4- Bolshevik consolidation of power, civil war

Problems with the Constituent Assembly

• Socialist Revolutionaries were much more popular than Bolsheviks in the countryside, so they may win more seats

• However, if the Bolsheviks didnt hold elections immediately, people would probably stop supporting them. Lenin didnt agree with the idea that it was best for all revolutionary parties to work together in the Constituent Assembly

Problems with the Bolsheviks promises

• PEACE. It wasnt possible for Lenin to simply disengage Russia from the war - their former allies wouldnt negotiate with Bolsheviks. Russia would have to make a separate deal with Germany, but since Germany knew that Russia was desperate, it would be very costly for russia

• LAND. The peasants understood the promise of land asa taking it all for themselves, but this risked weakening Bolshevik control. Socialist Revolutionaries would benefit from a stronger peasantry but the Bolsheviks wouldnt, they believed in state run farms and appealed more to industrial workers

• BREAD. The Bolsheviks believed the state should be able to take food from peasants to provide for workers, but this would be difficult if the peasants had all the land

• ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS. Bolsheviks were only supposed to take control temporarily until the workers and peasants were ready to run the country for themselves through soviets, but this would require the Bolsheviks giving up control of Russia

1917 decrees (4)

THE EARLY DECREES

• DECREE ON PEACE- all countries in the war should seek peace, armistice for Russian troops

• DECREE ON WORKERS RIGHTS- decree on work, decree on unemployment, decree on workers control

• DECREE ON LAND- land taken from landowners was now the peasants, Church land nationalised

• DECREE ON NATIONALITIES- all different peoples could have their own governments but those remained under Bolshevik control

Decree on Land

• private ownership of land abolished. all land belonged to the state and would be given to the peasants who farmed it. initially applied to landlords, later extended to all land owned by the Church

• meant to make peasants supporting the Bolsheviks more likely, but for most places the decree didnt change anything as theyd already taken the land

Decree on Peace

• called for all nations in the war to begin peace negotiations

• called for an immediate armistice and ordered the government to make peace with Germany, but without giving up any territory or making compensations

• this was considered unrealistic and there was a divide between the Bolsheviks unrealistic approach and what Russian conservatives expected, who didnt believe that Germany would agree to a peace treaty without getting Russian territory in exchange.

Decree on Nationalities

• meant to assure all the ethnic minorities that the Bolsheviks wouldnt impose Russian control on them, the idea being that the groups got their own choice of government

• significant- showed Bolsheviks were very worried about the idea of ethnic minorities taking advantage of the weak government to break away and become independent countries

Decrees on workers rights

DECREE ON WORK

• 8-hour workig day, maximum 48h a week, rules on overtime and holidays

DECREE ON UNEMPLOYMENT

• provided insurance for all workers if they were injured at work, sick, or became unemployed

DECREE ON WORKERS CONTROL

• all factories under the control of workers soviets. legalised something already happening

Measures taken alongside the Early Decrees

• Marriage and divorce became civil matters unrelated to the Church

• women declared equal to men, could own property

• ranks, titles, class distinctions in the army abolished

• opposition press banned

• Cheka (secret police) set up

When were the Constituent Assembly elections?

12 November 1917

What were the results of the Constituent Assembly elections?

• The Bolsheviks did well in major industrial cities and got a large part of the votes in Petrograd and Moscow.

• However, the Bolsheviks did very poorly in the countryside as peasants preferred to vote for the Socialist Revolutionaries

Bolshevik response to the Constituent Assembly elections

• there was hope from the other socialist parties that the Bolsheviks would accept this and join them in a socialist parliament, but the Bolsheviks rejected this hope and the results of the elections.

• The Constituent Assembly had its first meeting January 1918. The Council of Peoples Commissars made a proposal containing all key decrees (Land, Peace, Workers Control) and the principle of all power to the soviets. This was rejected by a great majority, as granting all power to the soviets would make the Constituent Assembly irrelevant

• Lenin took this rejection as an opportunity to claim that the CA didnt reflect the will of the people and that it was dominated by counter-revolutionaries wanting to bring back capitalism.

