1917-22 Lenin:

Lenin’s ideology:

  • Wrote ‘State and Revolution’ in 1917 outlining his ideology

  • Supposed to be a transition to Socialism once the Bolshevik’s achieved power

  • Circumstances>ideology largely determined policy under Lenin

  • Most Russians believed that the revolution was to end all social privilege, meaning that Lenin’s hopes for democracy following the Marxist view did not materialise

  • Fears radical change would cause another uprising

  • The Land Decree 1917 meant the noble land could be divided amongst them

  • Workers Decree 1917 meant the workers took over the factories

  • Lenin called for the ‘looting of the looters and the confiscation of bourgeois property’

  • Wealthy forced to share property and partake in manual labour

  • Promised ‘peace, bread, and land’

WW1:

  • Lenin and Trotsky believed that a socialist society in Russia was dependent on a worldwide socialist revolution post WW1

  • Marxist idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat was based on places like Germany/Britain where there was a majority of urban workers

  • In Russia 80% of the population was peasantry

  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk mega controversial, national humiliation but Lenin insisted that it was a must to preserve the revolution in Russia>hold out hope for a revolution in the West

  • This set up Stalin’s ‘Socialism in One Country’

One Party State:

  • Bolsheviks to act on behalf of the dictatorship of the proletariat

  • No intention of sharing power w/ other parties

  • Closure of the Constituent Assembly Jan 1918 after losing the election

  • SRs all had left the Sovnarkom by March 1918

  • March 1918 Bolshevik Party—>Communist Party

Civil War:

  • Huge impact on the development of the Party/State

  • Largely behind the adoption of a more centralised system

  • Terror to enforce laws

  • Highly centralised govt could be seen as fulfilling socialist goals

  • War Communism introduced requisitioning —> Tambov rising 1920-21

  • Ban on factions 1921

Consolidation of Authority:

  • MAIN PROBLEM=Bolsheviks a minority

  • Wanted to be a party of the people but lacked mass support

  • Hence the civil war after the Treaty of B-L

  • Opponents ‘the whites’ inc Tsarist army officers, SRs, Mensheviks, Nationalists

Economic Crisis:

  • Spring 1918 facing economic collapse

  • Too little grain to the cities=hungry workers

  • Wartime disruptions of the transport network

  • Peasants still based work off small-scale, subsistence farming

  • No surplus to sell to cities and little incentive to sell (few goods to exchange for it)

  • Workers control of factories combined with raw material shortages caused all fall in industrial output esp consumer goods

  • 1918 food riots erupted

  • Workers fled cities in search of food—>shortage of labour in factories

War Communism:

  • Bolsheviks had to make sure the army was adequately supplied w food/weapons

  • Introduction of grain requisitioning

  • All industry under state control

  • Worker’s committees replaced w/ managers once more

  • Factory discipline imposed, fines for lateness/absence

  • Food rationing, workers and Red Army soldiers received the most, the bourgeois the least

  • Policy arose from necessity, but did enable the Bolshevik’s to extend class warfare, Lenin to deal with ‘class enemies’

  • Bolsheviks viewed centralised control as a way to develop socialism

Red Terror:

  • Lenin justified terror as necessary to ensure the survival of the regime

  • Peasantry main target

  • Cheka supported grain requisitioning teams

  • 1000s of peasants arrested/imprisoned/executed

  • 1000s deemed ‘enemies of the people’ inc SRs, Mensheviks, the wealthy, clergy, independently minded workers

  • Up to half a million executed 1918-21 many more sent to labour camps

  • Terror as a political weapon, created under Lenin, furthered by Stalin

The Origins of the New Economic Policy:

  • Bolsheviks won the civil war but needed to increase factory production

  • 1921 industrial output was 20% of 1914 levels

  • Peasants grew less grain to resist requisitioning

  • Killed livestock to survive

  • Famine/disease/strikes spread, millions died

  • Tambov rising 1920-21

  • Kronstadt Mutiny 1921 ‘Lit up reality like lightning’

NEP:

  • Aug 1921 NEP announced

  • End to grain requisitioning

  • Peasants to hand over 20% of grain to govt but could sell surplus

  • State to continue controlling the ‘commanding heights’ of the econ (railways/coal/iron/steel)

  • Small businesses/private trade allowed

Women:

  • Abortion legalised

  • Divorce made easier

Young People:

  • Education seen as key to build a new socialist society

  • Free schooling for all inc maths/science/Russian/literature as well as vocational training and socially useful labour

  • Students encouraged to inform on teachers/parents for anti-soviet views—>school as a way to indoctrinate the young

  • Youth division of the Party formed in 1918 and a Komsomol (a junior section)

Minorities:

  • 1917 Bolsheviks promised national self determination for ethnic minorities

  • The Finns opted for independence

  • All major national minorities were separately represented in the CP

  • Abolished Tsarist anti-Semitic laws, Yiddish become more widely used