Modern History ATAR Year 12

February Revolution: Dates

23rd February - 3rd March

International Women’s Day: Date + Happenings

23rd of February. Displays of public outrage during International Women’s Day marches lead to 90,000 people striking in Petrograd against food and fuel shortages.

By Friday 24th of February, ___ workers were now on strike, but…

200,000, but police and cossack troops were able to keep control of the crowds.

Events of 26th of February

The Cabinet ask Tsar Nicolas to form a government acceptable of the Duma. He refused. Cossack troops refuse to fire on crowds, and sailors mutiny. The Tsar has lost support of the military, who were the only forces keeping him in power.

Events of the 28th of February

The Duma established a committee to assume the powers of the government, later becomming the Provisional Government. The Petrograd Soviet was also formed and Order No. 1 was issued.

Events of the 2nd of March 1917

The Tsar abdicated due to pressure from political forces and the lack of remaining support from the army. No forces, whether social, political, or military remained in support of the Tsar in Petrograd.

The February Revolution: Overview + Causes

• Leaderless and incredibly spontaneous

• Caused by a buildup of failures upon failures, leading to mass frustration directed towards the Tsar

  • The economy

  • The war

  • Russo-Japanese War and Bloody Sunday were great scars on the governments reputations which never truly healed

  • Bread rationing and overall food shortages

• People weren’t following a particular ideology - rather, everyone was united by the idea of any change, preferably radical change

• The Tsar was ignorant towards the Revolution and only abdicated after he lost the support of the Duma and the military

The Provisional Government

Made up of members of the 3rd and 4th Duma, tasked with running the country until a Constituent Assembly could be formed.

Promises of the Provisional Government

• Democracy

• Civil liberties

• Illegalisation of discrimination

• Abolition of capital punishment

• Amnesty for political prisoners

• An independent judiciary

Petrograd Soviet

Made up of Mensheviks and SRs, the Soviet was a representative body protecting the interests of soldiers and workers.

Order No. 1

Made it so that any order given by the Provisional Government to the military must first be passed through the Soviet, giving them significant influence over both the military and the workers, allowing them to control:

• Railways

• Telegraph stations

• Soldiers in the Petrograd Garrison

• Factories

• Power supplies

3 Reasons why Dual Authority Occurred

• The Provisional Government was not in a position to reject the demands of the Soviet, since the Soviet was far more popular than them

• The Soviet was willing to let the Provisional Government rule as they knew that if things went south and they were in charge the wrath of the revolution would turn on them

• Order No. 1 gave both groups around equal power and influence, with the Soviet likely having more of both

The April Theses and it’s 5 Major Demands

When Lenin returned from Switzerland, he issued the following demands, causing quite a stir:

• An end to the war

• An end to capitalism

• Rights for peasants and workers

• All power to the Soviets

• Nationalisation of banking and industry

Mistakes of the Provisional Government: The Summer Offensive

The first and last major offensive on the part of the Provisional Government. Begun mid-June and lasted for around 3 days. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and more territory was lost than gained.

Factors Leading to the Summer Offensive

• Allied pressure

• Nationalist pride

• Conservative forces thought a successful campaign could bring the revolution and soldiers under stronger control of the generals

• Progressive forces thought a successful campaign could put them in a better position for peace negotiations with Germany

Mistakes of the Provisional Government: Anarchy in the Countryside

By May 1917, peasants were seizing land illegally. The Provisional Government wanted the laws for land redistribution to be set up by the Constituent Assembly so it more accurately resembled the desires of the people, so there was no inteference and little was done to fix the situation.

During the Summer of 1917, ___ instances of land seizure occurred.

240

Mistakes of the Provisional Government: The Economy

The Provisional Government did little to solve the main economic issues which had brought about the February Revolution. They did little to incentivise peasants to sell their grain, as there were no consumer goods to spend their excess profits on. They tried sending ‘punishment squads’ into the countryside to forcibly requisition grain, but this only led to increased hostilities. The workers, having expected radical reforms to the economy, felt betrayed by this inaction.

