The Triumph of Bolshevism: Russia, 1918-29

1
The Triumph of Bolshevism Russia, 1918-29
2
Consolidation of Power, 1918

• Lacked a plan
• Used existing structures State Capitalism
• Authority existed in Moscow and Petrograd alone
• Problems-
• Industrial production 2/3 1914 levels
• Inflation rocketed
• Transport crippled
• 13m tons short of grain

3
Consolidation of Power, 1918

• Decree on Land need for food
• Decree on Workers Control
• Largely legalised what was already happening
• Vesenkha took control of economic life
• Nationalised banks and railways
• Cancelled foreign debt
• Result serious fall in production

4
Consolidation of Power, 1918

• Abolished all titles comrade became standard
  greeting
• Creation of Cheka (called GPU after 1922)
• Red Army founded
• Marriage Code gave married women equal rights
  with husbands
• Schools brought under State control

5
Consolidation of Power, 1918

• Constituent Assembly dissolved at gun-point
• Bolsheviks gained barely a ¼ of seats
• Lenin dismissed democracy as bourgeois
• Criticism from Noam Chomsky and Rosa Luxemburg
• Reasons
• Hold on power was precarious
• Lenin argued that Soviets already existed
• Lenin claimed SRs and Kadets had rigged elections

6
Consolidation of Power, 1918

• Treaty of Brest Litovsk
• WWI had been an imperial war
• Lost vital grain producing land Ukraine
• Lenin faced stiff opposition
• Allies funded Bolsheviks enemies
• Treaty null and void in Nov. 1918

7
Civil War, 1918-20

• Causes
• Dissolution of Constituent Assembly Whites
• Bolsheviks were a minority party
• Lenin welcomed a show down
• Greens (Ukrainians / Georgians) believed
  Bolsheviks were imposing Russian rule on the rest
  of the country
• Struggle for food (Petrograd bread ration reduced
  to 50 grams per day and population of city went
  from 3m to 2m migration to countryside)
• SRs attempted a coup in Moscow (2 failed
  assassination attempts on Lenin in July and
  August bullet lodged in neck)

8
Civil War, 1918-20

• 40,000 Czech troops still in Russia marching to
  Vladivostok to meet up with Allies
• SRs organised uprisings in central Russia
• White volunteer army led by General Denikin in
  Caucuses (south)
• Czech legion encouraged White army under Admiral
  Kolchak in Siberia (north)
• In Estonia, ex-Trasist General Yudenich encourage
  White resistence army (east)

9
Civil War, 1918-20

• White weaknesses
• Fought in separate detachments
• Unwilling to sacrifice individual differences
• Widely scattered geographically
• Made up of socialists, liberals and conservatives
• Only common purpose was hatred of Bolshevism
• Too reliant on overseas aid
• Whites imposed reign of terror on areas they
  controlled
• Lacked quality leaders like Trotsky

10
Civil War, 1918-20

• Reds strengths
• Controlled central Russia and maintained supply
  lines
• Controlled two major cities Moscow and Petrograd
• Controlled railway network
• Controlled industrial areas access to munitions
• Could claim that Whites were in league with
  foreign interventionists
• Had driving sense of purpose
• Brilliantly organised and led by Trotsky

11
Civil War, 1918-20

• Foreign intervention (Britain France USA
  Japan)
• After Treaty of Brest Litovsk wanted to prevent
  war supplies getting into German hands
• French especially wanted to recover Russian debt
• Occupied major ports of Murmansk, Archangel,
  Odessa and Vladivostok
• Allies wanted to prevent spread of communism,
  e.g.
• Sparticist uprising in Berlin, 1918
• Communist republic in Bavaria, 1918-19
• Hungary Bela Kun, 1918

12
Civil War, 1918-20

• Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish troops also
  occupied Russia to gain independence
• Reasons for withdrawal
• Little co-operation between the occupiers
• Threats of mutiny in French and British regiments
• War-weary
• Allies withdrew by 1920 Japan by 1922
• Lenin portrayed as saviour of nation

13
Red Terror

• Chief instrument Cheka (renamed GPU in 1922)
• Destroy counter-revolution and sabotage
• Led by Felix Dzerzhinsky (Polish intellectual
  aristocrat)
• Law unto itself answerable only to Lenin
• Granted unlimited powers of arrest, detention and
  torture
• July 1918 at Ekaterinburg murdered Romanovs
• Climate of Civil War justified the terror

