Bolshevik Consolidation of Power

What did Lenin and the Bolsheviks want to create when they seized power?

 a communist society in which people are equal, and there is no poverty, goods are produced by machines rather than manual labour, and there is no repression because there is no state

What was Karl Marx’s view of class struggle, as outlined in what book

The Communist Manifesto (1848)

Slave society (Conflict between freemen and slaves) → leads to the appearance of a new stage in history

• Feudal society (Conflict between landed aristocracy and growing bourgeoisie) → leads to the appearance of a new stage in history

• Capitalist society (Conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat) → leads to the appearance of a new stage in history

• Socialism: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat → gradual transition towards the final stage of history

• Communism (Stateless and classless)

Why was Marx’s theories an issue for the Bolsheviks? Who tried to solve it?

• Marx explained the development of history, but not how to move from one stage of history to another

• Socialism needed capitalism to be achieved first, but Russia was economically and socially backward

  • Russia’s revolutionaries needed to push Russia towards capitalism so that it could be overthrown in a revolution

• Lenin’s contributions to Marxism provided solutions to these problems

The Social Democratic Party split into two separate factions at the Second Congress in 1903

• The party should comprise a small number of dedicated, highly disciplined revolutionaries

  • Centralised and hierarchical government

  • The purpose was to educate the working class about socialist ideals and lead to revolution

• Mensheviks led by Martov

  • The party should be broad-based and take in a wide membership

  • A democratic structure that allows party members to argue against the ideas of the leadership

  • Improve the conditions of the working class before the revolution

    • More “Marxist” than the Bolsheviks, arguing it would take a long time for Russians to develop class consciousness

In 1905, a revolution broke out across Russia, and Lenin spent the next 12 years in exile. what happened to the party?

•  infiltrated by the Okhrana and internal divisions

why did Lenin believe that the outbreak of war in 1914 offered an opportunity for revolution

• Once patriotic fervour had subsided, the working class should take up arms against Russian officers and capitalists

Despite critics saying that Lenin was not a Marxist, and used it as a cover for power, Lenin was a firm believer in the most fundamental principles of Marx, that a workers' movement must be revolutionary

Lenin’s contributions to Marxism provided some practicality to the theory. This can be defined as Marxist-Leninism. What were his three major works that influenced communist (bolshevik) ideology

• What Is To Be Done? (1902)

• Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)

• The State and Revolution (1917)

Lenin’s modifications of Marxism were fused with the reality of the situation of Russia in 1917, including

• Russia’s backwardness would make anti-capitalist revolution easier, as the bourgeoisie was less developed

• Russia’s proletariat was small but concentrated and very powerful

• Russia’s proletariat could not build socialism in Russia, but it sparked revolutions in more advanced Western Europe, which was ready for socialism

• These socialist nations would come to Russia’s aid

• Russia would not be classless, but more democratic than the Tsarist regime

• A coercive apparatus would be needed because of internal enemies and external powers

• A mixture of democracy and coercion was the defining element of the dictatorship of the proletariat

Elyse Topalian quote about Lenin

“It was a purely practical approach. It was his style to deal only in immediate practical issues. Lenin left only one issue, rather vague - how to govern in the aftermath of the revolution when the time came”

On 1 August 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, sparking patriotic fervour throughout the country despite the civil unrest that had plagued the country. How did Russia perform in the war?

• Russia’s army was poorly led, poorly trained and enormously under-supplied

• Russia was an 18th-century nation attempting to fight a 20th-century army

  • Within weeks, Russia suffered two massive defeats at the Battle of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes

• By 1916-1917, Russia was beset with war-weariness, disillusionment and an ever-widening strike movement, mass desertions and army mutinies

The February Revolution of 1917 was spontaneous, as Richard Charques describes in The Twilight of Imperial Russia

“Without leadership and almost without conscious aim…the Russian revolution…sprang not so much from the will of the people but as from the mere decomposition and collapse of the tsar’s government”

The February Revolution began on International Women’s Day, 23 February, as mass demonstrations took place in Petrograd against fuel and food shortages. What happened as a result?

