuania/Estonia/Finland/Ukraine and parts of the Caucasus region

• Conservatives felt it was a national humiliation

• Britain/France/USA/Japan wanted Russia in WW1, offered to help the Whites in the Civil War

What was the first violent encounter pre civil war?

Bols attacked by the forces of General Krasnov at Pulkovo Heights near Petrograd straight after the 1917 Oct Rev-Reds won

What years did the civil war span across?

1918-1921

How did the Reds win the Civil War?

• Reds limited to central cove based in Moscow, stretching to Petrogard N-W

• Surrounded on all sides by Whites

• Reds better organised

• Whites full of diff groups/beliefs

• Whites didn’t effectively use foreign aid

• Red’s victory largely due to Trotsky’s military strats (Commissar for War)

• Conscription got army numbers to 5m

• Implementation of War Communism (huge nationalisation of industry and grin requisitioning

• Degree of active support for the Bolsheviks (Land Decree peasants, and workers saw them as best option)

Key results of the civil war:

• V. centralised state

• Power v. concentrated in govt (sovnarkom) and party leadership (politburo) based in Moscow

• Extensive use of Terror during the war against political opponents—> set the tone for party development post war

• Supporters of Bolshevik’s had gone through a formative experience, enforcing militaristic values in the population

When was the Tenth Party Congress and what did it establish?

March 1921, ‘on party unity’ ban on factions

Party growth through the civil war?

300,000 end of 1917, to 730,000 by 1921

What was the 1921 Kronstadt Mutiny?

Mutiny of sailors against the imposition of orders from the local soviets of the Bolshevik government

Slogan of the mutineers was ‘Soviets without Bolsheviks’

Mutiny was brutally crushed by the Red Army

Severe shock to the regime, sailors had priorly strongly supported the Bolsheviks

What was the 1920-22 Tambov Rising?

Peasant uprising in the Tambov region

Sparked by the arrival of Bolshevik units to requisition grain

Spontaneous initially, then peasants built there strength forming a Green Army which estabilshed control in a large area

50,000+ Bolshevik troops to put down the revolt

The apparatus of govt: Sovnarkom

The Council of People’s Commissars

Essentially the Cabinet of top ministers

20 member

Elected by the Central Executive Committee

Quick decisions

Met daily during the civil war

The apparatus of govt: The Central Executive Committee

Larger group

Elected by the Congress of Soviets

Oversaw work of govt and its administration

The apparatus of govt: The All-Russian Congress of Soviets

Supreme law-making body of the state

All laws issued by the Sovnarkom had to be approved by the Congress

Elected by local Soviets

In reality, rubber-stamped already done and made decisions

Party control of the state: Politburo

7-9 leading members of the Party

Chosen by the Central Committee

Make key policy decisions

Met daily under Lenin

Became more important than the Sovnarkom

Members under Lenin inc Zinonviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin

Party control of the state: Central Committee

30-40 members

Chosen by Party Congress

Supposed to make key policy decisions, post 1919 this power went to the Politburo

Party control of the state: Party Congress

Made up of reps from local party branches

Discussed general programme of the party

Fierce debates at the 9th and 10th Party Congresses of 1920 and 1921

Ban on factions 1921 stifled debate (role of PC declined)

Met yearly 1917-1926

What is democratic centralism?

Soviets used as bodies that represented workers at a local level, wishes were expressed through a structure of representative organisations that would take concerns to decision making bodies at higher levels of government. Decisions could then be made in the interests of the people and passed down to regional/local level for implementation

What were Lenin’s postitions in the govt/party? What style of leadership did he prefer? How did he influence decision making? What later limited his personal power?

Chair of Sovnarkom, Politburo member

Collective leadership

Threatening to resign in heated debates (Brest-Litovsdk, NEP)

Illness from a series of strokes, the third one in March 1923 mega hindered his ability to speak

What was the nomenklatura system?

Appointing people to jobs from a list approved by party leadership, evidence to commitment to the cause was required to stay on the list. It encouraged corruption as favours were expected to stay on the list and earn promotions

What was party membership by 1924?

1m

The Soviet Constitution fo 1924:

• Further centralised power

• Confirmed the power of the Communist Party in the state

• Although the name ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ showed that it was formally a federal system

• Russia was 90% of land area and 72% of the population of the USSR

• ¾ of the Communist Party were Russian

What initially was the terror organisation called and who headed it? When was it founded? Where was it based? 1917-23 how many executions was it responsible for? What was the growth of the secret police from 19-18-21?

The Cheka, Dzerzhinsky

Dec 1917

Lubyanka building in Moscow

200,000

40,000-250,000

Who was Bim-Bom?

Victim of the purges, a clown in the Moscow circus whose act inc anti-Bolshevik jokes

Examples of defiance of Lenin’s govt/Party?

• Black marketeers

• Kemenev+Zinoviev opposing Lenin’s decision to launch the Rev 1917

• NEP caused the formation of left/right wing party factions

• Role of trade unions a contentious topic throughout eg Worker’s Truth group