Russian Revolution U3/4 Notes

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Revolutions
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Russia: Area of Study 2
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Creating a new society
Contents
Key terms............................................................................................................... 2
Historical perspectives / Historiography................................................................4
AOS2...................................................................................................................... 8
The first six months of Bolshevik Rule................................................................9
Early decrees and policies................................................................................ 11
The Cheka......................................................................................................... 14
Dissolution of the constituent assembly...........................................................17
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk...............................................................................20
Civil War........................................................................................................... 23
The Red Army................................................................................................... 27
The Red Terror.................................................................................................. 29
War Communism.............................................................................................. 33
Everyday impacts of the Civil War....................................................................38
The Kronstadt Revolt........................................................................................ 39
New Economic Policy........................................................................................ 42
Death of Lenin/Summary..................................................................................44
Key Evidence: (Dates, Names,

People, Places, Documents)
Review of key terms (add them to

the main list!):
Primary Quotes: (From the period)
Historiography: How did key historians interpret this event?

Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Western
liberal/conservative
Evaluation and Analysis:
Revisionist
Why was this policy / action taken? (Crisis and response)

Was this policy / action consistent with Bolshevik revolutionary ideals?
Compare this policy / action to the Tsars regime. What has changed?
How did the policy / action impact on a group in Russian society? (eg. Workers,
peasants)
Key terms
Historians
Soviet/Western
Marxist
Western
Revisionist
Libertarian
liberal/Russian
liberal
Deutscher, Isaac
Figes, Orlando
Acton, Edward
Berkman,
Hill, Christopher
Lynch, Michael
Figes, Orlando
Alexander
Ponomarev, B.N.
Nove, Alexander
Fitzpatrick, Sheila
Reed, John (Ten
Swain, Geoffrey
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi
Days that Shook
Greenwood
Rabinowitch,
the World)
Pipes, Richard
Alexander
Taylor, A.J.P
Ulam, Adam
Service, Robert
Volkogonov,
Smith, Steve
Dmitri
Suny, Ronald
Cherniaev,
Nettl, J.P.
Vladimir
White, Alan
Note: Classic liberals and conservative Russians
(such as Volkogonov) are grouped together.
Names
AOS1
AOS2
Alexander II
Chernov, Victor (role in Constituent
Brusilov, General
Assembly)
Chernov, Victor
Sverdlov (role in elections and
Durnovo, Peter (minister of the interior) Declaration of the Rights of Toilers
Gapon, Father Georgei
Kamenev, Lev
Karensky, Alexander
Khabalov, General
Kornilov, General
Lenin, Vladimir
Lvov, Prince
Lvov, V.N.
Martov (Menshiviks)
Milyukov, Paul (union of unions and
Kadets)
Mirskii, Prince SviatopolkNikoleiveich, Grand Duke Nikolai
Plehve, Vyacheslav
Plekhanov (SDs)
Prince Potemkin (Battleship)
Rasputin, Gregory
Rodzianko, Mikhail
Stalin, Josef
Stolypin, Peter
Trotsky, Leon
Tsarevitch Alexei
Tsarina Alexandra
Witte, Sergei
Zinoviev, Grigory (Bolshevik)
Movements, ideas and documents
AOS1
All Russian Democratic Labour Party
(SDs)
All Russian Union of Peasants
April Theses
Assembly of Russian Factory Workers
(1905)
Bolsheviks
Duma (background and makeup of
each of four)
Ethnic minority groups (Jews, Poles,
Georgians etc)
Fifth Duma (ww1)
Kadets
Kronstadt Sailors
Liberals (difference to socialists)
Maximalists (left SR)
Mensheviks
Military Revolutionary Committee
(MilRevCom)
Mir
Narodniks (Populists)
National Zemstvo Conference
Octobrists
Peasants (demands and aims)
Petrograd garrison
Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers, Sailors
and Workers
Provisional Committee (12)
Provisional Government
Revolutionaries (right SRs)
Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDs)
Socialist Revolutionaries
AOS2
The Declaration of the Rights of Toilers
and Exploited People. (date, relation to
Constituent Assembly)
All Russian Communist Party
Constituent Assembly
Cossacks
Czech legion
Green Armies
Komuch (Committee of Members of the
Constituent Assembly, relation to Czech
legion)
Left SRs (role in CA and Bolshevik
coalition)
New Economic Policy
Peoples Army (Komuch)
SovNarKom (Soviet of Peoples
Commisars)
State capitalism
White Armies
Soviet
St Petersburg Soviet (including arrest
December 1905)
State Council
Tsarist council of ministers
Union of Unions
Urban workers (demands and aims)
Zemstvo
Dates
AOS1
Emancipation of the Serfs
Great Spurt
1904, February 8
1904, May 27-8
1905, January (strikes)
1905, January 9th (Sunday)
1905, September (Treaty of
Portsmouth)
1905, October
1914,
1914,
1914,
1914,
1915,
1915,
1916,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
1917,
July 30th
Mid-August (Galicia)
August 28th (which battle)
September (which battle)
July
August (Duma)
July-August (which offensive?)
Jan 9th
Feb 23rd
Feb 28th
March 2
April 3
April 4
July 2
July 4 (Kronstadt, Putilov)
July 6 (arrests)
July 8
July 18
August 24
August 26
August 27
October 10 (Meeting)
October 23
October 24
October 25
December (armistice)
AOS2
1917, October 26 (SovNarKom)
1917, October 27 (which decrees?)
1917, October 30 (Kerensky in Moscow)
1917, November 12 (which decree)
1917, November 12 (elections)
1917, December 7 (Cheka)
1918, February (Gregorian calendar)
1918, February 18 (negotiations break
down)
1918, February 19
1918, February 22
1918, March 3 (treaty)
1918, June 8
1918, June 11 (Kombedy)
1918, June 28 (decree on
Nationalisation)
1918, July 17 (execution of Tsar)
1918, August 30 (assassinations)
1918, November 21(private trade)
Historical perspectives / Historiography
Soviet
Historical records written with
the express approval of the
Communist Party. These records
were designed to present the
official record of events, and
were often altered on the
whims of particular leaders.
Soviet historians tend to focus

on the scientific and inevitable
nature of socialism, using this
inevitability as justification for
any conflict.
In the Soviet histories, a

revolution is inherently good,
because they bring about
advancement towards class
equality. 1905 and 1917 are
seen as part of the same
continuity towards socialism.
History is interpreted purely

through Marxist-Leninist terms,
where the Bolshevik Party is not
a dictatorship but genuinely
represents the will and best
interests of the proletariat. This
meant that popular support for
the Bolsheviks was unshakable.
As a result, Lenin is made
infallible because he was the
supreme advocate of the
Marxist-Leninist ideology.
It was triumph of MarxismLeninism and demonstrated the

significance and role of the
revolutionary Marxist party. The
working class and all other
working people of Russia were
led by the Bolshevik Party,
which was guided by the
revolutionary theory of
Marxism-Leninism.
The Petrograd workers in those
days showed what a splendid
schooling they had received
under the guidance of the
Bolshevik Party.
The cruiser Aurora trained its
guns on the Winter Palace, and
on October 25 their thunder
ushered in a new era, the era of
the Great Socialist Revolution.
In tsarist Russia the capitalist
yoke was aggravated by the
yoke of tsardom. The workers
not only suffered from capitalist
exploitation, from inhuman toil,
but in combination with the
whole people, suffered from a
lack of all rights.
Who led the February
Revolution? We can answer
definitely enough: conscious
and tempered workers
educated for the most part by
the party of Lenin.
The insurrection enjoyed such
wide support among the
masses, and had been so
thoroughly planned, that it was
carried out with rare speed and
success.
Lenins April Theses laid down
for the party a brilliant plan of
struggle for the transition from
bourgeois-democratic to the
socialist revolution, from the
first stage of the revolution to
the second stage the stage of
the socialist revolution. The
whole history of the party had
prepared it for this great task.
Instead of being a destructive
force, it seemed to me as if the
Bolsheviks were the only party
Western liberal
Generally written in the
immediate aftermath of the
revolution and during the Cold
War.
Shaped by the political climate
of the Cold War, the liberal
interpretation of the revolution
is politically conservative and
fundamentally hostile to the
notions of socialism, Marxist
theory and all things
communist.
Acknowledge the out datedness
of the tsarist system, and
viewed revolution in general as
a necessary evil to produce a
freer society, but preferred
February to October because
the latter ended any prospect of
a western democracy that the
first would have allowed.
Many would view October as a
tragedy which nearly destroyed
Russia as a world power.
Instead of building a new
society, the socialist revolution
brought about an era of Red
Tsars.
For liberal historians, October
was not a genuine revolution. A
revolution entails mass support,
which the Bolsheviks did not
have. October was nothing
more than a political coup, a
seizure of power by military
force without popular approval.
Liberal historians have a more
complex view of post-October
events than soviet historians,
in Russia with a constructive

program and the power to
impose it on the country. If they
had not succeeded the
government when they did,
there is little doubt in my mind
that the armies of imperial
Germany would have been in
Petrograd and Moscow in
December, and Russia would
again be ridden by a tsar. Reed
(Ten Days that Shook the
World)
Lenin, Trotsky, and their
associates seized power by
force, overthrowing an
ineffectual but democratic
government. The government
they founded, in other words,
derives from a violent act
carried out by a tiny minority.
Pipes
The October insurrection was a
coup dtat, actively supported
by a small minority of the
population. But it took place
amidst a social revolution,
which was centred on the
popular realization of Soviet
power as the negation of the
state and direct self-rule of the
people. Figes
It was a surreptitious seizure of
the nerve centres of the
modern state, carried out under
false slogans in order to
neutralize the population at
large, the true purpose of which
was revealed only after the new
claimants to power were firmly
in the saddle. Pipes
Lenins objective had not been
to win mass support but to
create a party capable of
seizing power when the political
circumstances permitted.
Lynch
The system of legislation the
Bolsheviks set in place within
two weeks of the October coup,
for all its revolutionary rhetoric,
marked a reversion to the
autocratic practices of tsarist
placing less influence on the

inevitability of Marxism and its
particular leaders, and more on
secondary factors such as
nationalism, culture and religion
as drivers of social change.
Many would go as far as
declaring that Marxism is a
failed philosophy which could
never be successfully
implemented.
Classic interpretations do not
place much weight on class as
a cause of social unrest. They
view class struggle as too
simple a notion to explain the
course of history.
Some such as Pipes disregard
the influence of the masses,
arguing that the revolution was
driven by leaders rather than
popular movements. The
exploitation of the masses was
a central element in the
Bolsheviks victory.
Liberal historians saw the
collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991 as a vindication of their
views.
Revisionist
Generally written after the fall
of the Soviet Union (though
some were written earlier and
later revised) and the opening
of the Communist records,
revisionist history is a synthesis
of earlier sources which
attempts to interpret events
from a new perspective.
Revisionists usually focus on
the revolution from below,
portraying the revolution as the
result of long term problems
rather than the influence of
particular leaders or ideologies.
Saw revolution as inevitable
because of the out datedness of
the tsarist system, but not
necessarily because of class
tension.
Revisionists would debate the
standard interpretation of the
Bolsheviks as a tightly
Russia. They simply wiped out

the eleven intervening years of
constitutionalism. Pipes
After a relatively easy

accession to power, however,
the Bolsheviks, never a majority
movement in peasant Russia,
were faced with the dissolution
of political authority, the
complete collapse of the
economy, and the
disintegration of the country
along ethnic lines. Suny
Lenin drew lessons from the
bitter experience of the warcommunism period, and in his
last years counselled care and
moderation. Nove
It is inappropriate to suggest
that the Bolsheviks had no toehold in the mass revolution
movement of 1917: they could
not have come to power
without such a toe-hold.
Service
Russias workers were not one
uniform, grey mass but flesh-
organised party along the lines