• Strikes spread across the city, with hundreds of thousands of participants

• Cabinet asks the tsar to form a new Duma, but Nicholas refuses

• The government loses control of the city on 27 February as soldiers and police join demonstrators

• The Tsar abdicated on 2 March 1917, ending the 300-year Romanov Dynasty and marking the beginning of the Provisional Government v Soviets

While the February Revolution was “leaderless and spontaneous”, the October Revolution in 1917 was

 “a carefully planned coup d’etat”

• The Bolshevik Party had nothing to do with the events of the February Revolution

  • Lenin was in Switzerland, Trotsky in New York, Stalin and others in Siberia

The abdication of the tsar on 2 March left a political vacuum, which was contested over between

the Provisional Government and the Soviets

The Soviets’ first decision was Order Number One, while the Provisional Government

placing Russia’s armed forces under its control

led by Prince Lvov, decided to continue its war against Germany

In early 1917, the Bolshevik party was a minor feature of Russian life until Lenin returned

How did Lenin return to Russia and what did he call for once he returned?

• The German Government allowed Lenin to enter Russia in a sealed train, and arriving in Petrograd in April, he called for opposition to the Provisional Government, “All power to the Soviets”, and an immediate end to the war

What was issues was the Provisional Government facing

•  peasants seizing land and attacking landowners, increasing desertions from the army

In July, Alexander Kerensky became the leader of the Provisional Government, and was genuinely popular as he was also a member of the Soviet

However,

• However, his decision to continue the war led to disaster as a key offensive against Germany failed, leading to the sailors at Kronstadt revolting

• This was blamed on the Bolsheviks, and many were arrested as Lenin fled to Finland

Kerensky appointed General Kornilov as Commander in Chief, who led a coup against the Provisional Government in August 1917

What was the outcome of this?

• This failed as soldiers, sailors, and workers mobilised to defend Petrograd, led by the Bolsheviks and their Red Guard Militias

• Riding a wave of popularity, the Bolsheviks gained control of the Petrograd Soviet, among others, with Trotsky as its President

How did Lenin play a pivotal role in 1917, culminating in Bolshevik seizure of power

• Ordered party members to end all cooperation with the Provisional Government on his return to Petrograd in April 1917

• Lenin outlined the basis of future Bolshevik policy in The April Theses

  • Lenin’s insistence on total opposition, “All power to the Soviets”, disassociated the Bolsheviks completely from the string of failures that beset the Provisional Government in 1917

  • Allowed the party to establish a clear identity

• Lenin’s use of simple sloganeering and populist positions transformed the Bolsheviks from a minor to a major force in months

  • “All power to the Soviets” → Appealed to workers and soldiers who saw their interests better represented than in the Provisional Government

  • “Peace, land and bread” → Major concerns of peasants

    • Lenin promised the peasants would acquire land, regardless of whether this clashed with Marxism

    • Russians wanted peace and bread, although Lenin never specified the cost

Why was the aftermath of the Kornilov coup was the only opportunity for the Bolsheviks to take power

• Gained control of the Soviets, with Trotsky as the President of the Petrograd Soviet

• Bolshevik efforts against the Kornilov coup made them true defenders of the revolution

• The Provisional Government was demoralised after the failure of the July Offensive and Kornilov’s actions

What were reasons against seizure of power, and what was the final decision

•  Lenin had to convince the Bolsheviks of revolution, “History will never forgive us”, with Zinoviev and Kamenev still in opposition from fear of civil war

  • Lenin accepted Trotsky’s argument that the seizure of power be delayed until the meeting of the Second Congress of All-Russian Soviets on 25 October

    • This would present Bolshevik actions as in the name of all the Soviets, rather than the Bolshevik desire for power

What was Trotsky’s role in the October coup 1917

• Trotsky successfully persuaded Lenin to postpone the coup until the Second Congress of All-Russian Soviets, announcing the overthrow of the Provisional Government at the Smolny Institute

• The Soviets formed a Military Revolutionary Committee, which controlled the capital’s arms and military manpower, and in turn, which Trotsky controlled

  • Trotsky ordered Red Guards to enter the Winter Palace and arrest members of the Provisional Government

  • Trotsky directed Red Guard units and sympathetic soldiers to take control of key city locations such as railways and bridges

On 25 October, members of the Congress of Soviets condemned Bolshevik actions, and many walked out in protest into “the dustbin of history” as Trotsky ridiculed

what happened as a result?