14
Red Terror

• Feb 1918 Decrees authorising execution of
  Bolsheviks opponents
• May 1918 Declaration of war on peasant
  bourgeoisie
• May 1918 creation of grain requisitioning squads
• July 1918 military conscription imposed
• Feb 1919 forced labour camps created
• Dec 1919 Trotsky announced militarisation of
  labour and abolished trade unions

15
Red Army

• Created by Trotsky Lenin gave him total
  confidence
• Heavily armed train as military HQ
• Attached political commissars to army
• Death sentence for desertion
• Re-imposed ranks, titles and rigid discipline
• Enforced conscription
• Those of questionable social background used
  for backbreaking labour
• Elite of w/c troops

16
War Communism, 1918-21

• Linked to Red Terror
• Harsh economic measures adopted during Civil War
• Decree on Nationalisation all major heavy
  industries under central control
• Military needs came first and many industries
  were starved of resources
• Factories deprived of manpower due to
  conscription
• Scarcity of goods whilst government continued
  printing money led to hyperinflation. By 1920,
  rouble fell to 1 of 1914 value
• Industrial output at 30 of 1914 levels by 1921

17
War Communism, 1918-21

• Claimed Kulaks were hoarding grain, but truth was
  that they saw no point in producing grain
• Cheka sent to requisition grain
• Lenin ordered merciless suppression of Kulaks
• Results national famine
• By 1921 grain production less than 50 of 1913
  levels
• Lenin accepted foreign aid, but cancelled it by
  1923
• Even though the policy failed some communists
  supported it as being true to their values

18
Kronstadt Rising, 1921

• War Communism maintained after end of Civil War
• Severity of WC increased Bolshevik unpopularity
• Opposition even developed within the Party
• Alexandra Kollontai led a Workers Opposition
• Petrograd went on strike
• By 1921 thousands of workers crossed from
  Petrograd to Kronstadt and linked up with sailors
  and dockworkers led by Petrochenko

19
Kronstadt Rising, 1921

• Kronstadt Manifesto (inc.)
• Freedom of speech, press, assembly and for trade
  unions
• Ending of special food rations for party members
• Ending of one-party state
• Withdrawal of political commissars from factories
• Had been great supporters of Bolsheviks in 1917
• Artillery bombardment then 60,000 Red Army troops
  sent in. Savage fighting, but all workers killed
  and those who escaped were rounded up and shot
• Bolsheviks claimed that they were White agents,
  but afterwards abandoned WC.

20
New Economic Policy, 1921-28

• Serious lack of food
• Replaced force with persuasion.
• Key features
• Central economic control relaxed
• Requisitioning replaced by tax-in-kind
• Peasants allowed to sell surplus for profit
• Public markets restored
• Money reintroduced as a means of trading

21
New Economic Policy, 1921-28

• Restored mixed economy
• Lenin stressed it was a temporary concession
• State still controlled large-scale industry,
  banking and foreign trade
• Disturbed many in party such as Trotsky who
  objected to NEPmen
• Lenin introduced Ban on Factions to silence
  objections

22
New Economic Policy, 1921-28

• Bukharin converted to NEP and convinced many
  other Bolsheviks to do likewise
• Production figures suggested that policy worked,
  e.g. factory output and wages more than doubled,
  agricultural production also increased
• However, industry stagnated and urban
  unemployment remained high

23
Great Turn, 1928

• Stalins aims
• Abandoned NEP lacked capacity
• Modernisation of economy
• second revolution
• Overtake the West
• Self sufficiency
• Gosplan in charge of central planning
• Collectivisation
• Industrialisation 5 Year Plans

24
Leadership Struggle

• Lenin impressed by Stalins organisational
  ability
• By 1912 Stalin one of six key members
• Stalin helped to found Pravda
• Stalin supported the October Revolution
• Stalin was Georgian very helpful to Lenin and
  became Commissar for Nationalities during Civil
  War
• Brought him into conflict with Trotsky, Commissar
  for War