The Provisional Government aimed to incentivise selling of grain by … which didn’t work because … due to …

…increasing the amount of money they purchase grain for by 100% … the peasants had nothing to use this money for due to a lack of consumer goods … 570 factories closing between February and July, leading to the loss of 100,000 jobs.

On average, the cost of food would rise by ___% and the cost of consumer goods by ___% between ___ and ___.

570%, 915%, August 1914, August 1917

Issuess Faced by Kerensky by the End of August 1917

• The liberals of the Provisional Government were moving to the right, demanding no land reforms, defense of property, and the restoration of military discipline

• The army was disintegrating with entire regiments deserting at a time

• Land seizures in the countryside were becomming more violent, with the use of arson, robbery, and murder worsening

• Workers, soldiers, and sailors were becomming more radicalised as the Bolsheviks gained popularity

• The economic situation was worsening

The July Days

On July 2nd, Trotsky gave a rousing speech leading to 500,000 people demonstrating against the Provisional Government and the war. This led to the arrests of Trotsky, among other key Bolshevik leaders. This was a major hit on the reputation of both the Bolsheviks (propaganda was used to portray them as agents of chaos) and the Provisional Government.

The Kornilov Affair

General Kornilov, Kerensky’s Commander In Chief, would put himself in opposition to Kerensky when he begun demanding a restoration of the death penalty, reduction of Soviet power, and the removal of socialists from the Provisional Government. Kerensky believed this could lead to civil war, and Kornilov, outraged, would direct General Kyrmov to march his troops on the Provisional Government in an unsuccessful coup. The Bolsevilks would offer help, and were released from prison due to Kerensky’s desperation.

Outcome of the Kornilov Affair

It ended peacefully after both forces refused to fight one another. In the end, the Bolsheviks were the real winners - their assistance was viewed highly by the public, and it erased any damage to their reputation caused by the July Days. Arguably, it was the Kornilov Affair that made the October Revolution feasible in the first place. Otherwise, if they seized power, they might have ended up similarly to the Kapp Putsch in Germany.

Lenin wanted to …

Because …

But Trotsky convinced him to …

Lenin wanted to act immediately and seize power as soon as possible, despite the wishes of other Bolsheviks such as Zinoviev and Kamanev.

Becuase he feared they would be a minority among the constituent assembly, and he feared that a military dictatory would seize power to control the situation in the countryside.

But Trotsky convinced him to wait until the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets in late October, where they could convince the other members of the Soviet to join them in the revolution and therefore complete the revolution in the name of the Soviets and if it went south, the Bolsheviks wouldn’t be as blamed as the Soviets.

What incited the Bolsheviks to begin their takeover?

• Kerensky would send the most radical army units out of Petrograd, with rumours spreading that he planned to abandon Petrograd to the Germans

• The Soviet, under the control of the Bolsheviks, was allowed to set up a ‘Millitary Revolitionary Committee’ in case of another attempted right-winged coup

• It was an open secret that the Bolsheviks were planning a takeover, and so Kerensky attempted to quell the situation by shutting down Bolshevik newspapers, restricting the power of the MRC, and closing the bridges connecting the centre of Petrograd and the working-class districts

• This allowed the Bolsheviks to say Kerensky was attacking the revolution, giving them an excuse to act on the 23rd of October

Events of the 23rd - 24th October

The Petrograd Garrison and MRC, under the control of the Soviet and therefore the Bolsheviks, would seize control rather peacefully of several important facilities, such as bridges, the railway station, post offices, banks, and telegraph stations.

Events of the 25th October

Red Guard troops would attack the Winter Palace and arrest members of the Provisional Government, 35,000 men strong. After it was announced that power had fallen into the hands of the Soviet, Menshevik and non-radical SR’s would walk out in disgrace, leaving the Bolsheviks with no internal opposition within the Soviet.

___ was Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, and in ___ ___% of the seats belonged to the Bolsheviks, ___% in the Moscow Soviet, as well as holding a majority in ___ other Soviets in large industrial cities.