• Lenin announced the formation of a Bolshevik government, calling for peace with Germany and land for peasants

• Although the coup was almost bloodless in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks had a harder time in Moscow

Adam Ulam

Christopher Hill

Robert V Daniel

• “(Lenin) now dominated his Party morally and intellectually. Bolshevism without him was unimaginable”

• “Hence Lenin’s own continual insistence on the necessity of both firm government and good relations with the mass of the peasantry”

• “With…no intention before the fact, they had the city in the palms of their hands”

The Bolsheviks announced on 25 October at the All-Russian Congress of Soviets that they had seized power

What were the consequences of this?

• Most Russians supported the idea of Soviet power, rather than Bolshevik power

  • They expected a coalition socialist government to emerge after the fall of the Provisional Government, with even some Bolsheviks believing so

• The other socialist parties protested at what happened, arguing that the Bolsheviks did not represent the Russian people

  • Many walked out in protest, leaving the Bolsheviks and the left-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, making the Bolsheviks a majority in the congress

Lenin declared that a new Bolshevik government had been formed, called the Council of People’s Commissars or the SOVNARKOM

Who were the key figures

• Lenin → Chairman

• Trotsky → Commissar of Foreign Affairs (till February 1918), then Commissar of War

• Rykov → Commissar of Internal Affairs

• Kollontai → Commissar of Social Welfare

• Lunacharsky → Commissar of Popular Enlightenment

• Stalin → Commissar of Nationalities

The Bolshevik regime’s weaknesses at the end of 1917

• Lack of coercive power

  • Lacked police, law enforcement bodies and a fully constituted army

  • While it had garrison support in towns it controlled, most of the country was not under its direct control

• Many Soviets were controlled by non-Bolsheviks, while Bolshevik-controlled Soviets were often a ‘law unto themselves’

• Lacked a government bureaucracy as civil servants went on strike, and the state bank refused to cooperate, making force necessary

• The economy was a disaster, with food shortages and anarchy in the countryside

• The war with Germany was still ongoing

• The party performed badly in the Constituent Assembly elections

Why was the Bolshevik regime popular in the early motnhs of the regime

• Early Bolshevik measures emphasised local control, such as worker control of factories and recognition of peasant land seizures

However, this view needs to be qualified by two key factors

• The initial weaknesses of the regime gave Lenin no choice but to pass measures of a populist nature

• This was accompanied by the creation of an authoritarian, coercive apparatus

SOVNARKOM did not gain sanction from the Soviets for its early measures, ruling by decree

Main decrees from 1917 to 1918

• Lenin’s first measure was the Peace Decree

  • Lenin was prepared to pay any price to end the war with Germany, as this was the main failure of the Provisional Government

  • The Russian Commander-in-Chief, Dukhonin, refused to offer an immediate armistice and was replaced by Bolshevik lawyer Krylenko

• Lenin’s second measure was the Land Decree

  • Peasants were given the right to seize the land of the gentry, and there was to be no compensation, as the land belonged to the entire people

  • Although private land ownership was a capitalist notion and the antithesis of a socialist revolution, they were forced to accede to the situation in Russia

  • They had little control over the peasants, and to oppose them would have brought down the new regime

• A series of measures was passed in favour of the workers

  • Maximum of eight-hour working days

  • Unemployment pay, old age pensions and sickness benefits

  • Workers’ control of factories and railways

• A series of measures were passed to break the power and wealth of the church

  • Church lands were confiscated, and civil marriages were introduced

  • In 1918, church and state were formally separated

• A series of measures were passed to make men and women equal

  • The 1918 Marriage Code gave women legal equality with their husbands

  • Divorce was made easier, and abortion was legalised in 1920

  • The Zhenontdel, Women’s Department, was set up in 1921

• A series of measures were passed to democratise the army

  • Army officers had to be elected

  • Officers were under the control of the army soviets and soldiers’ committees

  • Ranks were abolished, and there was an end to uniforms and saluting

In Lenin’s State and Revolution, he expressed his belief that the regime would be popular, but also the necessity of a strong coercive apparatus to consolidate power.

