NEP - greater importance in introduction

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The Kronstadt Rising - March 1921 - What was it?

  • 10,000 sailors mutinied at Kronstadt naval base - centered on two battleships with revolutionary pedigrees, the 'Petropavlosk' and 'Sevastopol' - frozen in the ice of Kronstadt harbour 
  • Published a 15-point manifesto of political demands (Petropavlovsk Revolution) condemning Bolsheviks of abuses of power e.g. new elections to the soviet, civil rights ( freedom of speech), called for an end to Communist dictatorship/ special privileges enjoyed by Bolsheviks, trade union rights, legislation of other socialist parties.
  • The sailors sympathised with Petrograd workers 
  • The short-lived uprising had a deep if ambivalent impact on the soviet rule
  • Happened during X Party Congress: Crucial factor in persuading the party to accept NEP
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Kronstadt Uprising - Factors to consider

  • Bolshevik response: Trotsky ordered General Tukachevsky to crush the uprising with Red Army, 60,000 red troops needed (Armed & difficult) -> 10,000 killed; captured rebels, who were shot or sent to first Soviet concentration camp. 
  • Worrying aspect for Lenin: Showed the government could not continue with the policy of war communism any longer; previously they had been ardent supporters of the Bolsheviks 
  • Kronstadt sailors played a key role in Bolshevik takeover (Oct 1917) so 1. This was highly embarrassing and 2. it proves disillusionment 

Lenin -> " The flash that lit up reality more than anything else"

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Peasant Unrest - 1920/21 - What was it ?

  • Major revolts across the countryside by peasants
  • Tambov Region 1920-21 - Army of 20,000 - Led by Alexander Antonov (SR)
  • Caused by 1920 drought, poor harvests, no reserves for grain, requisitioning brigades arrived to take what little they had (war communism ) 
  • Poor harvest (starvation ) + high grain requestioning (trigger) + whites beaten ( whites victory no longer likely) 
  • Famine in countryside -> 5 million died ( financial aid from US supplies ) 
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Peasant Unrest - Factors to Consider

  • Bolshevik response: Red Army sent in, used vicious tactics of mass arrests, deportations and executions; whole families were taken hostage and their houses burnt to the grounds 

Worrying aspect for Lenin:

  • Large parts of the country effectively out of the authorities' control
  • made food supplies problems worse - caused food crisis in towns
  • railways disrupted
  • hard to crush them ( difficulty restoring order) - Bolshevik officials murdered and Red Army overstretched -> serious danger to the regime 

Villages that supported the Reds were rewarded with salt - a vital commodity because it was needed for food preservation - and manufactured goods, and fed propaganda about the benefits that the NEP would bring them. 

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Urban Strikes - What was it?

  • Severe winter of 1920-21 in the cities/workers strikes 1921
  •  Demands for ‘Soviets without Communists’
  •  Renewed support for other parties

Caused by:

  • war communism
  • Bread ration cut by 1/3 (22nd Jan 1921- trigger) 
  • angry about the loss of trade union rights
  • militarised factories worse than tsarist prison camps (heavy discipline, punishment)
  • anger about bribery/corruption in the Bolshevik party

In the towns, the Civil War brought industry almost to a standstill. The towns emptied, Petrograd losing nearly three-quarters of its population between 1918 and 1920.

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Urban Strikes - Factors to Consider

  • Bolshevik response: Jan 1921 Martial Law (military carry out justice) declared in Moscow & Petrograd– demonstrations broken up by Cheka and special troops

Most worrying aspect for Lenin:

  • Loss of main support for Bolsheviks 
  • workers had control 
  • Urban protests might develop into revolutionary unrest 
  • Workers had  to be killed to restore order
  • Strikers had the sympathy of Kronstadt sailors and the soldiers - refused to put fire on crowds   -> fear of possible mutiny 
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Internal Divisions - What was it?

Factions opposing the party leadership (1920-21) 

  • Democratic Centralists (DC): Dislike the growing power of bureaucracy 
  • Workers Opposition (WO): Formed by two prominent Bolsheviks Alexander Shlyapikov and Alandra Kollontai within the party itself - disliked the use of single mangers; state control of trade union; militarised factories ; lack of worker control
  • - BOTH wanted more influence for ordinary party members 

Caused by:

  • accused party leaders of losing touch with the proletariat
  • Criticized Trotsky's plan to intensify war communism 
  • Wanted workers to be given more control 
  • End to single managers + end to militarlised labour 
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Internal Divisions - Factors to consider

Bolshevik response:

  • Banned all factions (1921) and the workers' opposition was dissolved
  • Lenin argued at the X party congress that factions weakened the party internally 

Worrying aspect for Lenin:

  • Saw factions within the party as dangerous, internal opposition -> division, prospects of splits
  • Encouraging urban strikes and Kronstadt revolt 
  • Shlyapnikov and Kollontai were commissars within the government (a great deal of influence which extended to workers on streets and sailors at Kronstadt - their opposition encouraged strikes on the streets)
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Lenins Aims / Motives for NEP

  • End unrest in the countryside and secure the food supply
  • Stimulate the economy and raise living standards
  • Thus, decrease political opposition to Bolshevik rule

Motives for the NEP:

  • By 1921, peasants were clamouring for something ‘new’ to resolve hardships by both the First World War and the Civil War
  • Debatable as to how fair Lenin viewed War Communism as a short-term emergency measure, he was quick to change tack and replaced it with his NEP
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Economic problems / Party Support

Economic Problems faced by the Bolsheviks in 1921:

  • Famine in countryside -> 5 million died (financial aid from US supplies), unreasonably high grain requisitioning)
  • Decrease in urban population -> food shortages, disease
  • The collapse of the transport network
  • Whole industry shutting down and collapsing -> Inflation, money became worthless
  • Grain production and food supply plummeting -> climate, subsistence farming (only growing for themselves), unreasonably high grain requisitioning

Why did the Party Support the introduction of the NEP?

  • The economic crisis and political unrest -> esp. in the countryside
  • The shock of the Kronstadt rebellion
  • Lenin promised to keep control of the ‘commanding heights of the economy
  • Lenin promised it was only a temporary retreat from socialism
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