InNo+seank2013+10.25.10

=Part 3: Lenin's Russia=

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The first decrees of Sovnarkom

 * 1) Sovnarkom was the new government started by Lenin and began issuing which led to significant changes in Russia.
 * 2) **A decree on Land** - November 8, 1917
 * 3) 540 million acres of land that were once owned by the Tsar, Nobles, Church and landlords were given to peasants to divide among themselves.
 * 4) **A decree on Peace** - November 8, 1917
 * 5) Attempt to make peace with enemies of Russia
 * 6) **A decree on Work** - November 12, 1917
 * 7) 8 hour work days, 48 hour week for industrial workers, rules on overtime and holidays written down.
 * 8) **A decree on Unemployment Insurance** - November 14, 1917
 * 9) Give Insurance to all workers for injury, illness and unemployment
 * 10) **A decree on the Press** - December 1, 1917
 * 11) All non-Bolshevik newspapers banned
 * 12) December 11, 1917
 * 13) Banned Russia's main liberal party, the constitutional Democratic Party, and ordered the arrest of its leaders.
 * 14) December 20, 1917
 * 15) Lenin set up a political police force called the All Russian Extraordinary Commission to fight Conter-Revolution and Espionage or Cheka. It's job was to deal with enemies of the Bolsheviks.
 * 16) **A decree on Worker's Control** - December 27, 1917
 * 17) Factories were under control of elected committees of workers.
 * 18) **A decree on banking** - December 27, 1917
 * 19) all banks in Russia were under Sovnarkom's control
 * 20) **A decree on marriage**- December 31, 1917
 * 21) Couples can get married and divorce non religiously easier.

The Constituent Assembly

 * 1) This was held in November 1917, making it its new parliament and permitted in the first time in history, free elections.
 * 2) Bolsheviks were badly beaten in the election because the Socialist Revolutionaries had the most people.
 * 3) Met for the first time in January 18, 1918
 * 4) However less than 24 hours later, Sovnarkom ordered a stop to the meeting.
 * 5) Bolshevik Red Guards with machine guns killed and wounded more than a 100 people that demonstrated support for the Assembly outside the meeting place.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

 * 1) Needed to end war with Germany and Austria to keep Bolsheviks in power.
 * 2) On December 3, 1917 there was a peace conference between Russia, Germany and Austria at Brest-Litovsk.


 * 1) On February 1918, German army advanced too close to Petrograd and forced Lenin to make peace
 * 2) Russia had to give up all western lands such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Georgia
 * 3) These were rich countries which resulted in Russia losing 62 million people
 * 4) 27% farm land, 26% railways, 74% iron, ore and coal were taken
 * 5) Had to pay 300 million roubles to Germany
 * 6) Lenin wanted peace so they agreed to this but soon civil war began.

The Czech Legion

 * 1) May 1918, 45 thousand Czech prisoners of war were sent to Vladistok, put on ships and sent back to the country.
 * 2) During the journey, the Czecks took over the ship and decided to take control of a Soviet town
 * 3) When Bolshevik troops arrive to stop the fight, more Czecks join and take over important towns in two weeks.
 * 4) At the end of 1918, most of the Trans-Siberian Railway and towns along the route were under the Czecks.
 * 5) Enemies of Bolsheviks joined the Zeck and set up their own government, claiming to try to rule Russia.
 * 6) Komuch also known as (Committee of Members of Constituent Assembly)
 * 7) Organized into People's Army, moved towards Moscow and captured 650 million gold roubles when attacking government's gold reserve in Kazan.
 * 8) Bolsheviks introduced conscription
 * 9) All men 18-40 had to join the new Red Army
 * 10) This was organized by Leon Trotsky
 * 11) Appointed former officers of the Tsar
 * 12) Managed to gather 22,000 officers and 330 thousand men

Reds and Whites

 * 1) Whites were the enemies of the Red army
 * 2) White represented the color of the Tsar, however not many did actually support the Tsar.
 * 3) Many Socialist revolutionaries, democrats, landlords and nobles
 * 4) Had to fight off both the White Armies and the Allies.
 * 5) The allies were angry for Russia pulling out of the war.
 * 6) Allies: Britain, France, America, Japan
 * 7) Tsar Nicholas II and his family were shot dead by local Bolsheviks in fear of the White Armies reinstating him as a leader.
 * 8) There were assassination attempts by Socialist Revolutionary Fanya kaplan who shot Lenin three times.
 * 9) He got shot in the neck but survived and recovered quickly
 * 10) Sovnarkom was convinced that ruthlessness was the only way to deal with the White Armies.
 * 11) Cheka, the secret political police started the Red Terror

