Learning to Lead our Lives

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Learning to Lead our Lives
Impact of the Civil War?
Skill Problem Solving
NGfL Russia 1900-1924
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What is happening in this picture?
Picture used with the kind permission of the
David King Collection, London
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Think what were the aims of Communism?
Peasants work together to farm land
Give workers control of factories
Workers to work together and control the factories
Give peasants control of land
How could Lenin achieve this?
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But Lenin and the Bolsheviks have extra problems
to deal with
Will the following problems make it easier or
harder to install Communism?
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Towns
Money was worthless and people used to barter to
buy and sell goods(barter exchange).
The government had to feed the workers living in
the cities that they controlled. People were
leaving and there had been food riots because
they were starving.
Black Markets (markets selling hard to come by
products) sprung up where people could barter.
People exchanged expensive possessions, such as
jewellery, for food
People used books and furniture for firewood,
because there was no coal.
Many workers started to think that Bolshevik rule
was worse than the Tsars! They did not believe
Socialism would improve their lives.
Lenin had to make sure that factories and
industries produced weapons that the Reds could
use in the Civil War.
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Will these problems make it easier or harder to
install Communism?
Peasants didnt want to sell their grain for
money which had no value, so many peasants
hoarded supplies.
Many peasants decided they would not harvest as
much grain anymore, so it couldnt be taken away
from them.
One commissar was killed by peasants and his
belly stuffed with grain. This showed how much
peasants were not prepared to share.
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The Civil War
Will these problems make it easier or harder to
install Communism?
The Bolsheviks went to war with the Tsar's forces
from 1918-1921
The Bolshevik Army needed weapons and other
supplies. What would happen if the workers
couldn't provide them?
The Bolshevik Army (Red Army) needed food. What
would happen if the peasants didnt give it to
them?
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What problems should Lenin deal with first?
Countryside
The Civil War
Towns
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The aims of Communism
The problems in the towns, cities and the civil
War
The November and December Decrees
The Solution War Communism!
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The November and December Decrees 1917

• Factories put under control of Workers
  Committees
• Land taken away from landlords and given to
  peasants

Which problems in Russia will be solved?
Which problems remain?
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War Communism
From 1918 the Bolsheviks called themselves
Communists. The Communist Government took control
of industry, and told factories what to produce.
Trade unions were banned and workers were not
allowed to leave the cities. The communists had a
secret police force called the Cheka. They forced
peasants to give them grain. If they thought
peasants were hoarding grain, they would brutally
punish them.. The Communists banned private
trading. Apart from the Government, no-one could
buy or sell anything.
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Exam practice using this source and your own
knowledge answer the following question
COPRU
Picture used with the kind permission of the
David King Collection, London
How useful is this source to an historian
studying the problems facing Lenin in 1917?
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War Communism Hangman
The words you choose must be to do with todays
lesson!