of What is to be done instead
they were as complex and
messy as any political party.
However, Lenins strong
leadership meant that unity
could be achieved relatively
easily, such as after the issue of
his April Theses to change the
party platform.
They generally argue that there
was at least some public
support for the October
insurrection, though not to the
extent contended by the Soviet
historians.
Revisionists, unlike classic
liberals, recognise class as an
important factor in driving
social change. However they
stop short of a full Marxist
interpretation.
Argue that grassroots
movements such as soviets,
unions and workers
committees had a much larger
impact on the revolution than
previously thought.
Argue that the Bolsheviks were
not divinely inspired or
conspiratorial, but were simply
the best at articulating the will
of the masses. They later lost
this ability to represent the
masses under War Communism.
Are often more sympathetic to
the Bolsheviks than classic
liberals, because they view the
failure of the revolution more as
a result of outside factors than
the inherent nature of Marxism.
Libertarian
Focus on the role of the masses
rather than particular leaders.
Argue that the revolution was a
genuine mass uprising betrayed
by the Bolsheviks.
and-blood individuals, highly

differentiated in terms of level
of skill, cultural development,
nationality and outlook. Rather
than responding en masse to
events, their reactions
depended closely on their own
particular experience. Acton
Tailoring the Bolshevik
programme so that it would
reflect popular aspirations was
one of Lenins most important
contributions to the
development of the revolution.
Rabinowitch
The discourse of democracy
put into place by the February
Revolution was being overtaken
by a discourse of class, a shift
symbolised by the increasing
use of comrade instead of
citizen. Steve Smith
The October Revolution was
very much more than a
conspiratorial coup detat. By
then the central political issue
was that of soviet power. It was
popular support for this cause
which doomed Kerensky and
the Provisional Government and
explains the ease with which
armed resistance to the new
order was overcome. Acton
The October Revolution was a
coup detat, actively supported
by a small minority of the
population but it took place
amidst a social revolution,
which was centred on the
realisation of soviet power.
Figes
The policies of the Bolsheviks
were frequently the outcome of
improvisation and pragmatism
as much as the hallowed tenets
of ideology. Acton
Many people still continue to
think and to talk of the Russian
Revolution and of the
Bolsheviks as if the two were
identical. The great need of the
present is to make clear the
difference between that grand
social event and the ruling

political party a difference as
fundamental as it has been
fatal to the revolution.
Berkman
It has been asserted by some
that Bolshevik accession to
power in Russia was due to a
coup and doubt has been
expressed regarding the social
nature of the October change.
Nothing could be further from
the truth. As a matter of
historical fact, the great event
known as the October
Revolution was in the
profoundest sense a social
revolution. Berkman
Examples of historiography in essays
Whist Soviet historians view the October Revolution as a mass

movement led by Lenin; liberal historians, such as Pipes, argue that
October was a classic coup detat: the seizure of power by a small
minority without the support or consent of wider society.
For revisionist historians, the Russian Revolution was an infinitely more
complicated movement than what Soviet and liberal historians suggest.
There was, to a degree, popular support for the Bolsheviks and the use
of violence and terror may have had an element of responding to
popular demands. This is in direct conflict with the liberal authoritarian
view that sees Lenin and Stalin as the sole directors of the terror and
control inflicted upon soviet society.
Lynch sees a clear link between the repressive and autocratic nature of
both the Old Regime and the New Society, as 1917 did not mark a
complete break with the past. Rather, it was the replacement of one
form of state authoritarianism with another.
Suny, a revisionist historian, believes that politics and a desire to rule
alone do not adequately explain Lenins rise to power. The extreme
social and economic situation must also be addressed, as does the
demands of the radicalised workers and soldiers. Suny argues that the
October Revolution needs to be situated in this wider context in order to
explain its true significance.
AOS2
The first six months of Bolshevik Rule


the main list!):
SovNarKom
The Soviet of Peoples Commisars (Soviet of Narod Commissars in Russian) was
formed after the October 25 coup to replace the Provisional Government. It was
made up of 17 Commissars, which were ministers with different portfolios, similar
to the tsarist and P.G. systems.
Initially the Bolsheviks had difficulty taking over the administration of the
government. Many civil servants went on strike in response to the coup, hiding
the keys to government offices and refusing the Bolsheviks access to the State
Bank.
Initially the Bolsheviks had significant problems taking over the running of the
government. The civil service went on strike to protest the coup the keys to
state offices and facilities were hidden, and officials at the State Bank refused to
hand over any money to SovNarKom.
Tensions
The railway union, led by the Mensheviks and SRs, threatened to strike this led
to a number of prominent moderate Bolsheviks (Kamenev and Zinoviev) entering
talks with other political groups. Lenin and Trotsky refused to make any
compromises with the rival parties. Zinoviev and Kamenev resigned from the
Bolshevik Central Committee in protest at Lenin and Trotskys refusal to
compromise.
Few, if any, of the Bolsheviks had any experience in political or military
administration, nor in law or business. They were revolutionaries, not
politicians. Lenin believed they should be pragmatists, and respond only when
challenges arose.
Bolshevik policy
A belief in the imminent spread of socialist revolution to other countries coloured
much of the Bolshevik platform this led to stubbornness in the Bolshevik
dealings with non-socialist governments, which led to their opposition in the Civil
War. On becoming Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Trotsky declared What sort of
diplomatic work will we be doing anyway? I shall issue a few revolutionary
decrees to the people and shut up shop.
Law and order
The fall of the P.G. and with it the remains of the police led to a breakdown of law
and order. The massive wine cellar of the Winter Palace was looted, which led to
vicious fighting between the drunken participants. Even when officials had
collections of wine and liquor destroyed and the contents poured into the street,
crowds would gather to drink the alcohol from the gutter.
Brutal and excessive violence was widespread after the October Coup, generally
directed against the bourgeoisie and minority groups. In the absence of police,
the cities descended into mob rule, with brazen looting and lynchings not
uncommon. The Bolsheviks did not necessarily discourage this violence, as it
supported their aim of battling class enemies such as the bourgeoisie. They saw
it as the inevitable consequence of the bourgeoisies suppression of the
proletariat. Trotsky said There is nothing immoral in the proletariat finishing off a
class that is collapsing it is their right.
Class struggle
There was a dualism in Boshevik thought it was both authoritarian and
libertarian. Lenin believed that centralised control was necessary to revive
Russias shattered economy. Lenin also felt that the masses should be involved in
the revolution, despite his belief in the revolution from above led by the tight
Bolshevik party. He said it was essential to imbue the oppressed and working
people with confidence in their own strength.
A war on privilege was thus a key ideal of the revolution, and the masses were
encouraged to take matters into their own hands and punish the bourgeoisie.
The Bolsheviks were not anarchists, however, and wished to prevent the
destruction of property which would be useful for the creation of the socialist
economy. Lenin told a delegation of workers in 1917: You are the power: do all
you want to do, take all you want. We shall support you, but take care of
production, see that production is useful.

Trotsky: What sort of diplomatic work shall we be doing, anyway? I shall issue
a few decrees and shut up shop.
Gorky: When the Bolsheviks took power, all the dark instincts of the crowd
irritated by the disintegration of life and by the lies and filth of politics will flare
up and fume, poisoning us with anger, hate and revenge.
Soviet/ Western Marxist
Trotsky: Those who
lose by a revolution are
rarely inclined to call it
by its real name. Trotsky
Trotsky: There is
nothing immoral in the
proletariat finishing off a
class that is collapsing
that is their right.
Trotsky
Ponomarev: Under
the leadership of the
Bolshevik party, the
workers and poor
peasants overthrew the
bourgeoisie and
established Soviet
power.
Trotsky: We, the
Soviets, are going to try
an experiment unique in
history; we are going to
found a power which will
have no other aim but to
satisfy the needs of the
soldiers, workers and
peasants.
Liberal
Pipes: The events that
led to the overthrow of
the Provisional
Government were not
spontaneous but
carefully plotted and
staged by a tighly
organised conspiracy
October was a classic
coup detat.
Ulam: Except for the
workers at some
factories there was no
pro-Bolshevik
enthusiasm in the
population, only apathy.
Nove: No unified plan
existed. There was a
priority for war, and
numerous improvisations
as the economy
staggered from critical
shortage to outright
breakdown. Nove
Pipes: The system of
legislation the
Bolsheviks set in place
within two weeks of the
October coup, for all its
revolutionary rhetoric,
marked a reversion to
the autocratic practices
Revisionist
Figes:The Bolsheviks
were psychologically
unable to make the
transition from an
underground fighting
organisation to a
responsible party of
national government.
Smith:it is the
Bolsheviks incapacity to
realise their ends, their
blindness rather than
their vision, that is
striking. After they came
to power, they faced a
huge range of problems
for which MarxismLeninism left them illequippedPolicy,
therefore, was frequently
the outcome of
improvisation and
pragmatism as much as
of the hallowed tenets of
ideology. In other words,
the relationship between
belief and action was
complex, influenced by a
far larger range of
factors.
of tsarist Russia. They

simply wiped out the
eleven intervening years
of constitutionalism.
Service: As the
Bolsheviks
metamorphosed from a
party of insurrection to a
party of government,
their perspective of
reality changed.
Analyse the challenge facing the revolution and the response to it.
The creation of a new socialist society in Russia spurred on by revolution
elsewhere was expected to have been infinitely easier than it turned out to be.
As they would demonstrate again and again, the response of the Bolshevik
leadership to opposition (for instance, from striking bank workers and
bureaucrats) was to employ the Red Guards rather than seek a diplomatic
solution.
This could reflect Lenins policy of no compromise with revolutionary enemies.
Did the party compromise their revolutionary ideals?
This was the period when the party first put their pre-revolutionary ideals into
practice. Necessarily there would always be some difference between what was
hoped could be achieved and what actually could be done once the Party was in
power.
In this period the Bolsheviks held fairly closely to their original ideals, particularly
those of class enemies and the war on privilege.
How did this topic affect a group/s in society?
This period was largely positive for the peasantry they were allowed to expand
their holdings by confiscating the land of the nobles. However, the middle class
suffered as they became the target of Bolshevik class warfare, particularly the
violent pogroms carried out by drunken mobs in the cities.
Change and Continuity
Evaluate the changes brought about by this topic in the revolution.
This was the period when the revolutionary spirit was strongest, and was the
period of the first widespread eruptions of violence. This violence was explicitly
endorsed by the Bolsheviks, because it was seen as the most direct way of
involving the masses in the revolutionary movement. (also, the Bolsheviks likely
could not have been able to stop the drunken looting and murder if they had
tried.)
This public violence became a recurring theme of the revolution.
Early decrees and policies


the main list!):
1917, October 27 (which decrees?)
SovNarKom
1917, November 14 (which decree)
1917, December (armistice)
1918, February (Gregorian calendar)
1918, April (state capitalism)
Early aims
The first policies of the new soviet government were primarily concerned with
maintaining and strengthening their own position.
Radical economic improvement was also imperative.
The early decrees were, in part, aimed at encouraging popular participation in
the revolution.
The Bolsheviks declared that a global socialist revolution was now ripe, and a
new world was about to be built.
Land decrees
The P.G. had deferred land reform until after the promised elections of November
12.
On the 27th of October a decree was passed by SovNarKom giving the peasants
the right to seize the land of the gentry. Land seizures had been occurring since
February, but this degree legally sanctioned the practice.
This allowed the Bolsheviks to project an image of supporting the peasantry,
where traditionally they had been less popular than the SRs.
Decree on the press
Also on the 27th, a decree was passed banning the publication of newspapers
belonging to rival political groups.
Workers control decrees
On November 14 the Workers Control Decrees gave industrial workers the right
to apply to the government to be given control of their factories. The Committees
regulated rates of pay and hiring and dismissals. They were encouraged to take
measures to maximise productivity, but this rarely happened.
Peoples courts
On November 24 the established criminal justice system was replaced by
Peoples Courts, which constituted an elected judge making decisions based on
their revolutionary consciousness. The judges generally had no formal legal
training.
Further early decrees
Reforms in womens rights were introduced they were guaranteed equal
property rights, and marriage became a civil rather than religious ceremony,
allowing easy divorce.
All banks, stock companies and financial institutions were nationalised, and the
foreign debt cancelled.
An armistice with Germany was signed in early December.
Officers were elected by their subordinate troops.
After February, the Gregorian calendar was adopted Russia skipped twelve
days and moved in line with the rest of the world.
In total, 116 decrees were issued by the Bolsheviks in the

first year.
Decree
Details
27th October - Decree on Land
27th October Decree on Peace