This led to the creation of what and for what purpose

• The creation of the Extraordinary Commission against the Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation → CHEKA (1917)

  • Successor to the tsarist okhrana, led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, who was ruthless and incorruptible

  • The aim was to enforce conformity, fear and an atmosphere of intimidation, dealing with over 50,000 opponents in its first year

  • During the Civil War, the Cheka’s activities were known as the Red Terror, where freed from any restraints began boiling officers, serving them in half with saws, crucifying priests and skinning prisoners

The old legal system was replaced with revolutionary justice, arbitrary and violent

This saw what happen?

• Targets of the new system were burzhui, members of the bourgeoisie class or anyone who was a perceived enemy of the people

• Targeting the rich was popular with the peasants, and everyone was addressed as comrade

The Russian people had been promised a constituent assembly since March, and elections in November went badly for the Bolsheviks, gaining 24% of the vote

What was Bolshevik response?

• The assembly met for one day before being shut down by SOVNARKOM troops

• Lenin argued his government represented a higher stage of democracy, making the assembly unnecessary

What measures were put into place, destroying political opposition to SOVNARKOM

• Closed down opposition newspapers, first targeting centre and right party publications and later other socialist publications

• By December 1917, the Kadet Party, Mensheviks and right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries had been banned and members imprisoned

R H B Lockhart

Adam Ulam

• “The Bolsheviks have established a rule of force and oppression unequalled in the history of any autocracy…(they) have restored the barbarous methods of torture.”

• “The peasant, if not converted to Bolshevism, was at least pacified by the land decree. The spectre of Civil War was still not imminent”

Why was the crucial issue facing Lenin’s new government was the conclusion of the war with Germany

• The country was desperate, with an economy in chaos and millions starving

• The Bolsheviks' hold on power in late 1917 was not permanent, as general exhaustion prevented counter-revolutionary movements

Lenin insisted on peace with Germany at any price, but was met with opposition

What were their reasons and the final outcome?

• Bukharin believed that Russia should launch a revolution in Germany, which would spread across Europe and end Russia’s isolation

• Trotsky believed that Germany was in a weak state and surrender would benefit them, proposing a “no war, no peace” strategy

  • However, when the Germans moved on Petrograd, Lenin demanded that peace negotiations be pursued in earnest

Formal peace talks began on 22 December at Brest-Litovsk between Max Hoffmann, representing the German and Austrian Foreign Ministers, and the Bolshevik representative Adolf Ioffe

who replaced Ioffe and what were the repercussions?

• Ioffe was replaced by Trotsky, who tried to slow down negotiations

• German threat to resume hostilities against Lenin’s new regime forced the Bolsheviks to accept German terms, no matter how annexationist

• A Party Central Committee meeting voted against this strategy and backed Trotsky’s “no war, no peace” line

  • When the Russians stopped their talks with the Germans, the attack resumed, and the Bolsheviks were forced to sue for peace

When was the Treaty of Brest Litovsk signed

3 March 1918

What were the main terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Territorial provisions

  • Georgia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Ukraine received their independence, but were a German zone of influence

  • Russia lost 62 million people

• Economic losses

  • Lost 32% of arable land, 26% of railways, 33% of factories and 75% of iron and coal mines

  • A later treaty in Berlin (August 1918) stated Russia had to pay a 6 million mark indemnity

Martin McCauley

• “The communists could soothe their pride with the hope that, come the socialist revolution in Germany, the treaty would be torn up”

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had no long-term significance, as the German defeat in November 1918 made the provisions of the treaty null and void

What officially nullified this?

In the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to declare the Brest-Litovsk Treaty nullified mutually

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had significant short-term impact

• On a political level, it removed one major concern for the Bolshevik government, the German threat, but created major consternation in Russia

  • Major arguments within the Bolshevik party over the treaty, but following Lenin’s entreaties, the party succumbed to reality and agreed to the terms

• Destroyed relations between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks

  • They voted against the ratification of the treaty and left SOVNARKOM, maintaining romantic revolutionary notions of war

    • The German ambassador to the Russian capital, Moscow, Count von Mirbach, was murdered by Bliumkin, a left Socialist Revolutionary

    • A left Socialist Revolutionary revolt saw Felix Dzerzinsky arrested, and a commander tried to declare war against Germany

  • The Bolsheviks changed their name to the All-Russian Communist Party

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was also a stimulus to the civil war, which was ultimately inevitable due to the widespread resistance of the Bolsheviks

Which groups were opposing the Bolsheviks and what were their motivations?

