LENIN’S POLICIES FROM
1918 -1924
Origins of the Civil War
Takeover of Lenin and the decrees
Led to depopulation of the cities,
Widespread famine and a drop in
living standards
Fear of workers’ revolutions
spreading to Europe
Political opposition to Communism
The Bolsheviks
controlled the
heartland of
Russia and
faced attacks
on all sides.
The capital was
moved to
Moscow and
key Bolsheviks
surrounded
themselves
with
bodyguards.
M
Conservative
Generals led
the White
Armies in
attacks and
battles
against the
Red Army.
• The Ukraine, the Poles and Cossacks wanted
independence.
• Britain, France, Japan and Czechoslovakia
supported the Whites.
• The Red Armies faced a crisis and Lenin and
Trotsky were forced to introduce harsh policies
to keep the revolutionary army supplied.
• The White Armies also requisitioned supplies.
Trotsky and the Red Army
Trotsky formed the Red Army from
conscripts, Bolsheviks and antitsarist soldiers.
To horse, Proletarian!
This Civil war poster by Victor Deni depicts Trotsky as Saint George
slaying the counter-revolutionary dragon. Using Christian imagery and
mythology to present a revolutionary message was common in the
Soviet propaganda.
http://www.fbuch.com/posters.htm
WAR COMMUNISM
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Forced requisitioning of agricultural produce
Strict price controls on agricultural produce
State monopoly on grain purchases
Near nationalisation of manufacturing industries
Nationalisation of retailing
Forced labour for civilians and soldiers
Money based trade replaced by barter due to
hyperinflation. Money became worthless.
Food supply crisis
• WHY?
Poor infrastructure and transport
White Terror
Peasant resistance
Disruption caused
by WWI and the
Civil War.
Kulak resistance
Red Terror
Bolshevik propaganda posters
"The workers and the peasants
are finishing off the Polish
gentry and the barons, but the
workers on the home
front also have not forgotten
about help to the peasant
economy. Long live
the union of the workers and
peasants!" At the bottom:
"Week of the Peasant."
(From N. I. Baburina, ed., The Soviet
Political Poster, 19171980, from the USSR Lenin Library
Collection [Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1985], plate 18.)
"Without a saw, axe, or nails
you cannot build a home.
These tools are made by the
worker, and he has to
be fed.“
(From N. I. Baburina, ed., The
Soviet Political Poster, 19171980, from the USSR Lenin
Library Collection
[Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1985], plate 21.)
Propaganda used by the White
Army
This poster depicts Trotsky as a
‘red skinned demon like
caricature’ in this poster. The
depiction attempts to appeal to
anti-Semitism and Chinese
soldiers (below, wearing braids
and blue and gold uniforms).
The Bread War
• The Bolsheviks waged a civil war against
the peasants for grain.
• Hoarding and black markets arose
• The Cheka and Food Patrols terrorised
peasants.
Shortages became
more widespread.
LENIN: "Merciless war against the
kulaks! Death to them."
• Lenin in reality despised the peasantry as ‘petty
bourgeoisie’ who were against forced
collectivisation of land.
• He favoured the interests of the working class
although trade unions and strikes in the cities
and towns were also banned.
• The Bolsheviks began a ‘class war’ against the
‘enemies of the State’ while the war raged
against the ‘capitalist invaders’.
The Red Terror
• Brutality increased as uncooperative
peasants refused to hand over all their
grain.
• Grain had to be sold to the State at fixed
prices.
• Resisting peasants were branded ‘kulaks’
and were targeted.
Zinoviev 1918
• “We are very well aware that we cannot carry
through the proletarian revolution without
crushing the village kulaks and without
annihilating them psychologically and, if
necessary, physically. . . . The revolution in the
village should take the kulak by the throat and
strangle him according to all the rules of soviet
art; it is precisely for this that we need a
genuine, operative worker-peasant machine for
strangling kulaks."
www.gmu.edu
Consequences
PRODUCTION OF GRAIN
1913
80 MILLION TONS
1921
37.6 MILLION TONS
INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT (millions of tons)
1913
Victims of famine
in the Volga
region, 1921.
