Summary Notes for History A Level Edexcel Paper 1, Option 1E. Theme One - Communist Government
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History for Edexcel A Level: Communist states in the twentieth century
Notes for the Edexcel History A Level, Paper 1, Option 1E: Russia, 1917–91: from Lenin to Yeltsin, on the first theme - communist governments. Covers all points on the specification and is divided by each leader (from Lenin to Andropov). This theme includes the Russian Civil War, Stalin's purges,...
Theme 1 - communist government in the ussr, 1917–85
June 20, 2023
17
2022/2023
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lenin
stalin
brezhnev
khrushchev
andropov
civil war
bolshevik
ussr
russia
purges
terror
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1.1 BOLSHEVIK CONSOLIDATION OF POWER
01) IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS FACED BY THE BOLSHEVIKS
1) Military collapse in WWI
○ The provisional government had followed through with WWI which had huge socio-economic consequences
2) Economic devastation
○ 80% of the population lived below the poverty line
○ Food shortages and deprivation of supplies due to the war
3) Bolsheviks were a minority
○ They did not have enough support to lead a popular revolution
○ Seized power by force
○ Socialist revolutionaries were more popular and could overthrow the Bolsheviks
4) Opposition to the Bolsheviks
○ Socialist Revolutionaries → Bolsheviks had denied to share the power with them
○ Tsarists and middle class groups → believed their businesses would be taken away
○ Religious groups → orthodox church had had huge influence over the population + close link to the Tsar
○ Army → signing the Brest-Litovsk treaty was a huge embarrassment for them
○ Foreign powers (Britain, France and the USA) → capitalist countries feared the takeover of communism
5) Nationalist groups
○ E.g Ukrainians, Poles and Finns saw the collapse of the Tsar as an opportunity to assert independence
6) Poor infrastructure and huge levels of inequality
02) BOLSHEVIK INITIAL STEPS
THE SOVNARKOM
● Essentially the new Russian cabinet.
● First Sovnarkom was made up of 13 People’s Commissars.
● Lenin was elected Chairman of Sovnarkom.
○ Others included Trotsky who was head of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
○ Stalin, who was the head of the People’s Commissariat of Nationality Affairs.
● All of the new Commissars were revolutionaries.
● The vast majority had supported Lenin since 1903.
THE 1918 DECREES
“ Peace, Land and Bread”
These were used by the Bolsheviks in order to appease and gain support from the working class population.
1) Decree on Peace
○ Immediate withdrawal of Russia from WWI
2) Decree on Land
○ All private land was confiscated by the government with no compensation paid
3) Workers’ Decree
○ 8 hour day established
○ All workers were to be insured against illness or accidents
4) Decree on Worker’s Control
○ Factories had to be run under the control of a workers committee
5) Decree on Nationalities
○ Different nationalities within the Russian Empire had the right to a government of their own choice
03) CONSOLIDATION OF POWER AND CREATION OF A ONE PARTY STATE
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY - JAN 1918
● This was a supposed parliament democratically elected by the people of Russia
What was the result of the election for the Constituent Assembly of 1918?
Bolsheviks: Socialist Revolutionaries:
● 175 seats in the assembly ● 410 seats in the assembly
● Over 9 million votes ● 21 million votes
● 25% only ● 40% overall
,What was Lenin’s reaction?
● This posed a huge threat to Bolshevik rule
● Lenin dissolved the Assembly after one meeting and condemned it as a bourgeoise instrument
ALL RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF SOVIETS
● The supreme law making body of the state
● Lenin created this after dissolving the assembly so he could pass his own laws
DESTRUCTION OF OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES
● The SRs were a huge threat to the bolsheviks
○ Were much more popular than the Bolsheviks (proven by the constituent assembly)
How did Lenin eliminate other political parties?
● Removed the vote from “bourgeoise classes”
○ Employers + priests were denied the vote
● Mensheviks and SRs were censored and found it difficult to publish newspapers
● The Bolshevik party renamed itself the Communist party in March 1918
● By 1921 all other parties were completely banned
○ This officially created the One-party state
● 1921 → Lenin declared “the place for Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries is in prison” in his April theses
○ 5,000 Mensheviks were arrested in the first three months of 1921
04) THE BREST-LITOVSK TREATY 1918
Terms of the treaty:
● Russia lost control over Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and parts of the Caucasus region
● 25% of arable land
● 90% of coal mines
● 6 billion marks in reparations
Significance:
● Seen as a huge national humiliation
○ The only way to restore this humiliation is to overthrow the bolsheviks
● Created “the whites”
○ Offered them the support of international powers who didn’t want Russia to leave the war
Why did the Bolsheviks sign the treaty?