27th October Decree on the Press
14th November Decrees on Workers

Control
24th November - Decree on Peoples

Courts
7th December Decree on Cheka
December Decree on Private

Ownership
December Decree on Political Parties
December Decree on Banking
December Decree on the Separation
of Church and State
December Decree on Marriage
5 September 1918 Decree On
Red Terror.
Who was affected positively

Who was affected negatively
Peasants they increased their
holdings
The Gentry they lost most of their
land
Bolsheviks
Bolsheviks they silenced their
opposition
Opposition parties they lost their
influence
Urban workers they began to
regulate their own pay and working
conditions
Industrialists factories were run to
benefit the workers rather than the
owners
Bolsheviks counter revolutionaries
could be easily punished
Bolsheviks their position was
strengthened
Opposition parties they were
labelled counter revolutionaries
Government and proletariat
Bourgeoisie- Lost most of their wealth
Bolsheviks
Opposition parties
Government and proletariat
Industrialists and merchants
Bolsheviks and proletariat
The Church, the peasants, the nobles
Women
Creation of concentration camps and
Cheka powers of execution
The Economic situation

Food and fuel shortages were still critical, and became significantly worse once
the allied assistance stopped.
Ad hoc solutions were attempted as the Provisional Government declined from
August the peasants seized and redistributed land, the soldiers formed
committees, and the workers seized control of their own factories.
Much of this occurred before the Bolsheviks officially took power.
State capitalism
The Bolsheviks tried to introduce policies that would bring the economic crisis
under control.
Some Bolsheviks were causing for a full blown communist economy. Lenin,
however, was more pragmatic and designed a policy called state capitalism.
From April 1918, the government would control the commanding heights of the
economy, would have a monopoly on trade and fiscal policy would be directed by
a central bank.
Small scale economic exercises would remain under the control of their existing
managers. Lenin insisted that the expertise of bourgeois specialists was crucial
to this transitionary stage of socialism.

At this point, Lenin envisaged a quasi-capitalist economy, where small scale
commerce would persist but the government would control major enterprise.
Lenins compromise
Lenins compromise dictates that for the time being capitalism could persist
under proletarian control. Once the workers had learnt from the managers they
could eventually take over production.
We are going to found a power which will have no other aim but to satisfy the
needs of the soldiers, workers and peasants. Trotsky
Yes, we shall destroy everything, and on the ruins we shall build our temple.
Lenin
We will turn Russia upside down. Lenin
Economics
state monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, or several
steps, towards socialism.
socialism is nothing but state-capitalist monopoly which had been turned in the
interest of the whole people and has therefore ceased to be a capitalist
monopoly. Lenin
Official Soviet History
Reed: For the first few
months of the new
[Bolshevik] rgime, in
spite of the confusion
when one hundred and
sixty millions of the
worlds most oppressed
peoples suddenly
achieved liberty, both
the internal situation
and the combative
power of the army
actually improved
Liberal
Pipes: The system of
legislation the
Bolsheviks set in place
within two weeks of the
October coup, for all its
marked a reversion to
the autocratic practices
of tsarist Russia. They
simply wiped out the
eleven intervening years
of constitutionalism.
Lynch: 1917 did not
mark a complete break
with the past. Rather it
was the replacement of
one form of stateauthoritarianism with
another.
Revisionist
Figes: There was no
master plan. When the
Bolsheviks came to
power they had no set
idea other than the
general urge to control
and centralize of how
to structure the
institutional relationships
between the party and
the Soviets

How did this event change the course of the revolution?
From the outset the Bolshevik government was faced by the same problems as
the Provisional Government food and fuel shortages due to the war, widespread
peasant land seizures, inflation and the threat of counter-revolution.
Did the party compromise their revolutionary Ideals?
The move towards involving the populace in the revolutionary process was a
departure from the Bolshevik principle of a dedicated elite, but one could argue
that this policy was less relevant after the revolution had been achieved.

What similarities are there with the old regime?
Mention decrees on the press
New court system
The Cheka

the main list!):
Cheka
Dzerhinksy, Felix
1917, December 7
Counter-revolution
Counter revolution was the major fear after the treaty of Brest Litvosk.
Lenin argued that the formation of a political police force was necessary to
expose counter-revolutionary and criminal activities.
In practice this meant that all political opposition was considered counter
revolutionary, and thus criminal.
Lenin argued that the bourgeoisie were inherently counter-revolutionary, because
they were opposed to the empowerment of the proletariat.
Cheka formed
On 7 December 1917, less than two months after the October Revolution, the
formation of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating CounterRevolution, Speculation and Sabotage was drafted.
Initially it was indeed an extraordinary commission with temporary, limited
powers. It was also more of an investigatory body than a punitive one.
Initially its powers were limited the publication of lists of enemies of the people,
and confiscation of ration cards.
Iron Felix Dzerhinsky
The position of head of the Cheka was given to a Polish Bolshevik, Felix
Dzerhinsky.
He had been part of the MilRevCom and head of security for the Bolsheviks.
He had a reputation for toughness and integrity that earned him the nickname
Iron Felix
Increase of powers
Initially the body was made up of 23 staff.
However, in the midst of genuine counter revolution the Cheka was expanded,
gaining powers of arrest, imprisonment and eventually execution.
January 1918 witnessed the first attempt at the assassination of Lenin, which led
to growing needs for a strong political police force to defend the Bolshevik
leadership.
The breakdown in negotiations at Brest Litovsk in January 1918 and the threat of
a renewed German invasion also led to demands for a stronger Cheka to combat
German espionage.
The threat of German invasion prompted the release of an emergence decree:
The Socialist fatherland is in danger! by Lenin
The decree declared: Enemy agents, profiteers, marauders, hooligans, counterrevolutionary agitators and German spies, are to be summarily shot.
The punishment of these individuals was arbitrary; they did not have to be tried
prior to being executed or exiled.
Few leading Bolsheviks had any qualms about the use of violence, believing it
necessary to defend their hard won victory.
While the all-powerful Cheka of the Civil War had not yet emerged, its
foundations were visible in the months after the October Revolution.
Our Revolution is in danger. Do not concern yourself with the forms of
revolutionary justice. We have no need for justice now. Felix Dzerhinsky
The bourgeoisie are bribing the outcast and degraded elements of society and
plying them with drink to use them in riots urgent measures are necessary to
fight the counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs. Lenin
Enemy agents, profiteers, marauders, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators
and German spies, are to be summarily shot. Lenin, in The Socialist Fatherland
is in Danger!
Historians debate whether the formation of the Cheka was premeditated, to ease
the Bolshevik takeover, or an unintended result of the effects of the war and
counter-revolution.
Official Soviet
History
Dzerzhinsky:
We stand for
organised terror.
The Cheka is
obliged to defend
the revolution and
conquer the
enemy even if its
sword does by
chance sometimes
fall on the heads
of the innocent.
Dzerzhinsky:
The sooner we
get rid of them,
the sooner we
reach socialism.
Lenin: How can
you make a
revolution without
executions?
Liberal
Revisionist
Russian
Lynch: 1917 did

not mark a
complete break
with the past.
Rather it was the
replacement of
one form of stateauthoritarianism
with another.
Nettl: The
machinery of
counter-terror and
repression grew
piecemeal but
rapidly from each
challenge to
Bolshevik
authority.
Pipes: The
Cheka and its
successors
Fitzpatrick: The
Bolsheviks did not
see any parallel to
the Tsarist secret
police, though
Western historians
have often drawn
one. The Cheka, in
fact, operated
much more openly
and violently than
the old police.
Figes: Under
Lenins regime not
Stalins the Cheka
was to become a
vast police state. It
had its own
leviathan
infrastructure, from
house committees
Litvin: The
Bolshevik
leadership had
created an
extreme
situation, and
they saw a way
out in the
organisation of
a powerful
punitive
institution,
capable of
terrifying and
terrorising the
population.
Volkogonov:
Lenin himself
was the patron
saint of the
Cheka.
Dzerzhinsky:
The Cheka is not
a court.
Dzerzhinsky It
was necessary to
make the foe feel
that there was
everywhere about
him a seeing eye
and a heavy hand
ready to come
down on him the
moment he
undertook
anything against
the Soviet
Government.
assimilated the
practices of the
tsarist secret
police to such an
extent that as late
as the 1980s, the
KGB distributed to
its staff manuals
prepared by the
Okhrana nearly a
century earlier.
to the
concentration
camps, employing
more than a quarter
of a million people.
Volkogonov:
As during the
French
Revolution the
knife of the
guillotine
ceaselessly
reaped its
doleful harvest,
so now the
Cheka gunned
its way through
the population.
Volkogonov:
Like the sound
of a bolt being
shot, the two
syllables, Cheka, would stop
any
conversation.

The establishment of the Cheka paved the way for the formation of an extremely
authoritarian state arguably a betrayal of the socialist ideal.
The revolution was threatened by right-wing counter-revolution, as well as
passive opposition from class enemies. The response was to strengthen the
intelligence services and the military to undermine the influence of counterrevolutionaries.
To a certain extent. The Bolsheviks knew they would be faced with counterrevolution immediately, but their establishment of a secret police force was
certainly hypocritical after their criticism of the Tsars Okhrana.
The main victims of the Cheka were members of the bourgeoisie, who were
branded counter-revolutionaries despite often not having committed any real
crime.
The Cheka reinforced the Bolsheviks grip on power by preventing any organised
opposition. This cemented Socialist Russia as a one party state led by the
Bolsheviks.
The Cheka was originally built on the model of the tsars Okhrana, but became
more oppressive over time. From its inception, however, it was responsible for
enforcing laws designed to keep the Bolsheviks in power by criminalising

opposition, just as the Tsar had done prior to the legalisation of political parties
with the October Manifesto.
Dissolution of the constituent assembly


the main list!):
Sverdlov
Elections
Elections were originally proposed for the 17 th of September, but were postponed
by the P.G. to November 12.
The Bolsheviks seized power on October 25, and were faced with the question of
how to respond to the elections they were unlikely to win.
Lenin argued in favour of delaying the elections, giving the Bolsheviks time to
increase their influence, particularly among the peasantry (where the SRs were
traditionally the dominant socialist party).
Others disagreed Sverdlov, Chairman of the Soviet Executive Committee,
overruled Lenins objections and ordered the elections to go ahead.
Voting went ahead on November 12 as planned.
Results
As expected, the Bolsheviks lost the election they won 24% of the vote, or 175
of 707 seats in the Constituent Assembly.
The SRs won a majority, with 370 of 707 seats.
The SRs had a clear majority with the peasant vote, which made up the vast
majority of their support. The Bolsheviks, however, had resoundingly won the
proletarian vote that of the workers, soldiers and sailors.
The Bolsheviks considered the winning of the urban votes was more significant
than winning the rural vote.
Lenins response (wa wa wa wa)
Lenin claimed that the elections went ahead too early before the Bolsheviks
were well known throughout Russia. As a result, many peasants supposedly
would have voted for the Bolsheviks.
He also claimed that the people were not aware of the SR split, and eventually
convinced the Left SRs (who won 40 seats against the Right SRs 370) to form a
coalition with the Bolsheviks in the SovNarKom government from December.
bourgeois parliamentarianism
Lenin decided that Soviet government was a higher form of democracy than the
bourgeois parliament.
He thought that the role of the Constituent Assembly should be to endorse and
legitimise the actions of the Bolsheviks (who had of course seized power in the
name of the people) since October.
It was not expected to make decisions on matters of political power and structure
these would be the concerns of the Bolsheviks and the soviet.
Martial law
On 5 January 1918, the day the Constituent assembly was due to open, martial
law was declared in Petrograd and public gatherings were made illegal.
Pro-Bolshevik troops were brought into Petrograd to intimidate protestors,

