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Summary Russia 1917-24 Notes (Civil War and Lenin)
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12 pages of detailed notes on Russia 1917-24. Includes key facts, dates and statistics, as well as multiple historians' quotes to support interpretations.
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LeninBolsheviks in Power
● Bolsheviks were in desperate struggle for survival
● Had given little thought to how affairs would be organised once revolution had been
achieved
● Marxist belief was that state would 'wither away' after revolution but reality soon became
apparent
● Lenin persisted w/ notion that Sovnarkom had been appointed by Congress of Soviets
● Saw distribution of power like a pyramid, w/ Sovrarkom at the top, drawing its authority
from R people who expressed their will through soviets
● Was convenient cover for fact traditional forms of gvt had broken down & Bolsheviks could
make own rules
● Central Committee of Bolshevik Party was key body & provided members of gvt
● Supposedly derived authority from All-Russian Congress of BP but really BP kept to principle
of democratic centralism, guaranteeing that power was exercised from top down
● L took pragmatic approach to transition from bourgeois to proletarian economy
● Pointed that new regime didn't have power to impose sweeping revolutionary policy
● B power didn’t extend much beyond Petrograd & Moscow & war against Germany & Austria
brought huge problems
● Shortage of raw materials
● Rocketing inflation
● Fractured transport system
● Mass hunger: grain supplies were over 13 million tons short of nation's needs
● Food crisis further deepened by ceding to G of Ukraine, R's richest grain-
producing region
● L sympathetic towards new independent states like Georgia
● Dec 1917: proposal to form Russian Socialist Federation of the Soviet Republic, all territories
listened to
● Brest-Litovsk treaty ruined prospect of testing out policy as former R provinces of Ukraine,
Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia all joined w/ Poland under G control
● Seemed Communist ideal would be land-locked to what Service calls a 'Russian enclave'
Lenin's Decrees
Oct 1917: Decree on Peace
● Appeal to warring nations to enter into talks for 'a democratic peace without annexations'
● B gvt had to make peace w/ G if it was to survive, & would gain nothing from continuing to
fight
● Soldiers began heading home expecting to be able to work for themselves w/o high
mortgage payments
Nov 1917: Decree on Land
● Gave B approval to peasant land seizures that had been happening in countryside since Feb
Revolution
● Abolished private ownership of land & introduced nationalisation
● All large scale wealth in terms of industry & food production passed to gvt
Nov 1917: Decree on Workers' Control
● Accepted takeover of factories by workers, which had been taking place during 1917
, ● Workers' committees formed rarely ran factories efficiently, resulting in serious fall in
industrial output
● Instructed workers' committees to maintain 'the strictest order and discipline' in the
workplace
Dec 1917: Vesenkha (Gosplan)
● Set up 'to take charge of all existing institutions for the regulation of economic life'
● Initially unable to exercise full authority granted to it but did preside over several important
developments, showing how effective centralised control might become were Bs able to gain
complete power
● Banks & railways nationalised
● Foreign debts cancelled
● Transport system improved
Jun 1918: Decree on Nationalisation
● Laid down programme for takeover by state of larger industrial concerns
● W/in 2 years had brought practically all major industrial enterprises in R under central gvt
control
● Peasants wanted independence & restoration of Orthodox Church (separated from state Feb
1918)
● Other political parties wanted representation
● Monarchists wanted restoration of Royal power
● Industrial workers wanted greater say in running of the country
Constituent Assembly
● Lenin had no faith in democratic elections & was determined for Nov elections to All-Russian
Constituent assembly not to undermine Bolsheviks’ newly won power
● Bolsheviks outvoted nearly 2 to 1 by SRs
● Had won only 24% of total vote
● Gained barely ¼ of seats
● Lenin had no need in Constituent Assembly as PG no longer needed weakening
● Overwhelmingly non-B so would cause problems
● Was revolutionary so believed in crushing opposition > compromise
● Had Constituent Assembly dissolved at gunpoint Jan 1918 by Red Guards when it gathered
after one session
● Bolsheviks had precarious hold on power
● Strong & widespread opposition in country
● R still at war w/ G so Allies F & GB were set to interfere should new R gvt make separate
peace
● Bolsheviks not prepared to consider power sharing
● L justified action by arguing original reason for assembly was achieved by creation of Soviet
gvt Oct 1917 as was all-R representative body
● Asserted that elections had been rigged by SRs & Kadets so results didn't truly reflect wishes
of R people
● Declared handing over power to Constituent Assembly would be 'to compromise with the
malignant bourgeoisie. Nothing in the world will induce us to surrender the Soviet power'
● T recorded remark L made to him in private:
● 'The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by the Soviet government means a
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