CIVIL WAR - POLITICS AND LENIN

In the civil war, how many propaganda posters were created in three years?

3,600

What is a bereacuracy?

non elected officials make decisions

What is a dictatorship?

one person makes all the decisions

What is a dictatorship of bureacracy?

one non elected official makes all the decisions, they then elect other officials

How did the Bolsheviks use war communism?

nationalised industry, banned strikes, introduced internal passports and used managers and elite workers to control other workers

When was the Cheka introduced, what did they do?

1917, political police force who used terror (eg gulags from 1918) to eliminate opposition

When was the Cheka replaced, who by?

1922, GPU

What was the main policy making buro of the USSR?

Politburo

How was class wafare utilised to terrorise the middle class?

popular with the workers and soldiers, amde it difficult to criticise a new government

What is the estimated number of people sent to the Gulags in the civil war?

500,000

What was the red terror?

the Cheka removing all forms of political opposition

How did the people view the Bolshevik’s winning the war?

seen as defending Russia from foreign imperialists and interventionists

What did Universities lose?

all of their autonomy

What were Trotsky’s red army able to do?

put down rebellions or uprising, eg the Kronstadt rebellion

Why did lenin have enourmous prestige?

founder and major political thinker of the Bolshevik party

What did democrtic centralism mean from 1921?

all decisions made by Lenin and the Politburo had to be followed by the entire party

How did Bolshevik propaganda glorify Lenin?

lenin was heralded as the ‘father of the Nation’

What were the Bolshevik party allowed to do after 1921?

field candidates for elections to the soviets

How did the Bolsheviks control the media?

only newspapers like Pravda could be published and Lenin utilised censorship

When did the Bolsheviks ban all other parties?

1921

what did the NEP mean?

bolsheviks controlled the commanding heights of industry

What did Lenin do after WW1 officially ended?

ignored the treaty of Brest-Litvosk

Why was the UUSR established, when?

to overcome minority ethnic groups and to stop Lenin looking too empirical

In 1921, what did Lenin announce a ban on?

factions wihin the party, not allowed to form groups outside of Lenin’s leadership

What did lenin set up as a new body of government?

Sovnarkom

When did the Bolsheviks close the Constituent assembly, why?

January 1918, made russia a one party state

When was the Tsar killed?

16th/17th July 1918

Why was the death of the Tsar beneficial for the reds?

no rallying point for the whites, foreign intevention also limited due to this

How many party members fought for the reds in the civil war?

over half a million

what was Lenin’s inclination towards politics?

control, discipline and lead from the centre

When was the centralisation of power established?

Moscow replaced petrograd as Russia’s capital, symbolic movement away from the west

How were the Bolshevik party not actually democtratic?

Politburo controlled the decisions but appeared democratic based on elected Congress

What is democratic centralism?

workers and peasants seemingly effect officials, but have no actual power

Why did Stalin disagree with Lenin over the formation of the USSR?

Stalin didn’t want a federation soviet republic, wanted direct control over the states

What was the USSR, when was it formed, why?

late 1922, Lenin wanted a federation of soviet republics, done this way to avoid empirical allegations

What is the Politburo?

have the most power, consists of Trotsky, lenin and stalin, took power from the Sovnarkom, top of the pack

What is the central Committee?

was very powerful but grew too much so was replaced with the Politburo

What is Congress?

very divise due to heated arguments between lots of ‘elected’ officials, factions banned

What do city and provincial paries do?

officials from states and towns

What do local parties consist of?

small, often join so they could gain advantages for being an elected official

What was the role of the Sovnarkom?

had many politburo members so essentially ruled by them

What was the central executive committee?

little power as most members part of sovnarkom

What is the all russian congress?

no real impact, overlaped with the central executive committee

What are provinicial and city soviets?

eg petrograd Soviet, small councils

What were local and district soviets?

even smaller councils, workers felt like they had an impact