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How did the Bolsheviks stay in power up to 1921

(and 1990!)Context: extra-ordinary that

tiny, weak Bolsheviks managed to stay in power

Russian Rev in colour

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How did Bolsheviks stay in power?1. Good Bolshevik policies2. Good Bolshevik leaders3. Weakness of opponents4. Geographical reasons

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# 1 Good policies:What problems did the Bolsheviks

face?1. Consolidate revolution outside cities

2. Legitimise rule3. Other opposition groups4. Tsar and supporters still alive5. WWI6. Long term economic problems of

Russia(eg debts to West, starvation in cities, peasants land

shortage etc etc)What solutions do you think the Bolsheviks would choose?

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How did the Bolsheviks stay in power?

• Legitimise their rule• End WWI• Control Russia• Remove opposition

The Bolsheviks take powerThe Bolsheviks took control of the government in an almost bloodless coup between 24th-26th Oct 1917.

The first decreesPeaceLenin ends the war sends Trotsky to negotiate with Germany. Treaty of Brest-Litvosk

Established the CHEKA – State Police Force

Factories ‘Decree on Workers’ Council’All factories put under control of workers committees – ‘maintain the strictest discipline

Land – ‘Decree on Land’ Land taken from Church, Nobility etc and given to peasants. Land not taken over by the State (yet)

PressAll non -Bolshevik papers were banned

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How did Bolsheviks legitimise rule?• Constituent Assembly elections Nov 1917• Aim to elect people to write a constitution• SRs got 50%, Bolshs 24%• So Lenin abolished it when it met Jan 1918

• ? Necessary as Rev so weak• Or evidence of Lenin = anti- democratic

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How did Bolsheviks end WWI?• War continued...Vital to end it• But Brit, France etc threatened to invade if

Russia made a separate peace

• Lenin wanted immediate peace• (? German help, or thought allies would win?)

• Trotsky wanted a delay- so annoyed Germans at peace negotiations

• Finally signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 3rd March 1918

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How did Bolsheviks end WWI?Brest-Litovsk=

Russia lost• 1/3 of European Russia – including Ukraine• 45 million people• 3 billion roubles reparations

• Support of many Russians & Bolsheviks

• Lenin only survived because Germany collapsed- so got their lands back eventually

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Why did the Bolsheviks change their name?

• March 1918, changed name:• Russian Communist Party• = more inclusive

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How did Bolsheviks deal with opponents?

• Civil War 1918-20• Setting up of Cheka (secret police to replace

Okhrana)• ‘Red Terror’- executed Tsar• Prosecutions without trials• Convictions of whole classes rather than

individuals • Eg “ask him to which class he belongs… his

education… to decide the fate of the prisoner”

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How did the Bolsheviks deal with the Tsar and his family?

• moved east to Ekaterinburg • July 1918 - Lenin ordered the Cheka

to depose of the Romanovs.• = all shot • bodies dumped in mine shaft, soaked

in acid buried secretly

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Nicholas II

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Why did the civil war happen?

• Most did not accept Communists’ government.

1. Eg Tsarists, Liberals, Mensheviks, Right SRs, middle classes, peasants, minorities, nationalists, foreign gov.

2. Britain, France, USA etc

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Why did power slip away and opposition grow?

• price inflation • food shortages;• closure of Constituent Assembly,• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk• peasants now had the land,• soldiers now had peace• Nationalists broke away: Finland,

Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, Poland• Foreign governments wanted to

safeguard investments, arms, etc..

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The 3 enemiesThe Whites• Tsarists• Liberals• SRs• Mensheviks• foreigners• the peasants

The Reds• The Communists.

The Greens

• National Minorities e.g. Ukrainians and Georgians wanting independence

• 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.

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#3 Weak opponentsWhy did the Whites lose?

• scattered• not Russian• Didn’t control railways, cities, industry • Disunity & un co-ordinated = different aims• huge areas- little population• no figurehead / single leader• Peasants feared losing land they had seized in

1917• Didn’t support independence of countriesGive an example / explanation for each, and

rank to show importance

Why did the Peasants fight (Greens)?

• Famine• loss of Ukraine to Germany (grain) • March 1918 – Petrograd bread ration 50g day• Workforce shrunk by 60% & pop down from 3 to 2

million

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Why did the SRs fight?• Driven from Gov after refusing Brest-

Litovsk • – organised Moscow coup = failed• Revenge of SRs who were majority• Terrorism against Lenin – 2 attempts on

life (July & Aug)

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Why did the Czechs fight? • 40,000 Czech troops • Fought for Russia in WW1 = in order to gain

independence from Austria-Hungary• stuck after Brest-Litovsk• Went East to Vladivostok to join allies • = fighting across Trans-Siberian railway

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Leading to other resistance…• S.Rs uprisings • – established anti-Bolsh Volga ‘Republic’ in Samara.• White volunteer army (Tsarists & Kadets) led by

Denikin in Southern Russia • Siberia – White Army leader Admiral Kolchak self

proclaimed ‘Supreme Ruler of Russia’• Estonia – ex-Tsarist General Yudenich • Speed of ‘White Army’ takeover just how limited Bolsh

control was outside Petrograd and Moscow.