• The left Socialist Revolutionaries, who tried to revolt, and banned parties, including the Kadets and the right Socialist Revolutionaries

• Many were angered by the Bolshevik dissolution of the Constituent Assembly

• Counter-revolutionary forces were gathering to remove the Bolsheviks for the sake of Russian territorial integrity, acting as a final catalyst

While the treaty was strategic for an impoverished and broken Russia, it led to disaster for Russia’s former western allies, leading to Allied intervention against the Bolsheviks

How did this occur?

• The purpose of Allied intervention in Russia in 1918 was to bring Russia back into the war, but Allied troops remained on Russian territory long after

• This duplicity is evidenced by allied forces assisting the Bolsheviks’ “white” enemies in the Civil War

Adam Ulam

• “It would have been entirely logical - for the western capitalists to conclude a peace with the German capitalists and to join in the congenial task of destroying the Bolsheviks”

An uneasy peace prevailed in Russia for several months following the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917.

Why was this the case and when did this end?

• Lenin and Trotsky knew that counter-revolutionary forces would take action soon, and by mid-1918, Russia was in the midst of a full-scale civil war

The war comprised three factions, denoted by colour

• The “Reds” comprised the Bolsheviks and their supporters

  • The Workers and Peasants Red Army was reorganised by Trotsky in early 1918

    • Comprised of sailors from the Kronstadt base, former Red Guards, volunteer workers, peasants and officers from the Tsarist army

  • The Reds aimed to survive the civil war

• The anti-Bolshevik “Whites” comprised a wide range of forces to destroy Bolshevism

  • Comprised of various competing groups such as members of opposing political groups (i.e., Socialist Revolutionaries), monarchists/rightists (who supported the Tsar), liberals (who supported military rule) and nationalist separatist groups

  • Each group was led by a particular general, including Kolchak, Yudenich, Kornilov, Denikin and Wrangel, which was a major weakness

  • The Whites also had foreign backing, including the Czech Legion and allied intervention

• The third significant participant was the “Greens”

  • Predominantly peasant armies, who were concerned with protecting their local areas from Red and White forces

    • Comprised of both sides, and fought against both

    • By the end of the war, the Greens were fighting as an irregular Red force

  • Ranged in size from bandit gangs to well-coordinated guerrilla armies

  • Nestor Makhno was the most well-known Green leader, who had to escape to Romania to avoid Red persecution after the war

By mid-1918, White forces outnumbered the Reds, controlled most of Russia’s territory, had significantly greater military expertise and the prospect of Allied aid

• Yet by 1919, the White cause had effectively collapsed

Reasons for allied victory

• Issues of geography and unified organisation

  • The Whites were spread out too widely, making communication and coordination of different armies difficult because of distance, geography and climate

  • The Reds controlled a smaller area that contained most of Russia’s industry, railways and people, ensuring a constant supply of recruits, war materials and making communication and coordination easier

  • The Reds were united under a single cause and a tight, single command structure, whereas the Whites were divided by personal and political rivalries

  • White forces suffered from corruption and ill-discipline, having inferior leadership to Trotsky and Red commanders

• The importance of fighting for a cause

  • Reds presented themselves as ‘the lesser evil’, and peasants knew that Whites meant a certain loss of their land, and nationalist groups knew that the Whites offered no chance of autonomy or independence

  • War Communism was detested by peasants, but ensured the survival of industrial areas under Red control and kept Red armies fed

  • Even workers did not support War Communism, but knew Red victory was needed to maintain gains made in 1917

• The role of Trotsky

  • Transformed militias into an effective fighting force, with tight structure, ranks, saluting and uniforms

  • Former tsarist officers were used to provide training, organisation and leadership, with their families taken hostage to ensure loyalty

  • Political Commissars were appointed to watch officers' behaviour

  • Army committees, formed after the revolution, were replaced with a hierarchy

  • Strict discipline was enforced, including flogging and capital punishment

  • Trotsky was always on trains, inspiring men on the spot

• The role of propaganda

  • While foreign intervention gave the Whites access to supplies, it made valuable Red propaganda

    • Arguing that they were fighting as defenders of ‘mother Russia’ against foreigners (not a socialist but a popular notion)

