THE RUSSIAN
CIVIL WAR
The abandonment
of the Constituent
Assembly
The Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk
1918
The
Cheka
The Civil
War 19181921
The
execution of
Tsar
Nicholas II
1918
Factors that helped
Lenin impose
Communist control in
Russia 1917-1924.
War
Communism
Success of
the New
Economic
Policy
The Kronstadt
Revolt 1921
The abandonment of the Constituent Assembly 1917
Straight after the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin
promised to hold elections for a Parliament to be
known as the Constituent Assembly.
Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party as the Communist
Party in order to win wider support. However, the
Communists only won 175 seats out of 700, not
enough for a majority.
Therefore Lenin shut down the Constituent Assembly
after only one day!
Lenin was not prepared to share power with anyone.
This was the first step in setting up a Communist
dictatorship.
The Cheka (or secret police)
In December 1917 Lenin set up a secret
police force known as the Cheka. Cheka
agents spied on the Russian people in
factories and villages.
Anyone suspected of being anti-Communist
could be arrested, tortured and executed
without a trial.
When opponents tried to assassinate Lenin
in 1918, he launched the Red Terror
campaign against his enemies. It is said
that 50,000 people were arrested and
executed in this period.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
To successfully impose Communist control in Russia, Lenin realised that
he would have to bring Russia out of the First World War. He feared that
the war might bring about an end to Communist rule.
By this time the Russian army was weakened by poor morale,
desertions and a break down in discipline. It was incapable of resisting
the Germans.
In March 1918 Russia signed a humiliating peace treaty with Germany.
Russia lost a huge amount of land in the West. This included about onesixth of the population (60 million people), three-quarters of its iron and
coal and over a quarter of the best farmland in Russia.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk came at a high price for Russia, but Lenin
knew he could not defeat Germany and his opponents in Russia at the
same time.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
Russia
Estonia
Germany
.
Latvia
Lithuania
Ukraine
Brest-Litovsk
Russian territory ceded to Germany
• Lenin’s most pressing
problem after the
November Revolution
was to deal with his
opponents, who had
mounted a full-scale
civil war.
• These opponents
were loosely called
the “Whites”, while
Lenin’s forces were
known as the “Reds”.
• Lenin’s army was able
to win this war by
1920-21.
Japanese armies
Finns
Czechs (ex-prisoners of
war)
Communist Russia
besieged during the Civil
War 1918-1921
• Petrograd
•
Moscow
Allied armies
White Russian
armies
Polish armies
The Reasons for the Bolshevik/Red victory:
•
•
•
The Reds occupied the
strategic center of the
nation; the Whites were on
the fringes.
The White opposition was
ideologically fragmented ,
including reformists,
Mensheviks, Czarists; this
wartime coalition proved to
be incompatible.
Trotsky had increased the
efficiency of the Red Army,
introducing strict military
discipline (deserters for
example were shot) and
making use of czarist
officers and their military
experience.
Every scoundrel who
incites anyone to
retreat or to desert
be shot!
Everywill
scoundrel
who incites
Leon Trotsky – founder and
commander of the Red Army
anyone to retreat or to desert
will
be shot!
Every
soldier who
throws away his rifle
Every soldier who throws away
willwill
bebeshot!
his rifle
shot!
The execution of Tsar Nicholas II
July 1918
After his abdication in March
1917, Tsar Nicholas II and his
family were arrested and sent to
Siberia.
In July 1918, the Romanovs were
in Ekaterinburg, with a White
army closing in on the town.
Local communists were worried
that the Tsar might be a rallying
point for the Whites. As a result,
Tsar Nicholas, his wife, their five
children and four attendants were
shot and bayoneted.
•
•
•
Lenin made use of Revolutionary
Terror (the Cheka – a secret
police force) to keep the citizens
in line.
They were responsible for killing
the czar and his family, including
the youngest daughter Anastasia,
in 1918.
Overall, there was a period of
strict governmental/eco. control
known as War Communism.
War Communism
To win the Civil War and impose
Communism in Russia, Lenin needed a
strong Red Army supplied with weapons
and food.
The state took control of the factories
and appointed managers to run them.
Work was hard and long, food was
rationed to only those who worked and
trade unions were banned.
To get enough food, the Cheka seized
all surplus grain from the peasants. The
peasants hid food or preferred to grow
less rather than give it away free to feed
the towns.
Drought and famine hit Russia in 1921 –
over 4 million people died.
Food?
The Kronstadt Revolt 1921
War Communism made Lenin’s government very unpopular.
Discontent amongst the peasants led to violence in the cities.
Workers went on strike, in spite of the death penalty for striking.
The most serious opposition to Lenin’s government came in March
1921. Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base near Petrograd revolted.
They accused Lenin of breaking his promise to help the workers.
Lenin ordered the Red Army to put down the revolt. This caused
20,000 casualties and the leaders of the revolt were executed.
However, the mutiny was a warning to Lenin that he might have to
relax War Communism.
• Foreign intervention (eight
western nations, notably France,
aided the Whites) promoted a
sense of nationalism that aided
the Reds. Lenin used this as a
propaganda device. The
intervention of the western
nations was based on
ideological grounds (a fear of
communism) and practical ones
(Lenin’s refusal to pay the czar’s
debts). This period is often
identified as the beginning of the
Cold War.