29 MILLION
RUSSIANS
EXPERIENCED
FAMINE. 5 MILLION
DIED
Coal
29
1921
9
Oil
9.2
3.8
Iron
4.2
0.1
Steel
4.3
0.2
Sugar
1.3
0.05
Elec (in million kWh) 2039
520
Concentration camps – The Gulag
• “In April 1919, following Dzerzhinsky’s recommendation and with
Lenin’s approval, the Soviet government ordered the establishment
of a network of concentration camps, at least one per province, the
first of its kind in history, which served as a model and inspiration to
Hitler and his Nazis and was later to become infamous as the
GULAG. By 1923 the number of these camps had reached 315.”
(Warren H. Carroll, The Rise and Fall of the Communist Revolution,
p. 142)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote
The Gulag Archipelago about
his experiences..
A man who froze to death
THE KRONSTADT REBELLION
1921
THE FIRST
OPEN
REBELLION
AGAINST THE
COMMUNIST
REGIME.
The fortress and naval base
at Kronstadt
Alarm bells for the Communists!
• Kronstadt sailors sympathised with the
striking workers and the victims of War
Communism.
• Drew up a 15 point petition including free
elections to the soviets and freedom of the
press.
• Held a mass meeting of 15 000 people to
discuss frustrations with Lenin’s regime.
Course of events
• Elected a committee to lead rebellion.
• Adopted the 1917 slogan “All power to the
soviets- not to parties.”
• Word got out of a “Third Revolution”
• Lenin issued an ultimatum but the rebels
continued with a peaceful revolt.
• The Bolsheviks attacked the fortress and
after 10 days the revolt was crushed.
•
•
•
•
10 000 of Lenin’s troops died
4 000 rebels deported to labour camps
74 leaders publicly shot
8 000 soldiers, sailors and people escaped
to Finland.
• Families of the rebels either killed or
deported to Siberia.
Call in the Red Army, the Cheka
and Trotsky.
• The sea was frozen and the Red Army
attacked with machine guns ready.
• The Cheka kept back and shot any
soldiers who refused to attack.
THREAT OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION
AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
MADE LENIN INTRODUCE
THE
NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
TO SAVE THE REVOLUTION.
The New Economic Policy 19211924
•
-
An economic policy that was:
pragmatic
market-related
recovery measure
compromise with some capitalistic
measures
- intended to be an interim measure
- NOT aimed at abandoning Communism.
Measures
• Limited private ownership in agriculture
and industry – surpluses could be sold for
profit. A grain tax was introduced.
• Small industries could employ up to 20
workers but NEPMEN lost their right to
vote.
• Kulaks could hire labour and lease land.
• Agricultural production increased
Encourage agricultural production by
abolishing food requisitioning and price
controls. Surpluses could be sold on the
open market.
Create an interdependence between the
countryside and the urban areas.
The Communists still controlled the
commanding heights of the economy –
banking, shipping, large industrial plants
and foreign trade.
Collectivisation was relaxed.
"From the NEP Russia will come
the socialist Russia."
An assessment of the NEP
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
1924-1928 economic
growth
Unemployment not
solved
More stability
experienced
Prices still too high for
peasants
Electrification of Russia
Classes were
reintroduced
Some peasants e.g.
kulaks became wealthy
Many peasants still
farmed with backward
equipment.
Class distinction led to
Many people were angry
discrimination and a lack about personal gain of
of unity.
Nepmen and Kulaks.
By 1926 economy had
reached pre-WW I
levels.
Food supply still a
problem; methods not
socialistic enough.
Lenin’s death
Lenin suffered four strokes and
died in 1924.
His brain was removed to study
the origins of his ‘genius’.
His body was embalmed and
placed on permanent exhibition
in the Lenin Mausoleum in
Moscow.
Petrograd was
renamed Leningrad in
his honour.
Despite requesting no memorials
or statues in his honour, many
were erected to honour him.