InNo+tinapx2013.27.10.10

__**AWESOMNESSSSSSSS**__

this is a picture showing Lenin's body. he was a well respected man in Russia, bringing it to a republic from a autocracy. His body was therefore on display in the Red Square.

This is a pie chart showing the number of representatives for the Constituent Assembly. It shows that although the government is formed by the Bolsheviks, they are not leading the Assembly. the Assembly was broken up after only a day.

Part 3 – Lenin’s Russia

Chapter 11 – “Peace at Any Price”

· The First **Decrees** of Sovnarkom o **Sovnarkom**, with Lenin as chairman, began issuing decrees, or orders, on the day it was created. o These decrees made great changes to Russia and to the Russian people: § 8 November 1917 – A decree on land · This took 540 million acres of land away from the Tsar, the nobles, the church and other landlords. · This land was therefore given to the peasants. § 8 November – a decree on peace · This stated that Sovnarkom intended to make peace with Russia’s enemies at once. § 12 November – a decree on work. · Established an eight-hour day and 48 hour week for all industrial workers, and set rules for rules and overtime and holidays. § 14 November – a decree on unemployment insurance · Promised to give insurance to all workers against injury, illness and unemployment. § 1 December – a decree on the press · Banned all non-Bolshevik newspapers. § 11 December – Sovnarkom banned Russia’s main liberal party, the Constitutional Democratic Part, and ordered the arrest of its leaders. § 20 December – Lenin set up a political police force, the “All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to fight Counter-Revolution and Espionage” – otherwise known as CHeka. · Its job was to deal with opponents and enemies of the Bolsheviks. § 27 December – a decree on workers’ control · Put all factory under the control of elected committees of workers. § 27 December – a decree on banking · Put all the banks in Russia under the government’s control. § 31 December – a decree on marriage · This allowed couples to have non-religious weddings and made it easier to get a divorce. o In November 1917 elections were held of Russia’s new parliament, the Constituent Assembly. o This was the first free election in Russia. o The CA met for the first time on 18 January 1918. o Less than a day later, the Sovnarkom ordered it to stop meeting. o Bolshevik Red Guards with machine guns killed and wounded more than a hundred people who demonstrated in support of the Assembly outside its meeting place. o The Red Guards then prevented the elected Deputies from entering the Assembly and closed it down permanently. · The **Treaty** of Brest-Litovsk o Lenin believed that a quick end to the war against Germany and Austria was needed is the Bolsheviks were to stay in power. o Otherwise they would lose the support of the army. o On 3rd December 1917 a peace conference between Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary began at Brest-Litovsk, a town on the border with Germany. § **Leon Trotsky** was Russia’s Commissar, or minister for foreign affairs. § At the conference, he dragged out the talks for as long as he could, hoping that a socialist revolution would begin in Germany. § With a socialist government in Germany as wel as Russia, he thought, the two countries could make a fair and democratic peace with each other. § Trotsky span out the talks for nine weeks but no revolution began in Germany. § In February 1918 the German army advanced into Russia and got so close to Petrograd that Lenin decided to make peace at any price. o The treaty between Russia and Germany was one of the harshest treaties ever made. o Russia had to give up al her western lands. o Those were the richest areas of the country: § They lost 26 percent of her population § 27 percent of her farm land § 26 percent of her railways § 74 percent of her iron ore and coal o Russia also had to pay a fine of 300 million gold roubles to Germany. o Lenin said that peace would give the Bolsheviks a “breathing space” which would help them get a grip on the country. o But soon another type started, the CIVIL WAR.
 * · The Constituent Assembly **

