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Bolshevik Russia

     

What kind of state did Lenin set up 1917–1921?

Bolsheviks faced same crises as Tsar & Provisional Govt: collapsed econ, inflation, war, poverty, illiteracy, mutinous army, striking workers, rioting peasants, hostile intelligentsia.

   

1.   Govt changes

    •  Nov 1917 elections: Bolsheviks 175 seats, SRs 370.

    •  Lenin used to close Assembly (1918), killed opposition, ruled by decree. = autocracy → 'dictatorship of the proletariat' (i.e. Communist Party rule).

   

2.   Brest-Litovsk

    •   (1917) → Treaty of : Russia lost Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania to Germany. = peace not war.

   

3.   Communist state

    •  Land taken from Tsar/nobles → peasants.

    •  Factories under state control. = peasants owned land & workers owned factories.

   

4.   Communist society

    •  Banned religion, destroyed churches, killed priests, allowed civil marriage.

    •  : 8-hour day, unemployment pay, pensions.

    •  1918 : women = men, communal childcare proposed.

    •  1919 (Women’s Bureau): engaged women in Party work.

    •  Education: science promoted, Latin & History banned, mass literacy campaign.

    •  1922 : state-run health system, hospitals nationalized, nurses trained.

    •  Free love, divorce, abortion allowed. = new morality & lifestyle.

   

5.   Terror

    •   (secret police) arrested, tortured, killed opponents.

    •  Tsar & family killed.

    •  Censorship of all newspapers.

    •  Lenin: '' = dictatorship until full Communism. = terror/ no political freedom.

   

6.   'War Communism'

    •  Civil War (1918-21) → severe econ controls.

    •  : govt requisitioned peasants' grain.

    •  Military discipline in factories, strikers shot.

    •  Jan 1920: compulsory labour & conscription, '' (unpaid work).

    •  Rationing – state-controlled food/goods distribution.

    •  Factories, businesses, shops nationalized.

    •  Propaganda: hatred of ‘enemies of the state’ (Tsarists, , rival socialists). = v harsh tyranny.