History - moves towards totalitarianism

what was the red terror

a period of executions and arrests between september 1918 and february 1919

cheka

the chek awas the bolshevik secret police. they basically had total power and could arrest, torture, sedn to prison camps or execute anyone they suspected. as many as 12000 people could have been executed

more about the red terror

lenin introduced the terror after surviving an assasination attempt by an SR. the bolsheviks encouraged workers to report anyone who made remearks against them, and these people were often sent to prison camps. the red terror grew rapidly in the civil war - as the red army gained abck control from white areas, they arrested and ececuted anyone suspected to be white supporters. it was also in the red amry itsekf - any deserters were shot dead

the red terror ended in february 1919 but the methods never really went away under bolshevik dictatorship

the kronstadt mutiny

the kronstadt naval base guarded petrograd, and the sailrs fought in the february revolution, july days and october revolution, so it was a shock to senior bolsheviks when the sailors rebelled against the soviet government on 28 february 1921

they did this because they were sick of war communism, the way the bolsheviks requisitioned food, the red terror and the lack of freedom

50,000 red army sodiers were sent by trotsky to take back the base and 500 sailors were executed by the cheka

effects of the kronstadt mutiny

it undermined the bolsehviks claim to be acting for the working classes and peasants.

there were more demonstrations against the bolsheviks

the communist party and the soviet government

they were suppost to me working hand in hand to rule the country, but the communist party ended up making all of the decisions and the soviet would agreed to whatever the governmetn told it to do

this made the soviet union a centralised dictatorship

politburo members

the members elected were lenin, trotsky, zinoniev, kamenev and stalin

the hierarchy in communist government

members of communist party

party congress - decides policies of the party

central committee - rules diff areas of the party

politburo - makes big decisions for the party, only made of 5 men