Unit 1: HOW DID THE BOLSHEVIKS ESTABLISH A ONE-PARTY STATE BETWEEN 1917 AND 1924? Flashcards
What was life like for people in Russia at the start of the 1900s?
Background information
Over 85% of the population were peasants who had few rights, they were legally tide to their home village and forced to work for the landowners without pay - instead they were given poor housing which were cramped and had to grow their own food.
What did the Emancipation Act 1861 do?
Background information
The emancipation act ended serfdom, but life for peasants did not improve, it also made the ex-serfs payback the government for their freedom through tax known as redemption payments.
What was farming like at the start of the 1900s?
Background information
Most peasants farmed land, but the farming techniques were outdated and slow.
When famine happened in 1901, the government still made peasants give up some grain to sell abroad for money.
What was it like to work in Russia at the start of the 1900s?
Background information
Russia was starting to industrialise,
so people started to move to towns and cities causing overcrowding, some were forced to sleep in factories where they worked.
Working conditions were terrible
trade unions were banned so there was little to protect the pay and safety of workers.
How did World War One impact the economy?
Background information
There were shortages of raw materials so weapons and supplies for the army could not be produced.
The railway system was underdeveloped and had been taken over for the war effort so it could no longer be used to get supplies to cities causing shortages.
In the countryside, millions of peasant farmers had been conscripted into the army so there was not enough people to grow food making food prices rise quickly.
What happened on the 24th of October 1917?
Background information
The October revolution, where the armed Bolsheviks stormed the winter palace which led to their takeover of the government.
What were the positive impacts of the revolution?
Lenin dismissed the constituent assembly and the old Duma, and declared the dictatorship of the proletariat (which was really, the dictatorship of lenin).
There was a huge campaign to teach everyone to read, and learn about communism.
Women’s rights improved. Childcare was freely provided, and divorce and abortion was legalised.
Lots more factories were built in an effort to improve Russia’s development which created jobs for many people who then had benefits of an 8 hour day, as well as unemployment pay and pensions, but the working conditions were often unsafe.
There were new programmes to build improved housing. This meant that everyone had somewhere to live, although some of the houses were poorly constructed.
What were the negative impacts of the revolution?
The cheka was the secret police formed in December 1917 to deal with counter-revolution by arresting, torturing and killing anybody who tried to destroy the communist state. However, it was soon operating outside the law when implementing Bolshevik terror.
Lenin used the gulag, a network of prison cramps, for criminal and political prisoners. Prisoners faced harsh conditions and hard labour.
Countries such as Britain sent large sums of money to help the Tsar’s supporters fight the Bolsheviks. This made the USSR suspicious of the West for years to come.
The Russian economy dropped, causing some skilled workers to flee the country. This meant that, for a while, only essential items were available, and luxury goods could not be bought.
What type of government system did the Bolsheviks want?
The Bolsheviks wanted a democratic system that would rule on behalf of the people, for the people, by establishing a one-party state where all other political groups were banned. Communist rule under the Bolsheviks was to be authoritarian, highly centralised and supplemented by heavy use of terror.
What were the difficulties the Bolsheviks faced when securing power?
Although the Bolsheviks claimed to represent the interests of the proletariat, they did not have enough support to lead a popular revolution so therefore used force to seize power which led to opposition from
- left-wing groups such as the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks
- Right-wing groups such as Tsarist supporters, liberal groups who often represented the interests of the middle class – the Marxist ideology represented a challenge to the rich and privileged.
- Nationalist groups such as Ukrainians, Poles and Finns, who saw the collapse of the Tsarist regime as a chance to assert their independence.
What were the Mensheviks?
A communist group that had split from the Bolsheviks in 1903, they were prepared to work with the bourgeoisie in order to bring about gradual reform.
How did the Bolsheviks deal with the other left-wing groups?
Other left-wing groups shared many of the socialist aims of the Bolsheviks, but Lenin made it clear that there would be no sharing of power.
The election of the Constituent Assembly, in January 1918 resulted in the Bolsheviks having 175 seats and the socialist revolutionaries having 410 seats.
This posed a threat to continued Bolshevik rule, so Lenin dissolved the Assembly and condemned it as an instrument of the bourgeoisie and replaced it with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets where the Bolsheviks had more influence. This ensured that there was to be no real forum for opposition.
What were the socialist revolutionaries?
The socialist revolutionaries were a group committed to democratic socialism who believed in the right of groups to govern themselves for example peasant organisations.
How did the Bolsheviks deal with other political parties?
- The removal of the vote from bourgeois classes ensured opposition parties did not have support.
- Restrictions imposed on the Mensheviks and SRs - difficult to publish their newspapers.
- In March 1918, the Bolshevik Party renamed itself the Communist Party and, by 1921, all other parties were effectively banned.
- In April 1921, Lenin declared that the Mensheviks and the SRs belong in prison. From Jan-Mar, 5,000 Mensheviks were arrested.
What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918?
The treaty took Russia out of the war. However, Russia lost control over the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and parts of the Caucasus region. It was a national humiliation for the conservatives therefore, the only way to restore Russia’s pride was to overthrow the Bolshevik regime and reject the Treaty.
Lenin signed it to concentrate on dealing with internal enemies.
The Treaty also provided an incentive for the whites to fight against the Bolsheviks because the allied powers of Britain, France, the USA and Japan wanted to keep Russia in the First World War and were willing to provide arms, money and troops to those who would ensure Russia joined the fight.