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Reasons for the Red victory?• Reds occupied centre

• Whites =• on edge• Different war aims

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# 2 Good Bolshevik leaders:Why did the Red leadership help them

win?• Trotsky created the Red Army from nothing • Very active leader on armoured train• used 48,000 ex-Tsarist officers to help lead it• strict discipline imposed on Red Army • ‘political commissars’ to keep them Red• Conscription• Good strategy = control railways• defeated Czechs in 1918 and Yudenich in 1919.

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Why did Reds fight fanatically?

• fighting for their lives • willing to use terror tactics • Eg threats to execute deserting

soldiers• White victory would have led to

the execution of many Reds

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How did Propaganda help Reds win?

• Posters• Film trains – to encourage

peasants

• Look at the following posters

• Many of them are famous artistically as well

• How do they encourage Russians to support the Communists?

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Propaganda and Victory for the Reds• Foreign intervention (8 western nations) = Reds • = propaganda because could blamecommunism) & and

practical ones (Lenin’s refusal to pay the Tsar’s debts).

• Left a legacy of suspicion and paranoia towards the West.

• By 1921, Civil War was over, but the Soviet land and economy were devastated, leading Lenin to introduce a programme of economic reform known as the NEP. He also re-named the country the USSR.

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#1 Good policiesHow did War Communism help

Bolsheviks to retain power?• = Communist economic policy

during Civil War 1918-21• = state control of industry.• aim =

“… destroy capitalism, feed the towns and divert most human and material resources to the front to win the Civil War.”

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Good Policies: Why was War Communism needed?

• Complete economic collapse • Food collapse because of conscription

and terror in countryside• Industry collapse because starvation,

conscription & hyperinflation (prices 100x 1917-20, train fares x 1 million)

• Failure of Bolshevik government to persuade peasants to work for them

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What did War Communism do?

• nationalised main industries.• Controlled businesses 10+ workers.• private trade abolished.• Requisition banks took grain & food

from peasants • Anyone caught “hoarding” - shot!

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Did War Communism succeed?

• Industrial production fell.• peasants hated Requisition banks &

starvation.• Agricultural output fell- no point in growing

more than minimum food• Production halved 1913-1920• = Starvation = 10 million died. (20% hungry)• Kronstadt Mutiny Feb/Mar 1921 • = army, navy rebelled- wanted more freedom

& food

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Why was the New Economic Policy needed by 1921?

• Lenin “pragmatic”• replaced War Communism when war

won• = incentive to grow food• peasant sell whatever was left after

the Reds had taken their fixed amount.

• Small businesses given freedom to buy and sell

• New rouble (Currency)

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Did NEP work?• 1923 private traders (Nepmen)

controlled half of all trade in Russia.

• 1926 industrial output was back to 1913 levels.

• Government stayed in control of larger industries.

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Lenin’s views on the NEP“…one step backwards to take two

steps forward.”

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The end• Lenin was shot

and wounded in 1918 by Fanny Kaplan.

• He never fully recovered and was ill for much of his later years.

• He died in 1924.

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Fanya Kaplan

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Lenin’s body

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Paying their last respects.

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Future: 1921-1990• = power struggle between Trotsky

and Stalin, • Stalin won• cruel dictatorship • great industrial and agricultural

advances • but at a huge price in human life

and misery ? 40 million• Eg Ukraine terror famine 1937- • 6 million dead

What factors best explain the victory of the Reds in the Civil War?

• Geographical advantages - Central area, short supply lines, most industry, most population, good communications

• Good leadership- Trotsky Lenin - Lenin- Brest-Litovsk treaty, Trotsky, tactics- railways, Propaganda, Red army: Tsar officers, political commissars, discipline, peasant support through land, War Communism

• Failures of the whites - many leaders, in-disciplined, different aims, far apart, peasants opposed -Brit, Fr, USA- just finished WWI

• Unity of reds - likely to die if captured, propaganda – fear of West, Terror Tactics

• Luck - surrender of Germany 191846

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Why did the Reds win?Explain- use info sheets to make a joint mind-

map to explain these:• Railways• Concentrated• Industrial• Leaders• United• Peasants• Whites• War Communism• Terror• Foreigners