From Revolution of Russia

1
1917 - 1924

• From Revolution of Russia Communism of Soviet
  Union

2
The All-Russian Congress 1917

• The Bolsheviks remained a significant minority
  within the broad group of Communists Social
  Revolutionaries. The All-Russian Congress of
  Soviets (June 1917) showed the following
  breakdown

3
August-November 1917Total Revolution

• Failing Provisional Government
• Due to deeply-unpopular shortages, combined with
  the continuing sacrifices, at home and at the war
  front, The Provisional Govt. began to lose its
  grip on control of the newly-democratic, yet
  highly-unstable Russia.
• Lvov appoints Kerensky in August.
• Kerensky formed a unpopular coalition government
  of Liberals Moderate Socialists.

• Bolsheviks Seize Power
• October 25th Bolsheviks seized principal
  buildings of Petrograd.
• Seized the Winter Palace HQ of Kerenskys
  Provisional Government.
• Lenin installed as Chairman of the new Bolshevik
  Russian Government.
• Lenin Bolsheviks still only controlled area
  around Petrograd.
• November 7th on Gregorian Calendar

4
Lenins Russia

• Over the next 6 years, Russia would be
  transformed through a series of strategies
  events
• Consolidating Bolshevik supremacy in Russia
• Lenin the Treaty of Brest Litovsk
• The Russian Civil War 1918 1921
• Lenins War Communism
• The Kronstadt Rebellion
• The Comintern
• The New Economic Policy

5
The First Days of Leninism

• Lenin believed that Western Europe would soon be
  swept by International Communism. In fact, this
  was a goal of the Bolsheviks. (Comintern)
• Therefore, he concluded that Peace was the
  priority cause Peace, Land, Bread
• In order to achieve peace, Lenin had to withdraw
  all Russian forces from World War I. He
  personally drove through the harsh terms of the
  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
• Bolsheviks were still a minority within the
  larger family of Communists Social
  Revolutionaries.

6
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)

• Trotsky (negotiating for Russia) initially
  walked out on excessive German demands No
  Peace, No War
• Russia ceded Poland her Baltic lands to Germany
  Austria-Hungary.
• Russia also recognised the independence of the
  Ukraine Finland.
• Trotsky resented these severe losses, but in
  Lenins mind, it mattered little and he insisted
  on Russias acceptance. Russia lost
• 30 of agricultural land
• 30 of population
• 50 of industry

7
Consolidating Bolshevik Control 1918
1920
Consolidating Political Power
Consolidating Economic Control

• Once in power, Lenin the Bolsheviks began
  seizing businesses, banks property.
• They nationalised all these private entreprises
  assets.
• Church property nobles land was seized. All
  private property was abolished.
• Land was given to the peasants.

• Elections, scheduled by the Provisional Govt.
  were allowed to go ahead. However, the Bolsheviks
  only gained 175 seats out of 700.
• Lenin closed the democratic Assembly after one
  day in January 1918.
• The new Bolshevik secret police Cheka -
  arrested executed all those who protested or
  criticised Lenin and/or Bolsheviks who now
  called themselves Communists
• After a failed assassination attempt on Lenin,
  Bolshevik forces launched a Red Terror campaign
  in late 1918, rooting out all resistance to
  Bolshevik control.
• Women got the vote.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat?
8
Russian Civil War 1918 - 1920Reds v. Whites

• The Reds were the Bolsheviks (Communists) and
  believed in revolution through armed insurrection
  coupled with political organisation. Their
  single-handed closing down of all democratic
  assemblies crushing of opposition through the
  Red Terror, while introducing Nationalisation,
  served to provoke a massive backlash from other
  groups in opposition to them.
• The Whites were mainly the Mensheviks who
  believed in slow, gradual peaceful
  transformation of society. They opposed bitterly
  the methods and single-handed rule of the Reds
  and were joined by Tsarists Social
  Revolutionaries in a bid to oust the new
  Bolshevik (Communist) Government.
• They would receive outside aid (money armies)
  from the
• USA, France, Britain Japan.

Whites associated with being anti-Russian
foreign aid intervention
9
Russian Civil War 1918 - 1920
Lenins War Communism
Whites Confusion

• Lenin introduced War Communism during the Civil
  War struggle. Bolsheviks effectively controlled
  only Petrograd Moscow at beginning of Civil
  War.
• This involved seizing food for factory workers to
  feed factory workers in Petrograd Moscow. The
  Red Guards were central to this State requisition
  (requisition squads system of forced
  quotas.)
• Red Guards seized food from agricultural
  peasants, but in 1920 a famine occurred after
  they refused to grow food.

• Efforts by the Whites were confused due to their
  different backgrounds and aims
• Tsarists Return to Tsar Rule?
• Cadets Return to Liberal Democracy?
• Social Revolutionaries/ Mensheviks Pure
  Socialism?