The Red Terror

 * 1) Cheka was led by Felix Dzezhinksy, headquarters in Lubyanka Street, Moscow
 * 2) Tortured prisoners to extract confessions before execution in Lubyanka prisons
 * 3) Beat, hanged, shot and burned anyone supporting the whites
 * 4) Started to bring fear in everyone
 * 5) Leon Trotsky also had his own form of terror in 1918
 * 6) Anyone who disobeys the military and retreats or desert army is shot
 * 7) Anyone who voluntarily deserts post is shot
 * 8) Anyone who throws rifle or sells it away will be shot
 * 9) Those harboring deserters will be shot
 * 10) Houses where deserters are found will be shot.
 * 11) He was not just a tyrant but a good military leader
 * 12) Traveled around to direct the Red Army, giving encouragement and supplies
 * 13) Red army became an effective and united fighting force
 * 14) Began to end civil war and foreign armies started to pull out of Russia.
 * 15) White Armies were slowly defeated.
 * 16) Only isolated groups of the White armies kept fighting

War Communism

 * 1) Five Aspects
 * 2) All factories with more than 10 workers are nationalized by government body (Vesenkha) who decided what each industry can produce
 * 3) All workers are under government control
 * 4) This was enforced by military discipline and death penalty for strikers
 * 5) Unemployed people had to join "Labor Armies" like cutting trees and building roads.
 * 6) Private trading was banned and peasants with extra food were not allowed to sell, but give it to the government.
 * 7) Abolished rents, railways fares, postal charges.
 * 8) Money was allowed to inflate and people were encouraged to barter
 * 9) Red army was well supplied but war communism wasn't as successful.
 * 10) Many people in the countryside didn't want to grow more than they needed for the government
 * 11) Food shortage in 1920 and famine in 1921 killed 7 million Russians
 * 12) 25 million Russians lived under subsistence level.

The New Economic Policy

 * 1) On March 1921 10 thousand sailors in Kronstadt revolted, claiming that War Communism was what the government promised. They wanted to attack Petrograd
 * 2) Leon Trotsky surrounded them and crushed the rebellion
 * 3) There needed to be changes so
 * 4) Trotsky abandoned war communism in March 1921, started the New Economic Policy
 * 5) NEP stated:
 * 6) Peasants can sell surplus foods for profit
 * 7) Factories who increased food production had less tax
 * 8) Factories with fewer than 20 workers can be given back to owners
 * 9) People can use money again
 * 10) Many Bolsheviks were shcoked, by taking a step backwards in the capitalist system and two steps forward in communism
 * 11) In 1925, NEP started to work, food production went up, industrial output also greatly increased.

The 1923 Constitution

 * 1) Made a new constitution with a new name
 * 2) It was called the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"
 * 3) There were now four republics, Russia, Byelourussia, Ukrain and Caucasus
 * 4) Each republic had their own government and could control public health, welfare and education
 * 5) National government but Sovnarkom still controlled the army, industry, communications and Cheka.

Lenin's death

 * 1) Suffered from a series of strokes from 1922-1923 and passed away in January 1924 when he was 53 years old.
 * 2) He was embalmed and put on display in a tomb in Red Square Moscow
 * 3) Millions of visitors all over USSR and other countries queued to see his body, showing that he was regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century

Summary
The Sovnarkom that was started by Lenin came into power and issued decrees that governed the country differently. They also created the Constituent Assemly but it failed. Afterwards, to make peace in Russia, the government had to agree to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to end the war with Germany. In 1918, the Czeck Legion was formed when war prisoners took over parts of Russia and it started the civil war between the Red and the White. This was ended by the Red Terror where it rules were enforced with military discipline. At the end, they created the NEP that led to the constitution in 1923 that made Russia into four republics. Lenin later past away at January 1924

Questions

 * 1) How was the NEP one step forward and two steps backward?
 * 2) What were the first 5 actions of Svonarkom?
 * 3) Why did the Russians agree to the Treaty of Litovsk?
 * 4) How did the Czeck legion start?
 * 5) What resulted in the abandonment of War Communism?