Trotsky, November 1917, 90%, 60%, 80

In the elections for the Constituent Assembly, SR’s got ___% of the vote and ___ votes. The Bolsheviks got ___% of the vote and ___ votes.

38%, 17.25 million, 23%, 10.5 million

Issues Faced by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution

• Lack of support - around 25,000 Bolshevik supporters in a country of 150 million

• Lack of experience running a country

• Lack of bureaucracy, after masses of them refused to co-operate

• Ending the war would be an extremely difficult task, but it was one they had promised heavily

In the first ___ months of Bolshevik rule, Sovnarkom issued ___ decrees.

6 months, 116

Major issues tackled by Sovnarkom decrees

• Rights and powers of the proletariat

• Granting of self-determination

• Peace decrees

• Land reforms

• Nationalisation of industry

Peace Decree

Called for an immediate armistice between the nations of WW1 on the 25th of October. This was ignored and the Bolsheviiks did not have a secure enough base of power to enforce it.

The Land Decree

Issued on October 25, this decree repossessed all privately owned land and declared it property of anyone willing to farm it. This was done to appease peasant anarchy.

State Capitalism

An economic policy made to ease the transition between capitalism and socialism. Small-scale trade, marketplaces, and small businesses were allowed to remain operational, with the state taking control of heavy industry (banks, mining, transportation, and foreign trade)

Significant Decrees of the Sovnarkom

• The Resolution on the Right of Sovnarkom to Issue Decrees: Allowed Sovnarkom to bypass the Soviet and make laws with no checks

• Decree on Suppression of Hostile Newspapers: Press run by opposition groups was shut down

• Manifesto to the Ukrainian People and Decree on the Independence of Finland: Granted self-determination to Finland and Ukraine

• Heavy industry was nationalised via the following:

  • The Decree on the Nationalisation of Foreign Trade and the Merchant Marine: Nationalised foreign trade and reposessed all boats

  • The Resolution on Administration of Nationalised Industry: Production of mining-related goods nationalised

  • The Decree on Nationalisation of Banks

• Proclamation Declaring the Kadet Party an Enemy of the People: Among others, outlawed opposition parties

Lenin Quote on Leninism

Class political consciousness can be brought to the workers only from without, that is, only from outside the sphere of relations between workers and employers.

Marx Quote on Marxism

The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority.

Russian and

Lenin’s thoughts on Brest-Litovsk

He wanted war to end, no matter the cost. He saw it as not only a way to increase trust with the people but also (mainly) as a way to protect the seat of power. If the war continued, it was a real possibility that Petrograd could be under threat.

Bukharin’s thoughts on Brest-Litovsk

The war should continue - a socialist country should never agree to peace with a dirty capitalist country. Continuing the war could inspire socialist uprisings in other countries.

Trotsky’s thoughts on Brest-Litovsk

He was well aware a war with Germany could not be won, but he was fully against sacrificing any land and would continue to refuse Germany’s ultimatums during negotiations.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on…

…March 3rd, 1918

7 countries / states lost to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Ukraine

• Poland

• Finland

• Georgia

• Lithuania

• Latvia

• Estonia

The Treaty of Brest Litovsk lost…

• Over a million square miles of territory

• A third of its population (55M people)

• Much of its industry

• A majority of its coal, iron, and oil stores

Lenin quote on Brest-Litovsk

That abyss of defeat, dismemberment, enslavement and humiliation.

Russia lost ___% of their iron and coal reserves and ___% of their population to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

75%, 34%

The Tsar’s family was executed on…

17th of July 1918

Causes of the Civil War

• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• The murder of the Tsar

• Many socialist groups were against a one-party Bolshevik state, leading them to join the Whites

• The Czech legion joining the Whites

Trotsky quote on desertion

Every scoundrel who incites anyone to resist, or desert, or not to fulfil military order, will be shot.

By ___ there were ___ men in the Red Army, however by ___ there had also been ___ deserters.