  • Through propaganda, Reds convinced the populace that White victory would mean a return to bosses, landlords and old-style army

  • Offered a prospect of a new society

What is war communism

a series of extreme policies that Lenin introduced from mid-1918 to deal with the disastrous economic and military situation that the Bolsheviks were facing

• Involved the imposition of state control over economic production, distribution and grain output, and the use of widespread terror to achieve this goal

Reasons for war communism

• By mid-1918, the only issue for the Bolsheviks was survival

  • Military defeat was a possibility as White forces emerged from three sides, with Allied intervention arriving

  • The prime goal was to maintain the Red Army on the field and the factories producing war equipment

    • The Bolsheviks’ industrial policies, after the October Revolution, although popular, had led to economic collapse

      • Workers were incapable of running the factories

      • Land policies had resulted in plummeting food production

        • Peasants were unconcerned with the cities, as they had little to offer in exchange for grain

        • Peasant households had broken up to increase claims of land, which returned to subsistence farming

  • Lenin believed that the only solution was for the state to take control of the economy, reorganise factories and force peasants to give up their grain for the cities

War communism comprised the following elements

• All industries were nationalised and brought under state control

  • The Bolsheviks ended inept and corrupt workers committees and placed managers, often previous bosses, now called “specialists”

• Workers could not leave their jobs without permission, as an internal passport system was introduced

  • Strict rules regarding labour discipline were introduced

• The market economy was stopped, as the state would decide on the production and distribution

  • A class-based rationing system was introduced, with soldiers and workers receiving the most, while burzhui (former bourgeoisie) received the least

  • Rationing was chaotic, and a black market developed

• In 1919, the party tried to put an end to the use of money by flooding the market with useless banknotes

  • Resulted in hyperinflation and the appearance of a barter system

• The land was socialised, with peasants ordered to work for the state and produce requisitioned by food detachments, sent to prevent hoarding

  • Led to widespread violence between the Red forces (Cheka) and the peasants

Impact of war communism

• From a Bolshevik perspective, War Communism was a success

  • The army and towns were kept fed and were able to win the Civil War

  • The ideology of War Communism, with its policies of state control, direction and the apparent end to private property, aligned with the goals of the Party

• However, from an economic, social and humanitarian perspective, War Communism was disastrous for the country

  • Peasants chose to destroy their grain and livestock rather than give it up, refusing to sow future crops, gorging on food and killing livestock

  • This led to even more extreme brutality from the Food Detachments and the Cheka

  • Lenin insisted that any opposition be met with the most serious demands, executing hundreds of richer peasants known as kulaks

    • People could be arrested for behaving or appearing as bourgeois

    • Millions died from starvation, execution or imprisonment in labour camps

Class warfare was encouraged by the party and welcomed by many Russians

What did this look like

• Former houses of aristocrats and the middle class were divided amongst the poor

• The proletariat humiliated their class enemies, leading to state-approved violence in the streets

Civil War + War Communism

David Christian

Robert Service

Gordon Greenwood

• “Did the job of supplying towns and armies with just enough food and supplies to keep providing war material and to keep fighting. In this sense, it was a success”

• “What took everyone aback was his organisational capacity and ruthlessness as he transformed the Red Army into a fighting force”

• “The outcome was the disastrous famine of 1921, rendered worse by the general drought which immediately preceded it…Some five million are estimated to have died from starvation”

The Bolsheviks had emerged victorious from the Civil War, and the country was in a disastrous state

While War Communism had played a key role in Communist victory, it had alienated peasants, wrecked the economy and created ongoing opposition to Communist rule

This can be seen in

• the Kronstadt Naval Base revolt in 1921, which had been suppressed by Trotsky’s Red Army

  • In 1917, these sailors had been avid supporters of the Bolsheviks, despite most sailors being peasants who were aware of peasant suffering under War Communism

Lenin decided to reverse policy with the introduction of the New Economic Policy

This allowed

• a return to capitalism, the operation of the free market and a degree of private ownership to revive the Russian economy

While this allowed for economic liberalisation, Lenin had no intention of easing the authoritarian nature of the Communist regime, in the face of two major revolts, such as…

• Peasant revolt in the Tambov region on the river Volga

  • Led by Alexander Antonov, they refused to hand over grain and prevented grain convoys from being sent to Moscow

