? starter activity

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? starter activity
OK FSG what would you do if you were in my shoes?
Not so easy now, is it!
What problems did Lenin face in October 1917? If
his Bolshevik party is to remain in power what
does he need to do, and do quickly?
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• Gain control of the army
• Remove political opposition
• Set up a new government deal with the issue of
  the Constituent assembly
• Pull out of the War
• Deal with Russias pressing social and economic
  problems

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Why were the Bolsheviks able to stay in power?
? Aims

• Define key words
• Identify the problems facing the Bolsheviks in
  1917

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? Your task

• Read Watts p.113 and list the problems facing the
  Bolsheviks in October 1917

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? Your task

• Create a spider diagram exploring the problems
  facing the Bolsheviks in 1917. Include the
  following topics
• Sovnakom
• Army
• Cheka
• Constituent assembly
• War
• Opposition
• Social issues

Watts, pp.113-117
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Sovnakom

• Peoples Commissars new name for ministers
• Sovnakom, The Soviet of the Peoples Commissars
• Issued decrees with the authority of Congress of
  Soviets
• Largely one-party executive body - Dictatorship
  of the proletariat (Marx)

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Army

• Bolshevik policy of swift end to war won support
  of ordinary soldiers
• Traditional officer hierarchy weakened by
  soldiers committees
• Murder of Dukhonin
• Armistice signed with Germany

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Cheka

• All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for
  Combating Counter-Revolution Sabotage Cheka
• Chief of Staff, Dzerzhinsky
• Arrests of political opponents, esp. SRs
• Growth in size 120 (March 1918) -143,000 (1921)
• Not restricted by law
• 50,000 executions (1918)
• Labour camps

Do not think I seek revolutionary forms of
justice. We are not in need of justice What does
this quote from Dzerzhinsky tell us about the
Cheka?
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Constituent Assembly
Party of votes
SRs 40.4
Bolsheviks 23.2
Mensheviks 2.9
Kadets 4.6
Others 24.9

• Dissolved within 48 hours
• The Assembly was inappropriate as it was
  Elected on the old register (Lenin)

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War

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918
• Opposition from Trotsky following a No peace, no
  war plan
• Huge concessions of land industrial capacity
• Bolsheviks seen to betray Mother Russia

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Opposition

• Bourgeois parties (i.e. Liberals) banned
• Newspaper censorship
• Anti-govt. demonstrations suppressed
• Control over local societs
• Opposition groups disbanded or went underground

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Decrees

• Peace (Oct 1917)
• Land (Oct 1917)
• Nationalities (Oct 1917)
• Housing
• Civil marriage
• Commissariat of Education
• Abolition of titles
• Institute for Protection of Mothers Children
• Factories nationalised

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? Discussion

• Which was the biggest problem Lenin and the
  Bolsheviks faced?
• Which problem did he deal with best?
• Write a judgement paragraph summarising your
  ideas.

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? Your task

• Read Lynch p.107-109 and answer these questions
• What were the key terms of the Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk
• What role did Trotsky play
• Why were Trotsky Lenin prepared to accept the
  terms of the Treaty?

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Terms of Tr. of Brest-Litovsk

• 1/3 of European Russia (from Baltic to Black Sea,
  including Ukraine given to Germany her allies
• 1m sq. kms
• 45m people (Lynch)
• 3b roubles reparations

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Trotskys role

• Adopted middle path between Lenin (immediate end
  to War) Left-wing revolutionaries who wanted to
  extend revolution to Germany
• Trotsky prolonged negotiations to increase
  chances of revolution among German army

Trotsky at the conference
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Reasons for accepting terms

• Germany govt was pay-rolling Bolshevik Party
  even after armistice (Dec 1917)
• Lenin hoped for return of Russian lands if
  Germany lost WWI
• Treaty portrayed as a German diktat Russia
  had no alternative
• Provided a breathing space to recuperate for the
  struggle
• Lenin Trotsky committed to worldwide revolution
  national boundaries or concessions of lesser
  importance

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Plenary

• Study the soundbites on the handout your teacher
  gives you. Match a soundbite to a member of
  Russian society.

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Answers

• A i
• B viii
• C iv
• D v
• E vii
• F vi
• G ii
• H iii