Bolshevik Consolidation of Power

Question 1

November election results

Answer 1

Socialist Revolutionaries got 40%
Bolsheviks only got 24%

Question 2

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Answer 2

December 1917
Ended Russian involvement in WW1

Massively unfavourable for Russia- lost 1millions square miles of land (Finland, Ukraine and Georgia given independence, Poland Lithuania Latvia and Estonia given to the axis), lost 60million people (1/3 of population), handed over all coal and iron in these areas.

Question 3

Civil War- 1918

Answer 3

May- Czechs attack Bolsheviks on Trans-Siberian Railway near Yekaterinburg.

July- The Tsar and his family are murdered in Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.

September- Czechs capture Samara (East of Moscow) and Admiral Kolchak declared himself as “Supreme Ruler of Russia”.

Question 4

Civil war- 1919

Answer 4

October- Big offensive from Whites- Yudenich (Estonia) reaches outskirts of Petrograd before being pushed back. Denikin (South) reaches 200miles from Moscow (closest that they get) before being forced back all the way to the Crimea where they are defeated and forced to flee Russia

Question 5

Civil War- 1920

Answer 5

May- Russo-Polish War begins as Poland want independence

Question 6

Civil War- 1921

Answer 6

March- Treaty of Riga ends Russo-Polish War- this marks the end of the civil war.

Question 7

Civil war years

Answer 7

1918-1921

Question 8

Reasons for Red Victory:
White Weaknesses

Answer 8

Geographically seperated- Yudenich in Estonia, Kolchak (Czechs) in East had to cross Ural Mountains, Denikin in the South/Ukraine, 3-4 forces all separated.

Foreign support- was small and dried up from 1920, gave the Reds a propaganda tool

No figurehead- different motivations/drive, the Tsars murder left no replacement for the Bolsheviks, led to desertion and lack of discipline

Question 9

Reasons for Red Victory:
Reds strengths

Answer 9

Strong leadership- Lenin (figurehead) and Trotsky (decisive and experienced leader of the Red Army).

Unified force- 1 Red Army that was 5 million strong, fiercely loyal and disciplined.

Geographical advantages- held Petrograd and Moscow- main industry and railway systems (good for transport and ammo), majority of the population.

Question 10

War communism: Aims

Answer 10

Industrial production of war goods
Food production to feed workers and soldiers
Grain requisitioning
Abolition of money in the short term
Abolition of private trade
Complete nationalisation

Question 11

War communism: dates

Answer 11

1919-1921

Question 12

War communism: result

Answer 12

Disaster. 10million people die between 1919-1921- 5m in war, 2m by disease and 3m by starvation. Serious opposition in Tambov and Kronstadt.

But did enable the reds to win the civil war.

Question 13

Red terror

Answer 13

Cheka established it to remove opposition to war communism (Kulaks). Supposedly responsible for 50,000 deaths

Question 14

New Economic Policy: dates

Answer 14

1921-1924

Question 15

New Economic Policy: changes from War Communism

Answer 15

Grain requisitioning was removed and excess grain could be slid onto free market
Ban on private trading lifted
Policy of strict rationing replacing wages for workers was removed entirely
Small scale industry returned to private ownership
Large scale industry, transport and banking to remain nationalised

Question 16

Foreign Policy: Foreign Intervention in the Civil War

Answer 16

1919-1920- Britain, France, USA, China, Canada, Australia, Italy, Japan, Estonia, Turkey all send troops to oppose the Reds. Support dried up in final year of the war

Question 17

Foreign Policy: Comintern

Answer 17

Established in 1919. Aimed to “spread the Proletarian Revolution”, followed Lenin’s “21 conditions”, led by Zinoviev

Question 18

Foreign Policy: Russo-Polish War

Answer 18

1919-1921. Poland wanted to spread East, Russia wanted Poland. Ended in a stalemate with the Treaty of Riga in 1921

Question 19

Foreign Policy: Germany

Answer 19

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1917 ends Russian involvement in WW1. Russia+Germany both excluded from League of Nations when it was set up- led to the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922- diplomatic and trade relations established between the two