1920, 5 million, 1921, 4 million

Key Generals of the White Army

Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich

Advantages of the Whites

• They controlled far more of the Russian coastline

• They controlled far more territory

• They had access to the assistance of the Allied Forces

Key Groups Within the Whites

• Tsarists

• Mensheviks

• SRs

• Kadets

• International Allied Forces

Reasons for Red Victory: Geography

• They had less land, making what they had easier to control

• They had access to the greater industrial areas of Russia (Petrograd and Moscow)

• More people to conscript in a highly-populated area

Reasons for Red Victory: White Disunity

• The Whites were made up of people of widely varying political beliefs

  • They were unable to form a coherent political plan

  • Lenin, on the other hand, had a strong vision and goals for Red Russia

  • The White military distrusted one another and infighting occasionally occurred

Reasons for Red Victory: Leadership

• Trotsky was a military figurehead, incredibly inspiring

  • He created a tightly-run and well motivated army, in constrast to the unmotivated White Army troops

• Lenin was a strong and capable leader who was able to keep the Red army and industry from collapsing during the war under War Communism

• White leaders were self-seeking and of poor quality

Reasons for Red Victory: Popular Support

• Urban workers were fighting to protect the gains of 1917, and knew only a Red victory would acheive this

• Peasants hated both sides, however the Reds were promising them land and the Whites were saying that their land would be returned to its former rich landowners

• National minorities knew a Red victory was more likely to bring them autonomy

Reasons for Red Victory: Allied Intervention

• Allied forces were fighting half-heartedly, felt it was not their responsibility

• Lenin was able to spin the situation in his favour, using allied intervention to show people that they were fighting against a foreign invasion

Reasons for Red Victory: Propaganda

• The Reds were able to show an idyllic future under their rule

• The Whites, not having a coherent plan, would only make negative propaganda

War Communism

A series of extremist economic policies enacted during the civil war

As workers left Petrograd for the countryside, the city had lost ___% of its workforce by ___, with the Proletariat decreasing from ___ to ___ workers between ___ and ___.

60%, April 1918, 3.6 million, 1.6 million, 1917, 1919

As early as ___, bread rationing had reached an all-time low of ___ per day.

1918, 50 grams

The goals of War Communism

To keep the Red Army fed so the war could be won, and to keep the workers fed so the army could be supplied. Everything else was secondary.

Policies of War Communism

• Enterprises taken by the workers and handed over to the Vesenkha, where former bourgeois managers, ‘specialists’, would run them

• Strict labour discipline, including fines for lateness and absenteeism and an internal passport system restricting migration to rural areas

• Class-based rationing: industrial and essential workers got the most, whereas bourgeois got the least

• The market economy was suspended, causing a massive black market and barter system to form

• Grain requisition squads run by the Cheka went into the countryside to forcibly, and eventually extremely violently, take excess grain from peasants

The 1921 famine claimed between ___ and ___ lives.

5 and 6 million

Less than ___ of food came from rationing - the rest came from ___.

A third, the black market

Around ___ houses were stripped for their fuel in ___.

3,000, Winter of 1919-20.

___% of Moscow prostitutes came from ___.

42%, bourgeois families.

Actions of Left-Wing SR’s in 1918

July of 1918: German ambassador is shot to try sabotage the German-Russian relations. August of 1918: Attempted assassination of Lenin

Official records put the death count at the hands of the Cheka at ___, with modern estimates believing it to be closer to ___.

13,000, 500,000.

The Red Terror in the Cities

Random arrests for ‘being near scenes of bourgeois provocation’ or being close with a suspect, with many being denouced as counter-revolutionaries due to personal vendettas.

The Red Terror in the Provinces

Cheka leaders had no checks on their power and no court of appeal to obey, with little central control over their actions. Many bosses were petty and leveraged their position to enact vengeance.

The Red Terror in the Countryside

Grain requisition squads were wreaking havoc, leading to peasant revolts and the development of an all-out class war.

Lenin’s orders to quell the class war in the countryside + its impact

He ordered “no fewer than a hundred kulaks, rich-bags, and bloodsuckers” to be hung “in full view of the people”. This was a bad idea, as killing the most successful peasants led to a massive loss of expertise.

