CIVIL WAR 1918-1921

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND COMMUNISM 3

THE BOLSHEVIC REVOLUTION IN OTHER COUNTRIES

A wave of protests arose in Germany

- January 1919 the German socialdemocrats

asked for help from the Freikorps to surpress the workers revolution in

Berlin.

Karl Liebknecht + Rosa Luxemburgo,

leaders of the spartakists were

killed.

1917, When the decree

of nations was declared,

Finland and Poland both proclaimed independence.

The revolution was surpressed in March

1918. During the Civil War,

the white terror with German help left 35 000 dead.

Revolución en HungríaBela Kin inaugrated the Soviet Republic of Hungary but it only lasted 133 days.

There were riots and insurrections in Italy between 1919 and 1920.

In France, UK and USA, there was

a wave of protests and strikes but without revolution.

IWW Bomb in Chicago 1918

London

GENERAL SITUATION OF RUSSIA AT THE END OF WW1

After the Octobre revolution the paries tried to infiltate the soviets. Slowly but surely the Bolshevics overcame and eliminated all

opposing factions.

Soviet assembly

Industrial production

was stalled by the war, the stirkes

and lockouts.

In 1918 the soviets organised forced requisitions

of food from the farms for the cities. They were often violent robberies.

Hundreds of stikers were shot. The trade unions were purged and made more pro-Bolshevic. The coops were transformed .

They all became instruments of the system.

The economic situation suffered with the invasion of the Ukraine

by the Germans, and after the embargo imposed on Russia by her enemies, USA, UK, Frnace, Germany and Japan.

War Communism:

1)   Production should be run by the state. Private ownership should be kept to the minimum. Private houses were to be confiscated by the state.

2)   State control was to be granted over the labour of every citizen. Once a military army had served its purpose, it would become a labour army.

3)   The state should produce everything in its own undertakings. The state tried to control the activities of millions of peasants.

4)   Extreme centralisation was introduced.

5)   The state attempted to become the soul distributor as well as the sole producer

6)   War Communism attempted to abolish money as a means of exchange

The economy was in ruins, and the

transport system destroyed.

The black marked and barter system

flourished. The system unjustly

favoured soldiers and burocrats.

COMMUNIST WAR ECONOMY

In order to fight the war, Lenin’s government

nationalized almost all the commerce,

banks and industry and craftmanship.

The houses of the bourgeois were collectivized.

The begining of

the civil war

The All Russian Constituent Assembly

was a constitutional body convened in Russia after the

October Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4

p.m. to 5 a.m., 18–19 January 1918, whereupon it was dissolved by the

All-Russian Central Executive Committee

, making the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets the new governing

body of Russia.

Russian Constituent Assembly

Was elected Nov 1917The Bolshevics only received

25% of votes and were a minority.

With 175 of the 707 deputies.

The majority was Social-revolutionary, having been

elected by the rural population.

Víktor Chernov, social-revolucionary, was elected president of the assembly,

with 246 votes over 151 of Mariya Spiridónova, Social-revolucionary of the left, supported by the Bolchevics.

The Constitutional Assembly was disolved by the Red Guard after its first meeting 19 jan 1918.

The majority of the population were indifferent, yet 20 protesters were killed.

Some thought the Bolshevic seizure of control was illegal, and 50 abandoned the congress.

These revolutionary socialists and menchevics created the «Committee for the Salvation of the fatherland and the

revolution”.

Máximo Gorki Wrote on 7 Dec 1917 –

the Bolshevics

have positioned

themselves in the Congress

of Soviets taking power

for themselves not for the soviets. ---

this is an olgarchy

republic of some

commisars of the people.

Thousands of cadetes and officials like Kornílov, fled and reunited in the Don Republic,

forming the Volunteer army, led by the tzarist general Mijaíl Alexéyev.

They cruelly surpressed the workers’ Rising of Rostov 26 nov 1917

and Taganrog 2 jan 1918., but were dispersed by the Red Guards.

GeneralMijaíl

Alexeyev

Bolshevic SurpressionSeven newspapers were forbidden in the capital

The leftist social-revolutionary paper disappeared in July 1918

- the cadete leaders, heading the resistance, were arrested- the legal Menshevic paper disappeared in 1919- and the anarchists newspaper was ended in 1921

.

Beginnings of the

Bolshevic Regime.

There was a series

of terrorist attacks against the Bolshevic leaders, like

Moiséi Uritski, assasinated 30 August,

1918

WHITE TERROR

Lenin, was badly injured when shot by Fanya Kaplan. She was quickly executed just afterwards.

Fania

White army burns crops

White army assisted by the Allies

White army about to shoot a red army soldier

Killings by Whites in Izhevsk 1918

The whites encouraged the peasants to rebel against the red army

Trotsky with the Red Army

Army Uniforms

Lenin and the Politburo dicided in secret to execute the imperial family.

This was done on 17 july 1918 in Ekaterimburgo

The orthodox church, which had taken the side of the the anti Bolshevic reaccionaries suffered detentions, executions,

expoliations and destruction in an attempt ot erradicate their former power, and authority and even the religious faith. About 20,000 pirests were killed between 1917-

1918.

About 140 000 people died as a result of the Red TerrorMenchevics, anarchists, social-revolutionaries,

liberals and democrats, whites and nationalists…..

even pacifists like Tolstoy, Sionists, Bundists, etc. along with many others whose social background or maginality aroused suspicion were eliminated.

THE CHEKA"The All-Russian

Emergency Commission for

Combating Counter-Revolution

and Sabotage“was the first of a

succession of Soviet state security

organizations.

It was created on December 20, 1917, after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin,

and was subsequently led

by Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish aristocrat turned communist.