particularly near the Tauride Palace.
A pro Constituent Assembly march made up mostly of white-collar workers was
dispersed by machine gun fire.
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly
At around 4pm on the 5th, the delegates gathered at the Tauride Palace for the
first session.
The Bolsheviks set out to undermine the proceedings, bringing in Red Guardsmen
and drunken sailors.
The SR majority leader Victor Chernov was elected Chairman.
The Declaration of the Rights of Toilers and Exploited People
Read by Sverdlov, a prominent Bolshevik, this was a call for the Constituent
Assembly to recognise the actions of the Soviet Executive Committee and
SovNarKom since October.
Opposition
The Menshevik and SR deputies made clear their disapproval on the Bolshevik
policy of reducing the Constituent Assembly to a token institution.
Walkout
Following a prearranged signal by Lenin, at 2AM the Bolshevik and Left SR
deputies staged a walkout of the assembly.
Red Guards and Kronstadt sailors remained and intimidated the deputies who
remained.
Many of the sailors were drunk and brandished their weapons at the Menshevik
and Right SR speakers.
The Assembly proceeded regardless, and issued two major decrees on land and
on peace. These were not very different from the Bolshevik decrees of November
allowing peasants to seize land and promising a peace with Germany.
Dissolution
At 4.40 AM, the head guard ordered Chernov to close the assembly, as the
guards on duty were too tired.
When the delegates refused, the guards cleared the chamber forcefully.
The assembly was supposed to reconvene at 5PM on the 6 th, but on arrival, they
found the chamber locked and guarded.
The Bolsheviks issued a decree officially dissolving the Constituent Assembly.
Revolutionary violence
Lenin made it clear that force was to be employed if necessary, saying Trust in
the mood, but do not forget your rifles.
Some historians have argued that violent intimidation worked well for the
Bolsheviks when dealing with political opponents.
Bolshevik ideals
Bolshevik activities at the Constituent Assembly were consistent with their
political ideology, which did not recognise the legitimacy of the bourgeois
assembly.
Lenin proclaimed We will not exchange our rifles for a ballot.
There was little public protest to the closure of the Constituent Assembly. Victor
Serge recalled The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly made a great
sensation abroad. In Russia it passed almost unnoticed.
Apathy?
Naturally, the interests of the revolution stand higher than the formal rights of
the Constituent Assembly. Lenin

The toiling masses have become convinced by their experience that bourgeois
parliamentarianism is out-dated; that it is completely incompatible with the
construction of Socialism. Lenin
the town cannot be equal to the country the town inevitably leads the
country. Lenin
The CA considers that its own task is confined to establishing the fundamental
principles of the social reconstruction of society. From The Declaration of the
Rights of Toilers and Exploited People, 5 Jan
Rivers of blood have been spilled on the sacrificial altar of this sacred idea, and
now the Peoples Commissars have given ordered to shoot the democracy.
Gorky
Misc Lenin
We will not exchange our rifles for a ballot!
Trust in the mood, but dont forget your rifles.
Official Soviet
History
Protasov: the
actions of the
Bolshevik leadership in
regard to the
Constituent assembly
were in face both
logical and consistent,
because they were
appropriate to the
political and ethical
principles of he party.
Liberal
Pipes: The machine
gun became for them
the principle instrument
of political persuasion.
The unrestrained
brutality with which they
henceforth ruled Russia
stemmed in large part
from the knowledge,
gained on January 5
(and 6) that they could
use it with impunity.
Volkogonov: It seems
unlikely that the
Bolsheviks gave any
thought to the fact that
giving promise while in
opposition is a different
thing from fulfilling it in
government. On every
point - peace, land, liberty,
Constituent Assembly,
freedom of the press and
all the rest their
promises rapidly changed
into coercion, limitation,
alteration, a different
reading or an outright
denial. Even the land,
which they did give, they
Revisionist
made undesirable by
confiscating everything it
produced.

This event was not unexpected it was clear that the Bolsheviks would never
abide by any decisions of the Constituent Assembly and vice versa. It however
did show that the Bolsheviks were completely unwilling to negotiate with any of
the opposition parties.
The challenge facing the revolution was organised opposition from other socialist
parties, who disagreed with how the Bolsheviks were directing the revolution.
The response was to silence the opposition, first by censorship and intimidation
and then through the formal dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.
Not really. The Bolsheviks always maintained that the Constituent Assembly
would be bourgeois, so their dissolution of the body confirmed to Marxist-Leninist
ideology.
The dissolution obviously angered the opposition parties, many of which were
still dominated by the bourgeoisie.
This was the final hurdle for absolute Bolshevik control of the government from
this moment onwards any legal opposition was essentially impossible.
The march on January 5 in support of the Constituent Assembly was put down by
armed troops in much the same way as protests had been dealt with under the
tsar and the provisional government.
The dissolution of the constituent assembly was ordered on similarly autocratic
lines to the tsars dismissal of the first and second Dumas.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk


the main list!):
1918, February 18
1918, February 19
1918, February 22
1918, March 3
Bourgeois imperialism
A key aspect of Leninism was the international socialist movement, which Lenin
believed would be invigorated by the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The

spread of communism across Europe was extremely desirable.
Lenin believed that the imperialist countries were using the workers and soldiers
to further their bourgeois aims. He hoped that proletarians on both sides would
band together to fight the bourgeois governments.
Decree on Peace
Issued on October 27, this decree was met with widespread approval. To Lenin,
obtaining a peace with Germany would give Russias socialist revolution time to
consolidate its gains. This would need to happen before the international socialist
movement could succeed.
Military collapse
By 1918 Russias army had simply lost the will to fight. A succession of changes
in command led to massive desertions.
As a Marxist, he viewed the idea of Russia as an inconvenient artefact of
bourgeois government, which would hopefully cease to have meaning as
socialism was built.
A Bolshevik split
The Bolshevik party was divided over the issue of war.
Left faction
Right faction
Trotsky
Led by Bukharin, they
Lenin was not convinced
Trotsky pursued a
believed that the
by the Left faction he
policy he described as
revolutionary
thought that Germany
neither peace nor
consciousness would be
was not yet ripe for
war essentially
reignited by the threat of a socialist revolution.
stalling the
German invasion.
If the Germans were
negotiations for as
The German proletariat
allowed to advance they
long as possible in
would sympathise and
would probably be
the hope of the either
begin to overthrow the
victorious, since there
a socialist revolution
German government. A
would be no unrest at
in Germany or defeat
treaty would be an
home to destabilise the
at the hands of the
endorsement of German
army.
Americans. He gave
imperialism.
theatrical and longwinded speeches in
the hope of disrupting
the proceedings.
Negotiations
The German negotiators became increasingly frustrated with Trotskys antics.
By February 1918, the Germans presented Russia with an ultimatum accept the
treaty or hostilities will resume.
On 18 February, the Germans ran out of patience and launched an offensive with
700,000 troops. The national capital was moved to Moscow, as Petrograd was in
immediate danger.
Lenin wins the debate
Lenin threatened to resign unless his proposal for peace was accepted. The
revolutionary phasemongering among the Bolsheviks ceased immediately as
the Germans advanced on Petrograd.
On 19 February the Russians sent a message indicating their desire to sign. The
Germans ignored them for three days and continued the advance on the 22 nd
they set forth a new treaty demanding even harsher terms.
On 3 March SovNarKom signed the treaty.
Terms of the treaty
34 per cent of Russias population was lost, approx. 62 million people.
Russia gave up 32 per cent of its farmland, including the productive Ukraine,
much of Poland and the Baltic states.
Germany was promised three billion roubles in reparations.

Russia lost 89 per cent of its iron and coal reserves, as well as 54 per cent of its
industrial enterprises and 26 per cent of its railways.
Setbacks
The enormous losses reversed 200 years of Russian expansion.
National humiliation forced resentment among opposition groups, particularly
senior generals and banned political parties (such as the Kadets).
The withdrawal of Russian forces from the Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states
meant the end of any prospect of socialist revolution in those areas.
SR opposition
Trotsky refused to sign the 22 February treaty. He resigned as Commissar of
Foreign Affairs and became Commissar for War.
The Left SRs (who won 40 seats in the C.A. and had sided with the Bolsheviks)
still supported the Left Faction in wanting to continue the war. They resigned
from SovNarKom in protest at the signing of the treaty.
This ended the Bolshevik-Left SR coalition, and from now on the Bolsheviks ruled
in a single party system.
The Bolsheviks changed their name to the All-Russian Communist Party at the 7 th
Party Congress.
German defeat
Germany was unable to maintain its war effort, and surrendered on 11 November
1918.
Two days later the Soviets renounced the treaty, reclaiming much of the territory
that had been lost.
Lenin insisted that he was correct in encouraging SovNarKom to sign the treaty,
since in the end Russia did not suffer significant losses.
However, Russia still suffered because it was denied at least 8 months of
production from the land ceded to Germany.
Lenin: Intolerable, severe are the terms of peace. Nevertheless, history will
claim its own let us set to work to organise and organise. Despite all the trials,
the future is ours.
Lenin: to secure a truce at present means to conquer the whole world.
(because international socialism was on Russias side)
Lenin: This [the treaty] is merely one phase through which we must pass on the
way to a world revolution.
Lenin: To carry on a revolutionary war, an army is necessary and we do not
have one. It is a question of signing the terms now, or of signing the death
sentence of the Soviet Government three weeks later.
Lenin: I spit on [the concept of] Russia.
Lenin: Germany is still only pregnant with the revolution; and a quite healthy
child has been born to us a socialist republic which we may kill if we begin a
war.
German high command: Accept the terms on offer or hostilities will resume.
(paraphrase)
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Liberal
Revisionist
Malone: The Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk merely
exchanged one war for
another.

Russia had to secure a peace with Germany or the country would certainly have
been occupied atleast partially.
The policy of peace was key to the Bolshevik programme, from the April Theses
to the Octover 27 Decree on Peace.
The treaty was as humiliating to Russian nationalists as the Treaty of Portsmouth,
which ended the Russo-Japanese War in September 1905.
Did the treaty have a negative effect on Russia, despite it being renounced after
8 months?
Yes. The Bolsheviks lost a huge chunk of national production during a critical
period of crisis, and this had a significant effect on the economic situation during
the Civil War.
Civil War

the main list!):
White Armies
AFSR
Kolchak, Admiral
Bakhno, Nestor (Green Armies)
Kolchaks Siberian armies
Denikin, General (role in Civil War and
AFSR)
The North-Western Army
Yudenich, General (north-western armies)
Czech legion
Makhno, Nestor
Green Armies
September 1918 (Komuch turns into AllRussian Provisional Government in Omsk)
Early conflict
After October the Bolsheviks were able to control Petrograd easily. In Moscow,
however, street fighting with loyalists went on for over a week.
Kerensky led some Cossack troops against the Bolsheviks on 30 October at
Pulkovo Heights. He was eventually defeated by the Red Guards and Kronstadt
soldiers. Kerensky disguised himself and went into hiding.