Kronstadt Revolt: Date

1st to 18th March 1921

Demands of the Kronstadt Sailors

An end to grain detatchments, free elections to the Soviet, and a Soviet without Bolsheviks.

Trotsky quote on the Kronstadt sailors

The pride and glory of the Russian Revolution.

Reasons why Lenin couldn’t accept the demands of the Kronstadt sailors

• The ice would soon melt, making the Kronstadt naval base a threat to Petrograd - action must be taken soon

• Accepting their demands would mean losing absolute power

• They had to be quickly suppressed, as having people who were once strong supporters was bad PR for the Bolsheviks

___ Kronstadt sailors were killed in battle, with a further ___ being executed or sent to prison camps after the base was invaded. ___ Red Army troops were also killed.

5,000, 8,800, 10,000

Lenin quote on the Kronstadt Revolt

The flash which lit up reality more than anything else.

The 10th Party Congress: Date

8th to 16th of March 1921

Significance of the 10th Party Congress

Signalled a shift in party dynamics towards one of centralism, where differing opinions and debate would not be tolerated.

In 1921, Russia’s industrial output was ___% of the 1913 level, mining output was ___%, oil was ___%, and grain was ___%.

15%, 30%, 35%, 50%

In Petrograd the death rate had increased ___.

Fourfold

Zinoviev’s description of the NEP

A temporary deviation, a tactical retreat.

Main Elements of the NEP

• Grain requisitioning was abolished, and replaced with a ‘tax in kind’, with any surplus produce being able to be sold on the open market

• The ban on private trade was removed, and shops were allowed to reopen - rationing was abolished and people were able to buy food on their own income

• Small businesses were reopened and allowed to make a profit, bringing goods back onto the market and incentivising farmers to make a profit to purchase these goods

• The state remained in control of heavy industry, including the production of coal, iron, and steel, and the banking and transport systems

Between ___ and ___, grain harvests had increased by over ___%.

1920, 1926, 100%

Only ___ was able to exceed its 1913 value, with it increasing by ___% between 1913 and 1926.

electricity, 80%

From ___ to ___, factory production increased by ___%.

1920, 1923, 200%

Political Repression Under the NEP: Acronym

GROCC

Political Repression Under the NEP: Crushing of Peasant Revolts

Peasants who had acted in opposition to the Cheka and the Bolshevik party were punished over these years. In 1922, entire rebel villages were burned down. Villages who had supported the Reds were rewarded with salt.

Political Repression Under the NEP: Attacks on Political Opposition

The Mensheviks and SR’s, who had played a role in inciting the peasant revolts over the last few years, were outlawed as political organisations, with 5,000 Mensheviks being arrested in 1921 for ‘counter-revolutionary activities’.

Political Repression Under the NEP: Attacks on the Church

In 1921, the Union of the Militant Godless was established to challenge the power of the church, who had become a rival to the power of the Bolsheviks. In 1922, churches were stripped of precious items, and death penalties were handed out to leaders of the Russian Orthodox.

Political Repression Under the NEP: Censorship

In order to convince the intelligensia against speaking out against the Bolshevik party, dozens of Russian writers and scholars were deported in the Spring of 1922. In 1922, pre-publication censorship was established. Any peice of information needed to be handed over to the Glavlit before being published.

Factors Leading to an Increase in Centralisation: Acronym

PRIC

Factors Leading to an Increase in Centralisation: PRIC

Due to the peasants unwillingness to sell their grain to the cities, the government would take the systems of grain collection and distribution under central control.

Factors Leading to an Increase in Centralisation: PRIC

The railway system, which was essential for the operation of the country, was collapsing due to poor maintenance during WW1. It was also maintained by untrustworthy Mensheviks, leading to the entire system being possessed by the government.

Factors Leading to an Increase in Centralisation: PRIC

As industry continued to collapse through the Civil War, industry was nationalised and brought under the control of the vesenkha. By Autumn of 1919, 80% of industry was under the operation of the vesenkha.