starter activity

1
? starter activity
Who would have been happy and who would have been
annoyed by this photograph of a bustling market
place in Russia in the summer of 1921?
2
How was the Bolshevik state consolidated?

• 1921-1924

3
? Your task

• What were the problems facing the Bolsheviks?
• Read Fiehn, p.103- and list the problems facing
  the Bolsheviks. Take notes under the following
  headings
• Problems in the economy
• Threat from peasants
• Opposition from workers
• Problems from Kronstadt
• Divisions in the party

4
? Your task

• Create a Venn Diagram identifying differences and
  points in common between the NEP War Communism

5
? Your task

• Create a scales chart showing the successes and
  failures of the NEP.

Successes
Failures
6
Successes

• Small businesses reopened, e.g. shops,
  restaurants
• Cereal production increased (20, 1920-23)
• Factory output increased (200, 1920-23)
• NEPmen increased products available
• Increased trade between villages of goods
  produce
• Political interference remained weak
• International support trade agreements (Germany,
  1922 GB, 1924)

7
Failures

• Successes measured against low baseline (Civil
  War, War Communism)
• Distributions systems remained chaotic
• NEPmen overly-important (controlled 3/4 retail
  trade)
• Property speculation
• Bribery
• Conspicuous show of wealth
• Moral decadence prostitution gambling
• Trotskys Scissors crisis

8
Scissor Crisis

• Problem
• Abundance of food, prices dropped, peasants
  unwilling to sell grain
• Lack of manufactured goods, prices increased, not
  enough goods
• Resolution
• Govt. capped industrial prices
• Peasants paid tax in cash, not kind

9
? Your task

• Read source 7.16 on p.110 and list the changes
  the author notes to Russian life during this
  period
• How reliable are Durantys observations on the NEP

10
? starter activity
Cynics argue that the NEP was merely a carrot to
disguise a stick approach to governing Russia.
How could the NEP have been a carrot? What sort
of stick would the Bolsheviks use to govern
Russia more effectively?
11
? A conference on Bolshevik Russia

• You are going to become an expert for the day on
  political repression under the Bolsheviks. Look
  at p. 113 in your text book. Your teacher will
  give you a topic heading from the chart and you
  must take notes summarising the key points for
  that topic. You will then attend a conference on
  Bolshevik political repression, in which you
  share your expertise with other delegates. You
  must aim to complete your notes on all the other
  aspects of political repression through
  conversations with the other delegates at the
  conference. There will a prize for the delegate
  with the most detailed notes and the delegate who
  the class thinks is the best expert.

12
Censorship

• 1922 writers scholars deported
• Pre-publication censorship introduced
• Main Administration for Affairs of Literature
  Publishing Houses (Glavlit) estd.

13
GPU (Cheka)

• GPU (Main Political Administration) founded in
  1992
• Arbitrary imprisonment death penalty extended
• Nepmen focus for attacks

14
Attacks on the Church

• Church a potential opponent
• 1921, Union of the Militant Godless estd.
• 1922, churches stripped of wealth
• Russian Orthodox Church leaders executed
• 1000s priests imprisoned

15
Crushing of peasants

• Harsh punishments for civil disturbances
• 1922, Tambov region purged by Red Army
• Loyalty rewards salt, manufactured goods
• Propaganda campaign extolling benefits of NEP

16
Attacks on political rivals

• Mensheviks Socialist Revolutionaries arrested
  for supporting strikes civil disturbances
• 1921, 5000 Mensheviks arrested for
  counter-revolutionary activities
• Mensheviks SRs outlawed
• Show trials 34 Socialist Revolutionaries
  condemned as terrorists 11 executed

17
? Discussion

• Who provided a greater threat to the Bolsheviks
  intellectuals writers, Church leaders, peasant
  communities or political opponents?
• Which method of repression would have the
  greatest success censorship, the use of secret
  police, direct attacks, for example on
  individuals, sweeping attacks for example on
  communities?