AS FP2 : The Effects of War Communism Flashcards
(17 cards)
What were the immediate effects of War Communism?
War Communism created more problems than it solved. Transport systems were disrupted, management struggled to make factories efficient and by 1921 total industrial output had fallen to c20% of pre-war levels, rations also had to be cut.
- Disease was rife, workers went on strike and called for a new constituent assembly
- Workers braved armed forces to flee to the country, by the end of 1920 the population of Petrograd had fallen by 57.5% and Moscow by 44.5% from the level of 1917.
What was the effect of hyper inflation?
By the end of 1920 the rouble had fallen to one percent of its worth in 1917.
When was there an acute food shortage?
There was an acute food shortage in 1920, a third of land had been abandoned to grass and cattle and horses had been slaughtered in their thousands by hungry peasants.
The Harvest of 1921 produced only 48% of that of 1913 resulting in widespread famine.
What was the effect on the population due to malnourishment?
Millions dided from malnourishment and disease, Russia’s population in 1913 was 170.9 million, by 1921 it was 130.9 million. Conditions were so bad that there was a reported trade in dead bodies. Even pravda admitted that in 1921 1/5 of the population was starving, resulting in the Bolsheviks accepting foreign aid.
How much did the Bolsheviks recieve in foreign aid during the 1921 famine?
Through the ARA the USA provided food for some 10 million russians and spent over 60 million dollars in relief work by 1923.
How many people were executed by the Cheka between 1918 and 1920?
c500,000 people were executed by the Cheka between 1918 and 1920.
What was set up by the Cheka during the Civil War?
- System of labour and concentration camps.
How many peasant revolts were there in the February of 1921 alone?
The famine of 1921 brought a new outbreak of peasant revolts and the Cheka reported 155 risings across Russia in February 1921.
What and when was the Tambov revolt?
The Tambov Revolt was a peasant revolt in the province of Tambov, 300 miles south-east of Moscow. The farmers had long been dissatisfied with Bolshevik policies and a 70,000 peasant army, led by Alexander Antonox, attacked Bolshevik strongholds within the province.
What were the consequences of the Tambov revolt?
Around 100,000 Red Army troops were sent to Tambov, carrying orders to shoot all suspected rbeels, to use poison gas to flush them out the forest and to construct concentration camps and capture civillian hostages.
240,000 died.
Kronstadt Rising
What and when was the Kronstadt Rising?
The Kronstadt rising occured in March 1921, it was a reaction to the implementation of war communism within the countryside.
Kronstadt Rising
What were the causes of the Kronstadt uprising?
- The food crisis of 1921 and a reduction of a third in the bread ration.
- Imposition of martial law in January 1921.
- Grain Requisitioning
- Use of the Cheka
Kronstadt Rising
What was significant about the Kronstadt uprising?
It was not the demands themselves which frightened the Bolsheviks, that of an end to one-party rule, genuine democracy and civil rights, it was the people who had drafted them : the workers and sailors of Kronstadt.
The Kronstadt sailors had defended the revolution, partaking in the October rising and the closing of the Constituent Assembly.
Trotsky had referred to them as “the true heroes of the revolution.”
Kronstadt Rising
Describe the crushing of the Kronstadt rising.
30,000 sailors stationed at the Kronstadt naval base rebelled. The Red Army under Marshal Tukhachevsky was sent by Trotsky five miles across the ice (supported by an artilery force and Cheka) to crush the rebels.
The ringleaders of the revolt were shot and 15,000 rebels were taken prisoner.
Lenin denounced the sailors as “White traitors” but the incident had shaken him.
Kronstadt Rising
What was the Aftermath of the Kronstadt rising?
In the succeeding months, the Cheka hunted down and executed those rebels who had escaped from Kronstadt. Lenin justified the brutality on the grounds that the rising had been the work of the bourgeois enemies of the October Revolution.
It was the signal to Lenin to soften war communism in order to lessen the opposition to Bolshevism ; however this would be purely economic as Lenin wasn’t willing to conceed politicallt and communist control was made even tighter.
Kronstadt Rising
How did Lenin describe the Kronstadt rising?
“Lit up reality like a lightining flash”.
Kronstadt Rising
What was the workers’ opposition?
The Kronstadt rising and war communism had caused splits within the party. Two prominent Bolsheviks, Shlyaprikov and Kollontai led a “workers’ opposition” movement against the excesses of communism in 1921. They argued for greater worker control and the removal of managers and military discipline in the factories. It objected to the fact that the state appointed trade union leaders which effectively made unions tools of the regime.