By 1920, the skill of Leon Trotsky had
transformed the Red Guards into the Red Army,
which was highly-motivated, unified well-fed.
The Civil War was effectively won.
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War Communism Civil War Kronstadt Rebellion
(March 3, 1921)
Roots of Kronstadt Rebellion

• The harshness of the Bolsheviks towards the
  peasants especially during the Civil War, left
  many people wondering just what kind of social
  justice they had supported in revolution. Also,
  the Bolsheviks were the smallest group of
  reformers at the All-Russian Congress of 1917.
  Legitimacy?
• The effects of War Communism on the peasants
  especially aroused anger in otherwise supportive
  groups, such as the Russian sailors.
• The closing of the new democratic Assembly in
  January 1918 aroused deep anger suspicion
  amongst many peasants, soldiers sailors.
• While most peasants, soldiers sailors supported
  vast reforms of the old Tsar system, they were
  afraid of replacing one tyrant with another.

The Petropavlovsk
The famed rebellion of the battleship Potemkin
during the 1905 Revolution was an uncomfortable
comparison for the Bolsheviks while they
attempted to suppress the Kronstadt Rebellion,
led by Stephan Petrichenko
http//www-personal.umich.edu/mhuey/TOC/KRN.frame
.html
11
Kronstadt Naval Base
Tuchachevskys Approach (March 16th)
55 kms
St Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad
12
Kronstadt Rebellion

• "I am simultaneously giving orders to prepare for
  the suppression of the rebellion and the
  subjugation of the sailors by armed force. All
  responsibility for the harm that may be suffered
  by the peaceful population will rest entirely on
  the heads of the White Guard mutineers. This
  warning is final.
• L.Trotsky, L.Kamenev, Ultimatum to Kronstadt.
• "We have one answer to all that All power to the
  Soviets! Take your hands off them - the hands
  that are red with the blood of the martyrs of
  freedom who fought the White Guards, the
  landowners and the bourgeoisie!
• - Kronstadt Izvestiya, No.6.

• Note the reference by Trotsky Kamenev to the
  ..White Guard mutineers.
• Note also the response by the Kronstadt rebels
  All Power to the Soviets. Take your hands off
  them the hands that are red with the blood of
  martyrswho fought the White Guards, the
  landowners and the bourgeoisie
• Both sides accused the other of being enemies of
  the people and of the broad revolution in 1917.
• Kronstadt Naval base had a long and chequered
  reputation of being independent
  revolutionary. The famous 1905 incident of the
  Potemkin was probably the most memorable incident
  of anti-Tsar revolt during that period, later to
  be immortalised in the film The Potemkin
  (1925).
• During the 1917 Revolution, naval ships had
  participated in crushing General Kornilovs
  failed retrograde attack on Petrograd.

13
Kronstadt Rebellion True
Communism or Counter-Revolution?
Demands of Kronstadt Sailors A Broader Consensus

• On February 27, 1921, the Petrograd Strike
  Committee had issued the following demands to
  Lenins Bolshevik Government
• The whole policy of the government must undergo
  a thorough change, and first and foremost the
  workers and peasants must have their freedom.
  They do not want to follow Bolshevist leaders
  they want to decide their own lot for themselves.
  You must therefore put forward the following
  demands urgently and in an organized way
• The release of all socialist and non-party
  workers who have been arrested.
• The abolition of the state of siege.
• Freedom of speech, the press, and meeting for
  all working classes.
• Free voting in new elections for the factory
  committees, trade unions and Soviets.

• Kronstadt Naval base was only the most prominent
  centre of anti-Bolshevism during the early years
  of the new Russia.
• The Petrograd Soviet had issued a damning
  indictment (only 5 days before the Kronstadt
  Rebellion) of Lenins War Communism but more
  importantly, had openly criticised Lenin for the
  abolition of democratic rights institutions.

14
Kronstadt Postscript

• Lenin the Bolsheviks eventually crushed the
  mutiny in Kronstadt on the night of March 16th,
  1921. Conspirators, sailors fishermen were
  executed for their part in the mutiny.
• This represented the last significant effort to
  oust Bolshevism or alter its excessively
  dictatorial position and ideology.
• Showed the deep division contrast between the
  popular uprising of the February Revolution of
  1917, the more limited revolution of October 1917
  ultimately the narrow, despotic rule of
  Bolshevism during the Russian Civil War
  Kronstadt Mutiny.
• The policies of War Communism, the closing of
  the National Assembly in January 1918 and
  suppression of democratic rights by the Cheka
  had all contributed to the mutiny in Kronstadt.

15
Communist International The Comintern

• The Third International, 1919 1943
• "by all available means, including armed force,
  for the overthrow of the international
  bourgeoisie and for the creation of an
  international Soviet republic as a transition
  stage to the complete abolition of the State.
• Zinoviev
• Chairman of Comintern
• 1919 -1928
• Aim To spread Communism to other nations,
  particularly focusing on western capitalist
  countries.
• The Comintern assisted and eventually, over a
  number of years, began to control the activities
  of foreign Communist parties.