The Cheka committee of 5, 3 bolshevics and 2 socio-revolutionaries, directed by Feliks Dzerzhinski. Their enemies included the kadetes,

the social-revolutionaries of the right, reporters, strikers….etc.

In 1921 the Troops for the Internal Defense of

the Republic (a branch of the

Cheka) numbered at least 200,000.

These troops - policed labor camps; -ran the Gulag system;

- conducted requisitions

of food; - subjected political opponents to secret arrest, detention,

torture and summary execution;

- and put down rebellions and riots by workers or peasants, and mutinies in the

- desertion-plagued Red Army.

When the Germans counter attacked in 1918 the leftist social revolutionaries of Moscow

led an insrurrection but were repressed.

The Social-revolutionary

Party of the Left was surpressed

PresidentMariya Spiridónova

Founded19 de noviembre

Dissolvedoctubre de 1918 (last congress)

IdeologyMarxismPopulism

PositionExtreme leftMariya con otras terroristas

In the first 6 months of 1918 the Cheka made 22 executions.

In the latter 6 months the made 6000 executions.

27 march 1918, the Cheka persecuted the press of the opposition increasing the censorship.

11 – 12 April, they attacked the anarchists in Moscow. 1000 men stormed their headquarters arresting 520 and executing 25 others.

Nestro Majnó

Serguei Nechayev

Mijkail Bakunin

ANARCHISTS

In 1918, the CHEKA closed 205 socialist newspapersand dozens of Soviets of the socialrevolutionaries and Menshevics,

which had been legally elected. 14 june1918, the Menchevics and leftist social-revolutionaries

were expelled from the All Russian Committee of Soviets.This was now comprised solely of Bolshevics.

16 july, the newspaper of Máximo Gorki, New Life, was prohibited by the political police

Máximo Gorki

In retalliation for the assassination of Bolshevic leader Vladímir Volodarski,

800 worker leaders were arrested in Petrograd in two days and their soviet was dissolved.

DECLARACIONES DE INDEPENDENCIA Y AYUDA EXTRANJERA

In the Ucraine, the Rada (council) of Kiev gave charge of the army

to Symon Petlyura, a socialist nationalist, and broke with Moscow after the October revolution

Petlyura

9 feb 1918, the popular republic of Ucraine

signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

by which the Central powers recognized

the independence of Ukraine.

3 mar 1918, the Bolchevics signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk to end the war

But they lost 26 % of her population- 27 % of her cultivated territory

- 75 % of her steel and iron production.

After the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Triple Entente countries decreed an embargo on Russia and sent troops to stop a German victory on the East front.

-The japanese and later USA intervened in Vladivostok in April 1918,

-the British landed in Múrmansk y Arjángelsk.

- The Turcos crossed the Cáucasous and seiged Bakú,

- despite the Treaty, the Germans colaborated with the revolution in Finland and renewed military operations in the Baltics and Ucrania,

-In May the Republics of the Caucasus - Georgia, Armenia y Azerbaiyán – also proclaimed independence

In April + May, the Checoslovac Legion refused to dissolve, and rebelled against the Bolchevics.

They dominated the Ural Mountain region and Transiberia. They also possessed all the gold of the Russian imperial bank.

They supprorted the social –revolutionaries who formed an independent governement in Samara.

In May the White army advanced throughout the country especially in the Zone of the Don River.

Krasnov was the leader of the Cossack, allied to General Denikin, and in Siberia with Admiral Kolchak,

who installed the tzarist authority in Omsk.

Kolchak’s attack.

The opposition to the Bolshevics comprised of social-revolutionaries,

of the committee of ex-constituents, Menchevics, and even including the Anarchists, who dominated the Ukraine led by Manjó,

never dominated the situation. The Bolshevics took control over the revolution

by force and repression.

Nestor Manjó

The Red Army controlled only a small territory

the size of Moscow, but had better discipline

and organization.

They controlled both capitals

Moscow and Petrograd

and the best roads

and railroads.

The Whites of Kolchak, Yudénich, Denikin + Wrangel

were divided and unable to

coordinate their

attacks.

KOLCHAK YUDÑENICH

DENIKIN

WRANGEL

Leaders in the Civil War

The White Army and Petlyura

did pogroms or systematic persecutions against the

Jews

There were about 150 000 killed

and many violated robbed and vandalised.

In the Ukraine, in 1920 the Red Army turned on their old allies, the Anarchists of Néstor Majnó.

In 1920 Poland invaded Russia to push their border beyong the Curzon line.

The Red Army counter attacked. They hoped to take Warsaw and open the way to Berlin to spread the revolution there.

On 15 August 1920, the Miracle of the Vistula helped general Piłsudski stop the invasion.

The Menchevics won the election

in Georgia, proclaimed

independence and formed a

government with international recognition

Between 1920 + 1922,

The Red Army invaded

Central AsiaArmenia, Georgia

and Mongolia,

After the defeat of the Whites, there was a wave of Peasant uprisings.

Many farm workers were killed and tortured.

The Green army

was comprised of peasants who refused conscription

and confiscation of their produce

by both the Red

and White Armies.

The reply of the Red Army to the uprising at Tanbow

was merciless. Hundreds of town populations were

deported, thousands of rebels were shot,

women and children were kidnapped and killed.

GrigoryKatovsky

Even chemical

warfare was used by Mijaíl

Tujachevski.

Amid confusion and chaos, the Russian Civil War desintegrated the state and society.

The Bolshevic victory left Russia ruined and exhausted, and faced with the task of reconstrction of the State

under the One party without rivals, nor enemies, and with absolute power.

Propaganda flags and

posters