The new regime survived the counter-revolution in Moscow, but the Cossack
regions of the Don, the Kuban and the Ukraine.
Czech legion
Czechoslovakia was controlled by Germany, and there was a strong Czech
movement for independence.
The Czech legion were 40,000 troops who had been given permission to travel
across Russia and be picked up on the Siberian coast to travel to the Western
Front.
As they crossed, however, hostilities broke out between the local soviet and the
armed legionaries. The Soviets ordered them to disarm, but they refused and
joined the counter revolution, attacking soviet positions along the trans-Siberian
railway.
The Komuch
The legion easily overthrew shaky Soviet governments along the railway.
They helped to set up the Komuch on 8 June 1918(the Committee of Members of
the Constituent Assembly), which was led by the SRs as a kind of alternative
government in the area the legion had taken.
The Komuch founded the Peoples Army, which joined the Czech legion in
overthrowing Bolshevik governments along the trans-Siberian railway. These
actions spurred on other opposition groups.
Green Armies
The Green Armies were peasant partisans who did not support the Reds or the
Whites. They were led by the anarchist Nesto Makhno, and held control over
much of the southeastern Ukraine in 1919-20. Lenin said that the peasant
insurgents were far more dangerous than all the Denikins, Yundeniches and
Kolchaks put together.
White Armies
The diverse array of forces opposed to the Bolshevik regime were known as the
White Armies.
The White Armies were made up of:
- Monarchists (who wanted to restore the Tsar)
- Patriots (who wanted to restore the Provisional Government)
- Supporters of the Constituent Assembly
- Minorities (such as Cossacks, Georgians, Ukrainians)
- Former political leaders (such as Kerensky, Kornilov)
Division of the White
Actions
Army
The Armed Forces of
Commanded by General Denikin. From 1918-1920
South Russia (AFSR)
Denikins forces threatened soviet Russia,
culminating in a campaign that came within 300
kilometres of Moscow in November 1919.
Overstretched and outnumbered, the AFSR
retreated in early 1920.
Kolchaks Siberian forces The Komuch was reorganised into the Provisional
All-Russian government in September 1918. It based
itself in the Siberian city of Omsk.
The government lasted 8 weeks until it was
overthrown by the Komuch Minister of War, Admiral
Kolchak.
From March 1919 Kolchaks armies harassed the
Bolsheviks.
His armies retreated back along the trans-Siberian
railway in 1919.
The North-Western Army
Kolchak was executed in February 1920.

A small army based in Estonia, formed in October
1918.
Led by General Yudenich, they launched two
campaigns against Petrograd in May and November
1919.
The second offense reached the outskirts of
Petrograd, but they were repelled after the arrival of
Trotsky.
Yunichs army numbered only 14,400 and were
disarmed after the failure of their second attack in
November 1918.
Foreign interventionists
The Germans were the first foreign power to send troops to Russia after 1918.
Commonwealth forces landed in Murmansk and Archangelsk in March 1918.
Japanese forces landed in Vladivostok and were joined by American and
Commonwealth troops in August 1918.
The British and French navies supported Denikins AFSR.
Britain, France and the US gave financial support to the Whites.
The foreigners had multiple reasons for intervening:
- The Allies wanted Russia to rejoin the war.
- Japan had territorial ambitions, which the Americans were keen to counter.
- Some were opposed to the Bolshevik ideology of spreading international
socialist revolution.
- SovNarKom had nationalised foreign business interests and annulled
foreign loans.
Faction
Red Armies
Red Army (inc.
Kronstadt sailors)
White Armies
AFSR
Czech legion
North-western Forces
Kolchaks Siberian
forces
Green Armies
Peasant separatists
Foreign
Interventionists
British
(Commonwealth)
French
Germans
Japanese (in the Far
East)
Americans
Motivation
Defence of the revolution
Supported the Constituent Assembly and to a certain
extent the monarchy.
Attempting to fight their way out of Russia and back to
Europe.
Supported the SR-led Provisional Government in
Siberia.
Wanted to bring Russia back in the war, and defend

British interests in Russia.
Territorial expansion, had over 70,000 troops in Siberia
at one stage. Americans wanted to counter this.
Red Victory
The involvement of foreigners in the Civil War reaffirmed Lenins belief in
socialism as a global movement. He was able to issue propaganda declaring a

fight against both the bourgeoisie and capitalist imperialist invaders.
WWI had wearied the Allied troops, who withdrew by 1921.
The disjointed nature of the White Armies made it difficult for them to make real
advances, and they were also defeated by 1921.
The Soviet-Polish War
Poland was created by the Treaty of Versailles after WWI. Poland sought to
expand its influence by invading the Ukraine in April 1920.
Polish forces captured Kiev but were pushed back by the Red Army, who
launched a counter attack and nearly took Warsaw.
Lenin believed Polish workers would welcome the Red Army. The Poles, however,
saw the Red Army as Russian invaders rather than proletarian brothers
Lenin: Peace this is a slogan for philistines and priests. The Proletarian slogan
must be: Civil War!
Lenin: War is war. Guns are not just for decoration.
Bukharin: You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Lenin: 'From the continuous triumphal march of October, November, December
on our internal front, against our counter-revolution...we had to pass to an
encounter with real international imperialism...an extraordinarily difficult and
painful situation.
Lenin: All foreign debts are cancelled unconditionally and without exception.
Trotsky: Every scoundrel that incites anyone to retreat, to desert or not to fulfil
a military order will be shot.
Lenin: the Green Armies were far more dangerous than all the Denikins,
Yundeniches and Kolchaks put together.
Karl Radek (a Bolshevik): We were always for revolutionary war. The bayonet is
an essential necessity for introducing communism.
Mayakovsky (a Soviet poet):
They came and fought like mad,
They marched on Petrograd
They came supplied with tanks,
With dollars, pounds and francs,
They came and thought theyd win,
But got their heads bashed in.
Trotsky: [The officers of the Imperial Army would be] Squeezed like lemons,
then thrown away.
Lenin: If we are not ready to shoot a saboteur and a White Guard, what sort of
Revolution is that? Nothing but talk and a bowl of mush.
General Denikin (White Army): I shall not fight for any particular form of
government. I am fighting for Russia.
Trotsky: An army cannot be built without repression. The commander will
always find it necessary to place the soldier between the possibility that death
lies ahead and the certainty that it lies behind.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Liberal
Revisionist
Greenwood: Much was Perfect: The one factor

due to the driving
that united the White
initiative, the disciplined Armies was their hatred of
order, and the
the Bolsheviks.
ruthlessness of the
Perfect: The Russian Civil
Bolsheviks themselves.
War was a vastly complex
Swain: It [the Civil War] conflict. It was a war of
was primarily a clash
movement with rapidly
between different versions changing fronts, which was
of revolution.
not at all like the static
Wolfson: ...the
trench warfare of World
participation of the Allies War 1.
and the behavior of the
Perfect: The emergence
White Armies undoubtedly of Green forces, and the
gave the Reds additional brief reign of the Komuch
support among ordinary
and SR government in
people - were they not
Siberia, indicates that the
defending the homeland Civil War was also a battle
from acquisitive
between different visions
foreigners? Peasants did and claims as to what
not love the Bolsheviks,
constituted the true
but they loved the Whites revolution. It was not a
even less, especially when straightforward Red vs
the latter were suspected White conflict.
of aiming to restore land Figes: Nothing did more
to the former owners.
to shape the ruling
attitudes of the Bolsheviks
than the experience of the
Civil WarThe Bolshevism
that emerged from the
Civil War viewed itself as a
crusading brotherhood of
comrades in arms,
conquering Russia and the
world with a red pencil in
one hand and a gun in the
other.
Figes: The Whites were
the avengers of those who
had suffered at the hands
of the revolution.

The Civil War was out of the direct control of the Bolsheviks, though it was
certainly spurred on by policies such as land redistribution.
It was expected that at some point a counter-revolution would be mobilised, so
the Civil War was largely expected and consistent with the Marxist-Leninist
narrative.
The Red Army


the main list!):
Victory
By the end of 1920 the Red Army had won a decisive victory against the Whites,
Greens and foreign interventionists.
However, thousands of Red Army soldiers were killed over the three years of civil
war, and vast portions of Russian territory was outside of Soviet control. This led
to major famines during the war which killed far more than the actual fighting.
Explanations for the Red victory
Geography
70 million people in Red areas, less
than 10 million in White areas.
Ideology
Trotskys leadership
The Bolsheviks controlled the central

region of Russia, which was the most
densely populated and contained
most of the major cities.
This was largely European Russia,
which was culturally homogenous
compared to the outer regions.
European Russia also held most of the
countrys war industries and railways.
The Whites had constant supply
problems because of their scattered
territory.
The Red Army shared a more united
sense of purpose than the disparate
Whites.
Propaganda could easily be produced
and distributed, allowing the
Bolsheviks to politically motivate their
troops.
The Reds drew heavily on the rhetoric
of class struggle and the promise of
the equality to come.
The Whites were less ideologically
cohesive many were fighting for
different ends, corruption was
endemic, and desertions and
insubordination were constant.
Trotsky imposed harsh disciplinary
By the end of 1918, the Red Army

numbered 500,000.
By the end of 1920, there were 5
million men under arms.
The Whites numbered around 2.5
million over 1918-1920, but most of
these soldiers were not fighting
simultaneously.
Trotsky travelled in a private train,
with its own library, radio and printing
press. It was manned by commissars
in black leather coats. The train also
carried stores of tobacco, boots and
food which could be used to improve
troop morale.
White Army weaknesses

Corruption and drunkenness was rife
among the officers.
The Whites did not capitalise on
propaganda as the Reds did, leading
to dwindling support among the
populace who were lured by the
Bolsheviks class rhetoric.
They also failed to set up
governmental administration in their
occupied areas.
measures to maintain order in the

rapidly growing army.
The death penalty was imposed for
many transgressions. On occasion
detachments of Chekists were
stationed behind lines of advancing
troops.
Trotsky also pursued a policy of
recruiting (often coercively) former
tsarist officers, who had the required
expertise for military command. All
regiments were also assigned a
political commissar, who was
responsible for ensuring orders were
carried out.
Trotsky was also willing to reward
soldiers who performed their duties
well. He was keen to incorporate the
expertise of the tsarist officers into the
Red Army.
The Whites had great trouble
motivating their troops and
maintaining discipline.
Some factions, such as the Cossacks,
were reluctant to fight outside their
home region.
This caused antagonism between the
different groups represented in the
White forces.
The Whites often tried to restore the
former landlords and brutally punished
the peasants who had confiscated it.
This bred resentment among the
peasantry.
Soviet rule thus regained its allure to
the peasants.

Trotsky: We are fighting to settle the question of whether the homes, palaces,
cities, sun and heavens will belong to the people who live by their labour, to the
workers, peasants and the poor, or whether they belong to the bourgeoisie.
Denikin: I can do nothing to control my army. I am glad when it carries out my
combat orders.
Denikin: If I raise the republican flag, I lose half my supporters. But if I raise the
monarchist one, I lose the other half. But we have to save Russia.
Lockhart, head of the British forces: [Trotsky] strikes me as a man who
would willingly die fighting for Russia provided there was a big enough audience
to see him do it.

Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Liberal
Revisionist
Reed: During the war,

the Red cause in general
was able to mobilize
extensive worker,
peasant and soldier
support it was not
repression alone but a
potent combination of
repression plus the
power to mobilize key
areas of support which
explain Bolshevik
survival.
Greenwood: There was Perfect: The one factor

little co-operation of policy that united the Whites was
or strategy between the
their hatred of the
White leaders, and this
Bolsheviks.
lack of unity was to prove
Figes: (Red victory was)
fatal to the countermore a result of White
revolutionary cause.
weakness than Red
Swain: It [the Civil War] strength.
was primarily a clash
between different versions Figes: The failure of the
Whites to recognise the
of revolution.
peasant revolution was the
reason for their ultimate
defeat.