● Lenin believed that it was more important to fight opposition within Russia
● The war had led to the collapse of the tsars regime
● Lenin threatened to leave the party if the treaty was not signed
05) THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR 1918 - 1921
● The Whites Vs The Reds
○ The whites were the opposition to the Bolsheviks
○ Made up of largely conservative parties, who opposed the Bolsheviks because they didn’t want the old social order to be
changed
○ Had the support of foreign power such as the USA, Britain and France
The emergence of a ‘party state’
● Lenin preferred working with the Politburo to Sovnarkom as it was smaller – 5 to 7.
○ reach decisions much quicker.
○ He preferred working with the Politburo because it contained his most loyal supporters, people like Stalin, Trotsky,
Zinoviev and Kamenev.
● Lenin did not abolish the Sovnarkom.
○ It simply ceased to function as the main centre of government.
● From 1920, the Politburo effectively became the government of Russia.
○ Politburo clearly provided clear and effective leadership during the Civil War.
○ The rise of the Politburo indicated that the new government was based on the Communist Party rather than the soviets.
Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?
● Control of infrastructure and industrial cities (Petrograd and Moscow)
● Unified command under Lenin
● War communism kept the red army well supplied
● Cheka & The Red Terror
, Consequences of the Civil War:
● Centralisation of the Bolshevik party
○ Fighting the war required quick decision making carried out by Lenin and Trotsky
○ The power lay mainly in the politburo and the Sovnarkom
● Reinforcement of militaristic values
● High levels of terror installed within society
06) THE USE OF TERROR
● Terror ensured loyalty to the communist party
THE CHEKA
● Created in 1917 and led by Felix Dzherzinsky
● Dealt with counter revolutionaries, sabotage and speculation
● Dealt with enemies within the party
● The Cheka was willing to imprison, torture or kill anyone who was viewed as a threat to the communists.
● Women captured by the Cheka and were routinely raped.
THE RED TERROR (1918 to 1922)
● Lenin argued that during a revolution, civil war and terror were necessary to protect the government from its enemies.
● 1917 to 1923 → 200,000 executions carried out by the Cheka
● ⅓ of the party was purged
● The secret police grew from 40,000 (December 1918) to 250,000 (1921)
07) POPULAR UNREST
● By early 1921, the communists had won the Civil War.
● However, the Civil War had ruined Russia’s economy.
● Droughts in 1920 and 1921 made the situation worse, threatening famine.
THE TAMBOV RISING 1921
● Peasants in Tambov, led by Aleksandr Antonov, began a rebellion against communist grain requisitioning and Cheka brutality.
● By January 1921 Antonov had a force of 50,000 anti-communist fighters.
● Antonov’s revolt was not the only challenge to the Bolsheviks in the countryside.
● In March 1921, there were peasant attacks on government grain stores all along the Volga River.
PETROGRAD STRIKES 1921
● In the major cities there were strikes against communist policies in early 1921.
● In Petrograd the Red Army responded by opening fire on unarmed workers.
KRONSTADT MUTINY 1921
● Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base, horrified by the communists’ suppression of the Petrograd strikes, rebelled.
● The Kronstadt sailors demanded a series of reforms:
○ The immediate free and fair election of new soviets.
○ Release of all anarchist, Menshevik and SR political prisoners.
○ A restoration of freedom of speech and the press.
○ The abolition of the Cheka.
○ An end to War Communism.
● In essence, the Kronstadt sailors wanted a return to soviet democracy.
● This demand was summed up in their slogan: “Soviets without Communists.”
● By mid-March, the Red Army had crushed the Kronstadt uprising.
● In May they suppressed the rebellion by deporting 100,000 people in labour camps and attacking peasant villages with poisoned
gas.
08) THE PARTY & THE GOVERNMENT
THE TENTH PARTY CONGRESS 1921
What was the significance of the Tenth Party Congress?
● Party had grown from 300,000 to 750,000 members
● Lenin pushed through a series of reforms in the 1921 Party Congress.
○ Introduced the NEP and the ban on factions
● The NEP liberalised the economy, while the ban on factions tightened Lenin’s political control.
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