16
Lenins New Economic Policy 1921
17
War Communism N.E.P.

• The collapse of the productive forces surpassed
  anything of the kind that history had ever seen.
  The country, and the government with it, were at
  the very edge of the abyss.
  
  -
  Leon Trotsky
• I ask you, comrades, to be clear that the New
  Economic Policy is only a temporary deviation, a
  tactical retreat.
• - Zinoviev
• The harsh realities of War Communism, coupled
  with the real demands of the peasants as
  portrayed by the Kronstadt Rebellion, made it
  clear to Lenin that War Communism was neither
  economically effective nor popular with the
  peasants.
• In response to this, Lenin sought to rescue both
  the economic well-being of the country and
  restore confidence in the Bolshevik Party by
  introducing a New Economic Policy. It had
  elements of quasi-capitalism, allowing for small
  businesses to open and allowing peasants to sell
  their surplus grain for profit.

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New Economic Policy

• Rationale
• Ostensibly, Lenin wanted to revive the economic
  well-being of Russia. In reality, Lenin was aware
  of the failure of War Communism and wanted to
  appeal to the peasants for continued support. He
  also wanted to defuse any lingering discontent
  after the death of 1,000 Russian sailors and the
  repression by the State in Kronstadt.
• New Economic Policy
• Tax on peasants harvests. (lower than the terms
  of War Communism)
• 2. Peasants allowed to sell excess produce for
  profit.
• Although state control remained on all
  large-scale businesses and banking, small
  businesses were allowed to open.

• 4. Foreign trade investment was encouraged in
  the hope that it would revive the faltering
  Russian economy
• 5. Bonuses were introduced in the workplace
  (incentives)
• 6. A state bank was established Lenin
  directed the formation of a state economic
  planning commission Gosplan to help direct
  future funding development of the Russian
  economy.

19
New Economic Policy
20

• Results
• By 1924, 40 of Russian domestic trade was
  sourced in private businesses. The economy
  flourished with industrial and agricultural
  output reaching pre-war levels (see graph).
• Consequences
• The end of restrictions on private small
  businesses was a blow to die-hard Communists, yet
  it reflected the pragmatism of Lenin who realised
  Russia could not instantaneously move to pure
  Communism. The Communist die-hards saw it as a
  betrayal and Lenin faced severe criticism from
  some quarters.
• This pragmatism however, stabilised Russia
  sufficiently in an economic sense to allow Lenin
  to pursue the total transformation (politically)
  of Russia into the USSR.
• 3. The first attempt at State Planning was
  introduced under the Gosplan although it was
  not in anyway truly Communist (foreign trade,
  small private businesses) it did allow Russia to
  begin catching up on Western countries
  prosperity levels.

21
Constructivism A Communist Art Form
22
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) - 1922

• Treaty of Creation
• of the USSR (1922)
• The following countries/republics were unified
  under the title USSR from 1922 onwards
• Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian Transcaucasian
  Soviet Republics were all amalgamated into the
  USSR in 1922.
• More states would be subsumed into the USSR at
  later dates.
• The Constitution of the USSR codified made
  legal the union of soviet socialist republics in
  1924.

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Centralised, Dictatorial Bolshevism of
the USSR Dictatorship of the Proletariat?

• By 1921, it became clear that Lenins ideal was
  one of a centralised, authoritarian Bolshevik
  government ruling over the entire Russian
  territories.
• In 1922, Russia became the USSR (Union of Soviet
  Socialist Republics), but in reality Russia at
  the centre of the Soviet Union, became the
  effective principal state of leadership and
  authority.
• What is To Be Done? - Lenin, 1902.
• In this essay on the future of
  revolutionary planning, Lenin does betray his
  desire to rule Russia in an authoritarian way.
• By the time of Lenins death in 1924,
  the USSR had been safely founded with the
  amalgamation of neighbouring territories into a
  larger, unified, politically-centralised economic
  power

24
Soviet Union in 1924

• After Lenin died in 1924, a power vacuum opened
  up over the leadership of the Bolshevik Party
  the USSR.
• This power vacuum would define the course of
  Soviet History for the next thirty to forty
  years. The contenders for Lenins position were
  mainly two men
• Ideological Battle of Leadership in USSR
• Leon Trotsky - a devout believer in
  International Socialism head of the Red Army
• v.
• Joseph Stalin quiet and introverted, General
  Secretary of the Communist Party, he began to
  favour what he would eventually call Socialism
  in One Country

25
Leadership Power Struggle Begins in USSR

http//www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/quotes.htm
- Lenins quotes on Socialism, Communism, the
Proletariat Revolution
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