Bolshevik Russia was under attack on all sides from disparate counterrevolutionary forces. The natural response was to mobilise the country for war,
both against the Whites and against class enemies.
The Bolsheviks knew that they would be faced with counter-revolution, and a key
part of Bolshevik ideology was the struggle against counter revolutionaries and
class enemies.
peasants)
The Civil War directly led to the expansion of Cheka-led persecution of class
enemies such as the bourgeoisie and kulaks.
The Red Terror

the main list!):

30 August 1918 (assassinations)
17 July 1918
Early Cheka violence

Initially the Cheka was not particularly powerful. The administration was not yet
centralised, and the different Soviet authorities around Russia acted more or less
autonomously.
According to Figes, as its peak the Cheka had over 250,000 members.
Assassination attempt
On 30 August 1918 Lenin was shot and wounded by an SR called Fanya Kaplan.
One of the bullets him in the jaw.
On the same day a Petrograd Cheka officer was killed by a military cadet.
These events drove a reactionary expansion of the Chekas powers.
Decree On Red Terror
On 5 September a decree was passed authorising the creation of concentration
camps to house class enemies, and also authorised the Cheka to execute
anyone involved in White Guard organisations, conspiracies and rebellions.
This led to thousands of middle and upper class citizens being sent to the new
concentration camps.
Methods of terror
Accounts of Cheka tortures were common and raise doubts about the mental
stability of some of the perpetrators, who were frequently drunk or high on
cocaine.
As well as horrific physical tortures, psychological methods were also used. The
Kiev Cheka buried suspects alive in a coffin with a rotting corpse, then dug them
up some time later. Other prisoners were taunted with the threat of imminent
execution, often more than once a day.
The most common method of execution was a pistol shot in the back of the head.
Execution of the Romanovs
17 July 1918 the tsar and his family were executed in the basement of a house
in Yekaterinburg in Siberia. This was likely done on the express orders of Lenin.
Figes said: But it is doubtful that either they, or any of the Whites, would have
wanted to make such a sad and discredited figure as Nicholas their 'live banner'.
A martyred Tsar was more useful to them than a live one who was politically
dead. Both Denikin and Kolchak were intelligent enough to realize that a
monarchist restoration was out of the question after 19 I 7, although both had
monarchists among their advisers.
Justifications of terror
Dzerzhinsky was an idealist he considered his task essential to the building of
socialism. Other Chekists were clearly mentally unstable.
Dzerzhinsky
He saw himself as an unshakable guardian of the revolution. He worked eighteen
hours a day seven days a week.
In the worst period of the Civil War, he chastised colleagues who brought him
bacon and potatoes instead of horsemeat.
He had a reputation as reliable and fastidious, and was made Commissar of
Transport with the task of restoring the crippled rail system.
He was later appointed Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council.
Cheka responsibilities
As crises mounted and internal threats increased, many Party leaders began to
see the Cheka as indispensable.
Lenin gave full support to Dzerzhisnkys institution, and overruled any attempt by
other leaders to curtail the Chekas activities.
As its powers grew, the Cheka took on other responsibilities border control,
labour conscription, countering army desertions, uncovering foreign espionage
and internal political dissent, exposing corruption, and coordinating epidemic and
famine relief.
The White Terror
The White Terror was similarly brutal towards suspected Bolsheviks and other
socialists. Suspected communists were often nailed by their left hand and left
foot to trees with railway spikes.
Socialist workers (often merely members of trade unions) were often buried neck
deep and ridden over by cavalry.
Pogroms (lynch mobs) were commonly perpetrated against Jewish people in the
Ukraine over 100,000 Jews were murdered.
Chekist We are not waging war against individual persons. We are
exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class.
Chekist: Events compelled the party of the revolution to give up some of its
aspirations, hopes and illusions in order to save the essential framework of the
revolution.'
Chekist: One needs only to go into the kitchen and look into his soup pot. If
there is meat in it, then he is an enemy of the people. Stand him up against the
world.
Chekist: The bullet was not directed against Lenin, but against the proletariat
as a whole.
Dzerzhinsky: Do you think that I seek forms of revolutionary justice; we are not
now in need of justice. It is war now face to face, a fight to the finish. Life or
death.
Dzerzhinsky: The Cheka is oblished to defend the revolution and conquer the
enemy, even if its sword does by chance sometimes fall on the heads of the
innocent.
Dzerzhinsky: We stand for organised terror this should be frankly stated.
Kaplan, Fanya: I have long had the intention of killing Lenin. In my eyes he has
betrayed the revolution.
Kaplan, Fanya: My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot at Lenin. I did it on my
own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had
resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was
exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist
official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labor. After the Revolution, I was freed. I
favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it.
Lenin: It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully
rationed.
Lenin: One man with a gun can control one hundred without one.
Lenin: When there is state there can be no freedom, but when there is freedom
there will be no state.
Lenin: If we are not ready to shoot a saboteur and a White Guardist, what sort
of revolution is that?
PRAVDA: Without mercy, we will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let
them be thousands for the blood of Lenin and Uritsky let there be floods of
bourgeois blood more blood, as much as possible.
Sverdlov: (on the ordering of the Tsars execution) We decided it here. Ilyich
believed that we should not leave the Whites a living banner to rally around.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Liberal/ Russian
Revisionist
Deutscher: Besieged
fortresses are hardly
ever ruled in a
democratic manner.
Deutscher: Over and
over again emergencies
had driven the ruling
party to act against its
original intentions, to
contradict and overreach
itself.
Deutscher: Events
compelled the party of
the revolution to give up
some of its aspirations,
hopes and illusions in
order to save the
essential framework of
the revolution.
Deutscher: Trotsky had
not shrunk from using
terror in the Civil War,
but he can be said to
have been as little fond
of it as a surgeon is fond
of bloodshed.
Hill: The attempt to
overthrow the
Bolsheviks after the
revolution produced
cruelties indeed, but the
revolutionary process
abolished a regime of
despair and created a
new world of hope.
Trotsky: The execution
of the Tsar and his family
was needed not only to
frighten, horrify and
instil a sense of
hopelessness in the
enemy, but also to shake
up our own ranks, to
show that there was no
retreating, that ahead
lay total victory or total
doom.
Cherniaev: Trotsky bears Figes: The Bolshevik

a great deal of
terror came up from the
responsibility both for the depths. It started as a
victory of the Red Army in social revolution, a means
the civil war, and the
for the lower classes to
establishment of a oneexact their own bloody
party authoritarian state revenge on their former
with its apparatus for
masters and class
ruthlessly suppressing
enemies.
dissent. As a Jacobin in
Figes: The murder of the
spirit, he was not
Romanovs was a
frightened by the smell of declaration of the Terror. It
freshly spilled blood. He
was a statement that from
was an ideologist and
now on individuals would
practician of the Red
count for nothing in the
Terror.
civil war.
Lincoln: Discipline
Figes: But it is doubtful
imposed from above had that either they, or any of
always distinguished the the Whites, would have
Bolsheviks revolutionary wanted to make such a
organisation from its
sad and discredited figure
rivals. Now it became a
as Nicholas their 'live
key element in their
banner'. A martyred Tsar
struggle against the chaos was more useful to them
of 1917-18.
than a live one who was
Lynch: It is doubtful,
politically dead. Both
even without the threat of Denikin and Kolchak were
civil war and organised
intelligent enough to
opposition, that
realize that a monarchist
Bolshevism could have
restoration was out of the
developed other than as question after 19 I 7,
an oppressive system. Its although both had
dogmatic Marxist creed
monarchists among their
made it as intolerant of
advisers.
other political creeds as
Figes: Nicholas had to
tsardom had been.
day so that the revolution
Pipes: Lenin assumed the could live.
prerogatives of the tsars Figes: The Red Terror did
before him his will was not come out of the blue. It
law.
was implicit in the regime
Pipes: The Red Terror
from the start the
was not a reluctant
Bolsheviks were forced to
response to the actions of turn increasingly to terror
others, but a prophylactic to silence their political
measure designed to nip critics and subjugate a
in the bud any thoughts of society they could not
resistance to the
control by other means.
dictatorship.
Figes: Under Lenins
Volkogonov: Lenin
regime not Stalins the
wanted earthly happiness Cheka was to become a
for the people, at least

those he called the
proletariat. But he
regarded it as normal to
build this happiness on
blood, coercion and denial
of freedom.
vast police state. It had its

own leviathan
infrastructure, from house
committees to the
concentration camps,
employing more than a
quarter of a million
people.
Service: Lenin, Trotsky
and Dzerzhinsky believed
that over-killing as better
then running the risk of
being overthrown.
Service: Certainly Lenin
was the founder of the
one-party, monoideological state.
Smith: The belief that the
end justified the means
served them well, blinding
them to the way in which
means corrupt ends.
Figes: The White
Terror...was a mirror image
of the class resentment
and hatred that drove the
Red Terror.

The Cheka was created and empowered in response to the assassination attempt
on Lenin, as well as the growing threat of the civil war. Liberal historians argue
that this was done deliberately to ensure the Bolsheviks stayed in power, while
revisionists argue that the granting of additional power happened by default and
was not premeditated.
Recall Deutscher quote: Events compelled the party of the revolution to give up
some of its aspirations, hopes and illusions in order to save the essential
framework of the revolution.
The creation of the powerful, centralised Cheka was not counter to Bolshevik
ideology, which held that Terror was necessary to wipe the country clean in
preparation for the building of socialism.
The Cheka was not unlike the Tsars Okhrana, but its powers were far more
sweeping and its membership much higher.
peasants)
Much of the Chekas persecution was directed against the bourgeoisie and the
kulaks, who were viewed as class enemies.
War Communism

the main list!):
28 June 1918 (decree on Nationalisation)
21 November 1918 (private trade)
11 June 1918 (Kombedy)
Kombedy
War Communism
War communism is not a single policy or decree it is a collection of hundreds of
decrees and policies issued from mid 1918-1921.
The term War Communism was not used at the time it was coined afterwards as
a justification for the failure.
It emerged as a result of the governments attempt to stabilise the economy,
after the successive shocks of the Treaty and the White control of many of the
productive regions.
Food and fuel shortages were still critical. The policies were designed to stabilise
food supplies in the city, halt industrial breakdown and supply the troops at the
fronts.
Industry nationalisation
While State Capitalism allowed most industry to continue without much
interference, War Communism was based on the nationalisation of almost all
industries.
On 28 June 1918 the Decree on Nationalisation was released.
The decree said that the state would take full control of metallurgical,
textile, electrical, mining, cement and tanning industries.
A further decree on 29 November 1920 nationalised all factories that employed
more than ten workers, and all factories using powered machinery with more
than five workers.
This control of smaller industrial enterprises was new in War Communism.
The VSNKh, or Supreme Economic Council, was now the coordinator of the
centralised economic system. It had originally been intended as an advisory
body.
The attempt to immediately nationalise everything produced an enormous
bureaucracy. Departments and officials competed, and held up the distribution of
materials and workers to understaffed industries.
The lack of adequate manpower for industry, due to the ongoing wars and the
flight of urban workers back to the countryside, also impeded economic recovery.
Militarisation of the workplace
In line with the ongoing Civil War, many workplaces were militarised. People
marched to work, and gave up the right to, among others, the 8-hour day.
The ideal of workers control was abandoned, as state control of working hours
and conditions increased.
Harsh punishments were instituted for unproductive workers generally the
confiscation of food rations.
Strikers were punished by execution.

