1/6
The successes and failures of peacemaking Territorial changes Political repercussions Economic, social and demographic impact; changes in the role and status of women
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
---|
No study sessions yet.
Failures and Successes of Peacemaking
November 1920: Defeat of last surviving White general
March 1921: Treaty of Riga, peace with Poland, did stabilise the borders. However, Russia lost valuable land in White Russia and Ukraine which was important agricultural land.
Poland gained its independence in the long term. This would be a problem for the Soviet Union which still had a significant Polish minority. It also undermined calls for Ukrainian and White Russian (Belorussian) independence as there were significant numbers of those nationalities now in the Polish state.
Most of the peace-making was piece-meal around Russia’s borders, not in one large conference à la Treaty of Versailles
Territorial Changes
Soviet Federative Socialist Republic set up
Poland gained independence, areas of Ukraine and Belorussia lost to Poland
Political Repercussions
Bolshevik government defended, became legitimised, Soviet Union became a one-party state
Shorter term, Bolsheviks made some concessions towards self-government
Also, the Kronstadt uprising and the war spurred the move from War Communism to NEP
Anti-Bolshevik sentiment among Western nations solidified
Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin war heroes
Economic Impacts
Wheat-rich areas of Ukraine were out of Bolshevik control
economy had been destroyed by WWI and was further suffering with inefficient management
urban populations shrunk by 60%
Social Impacts
Red and White Terrors claimed thousands of lives
pogroms in the southern Ukraine region by the Whites are thought to have taken over 100,000 Jewish lives
famine in 1921 killed 5 million
Demographic Impacts
Biggest killer was disease, especially typhus
over 1m killed by typhus and typhoid fever in 1920
Red Terror killed around 300,000
1-2m fled Russia
Impacts on Women
Suffrage following February Revolution
could divorce following October Revolution
People's Commissar for Social Welfare decreed that women could have 2 months paid maternity leave before and after birth
abortion legalised in 1920
heavily affected by the civil war
men came back from war and women lost jobs, proportion of women in workforce in 1929 was the same as in 1913
women made up 13% of party membership(Alexander Kollontai)