HWA CHONG INSTITUTION (High School Section)

INTEGRATED HUMANITIES (HISTORY)

SECONDARY THREE
TOPIC : RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISIM (RUSSIA)
NOTES

Name : _______________( )/3___ Date : ___________

Definition :

Kulaks – Rich peasants

War Communism (1918-21) – Government took direct control of economic life.

Nationalized all industries, that is, everything belonged to the state.

State Capitalism (1917-1918) – Government nationalized the banks, shipping, railways

and some larger factories. Bourgeois experts and managers were still needed to run
industry and trade in the short term.

Consolidation of power by the Bolsheviks

Problem 1 : World War One

 Lenin wanted immediate peace with Germany because that was what the people
wanted
 This was the Bolshevik’s biggest asset and they wanted to take the opportunity to
maximize this
 Wanted immediate peace treaty with Germany so wanted to sign an armistice
 Armistice was signed on December 2 but terms that the Germans wanted were harsh
 In March 1918 the treaty was signed and Russia lost one third of her European land and
half of her industrial capacity.
 The loss of Ukraine was a great blow because it was the bread basket

Consequences :
 Some returned to civilian life
 Some fled to non-Bolshevik areas of Russia to join opposition groups
 Other patriotic Russians took up arms because they saw it as having betrayed ‘Mother
Russia’

Problem 2 : Peasants
 In 1918, food situation reached desperate levels
 Because Russia’s bread basket, Ukraine, was lost
 Peasants had no initiative to sell because they had few products to buy and money
earned was worthless because inflation soared
  Lenin’s solution was to send requisition squads of workers, soldiers and Cheka to look
for grain from the kulaks (so-called rich peasants) who were claimed to be hoarding
them to force up the price
 The team was ruthless in handling the hoarders and speculators
 Lenin urged villages to set up committees of poor peasants to seize food from their
better neighbours
 In 1919 and 1920 requisition squads collected not only surplus but also seed grain and
the food the peasants needed for themselves

Consequences :
 Strategies were not very successful. Peasants fiercely resisted the grain requisitioning.
Some refuse to join the State collective farms and some refused to grow more crops
than they needed for their consumption
 War communism (1918-21) made things worse
 Many became enemies of the Bolsheviks
 Some became part of the Greens who wanted greater autonomy from Moscow and
resented the policies
 1920 drought and 1921 severe famine
 Americans offered help and Lenin accepted unwillingly because his government was not
swift to help
 1921, Lenin came up with the New Economic Policy
 Ended requisition and peasants could pay a tax in kind to the government (in terms of
produce).
 Peasants could see extra surplus
 Food production saw an increase
 Armed resistance came to an end
 New currency replaced the old so people had incentive to sell and produce

Problem 3 : Workers
 Workers were impatient with policies behind state capitalism because wanted to control
the factories
 But Lenin not confident that they were ready to manage industrial enterprises
 With the Brest-Litovsk treaty in March 1918, there was acute food shortages
compounded by the white armies controlling many other rich farming areas.
 In 1918 war communism was introduced where all production was to concentrate on
war

Consequences:
 Many workers left the cities and industrial areas to seek food in the countryside
 With war communism, unemployment increased
 Inflation soared and workers were paid in goods and not worthless money
 Incentive to work hard and produce goods was gone
 1921 famine
  New Economic Policy – legalized small businesses but heavy industries (coal, iron, steel,
power), transport, banking remained under state control
 Workers returned and immediate crisis was lifted

Problem 4 : Lack of majority support

 Lenin realized the need to have democratic elections because this was promised to the
people
 Kerensky had arranged for elections into the Constituent Assembly in November but
Lenin knew Bolsheviks would not be the majority but the Socialist Revolutionaries
 But didn’t want to share power with them because he felt that the Bolsheviks were the
ones who got rid to the Provisional Government
 In the November 1917 elections, Socialist Revolutionaries won the majority
 On the first day of meeting, 5 Jan 1918, the Assembly elected SR leader, Chernov, as its
President
 The next day, the Red Guards prevented them from meeting again
 Lenin’s justification – Constituent Assembly was based on old register so was an
expression of the old regime which was bourgeois
 Closure was approved by the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviet which had a Bolshevik
majority
 There was opposition to NEP because groups wanted more worker involvement in the
running of factories and greater role for independent trade unions

Consequences :
 Cabinet became Sovnarkom, the Soviet of People’s Commissars
 Sovnarkom came up with decrees – one of it was banning of all bourgeois parties and
their newspapers. Later this was extended to all other political parties.
 Socialist Revolutionaries rose against the Bolsheviks because they disagreed over the
Brest-Litovsk arrangements and they were not given posts in the Soviet government
 They were suppressed by the Red Guards
 Anti-government demonstrations were crushed by Cheka and loyal troops
 Decree on Party Unity in March 1921 – opposition to decisions by organized party
groups was banned
 Decree which made the Communists the only legal political party in the country

Note on the Cheka

 Formed in December 1917 by the Sovnarkom
 Secret police – the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-
Revolution and Sabotage
 Not restricted by law and could execute supposed enemies without trial
Reasons for the Civil War
 Civil war broke out as the Bolshevik seized power in October 1917
 War with the Whites (mixed bag of Social Revolutionaries, ex-tsarist officers and others
who did not like the Bolsheviks)

1 Collapse of Russian Empire

 Decree in 1917 – allowed self-government to any national groups so they were free to
leave Russia
 Resulted in chaos because some Soviets took over large areas and governed with their
own policies
 In Siberia, Admiral Kolchak, set up a White government
 In Caucasus, General Denikin had a White army
 There were patriots who wanted to stop the disintegration of their country
 Whites came from all around Russia heartland