  • The Communists did not have many troops in this area, and Lenin did not want to incite a general peasant revolt

    • Lasted almost an entire year

• Kronstadt revolt

  • The crews of the Battleships Sevastopol and Petropavlovsk called a meeting about government repression of strikes in the city

  • Angered by government actions, the sailors passed a resolution containing 15 demands of the Communist government, including

    • Free elections to the Soviets

    • An equalisation of wages

    • The right of peasants to dispose of grain as they saw fit

    • An end of roadblock detachments and the right to bring food into the city

    • Freedom of speech, of the press and assembly

  • Trotsky saw this as a major threat, and the response was brutal

    • Under Tukachevsky, Red Army troops made their way across the ice, followed by Cheka units to ensure no desertions/retreats

    • 15,000 were killed in the suppression of the revolt, leaders were shot without trial, and the remainder were sent to labour camps

While Kronstadt was a catalyst, Lenin was aware that the situation in 1921 was being compared to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917

Why was this?

• Russia was experiencing one of the most severe famines of the century, with up to 5 million dead, and emergency aid was being accepted from the US

• Between 1914 and 1920, the birth rate in Petrograd dropped 50%, and the death rate increased 4x, with diseases such as cholera and typhus rife

• The economic collapse of Russia was catastrophic

  • In 1921, industrial output was 16% of its 1912 level

  • Mining was 29%, oil 36% and grain 48%

When did Lenin push for NEP and what was it described as

Lenin reluctantly pushed for NEP at the 10th Party Congress in 1921, as capitalism was the antithesis of the party's values

• Congress made it clear that NEP was a ‘tactical retreat’, as Zinoviev said, a short-term necessity

Main elements of NEP

• Grain requisitioning ended, and peasants would hand over a proportion of their output

  • This later became a cash sum, and surpluses could be sold on the open market for profit

• Small businesses were allowed to operate, such as workshops and cafes

  • Permissible to hire labour

  • Ensured goods were available for peasants to buy

• The state retained ownership and control of major industries, including banks, transport and electrification of the country

• Private trade was allowed, an end to rationing and a return to a cash economy

The short-term impacts of NEP

• There was enough food, shops and restaurants had reopened, and the country had returned to normalcy

• Within three years, industrial output was up to 200%

• Individuals were allowed to operate in the real area

  • NEPmen, a new class, appeared who sought to buy up surplus goods and sell them in the markets

  • NEPmen were controlling almost three-quarters of industrial trade

  • This was accompanied by all the evils of capitalism

    • Corruption was common, and NEPmen were constantly doing deals

    • Crime and prostitution increased

Why was NEP a problem?

it did not offer an answer to Russia’s long-term development

• In ideological terms, Russia was in the socialist stage of development that preceded communism

• Marx’s vision of communism was based on abundance, which is why they needed Russia to modernise and industrialise

  • The problem for NEP was that it was not creating the necessary capital that was essential for industrial development

    • The Bolsheviks had evaded this problem with the belief that revolutions would spread across Western Europe, which would in turn assist Russia with capital

    • This was not the case, with a few failed attempts at revolution in Germany and Hungary

    • As an isolated socialist state, Russia needed to modernise alone and defend itself

David Christian (NEP)

• “Building socialism in Russia meant undertaking rapid economic growth without help from abroad, with the continual threat of foreign intervention, and in a hostile peasant environment”

Trotsky had flagged the dilemma Russia was facing at the 12th Party Congress in 1923, which became known as the scissors crisis

• The prices of urban-produced industrial products were increasing (due to poor production techniques, lack of economies of scale) while the prices of rural agricultural goods were falling (due to increased peasant productivity after the end of War Communism)

• Peasants were limiting/hoarding their output due to high-priced and low-quality consumer goods coming from the cities

After two years of NEP, Trotsky understood that industrial growth was behind the recovery in agriculture

• As peasants made up the majority of the population, sources of capital would have to be found in the rural sector for industrial development

• As peasants limited their output, Russia’s main source of capital was depleting

Martin McCauley (NEP)

• “At first the peasants paid a tax in kind, but with the stabilisation of the currency in 1923, this could be paid in money - Soviet Russia was back to a money economy”