Towards the end of the Civil War Trotsky advocated the use of Red Army soldiers
in labour armies, for the building of roads, unloading of freight etc.
Voluntary work, called Communist Saturday, was encouraged. There was great
pressure for workers to engage in these voluntary programs.
Compulsory labour by the bourgeoisie was fostered they were generally
assigned to worse jobs than proletarians. This was an important source of
support for the revolutionary regime.
Despite the critical shortages, a new Red elite emerged. They had access to
French chefs and comfortable Kremlin apartments.
Attempts to abolish money
The Bolsheviks saw the abolition of money as one of the first steps towards
introducing socialism. This was to take place via state induced hyperinflation.
Exchanges between state run industries were simply exchanges on paper. The
government aimed to become the sole provider of all goods and services.
On 21 November 1918 all private trade was declared illegal, including markets in
rural villages. A government institution called the Food Commissariat was the
only body allowed to supply food. It was given the power to confiscate the stocks
of private traders.
Consequences of War Communism
The hyperinflation and the ban on private trade produced an enormous black
market based on bartering. At the end of 1921 at least 70 per cent of all
resources were obtained on the black market.
Bagmen made huge profit by speculating buying resources in the countryside
and selling them in the starving cities. The bagmen were frequently cracked
down upon, but consumer demand was so great that the markets were reopened
almost immediately.
A constant stream of propaganda denounced the bagmen as evil exploiters, but
the bartering system had to be tolerated to prevent mass famine.
It is estimated that in 1918-19 up to 60% of city-dwellers bread was provided by
the black market.
In July 1918 a class-based rationing system was introduced. Workers, soldiers and
Bolsheviks received the most, while the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie received
the least.
Zinoviev spoke of the bourgeoisie receiving only enough bread to remember the
smell of it.
This rationing system was extremely ineffective in Petrograd in 1920 21.9
million cards were issued to a population of 12.3 million.
Due to increasing discontent, obtaining food to feed the cities became the chief
goal of the Bolsheviks. Policies aimed at forcing the peasants to give up their
grain were instituted but were not successful.
Kulaks
Most peasants preferred to feed their livestock and sell their produce on the
black market, rather than give it to the Bolsheviks.
Lenin was convinced that the food shortages were due to kulaks hoarding grain
his solution was to cause the poorer peasants to turn against the kulaks.
Committees of the Poor (Kombedy)
On 11 June 1918 the government announced that Committees of the Poor
(Kombedy) were to be formed to requisition grain from hoarders.
The enticement was that the Kombedy members were able to keep some of the
grain they confiscated.
This was not particularly effective, however, as many peasants were relunctant
to turn against others.
The Kombedys were abandoned by the end of 1918.
Requisition squads
Starting in January 1919, armed workers and Chekists were formed into grain
requisitioning squads, and sent out to seize hoarded surplus from the villages.
This was known in Russian as prodrazverstka.
Often the squads took everything they could find, and left no grain for seed the
next year.
The peasants closed ranks and began to organise armed resistance to the
requisition squads.
Since there was no incentive to produce surplus grain, peasant families simply
stopped planting any more than they needed for their family.
Between 1917-1921, the amount of land under cultivation dropped 40%.
Harvests were 37% of usual.
Assessing War Communism
Much of the chaos was due to the poor organisation and communication in the
Bolshevik government. Decrees were often contradictory, and local officials acted
more or less autonomously.
Economic statistics
October 1917 19.1 Bn Roubles
January 1919 61.3 Bn Roubles
1920 1.2 Tn Roubles
1922 2 quadrillion Roubles
1 Rouble in 1913 was worth 100 million at the end of 1922.
In 1922 there was 83% less production than in 1913.
In August 1918 1 kg of grain was worth 1 rouble according to the Supreme
Economic Council.
On the Moscow black market it was 18 roubles.
On the Petrograd black market is was 26.
If 100 units produced in 1913, in 1922:
Coal 27 units
Iron 2.4 units
Cotton 5.1 units
Petrol 42.7 units
In 1920 13.5% less land was used for agriculture than in 1913.
In combination with a lack of horses and equipment, 60% of the grain produced
in 1913 was produced in 1920.
Half as many people employed in 1921 as 1918. The size of the proletariat
halved as people went back to the country.
By the end of 1921 more than 70 per cent of resources were obtained on the
black market.
At the Benzene Trust, 50 bureaucrats to oversee 150 workers.

Lenin: He who doesnt work shall not eat.
Lenin: Long live civil war in the name of bread, for children and old people, for
the workers and the Red Army, in the name of direct and merciless struggle with
counter-revolution.
Lenin: The Russian Communist Party will strive as speedily as possible to
introduce the most radical measures to pave the way for the abolition of money.
PRAVDA (1920): There is no economic plan.
Propaganda slogan: Proletariat, you didnt fear heavy weapons dont fear
heavy labour. The workers country is built by labour.
Slogan: Down with the Bolsheviks and horsemeat. Give us the Tsar and pork.
Trotsky: A deserter from labour is as contemptible and despicable as a deserter
from the battlefield.
Trotsky: Everything for the front!
Trotsky: One may say that man is rather a lazy creature. As a general rule, he
strives to avoid work the only way to attract the labour force required for
economic tasks is to introduce compulsory labour service.
Soviet historians regard War Communism as a response to conditions out

of the Bolsheviks control.
Western liberal historians regard War Communism as a demonstration of
the inherent weakness of communism as a political and economic system.
Revisionists are in between War Communism was a failed policy, but it
was due to both external conditions and the weakness of the Bolshevik
government and policymaking, rather than the inherent nature of
communism.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Lenin: We were forced
to resort to War
Communism by war and
ruin.
Western
Revisionist
Pipes: Instead raising
Fitzpatrick: The
productivity to
Bolsheviks took over a war
unprecedented heights,
economy in a state of near
War Communism had
collapse, and their first
reduced it to levels that
and overwhelming
threatened Russias very problem was to keep it
survival.
running.
Pipes: Before the
Fitzpatrick: From the
revolution, the Bolsheviks outbreak of civil war in
idealised the urban worker mid-1918 the Bolsheviks
as a creature endowered caution began to
with unique moral
disappear.
qualities. Political
Fitzpatrick: With the old
responsibility quickly
world disappearing in the
dispelled these illusions: flamed of Revolution and
the worker turned out to Civil-War, it seemed to
be neither better nor
many Bolsheviks that a
worse than anyone else, new world was about to
and just as concerned with rise, phoenix-like, from the
his personal well being.

ashes.
Pipes: They considered
banknotes a temporary
expedient.
Pipes: Marx wrote a great
deal of sophisticated
nonsense about the nature
and function of money.
Pipes: The intention was
to
make a universal cartel to
oversee human as well as
material resources.
Pipes: The programs
Lenin had approved had all
but destroyed Russian
industry and halved the
industrial labour force.
Pipes: The government
found itself in the absurd
situation where
enforcement of its rules
against private trade
would hve caused the
urban population to starve
to death. It had no choice
but to tolerate the
numerous black markets
that sprouted in all the
cities.

War communism was supposedly a response to the conditions brought on by the
Civil War. Liberal historians argue that this was not entirely true it was a
genuine attempt at building a communist society.
The measures taken under War Communism were consistent with Marxist
ideology, but far more authoritarian than had been suggested before the
revolution. For instance, abolition of the 8 hour working day, work brigades,
requisition squads, the Kombedys.
The abolition of the right to strike was far more authoritarian than the tsars
regime, where striking had been dangerous but not completely illegal.
peasants)
Everyday impacts of the Civil War

the main list!):
Production
By 1920, wages bought less than a 50th of what they had in 1914. As food
became critically scarce, over half the population of the major cities escaped to
the countryside.
The size of the proletariat halved between 1917 and 1920.
Industrial production fell to 13% of 1913 levels.
Famine and disease
Famine and disease caused millions of deaths, far more than the fighting in the
war.
It is estimated that atleast half the deaths in the Civil War were due to starvation.
In some regions the peasants ate famine bread, made up of clay and grass.
Cannibalism was fairly common.
Peasants
Many rural areas were ungovernable due to ongoing peasant resistance.
Peasants simply wished for the central authorities to leave them alone.
Increasing authoritarianism
The Civil War had a major impact on the values and ideology of the Bolsheviks.
The centralised state, rather than rule by soviet, appears to be the chief
instrument by which socialism would be built.
The Civil War had also seen an influx of military personnel into the party they
began to dress in uniform. This fostered the sense that the party was now made
up of militarised, leather jacketed commissars.
As the Civil War progressed, it became increasingly clear that the regime was
more a dictatorship of the Party than a dictatorship of the workers.
Government structure
SovNarKom was nominally subordinate to the Soviet Executive Committee, which
was elected each year at the National Congress of Soviets. However, this power
was rarely enforced and the Bolshevik-dominated SovNarKom issued decrees
unopposed.
Yakov Sverdlov, a senior Bolshevik, maintained this status quo, as he was a
senior member of both the Soviet Executive Committee and the Bolshevik
Central Committee.
Historian McCauley estimates that just 12% of revolutionary decrees were
approved by the Soviet Executive Committee.
Sverdlov died in 1919. The Party was restructured into three bodies:
Secretariat
Administrative wing of the Party government
Orgburo
Organisation bureau made decisions on personnel and
delegated economic tasks
Politburo
Five man body who were able to make decisions
autonomously.
Originally made up of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev and
Kristinsky.
Peasant: (Civil War) In our village everyone eats human flesh but they hide it.
There are several cafeterias in the village and all of them serve up young
children.
Peasant: (Civil War) The land belongs to us but the bread belongs to you; the
water belongs to us but the fish to you; the forests are ours but the timber is
yours.
Peasant (Civil War) We welcome Soviet power, but give us ploughs, harrows
and machines and stop seizing our grain, milk, eggs and meat.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Trotsky: Send me
communists who know
how to obey.
Western
Chamberlin: The realm
the Bolsheviks had
conquered bore a strong
resemblance to a desert.
Revisionist
Perfect: The Civil War
bred a generation of men
who were quick to reach
for their pistols when their
authority was questioned.
Perfect: By conquering
the counter-revolutionary
ring of fire, the Soviet
regime survived the Civil
War.

The institution of dictatorial policies lead to the cementing of a dictatorial state.
This led to the restructuring of the party into the Secretariat, Orgburo and
Politburo, which allowed even more autocratic rule by the senior Bolsheviks.
The politburo was not unlike the tsars cabinet of ministers, which was
supposedly subordinate to the Duma but in reality ruled autocratically.
peasants)
The aftermath of the Civil War had a devastating effect on the proletariat, which
more than halved between 1917 and 1921. Peasants were also heaviy impacted
in the later years by famine and disease.
The Kronstadt Revolt


the main list!):
1 March 1921 (Kronstadt petition)
8 March 1921 (Kronstadt battle)
The end of the Civil War

By the end of 1920, it was clear that the Civil War had been won but the
Communist regime was in dire straits.
The Kronstadt revolt forced a major examination of Communist Party policies.
Despite the war being mostly over by early 1921, the Bolsheviks made no move
towards ending most of the harsh measures of War Communism.