2 Political Opposition
 Bolshevik policies to consolidate power resulted in opposition groups
 The Union for the Defence of the Motherland of Liberty was against the Brest-Litovsky
agreement
 The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries who were barred from posts also joined
the opposition – the Bolsheviks sent their officials to towns and got rid of them and ran
the area
 Socialist Revolutionaries joined the Czech soldiers who had fought in the Russian army

3 Allied Opposition
 Russia’s allies opposed them because they ended war with Germany
 23 Nov 1917, Trotsky provided evidence that Allies had planned to seize territories
when Germany and her allies were defeated and not to fight for democracy
 So Russia seized all foreign property and cancelled Tsar’s vast debt
 March 1918, treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and Russia pulled out war. No support
from Eastern Front. So Germany could concentrate on the Western Front where British
and French were protecting.
 So Allies supported anyone who would overthrow the Bolsheviks
 Supported the White Army

4 Breakdown of law and order

 There was chaos in Russia because of civil war and unrest
 Many Russians were unhappy and longed for a strong government who would bring
order to country
 So they joined forces with White Army
5 Food Requisitioning
 Food situation was desperate so Bolsheviks had food requisitioning
 Some peasant were unhappy with the Bolsheviks and wanted greater autonomy from
Moscow

Results of the Civil War

 White Armies were defeated
 Kolchak advanced towards Moscow (new capital) in early 1919 but was defeated. He
was captured and executed.
 Denikin advanced from south of Moscow but had to retreat. Escaped with British help.
 The Czech Legion was defeated too
 In 1920, there was an invasion of Ukraine by Polish and French troops. Russians had to
hand over part of Ukraine.
 Enormous cost in human lives and suffering because there was famine and deaths
 Economy was in ruins – almost at a standstill (war communism did not work)
 Naval mutiny at Kronstadt in March 1921 – most of the sailors were peasants.
Bolsheviks acted swiftly and put them down
 Politically, the regime became more militarized and brutalized

Reasons for the Communists Success

1. The Red Army

Strength in numbers
 By 1920, there was about 5 million in the Red Army because in 1918, Bolshevik
introduced conscription into the areas they controlled
 Since they controlled the heartland of Russia where there was men and
industries, they were able to get limitless human resources

Discipline
 Trotsky re-introduced ranks and military discipline. He enlisted the help of ex-
Tsarist officers because the Bolsheviks lacked these. To ensure that the officers
worked with them, he appointed Bolshevik political commissars to supervise
them and maintain troops’ morale.
 Discipline was also maintained through terror. They imposed strict controls in
their areas and the Cheka ensured discipline and would shoot any deserters.

Commitment
 The Red Army composed of workers too who were fanatical supporters of the
Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks used propaganda wherever possible to portray the
civil war as anti-Tsarist, anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalist and a nationalistic war
 They were successful because the White Army had the support of the foreign
allies
 So the soldiers were committed to their cause
 Well-equipped
 The Communists controlled the heartland of Russia with much industry. So the
industries could be used to manufacture weapons for the army.
 During War Communism, the Russian industries focused on producing weapons
 Also by nationalizing all economic resources, they were able to feed their
soldiers.

2. Infrastructure
 The Bolsheviks controlled the hub of the railway system because much of the
battles were fought along railway lines
 So they could move forces and ammunition easily across the vast distances.

3. Leadership – Trotsky
Inspirational Leader
 For 3 years, he lived largely on his armoured train travelling from front to front.
His dedication inspired many officers and men
 He travelled with a printing press, munitions and men

Strategist
 He realized that the Red Army lacked experienced officers so he enlisted the
help of ex-Tsarist officers who came under the supervision of the Bolshevik
political commissars – in this way he solved the problem of leadership
 He re-introduced rank and discipline into the Army

Ruthless
 He did not hesitate to impose strict controls over the areas that the Bolsheviks
controlled.
 The Cheka squads were used to ensure discipline and deserters were often shot.

4 White Army Weaknesses

Relied on Allies
 Supported by Allies because Bolsheviks pulled out of World War 1 pact and they
wanted the Bolsheviks to be defeated
 But they were rarely involved in the fighting and withdrew quickly like France in
early April 1919
 Lenin was able to portray the support of the Allies as being anti-nationalistic and
the White Army as puppets
 Lack of unity
 The Whites had no common purpose because they believed in different
ideologies – Mensheviks, ex-Tsarist supporters, Socialist Revolutionaries. This
also led to different goals and suspicions.
 Most were fiercely territorial so would not advance from their areas which
handicapped Kolchak’s and Denikin’s forces
 They did not co-operate in military planning so the Red Army could defeat them
one at a time.

Lack of commitment
 White Army could not recruit and keep its soldiers because many of the leaders
were from the ex-ruling classes so the soldiers, mostly peasants, were
suspicious
 The soldiers were also treated badly so they did not respect the leaders
 The soldiers, mostly peasants, were also afraid that the White Army may return
to the former hierarchical state if they came to power which they did not want.
This was because the peasants wanted to keep their land.

Sources :

Lowe, N., Modern World History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

Walsh, B., GCSE Modern World History (Hodder Murray,2001)
Oxley,P., Russia 1855-1991 From Tsars to Commissars (Oxford Advanced History,2001)

S.J.Ranee/HCI’11/ IHE Sec 3/Notes