25
Leadership Struggle

• But, Stalin had offended Lenin
• Stalin had been rude in discussions with
  officials in Georgia whose support Lenin needed
• Storm of abuse against Krurskaya, Lenins wife
  called her a whore
• After this, Lenin dictated his Testament
• Accused Stalin of being rude and encouraged
  others to remove him from his positions of
  authority

26
Leadership Struggle

• Stalin lacked brilliance, but was willing to
  undertake laborious administrative work
• As government grew certain posts became more
  important. Stalins jobs
• Commissar for Nationalities appointed regional
  officials
• Liaison Officer could monitor policy and
  personnel
• Head of Workers Inspectorate oversee work of
  all departments
• General Secretary could build up personal files
  on all party members
• The indispensable link in the chain of command

27
Leadership Struggle

• Stalin was in charge of the Lenin Enrolment,
  1923-25. Crammed party with his own loyal
  supporters.
• Stalin also benefited from Ban on Factions
• Stalin very effectively capitalised on Lenins
  legacy
• Cult of Lenin
• Lenins Funeral
• Suppression of Lenins Testament

28
Leadership Struggle

• Trotsky was own worst enemy
• Brilliant, but no power base in the party
• Until 1917, Trotsky had been a Menshevik
• Sometimes arrogant and sometimes diffident
• Inhibited by his Jewishness
• Other leading Bolsheviks such as Kamenev and
  Zinoviev were determined to prevent him becoming
  leader.
• Trotsky seen as the Napoleon figure

29
Leadership Struggle

• Bureaucratisation vs party democracy
• NEP Left Communists vs Right Communists
• Permanent Revolution vs.
• Encourage worldwide revolution for w/c
• Individual nations did not matter
• To protect communism in Russia
• .Socialism in One Country
• Russia to become self-sufficient
• Survival and modernisation of Russia was the
  priority
• Invasion of Poland in 1920 showed limits of Perm.
  Rev.

30
Leadership Struggle

• Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev vs Trotsky
• 1925 Trotsky relieved of his position as
  Commissar for War Stalin could deliver the
  votes at Party Congress
• In 1927 Trotsky was exiled
• Stalin then turned on Kamenev and Zinoviev (Left)
  over the issue of the NEP. He was backed by
  Rykov, Tomsky and Bukharin (Right)

31
Leadership Struggle

• Stalin then defeated Right through Great Turn
• Stalin believed in forced modernisation through
  collectivisation and industrialisation
• The Rights ideas appeared timid by late-1920s
  and they were poorly organised and supported
  compared to Stalin
• By 1929, Stalin had emerged as supreme leader

32
Religion

• Marx opium of the people
• No place for organised religion (Orthodox Church
  Judaism Islam)
• Decree on Separation of Church and State
• Church properties confiscated
• Clergy no longer paid salaries
• Church organisations disbanded
• Religious teaching forbidden in schools
• 300 priests executed 10,000 exiled by 1924 (Show
  Trials)
• Monasteries and Churches looted and desecrated
• Propaganda campaign to ridicule the Church
• Union of the Militant Godless
• Bolshevism became the new religion, e.g Red
  Weddings

33
Women and the Family

• Wanted to free women from slavery of marriage
• Legalised divorce
• Recognised illegitimate children as full citizens
• Legalised abortion
• State responsibility for raising of children
• Helped women into work and political activity
• Alexandra Kollontai believed in free love, but
  Lenin was unimpressed by her brand of feminism
• However, policy was strongly resisted and had
  many negative side-effects, e.g abandoned
  pregnant women and children

34
The Arts

• Create new type of human being Homo
  Sovieticus
• Proletcult workers movement to create new
  Russian culture, but really led by a small elite
  (ended in 1922)
• Writers and artists would express values of new
  Soviet Russia
• Writers circles
• Amateur dramatic groups
• Art studios
• Poetry societies
• Many of these based in factories literacy
  increased 20
• Cheka (GPU) imposed strict censorship

35
Education

• Combined education and political propaganda
• Religious education replaced by communist values
  and atheism
• Schools placed under Commissariat for
  Enlightenment
• Authority of teachers and discipline reduced in
  favour of greater freedom for students
• Traditional teaching methods abandoned
• Although literacy improved, overall standards
  declined
• Youth groups Pioneers for Children and Komsomol