War Communism continues
In 1921 grain requisitioning was increased, and the military administration of
industry was strengthened.
This caused further discontent the peasants were even less likely to hand over
their surplus if it was not being given to the soldiers.
Workers wanted a return to economic and social stability, rather than more
dictatorial controls.
Tension rising
The winter of 1921 saw renewed discontent in the cities.
Shortages of fuel led to the closure of the Putilov steelworks in Petrograd.
In late February, thousands of workers went on strike.
The standoff increased after the Kronstadt sailors associated themselves with the
strikes.
Reddest of the red
The Kronstadters had been present in the July Days and the October Coup and
fought with distinction in the Civil War.
Although most sailors were Bolsheviks, there was still support for the left SRs.
Some also supported the anarchist Black Armies. By supporting these groups
they had positioned themselves as further to the left than the Bolsheviks.
Kronstadt turns
Increased grain requisitioning and the ongoing strikes led to a turn in the
Kronstadters position towards the Bolshevik government.
The Kronstadt Petition
On 1 March 1921, thousands of sailors rallied on Kronstadt island. They endorsed
a petition which called for major changes in the Bolshevik government.
They condemned the replacement of the tsarist autocracy with the communist
commisarocracy. They called for new soviet elections Soviets without
Bolsheviks.
There were major similarities with the petition of the marchers on Bloody Sunday
(9 Jan 1905):
- Freedom of speech and press
- Release of political prisoners
- End of grain requisitioning
- End of labour-armies
- End of militarised workplaces
Bolshevik betrayal
The Kronstadters were not counter-revolutionary they were not calling for an
end to the revolution.
They accused the Bolsheviks of betraying the revolution their demands were
from the left, calling for soviet power.
They insisted on a return to the values of October 1917.
Military and moral crisis
The revolt was a major challenge to the Bolsheviks, both because the
Kronstadters were a military threat, and because it represented a major moral
problem. The Kronstadters had been the most steadfast defenders of the
revolution.
The communists refused to negotiate, leaving the possibility that the ice could
thaw after the winter. The Kronstadters would then be able to attack the capital,
as they had in October.
Reasoning
The Bolsheviks thought that if they gave in to the Kronstadters, other rebellions
would break out across Russia.
Battle
On 7 March 1921, Trotsky ordered 50,000 Red Army soldiers to launch an
offensive on the 16,000 Kronstadters.
The Red Army was backed by Chekist machine gunners.
The Kronstadters resisted for over a week but eventually were defeated by the
larger Bolshevik force.
At least 10,000 Red Army soldiers were killed and 5000 Kronstadters.
Lessons learned
A fundamental change in policy occurred after the putting down of the armed
revolt. Lenin accepted that the fundamental economic policies in place were
unfeasible.
Kronstadt sailors: The autocracy has fallen. The Constituent Assembly has
departed to the realm of the damned. The commisarocracy is collapsing. The
moment has come for a true government of toilers, a government of soviets.
Kronstadt petition: Soviets without Bolsheviks.
Kronstadters: One might have thought that these were not factories but the
forced labour prisons of tsarist times.
Serge, Victor: The revolt was the beginning of a ghastly fratricide.
Many view the suppression of Kronstadt as the moment when the Bolsheviks
broke their last links with the working classes and the ideals of October.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Lenin: This (the
Kronstadt revolt) was
the flash which lit up
reality better than
anything else.
Trotsky: (The
Kronstadters) were the
pride and glory of the
revolution the reddest
of the red.
Trotsky: Only those
who surrender
unconditionally may
count on the mercy of
the Soviet Republic.
Western
Revisionist
Fitzpatrick: It was a
symbolic parting of the
ways between the working
class and the Bolshevik
Party.

The Bolsheviks feared that if the Kronstadters were not dealt with before the ice
melted at the end of winter, they would not be able to retake the island until the
next year.
Almost certainly not. The Kronstadters were supporters of soviet power, which
the Bolsheviks had supported before they came to power. However, the
suppression of the revolt did reflect the growing authoritarianism in Bolshevik
policy.
The suppression was similar to that of Bloody Sunday, but far larger and more
brutal. Over 15,000 Red Army soldiers were killed and at least 5,000
Kronstadters.
peasants)
This policy utterly alienated the Kronstadters, who had been the staunch
defenders of the Bolsheviks since February. The suppression of the rebellion
demonstrated to many the extent to which the Bolsheviks had abandoned their
ideals.
New Economic Policy


the main list!):
8 March 1921 (NEP)
On Party Unity
On 8 March 1921, the day after Kronstadt, the 10 th Party Congress took place.
Lenin proposed a new economic policy to repair the damage of War Communism.
His proposal was based on pacifying worker grievances (such as Kronstadt) and
providing incentives for the peasantry to produce surplus grain (avoiding the use
of requisitioning squads).
The essence of the NEP was the reestablishment of private trade and a relaxing
of centralised state control.
Aims of the NEP
1. Grain requisition is abandoned. Replaced by a tax in kind, or the
requirement for farmers to hand over a certain percentage of their surplus.
In famine areas this was waived for the first year.
2. Markets and private trading were made legal. Small businesses reopened
and some factories became privately owned. Economic relations with

some foreign countries normalised Russia signed a treaty with Britain in
1922.
3. A new currency backed by gold was introduced, and rationing and some
free public services came to an end.
4. Labour armies, and some other militaristic aspects of work conditions,
were relaxed or abandoned.
Lenin stressed that the Supreme Economic Council would still control the
commanding heights of the economy. Businessmen and capitalists would not be
allowed to take back control.
It was not a return to capitalism, but a return to the State Capitalism which had
existed in 1918 before the Civil War.
Ideological crisis
Many senior Bolsheviks were reluctant to allow the peasants to market their own
produce.
The party split into factions, as during the treaty negotiations. Many believed
that establishing centralised control over the economy had been a great
achievement. Lenin argued, however, that the NEP was a transitional phase, and
an opportunity for the new society to regroup.
For the NEP
Against the NEP
Lenin the NEP provided breathing
Left wing Bolsheviks called the NEP
space and time to recover
the New Exploitation of the
Zinoviev The NEP was a clearing of
Proletariat, because it involved the
the land for a new and decisive attack abandonment of policies such as food
of labour against the front of
handouts and free public services.
international capitalism.
Bukharin supported the
abandonment of requisitioning and
the non-confrontational approach to
the peasantry.
Nepmen
Traders who flourished under the New Economic Policy. They drew their wealth
from the free market; the Bolsheviks saw them as a new bourgeoisie an
unwelcome blemish on a new socialist economy.
Results of NEP
The famine of 1921-22 caused 5 million deaths. Gradually, however, the NEP
began to take effect.
By 1926-7 production in many industries had reached pre-war levels.
Manufacturing and light industry, as well as oil exports, experienced significant
expansion.
However, heavy industry and mining was still very weak. Unemployment reached
50 per cent among heavy industry workers.
The economy needed to modernise to remain competitive.
Successes
Strikes began to decline from 1922.
Agricultural production outpaced industrial production.
Grain production recovered to the levels of 1909-13.
Scissor Crisis
By 1923 a major gap between the prices of manufactured goods and grain had
emerged. Grain had become cheaper because of the increased supply and
smaller population. Manufactured goods were still expensive, however.
It was feared that the peasantry would be reluctant to trade their grain for
overpriced goods.
The Bolshevik solution was, of course, to introduce price controls in the
manufacturing sector.
Party reaction
As the regime loosened its control on the economy it strengthened its grip on
discipline both inside and outside the party.
Lenin was wary of the possibility of internal discontent at the Tenth Party
Congress from 8 March 1921. He believed the opposition factions were
unrealistically idealistic.
Decree On Party Unity
At the Tenth Party Congress Lenin unveiled a decree called On Party Unity. He
said I do not think it will be necessary for me to say much on this subject.
Under the decree, factions within the Bolsheviks were ordered to be disbanded.
Individual Bolsheviks could still voice their discontent, but they could not
organise factional groups with others.
Those who violated this order could be expelled from the party and ultimately
punished by the Cheka.
As a result, it was impossible for any individual to openly oppose Lenin (and later
Stalin)

Lenin: Let us retreat and construct everything in a new and solid manner;
otherwise we shall be beaten.
Lenin: What is needed now is an economic breathing spell.
Lenin: The national economy must be put back on its feet at all costs. The first
thing to do is restore, consolidate and improve peasant farming.
Bukharin: We must say to the whole peasantry, to all its strata: enrich
yourselves, accumulate, develop your economy.
Soviet/ Western
Western
Marxist
Reed: Lenin never
attempted to disguise
the fact that is was a
large scale retreat, a
Brest-Litovsk on the
economic front.
Lenin: The national
economy must be put
back on its feet at all
costs. The first thing to
do is restore, consolidate
and improve peasant
Revisionist
Perfect: The peasant
rebellions and Kronstadt
revolt had made it clear
that the authoritarian
economic policies of war
communism were creating
more problems than they
were solving.
McCauley: If War
Communism was a leap
into socialism then NEP
was a leap out of
farming.
socialism.

War Communism had wrecked the economy and reform was urgently needed.
No it was a major retreat in the battle against class enemies, such as the
bourgeois factory owners and the kulaks, who were allowed to engage in trade
again.
This policy was not dissimilar with Wittes policy on the peasants, which were
designed to increase economic prosperity by creating a merchant class.
peasants)
Slowly, the proletariat regrew after halving between 1917-1921. Nepmen, or
small scale merchants, began to make a profit from the new system by trading
between cities and the countryside.
Death of Lenin/Summary
the main list!):
Strokes
Lenin suffered his first stroke in May 1922, which left him paralysed down his left
side. He suffered two more in December and was left wheelchair-bound.
Testament
In late December 1922 he dictated a testament to one of his secretaries. He
denounced Stalin as rude and power hungry, one planned to appoint someone
else before he died.
Death
He had another stroke in March 1923 that left him totally paralysed and unable to
speak. He died on 21 January 1924.
Funeral
27 January 1923. Stalin delivered the eulogy, Trotsky was not present. At 4 pm
cannons were fired across the nation as he was lowered into the ground.
Soviet/ Western
Marxist
Western
Revisionist
Perfect: The
revolutionary regime had
brought not only turmoil,
suffering and nightmares,
but also hope, opportunity
and utopian dreams.
Rosenberg: Soviet
policies were essentially a
radical extension, rather
than a break with the
past.
Perfect: For all of the
much of the old world
remained in the new
society.

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Key Evidence: (Dates, Names,

Review of key terms (add them to

Primary Quotes: (From the period)

Historiography: How did key historians interpret this event?

Evaluation and Analysis:

Why was this policy / action taken? (Crisis and response)

Historical perspectives / Historiography

Soviet historians tend to focus

In the Soviet histories, a

History is interpreted purely

It was triumph of MarxismLeninism and demonstrated the

in Russia with a constructive

placing less influence on the

Russia. They simply wiped out

After a relatively easy

organised party along the lines

and-blood individuals, highly

social event and the ruling

Examples of historiography in essays

Whist Soviet historians view the October Revolution as a mass

The first six months of Bolshevik Rule

Review of key terms (add them to

Primary Quotes: (From the period)

of tsarist Russia. They

Early decrees and policies

Review of key terms (add them to

In total, 116 decrees were issued by the Bolsheviks in the

27th October - Decree on Land

27th October Decree on Peace

14th November Decrees on Workers

24th November - Decree on Peoples

December Decree on Private

Who was affected positively

The Economic situation

to this transitionary stage of socialism.

Evaluation and Analysis:

Change and Continuity

Review of key terms (add them to

Lynch: 1917 did

Evaluation and Analysis:

enforcing laws designed to keep the Bolsheviks in power by criminalising

Dissolution of the constituent assembly

Review of key terms (add them to

Pro-Bolshevik troops were brought into Petrograd to intimidate protestors,

the Constituent Assembly. Lenin

Evaluation and Analysis:

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Review of key terms (add them to

believed would be invigorated by the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The

Germany was promised three billion roubles in reparations.

Evaluation and Analysis:

Review of key terms (add them to

soldiers. Kerensky disguised himself and went into hiding.

The North-Western Army

Kolchak was executed in February 1920.

Wanted to bring Russia back in the war, and defend

socialism as a global movement. He was able to issue propaganda declaring a

Greenwood: Much was Perfect: The one factor

Evaluation and Analysis:

Why was this policy / action taken? (Crisis and response)

The Red Army

Review of key terms (add them to

The Bolsheviks controlled the central