• By 1921, the Civil War was over,
but the Soviet land and economy
were devastated, leading Lenin
into a program of economic
reform known as the NEP. He
also re-named his nation the
USSR.
THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
• The USSR faced serious eco. issues w/
the conclusion of the wars
• W. nations refused to trade w/ them, and
Lenin was at 1st determined to apply his
Marxist principles, which failed
• In Mar. 1921 Lenin relented and intro’d
the NEP
• It was an attempt to rebuild agri. and
industry thru a free market system (it
was a pragmatic measure – Lenin
could not yet take on the peasants; it
did cause a rift w/in the Comm. Party)
– many dissidents were shipped off to
the gulags
• The NEP did work; Lenin was
presumably ready to return to Marxist
principles
• But his health deteriorated after a 1922
stroke, and Lenin died in 1924: this
created a power vacuum and a
struggle b/n Trotsky and Stalin
Success of the New Economic Policy 1921
To regain popular support, Lenin relaxed War
Communism with the New Economic Policy
(NEP). Smaller industries were returned to
private ownership and peasants could sell their
surplus on the open market. This was a return
to capitalism and competition.
Lenin hoped that NEP would give Russia ‘a
breathing space’ to get back on its feet. Most
of the Communist Party saw the need for NEP,
but some were against it.
On the whole NEP was a success. But it did
create some problems. Some peasants, the
Kulaks, became rich, while ‘Nepmen’ or
businessmen made a profit in the towns. Some
saw NEP as a betrayal of communism and
return to the old system.
•When Lenin died in 1924, he had been very
successful in imposing a communist
dictatorship in Russia.
•He had defeated all of his opponents and
established a strong communist
government. As each of the areas formerly
belonging to the Tsar came under
communist control, they were turned into
socialist republics. In 1923 these became
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR).
•But, Lenin failed to provide a clear
successor on his death. This led to four
years of bitter struggle.
Who
would
succeed
Lenin?
OR
Trotsky – Red Army
Commander and
Commisar of Foreign
Affairs
Stalin – Commisar for
Nationalities
Leon Trotsky
• intellectual, head of the
Red Army
• favoured the doctrine of
World Revolution
– felt that the USSR could
not survive as the sole
comm. state
– the USSR must therefore
seek to export rev.
– as a doctrinaire comm.,
he opposed the NEP
Josef Stalin
• favoured “Socialism in One
Country”
– the USSR should strengthen itself and
lead the comm. world by ex.
• as a pragmatist, he supported the
NEP
• experienced as a bureaucrat, he
became the Party’s General
Secretary in 1922: here he appointed
many apparatchiks (these allies
were crucial to Stalin’s rise)
• their power struggle lasted until
1928, when Stalin’s complex system
of alliances and ability w/ realpolitik
allowed him to succeed
• even Lenin’s doubts couldn’t deter
Stalin, and many involved in the
party hierarchy paid more attention
to one another than to Stalin
– in the end, Stalin prevailed over
all of them, and Trotsky was
forced into exile and eventually
murdered in Mexico City in 1940
– Stalin went on to condemn all
deviation from the party line and
proclaimed himself vozhd
• This Rev. from above saw the
emergence of totalitarianism in the
USSR
• His style of leadership was that of
an “office dictator”, very different
from Mussolini’s charismatic style
– Stalin relied on his apparatchiks
• He also created a “Cult of Lenin”
and worked to connect himself to
the fallen leader
STALIN AND THE FIVE YEAR PLANS
• the Dec. 1927 Party Congress
saw the end of the NEP
• the 5 Yr. Plans were Stalin’s own
vision – they were intended to reorg. Soviet ind./agri. and to
overhaul the eco. and catch up
w/ the West
– unrealistic production quotas
were set, and tremendous
sacrifices and ruthless methods
were used to reach them
– in agri., collectivization was
implemented – w/ the state taking
the proceeds from the collective
farms
• peasant opposition was
crushed/starved
• after some protest, the kulaks
were liquidated, starved in
order to feed urban workers
(the “terror famine”)
• by WWII, the peasants were
largely regimented
– ind./urban growth was also
stunning, but to achieve it,
sig. investment was needed
along w/ a decline in
consumption
• as people sacrificed, the
standard-of-living declined
• the plans did not emphasize
consumer goods; preference
was given to megaprojects
• workers were praised as
“heroes of Sov. labour”,
dealing w/ long hours and
horrid conditions
• living conditions also
deteriorated: overcrowding,
food and housing shortages
(and women who had gained
status following the rev. again
lost their freedoms – the
Zhenotdel was abolished)
• Stalin was able to do
this, unlike Lenin, b/c the
gov’t was firmly in place
and all threats had been
eliminated/reduced thru
state terror/propaganda
– Stalin combined
communism and
dictatorship in this time,
setting the tone for future
comm. leaders
– By 1941, the USSR was
among the top 3 eco.
powers
• Stalin’s paranoia
still wouldn’t
rest…The Great
Purges
• They began in 1934
when Stalin’s deputy
Sergei Kirov was
murdered
• Stalin ordered the
NKVD to crack down on
potential opposition –
this soon penetrated all
levels of Soviet society
• Anyone perceived as a
threat was forced to
confess in public trials
and then
executed/shipped to a
gulag
• Millions disappeared
during this time; the
party leadership and
army officer corps was
esp. affected