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AQA A Level Depth Study Notes - Russia: Establishing a Dictatorship $3.88
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AQA A Level Depth Study Notes - Russia: Establishing a Dictatorship

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Extremely high quality A Level History notes for the Russia Depth Study. Notes cover: - The Establishment of Bolshevik Authority - The Consolidation of the Communist Dictatorship - The Consolidation of the 'One-Party State'

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  • March 16, 2022
  • 5
  • 2018/2019
  • Class notes
  • -
  • All classes

Subjects

  • russia
  • a level
  • aqa
  • history
  • stalin
  • lenin
  • revolution
  • marxism
  • communism
  • dictatorship
  • one party state
  • bolsheviks
  • checka

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  • AQA
  • History
  • Depth Study
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The Establishment of Bolshevik Authority

PROBLEMS INITIALLY FACED:
 At 1st civil servants refused to work for the Bolshevik gov + bankers refused to allow
Bolsheviks access to the state’s funds
o Took 10 days+ threat of armed intervention to persuade State Bank to hand over
reserves
 Bolsheviks had to establish their authority outside of Petrograd + combat the opposition
forces organised by Kerensky (mainly made up of Cossacks)
 Bolsheviks military force was weakened as many Petrograd garrison soldiers went back to
their homes in the countryside after the revolution

KEY CHRONOLOGY:
- 29 Oct: Red Guards put down army cadet rising up against the Bolsheviks
- 31 Oct: Boslheviks take control of Baku + 17 provincial capitals
- 2 Nov: Kerensky’s opposition forces defeated
- 3 Nov: Bolsheviks gain control of Moscow after 10-day battle
- 5 Nov: Lenin announces that rev has succeeded

ISSUED DECREES:
 Peace decree oct 1917
o Promised end to war -> Armistice followed in Sept
o Target audience = peasants + workers (7m died on front)
 Workers’ Decree Oct 1917
o Max 8 hour working day i
o Target = workers
o Social insurance decree gave old-age, health + unemployment benefits
o Decree on Workers’ Control of Factories allowed workers to ‘supervise’ managers
 Bank Decree Dec 1917
o Banks nationalised + brought under state control
o Control measure
 Establishment of Cheka
o New Secret police force
o Control measure
 Decree on Land
o Abolished private ownership of land
o Legitimised peasant seizures of land from landlords
o Reduced peasant support for the SRs
Social decrees:
 Press Decree Oct 1917
o Shut down newspaper presses of all non-Bolshevik parties
o Control measure
 Judicial Decree Nov 1917
o Established new legal system of people’s elected courts
o This is ‘revolutionary justice’ = arbitrary + violent
o Courts = democratic but justice issued = unfair
o Control measure
 Decrees on the Church removed marriage + divorce from Church control
 Decree to outlaw sex discrimination gave equal rights for women

, DEALING WITH OPPOSITION
• Opposition press banned
• Lenin actively encouraged class warfare - middle-class bourgeoisie liable to be arrested
• Decreed people had to refer to each other as ‘citizen’ (or ‘comrade’ if Bolshevik members)
• Firstly, leading Kadets, then Mensheviks + RW SRs arrested + imprisoned.
• Civil servants that refused to work for Bolsheviks arrested. Was a purge of the Civil Service
• Old legal system abolished + replaced with ‘revolutionary justice’ in elected people’s courts
Checka
• Established as new secret police
• Red Terror launched (1918-20: c.300,000 killed).
• Constituent Assembly closed down after just 1 day Jan 1918 as Bolsheviks hadn’t done well
in elections


The Consolidation of the Communist Dictatorship

- By the end of 1917, Bolsheviks had control of Petrograd + Moscow + had made great strides in
establishing their power
- BUT they were only 1 of various groups competing for power amidst chaos of war + revolution
- Vast areas of R = completely beyond their control + still faced a huge task in consolidating power
- Bolsheviks had to enforce auth on central gov; if successful they then had to extend their
control outwards across a vast + diverse nation
- + Had to do this whilst Russia was involved in WW1

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ONE PARTY CONTROL
 Lenin seized power in the name of the proletariat (industrial working class i.e. the Soviets) ->
Soviets had democratic legitimacy + majority in Petrograd
 Most powerful slogan = ‘All power to the Soviets’, implied councils of working people would
help run all aspects of Russia from factories to national gov -> NOT TRUE
 35th Oct 1917, delegates of the 2nd All Russian Congress of Soviets voted 500-17 for a socialist
gov to replace + overthrow PG
o Expected this to be socialist coalition gov along lines of Petrograd Soviet
o But Lenin didn’t want to share power -> believed Bolsheviks were acting in interest of
working class + that this gave him complete auth
The Sovnarkom:
 A new executive committee Sovnarkom established 1917
o Russian for what we know in politics as a ‘Cabinet’
o Lenin claimed Sovnarkom had been appointed by the Congress of Soviets
o Had 30-40 members
o Was composed entirely of Bolsheviks at 1st (some left SRs were invited later)
o Sovnarkom ruled by decree (without going to the Soviet for approval)
 In theory = democratic due to democratic centralism, people voted for members of authority.
But in reality, ruled political system from top down:

THE REMOVAL OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
 PG had organised elections for the long-awaited Constituent Assembly to be
held in Nov 1918 + Lenin allowed these to go ahead
 SRs won maj of seats
 Lenin immediately declared that ‘elections prove nothing’
 The Constituent Assembly met for 1 day, attempted to redraft the
Bolshevik decrees then was closed by troops + never opened again

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