Defending the Bolshevik Revolution

• SRs controlled the Assembly due to winning the November election
• Wouldn't agree to Lenin's demands, so Red guard were sent in to close it after a day

• Actions unpopular among many Russians
• Workers- were happy, as they felt the SOVARKOM represented them
• Issued decree on workers control which meant workers controlled all aspects of production
• Decreed on maximum 8 hour day

German's demands:

• Baltic states which is included Latvia, Lithunia and Estonia
• They wanted Poland
• The Ukraine, which was very important for agriculture

• Lenin forced the peace by saying he will step down
• He lost the support if the left SRs

What it meant for Russia?

• 52% of arable land lost
• 26% of its railway stations 
• 33%of factories
• 75% of coal and iron ore mines

• At the start they closed right wing papers. Also the kadets were exiled in November 1917
• December 1917, Lenin authorised the arrest of right wing SRs and right wing Mensheviks
• In April 1918, the Bolsheviks expelled the SRs

• During civil war they were there to protect communist rule in areas held by communists

- Help requisition grain

- Did loads to oponnents and closed newspapers

• Began at the end of August 1918, as someone tried to assainate Lenin
• By september 15,000 people were executed. Between 1918-1921 death tolls vary from 50,000 to 3 million
• Support for the Bolsheviks diminished, as the new gov relied on fear

How did the Cheka transform politics:

• Removing press freedom 
• Removed freedom of speech
• Also removed opposition groups

• Nationalism of industry

The Vesenkha controlled nationalised industries:

• Re-establish worker discipline by offering higher pay to productive workers
• Factories were now under control of high paid specialists
• Co-ordinate economic production to meet the need of the new society

Food dictatorship

• There was grain requisitioning- Cheka squads were authorised to seize grain and other food from peasants
• There was also rationing- where the supply commisserists rationed the seized food. The largest rations went to workers and soldiers

Labour discipline

• 1918 working day was extended to 11 hours. In 1919 work was made compulsory for all able bodied people between 16 and 50 years of age
• Abolition of markets

• Lack of money was met with printing more caused hyper inflation and payment in rations
• Private trade was illegal

• Lack of money was met with printing more money which lead to hyper inflation, meaning workers were paid in things like rations
• Private trade was illegal

Everything was nationalised

• This policy destroyed any incentives to work
• By 1920 there was famine in the countryside, and workers fled the towns in search of food
• Work force fell from 2.6 million in 1917 to 1.2 million in early 1921

• Members of the communist party were not allowed to form groups that were independent from Lenin's control

• Lenin supported democratic centralism, which meant that any other politcal party was banned 

• From Autumn 1920, peasants led by Alexandra Anotov began a rebellion against communism grain requisitioning and Cheka brutality
• By January 1921 he had a force of 50,000

Kronsdat mutiny

• Sailors in this city's naval base rebelled against communist brutallity and demanded a few reforms:
• An immediate and fair election of new soviets
• All anarchist, menshevik and SR politcal prisoners released
• A restoration of freedom of speech and press
• Destroy the Cheka
• End to War Communism and to also end politcal domination of communists

• In mid-march the Red army had crushed the Kronstadt uprising. 60,000 troops and members of the cheka killed or injured 5000 mutineers 
• Tukhachevski was also dispatched to Tambov and the rebellion. In may he deported 100,000 people to labour camps and attacked peasant villages with poison gas

• Farming was now left to the free market. Grain requisitioning ended and was replaced with a tax
• Small factories and work shops were denationalised and allowed to trade freely
• Large factories remained nationalised to keep output high
• Money was reintroduced

• Farming was now left to the free market. Grain requisitioning ended and was replaced with a tax
• Small factories and work shops were denationalised and allowed to trade freely
• Large factories remained nationalised to keep output high
• Money was reintroduced

• This led to political and economic stability. However, it didn't lead to rapid industrial growth, nor was it very popular wit the party
• End of grain requisitioning was very popular among peasants and famine ended,which helped farming to revive
• There was industrial growth, but any recovery was going to be very slow

• The reds were the communist forces
• The whites were the Liberals, Tsarists or those who favoured a military dictatorship
• The greens associated with the left SRs or anarchist groups. They fought for autonary of local groups of peasants
• Nationalists also fought to free their homelands from Russian domination

• Reds strenght-  They controlled the most densly populated areas which contained a total of around 70 million people
• Controlled the majority of industrial regions and the main rail lines

• Whites controlled- only controlled around 20 million people 
• Few factories so struggled to produce many munitions
• Harder to coordinate as they were far east and south

• Greens- These people only controlled a small area in Ukraine

• March 1918 Lenin reformed the army:
• Democratic control was established
• Trostky put Tsarist generals back in control, and had dual control of battalions

• Trostky's role- He was loyal to Lenin and an effective leader of army
• Used an armoured train train to visit and support areas under threat
• Trotsky deployed skillful tatics

• From the start of the October Revolution Lenin promised the decleration of rights of the people of russia, which guranteed that all national minorities in Russia could have self determination

• Lenin did not fulfill this promise and so they had to try and gain freedom in otherways, such as fighting against him in the civil war

• Whites were too spread out;
• Admiral Kolchak led reactionary forces in Siberia
• General Yudenich led white forces in the North East
• Denikin and Wrangle's forces were based in the North

• Struggled to coordinate attacks
• Lacked in a unified command structure and stratergy

• The red army attacked the attempt to form a democratic socialist republic

• 1922 Dzerzhinsky organised the trials of SRs sentencing them to death, but most were imprisoned

• Many Russians put whites and Tsarism together
• Some believed whites were unpatriotic
• The whites were going to keep the empire together
• They wanted to remove democracy 
• Leading whites wanted peasants to lose land

• Trying to change the gov hoping it will enter the war again
• Didn't want munitions in Russia to be captured by the Germans
• France wanted Russia to repay its debts, Britain wanted to stop communism
• Japanese occupied parts of siberia,because they saw Russia's weaknesses 

• Allied troops occupied strategic parts including murmansk in Artic, archande on the White Sea and Odessa on Black Sea
• In 1918, British troops occupied part of centeral Asia
  
• In April 1918, Japanese troops captured the part of Vladivostok
• In 1918 there were around 200,000 allied troops in Russia, only for a defensive role
• Economic - British sent around £100 million worth of supplies to the whites
• French agreed to loans of money if the whites agreed to repay it after the civil war
• US gave $50 million dolars intrest free loans and $77 million worth of aid

• The intervention didn't really present any major problems for the gov
• Once war had finished allied forces stopped sending aid to Russia for the Whites

• Communists could use the intervention as a propaganda tool. Show the allies attacking mother Russia

• Intervention from the west was hampered by the war weariness of the pubic and the soldiers
• Very little support from any allie countries for another long military campaign
• Weren't willing troops to fight in Russia:
• Working class troops sympathised with the communists
• No reason to Support Tsarists and landowners

• When Lenin had died in Jan 1924, he had managed to cause famine with his policies and create a brutal civil war

• Lenin had succeded in his primary goal and seized communist power and retained power over Russia