• The next day after the meeting, Lenin brought the Red Guards to prevent the assembly from opening. All opposing political parties were soon banned, including Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and Kadets. Leaders were arrested as enemies of the people. Only the Bolshevik party was safe.

Events leading up to the Brest-Litovsk treaty

• Negotiations begin December 1917

• Trotsky was in charge of negotiating. He was confident that a revolution was going to happen in Germany and dragged out discussions, but there was no revolution

• Trotsky announces that Russia wont continue fighting, but it wont give up any land or pay Germany compensation. He mistakenly believed that the German army was exhausted and wouldnt continue fighting

• The Germans ended the armistice and continued invading, resulting in the capital being moved to Moscow as Petrograd risked invasion

When was the signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty and what happened?

Lenin demanded that Trotsky get peace with Germany at any price - the Bolsheviks needed to consolidate their position within Russia and Russia couldnt handle fighting Germany. The Bolsheviks couldnt afford to fight the Germans and a civil war.

The Germans knew Russia was desperate so treaty terms were very harsh.

3 MARCH 1918

A huge amount of its western territories was lost, causing the loss of

• almost ¾ of their coal mines and iron ore

• ½ of industry

• ¼ of its railways

• over ¼ of its farmland

• over ¼ of the population

and they had to pay 300 million roubles in compensation

Consequences of the Brest-Litovsk treaty (5)

Seen as very shameful

• half of the Empire had been lost along with a great part of its important resources, so now Russia was weaker than it was before the Bolshevik revolution.

• the loss of very productive farmland worsened food shortages

• people began to leave central industrial cities for the countryside to grow their own food, dropping the amount of working people significantly

• a lot of opposition to the treaty throughout the country. soldiers and the Russian people tired of the war were glad the war was over, but they were devastated by great losses

• major cause of division and the civil war- many conservatives now believed they had to fight to stop the Bolsheviks while the Bolshevik Party was also split

Reasons for the civil war

many groups opposed the Bolsheviks-

• monarchists wanting the Tsar back

• upper and middle-class people fearing losing everything under the Bolsheviks socialist theory

• supporters of the Constituent Assembly that despised how Bolsheviks made Russia into a dictatorship

• other nationalities within the Russian empire wanting indpendence

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a major cause, so shockingly disgraceful that Bolshevik opponents joined together to fight them

Sides in the civil war and their features

THE REDS - Bolsheviks

• organised, disciplined, ruthless attitude

• Trotsky in charge, completely devoted to winning no matter the cost

• Trotsy organised a Red Army with ex-Tsar officers surpervised closely by Bolshevik commisars to ensure loyalty. Discipline was very harsh- the commisars executed those who didnt follow orders to attack or deserted

• Compulsory military service from May 1918, and food supplies going to the Red Army first was very appealing.

• By 1921 they had over 5 million men

THE WHITES - many anti-Bolshevik groups together

• comprised of groups with nothing in common other than their opposition to Bolshevism, resulting in infighting. There were pro-Constituent Assembly Socialist Revolutionaries, pro-Tsar ultra-conservaties, anti-Brest-Litovsk army officers, etc

comprised of 4 main armies-

• an army by Admiral Kolchak in Siberia

• an army led by General Yudenich attacking from Estonia in the northwest

• a force of ex-army officers and liberals led by General Denikin, then General Wrangel in the South

• The Peoples Army of Komuch had supporters of the Constituent Assembly in the central south

THE GREENS - mostly peasants

• peasant armies joined together to fight for control for their own local areas

• would defend their own areas and rarely advanced to fight anywhere else

OTHER COUNTRIES

• Britain funded supplies for the Whites as they wanted Russia back in the war and to stop the spread of Bolshevism

• Japan sent troops to the far East to try gain some land. The USA sent troops to the same region to prevent this

• 50,000 men making up the Czech Legion took control of large stretches of the Trans-Siberian railway