Chapter 12 Civil War and Foreign Intervention

· Civil War o After peace with Germany, the enemies within began to fight the Bolsheviks. o Serious fighting began in May 1918 when anti-Bolshevik soldiers took control of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia’s vital link between east and west. o During May 1918, 45,000 Czech POW was being taken across Russia on trains to Vladivostok. o On the way for the to be put on ships and sent back to their country, on train-load of Czechs got into a quarrel with the Soviet of a town on the railway. § This became a fight and the Czechs took control of the town. § When rescue arrived, more people joined in the fight. § Within two weeks, they had taken over all of the important town in the areas. § But the end of the year, nearly all the railway and the towns along its route were in Czech hands. o B’s enemies joined the C’s in the fight. § Under C’s protection they set up their own government and claimed that they ruled Russia. o The new government was called Komuch § Stands for Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. § It quickly organized the enemies into a People’s Army, which advanced on Moscow. o The Bolshevik government, which by now had moved to Moscow, took desperate measure to protect itself. § First it introduced conscription. · This means that men aged 18 to 40 had to serve in a new Bolshevik army – the Red Army. · Trotsky was to run it. · His first problem was to find officers to lead the Red Arcy, for most of the troops were raw recruits. · His solution was to appoint former officers of the Tsar’s Army. · If they refused, they were to sent to prison camps. · Any officers to tries deserting to the enemy found his family taken hostage and kept in prison. · Using these methods, he managed to find 22,000 officers to command the 330,000 men of the Red Army. o Against the **Red Army (Reds)** were the **Whites**. o Even though “white” was the original color of the Tsar, not all Whites are supporters of the Tsar. § Many were SRs, democrats, landlords and nobles. § Which was pretty much anyone who doesn’t like the Bolsheviks. o By the end of 1918 four White Armies were attacking the heartland of Russia, which was held by the Bolsheviks. o They were helped by foreign armies, which had been sent by the Allies, the countries whose side Russia ha fought in the Great War. § The Allies were angry at Russia for with drawing from the war and wanted to crush the Bolshevik government. § So in addition to the Whites, the Res had to face foreign “**armies of intervention**” from Britain, France, America and Japan. o Fighting between the Reds and the Whites in the Russian Civil War (RCW) was often very savage. o Many were killed, including the ex Tsar and his family, who were now prisoners of the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinbutg, a town in the Ural Mountains. o The town seemed to be captured by the Czechs Legion. § The Bolsheviks fear that the Tsar would be saved and would become the leader of the White Armies. § So the Bolsheviks shot Nick dead and along with his wife and kids and servants. o The Bs nearly lost their own leader in august 1918. § A SR named Fanya Kaplan shot Lenin three times at point blank range while he was getting out of a car in Moscow. § Although the bullets entered his neck, Lenin survived and recovered within weeks. § All that Fanya Kaplan achieved by shooting Lenin was to convince the Bolsheviks that ruthless methods were needed to deal with their White enemies. o A week after the shooting, Sovnarkom ordered the Cheka, the secret political police, to begin a “Red Terror”. o The **Cheka**, led by Felix Dzerchinsky, had its head-quarters in Lubyanka Street in Moscow. § In the cellars, Cheka agents tortured prisoners to extract confessions before executing them. § Cheka units in the countryside hanged, beat, shot and burned anyone who helped the Whites or fought for them. § Soon the name of the Cheka aroused fear even among loyal Bolsheviks. o Trotsky also had his own form of terror in the Red Army: 1. Every Scoundrel who incite anyone to retreat, to desert, or not to fulfill a military order, will be shot. 2. Every soldier of the Red Army who voluntarily deserts his post, will be shot. 3. Every soldier who throws away his rifle or sells part of his equipment will be shot… 4. Those guilty of harboring deserters are liable to be shot. 5. Houses in which deserters are found are liable to be burned down. o Trotsky was not just a tyrant. He was also a good military leader. § He spend much of the RCW travelling from one area of the fighting to another. § From his war train, he directed the movements of the Red Army, delivered supplies, gave encouragement, and dealt with troublemakers. § He made sure that the Red Army was an effective and united fighting force. o Gradually the Army began to win the Civil War. § In 1919 the foreign armies of intervention were withdrawn u Russia, leaving the White Armies to fight alone. § The Whites never came together as a united force, so Trotsky was always able to fight them on e at a time. § By the end of 1919 only isolated groups of Whites were still fighting. o The Bolshevik government was safe for the time being.
 * · The Czech Legion **
 * · Red and Whites **
 * · The Red Terror **

Chapter 13 – “One Step Backwards…” War Communism and the NEP”

· Bolsheviks o During the Civil War the Bolsheviks took strict measures to organize industry and food supplies in the areas under their control. o They had two aim § To keep the Red Army supplied with food and weapons, § And to introduce a system of communism – the equal of sharing wealth. o These measures are collectively known as War Communism o There were five aspects of War Communism: § 1. All factories with more than ten workers were nationalized – that is, taken over by the government. · a government body called Vesnkha (the Supreme Council of National Economy) decided exactly what each industry should produce. § 2. All workers were under government control · there were military discipline in the factories, including the death penalty for strikers. · The unemployed were made to join “Labor Armies”, cutting trees or building roads, for example. § 3. Private trading was banned. · Peasants had to give their surplus food to the government: they could not sell it for profit. § 4. The government allowed money to lose its value through inflation. · It abolished rents, railway fares, postal charges and many other money payments. · In place of money, people were encouraged to barter. § 5. In cities food was strictly rationed. o War Communism succeeded in one of its aims: the Red Army was kept supplied with food and weapons. o But WC failed in its other aim – to share Russia’s wealth equally. § In the countryside, many peasants decided to grow just enough food just for themselves, because what was the point when the government was to take the food away anyways? o The result was food shortage in 1920 and then a terrible famine in 1921. § Starvation, the cold and disease killed a total of seven million Russians. § 25 million Russians were living below subsistence level. · The New Economic Policy o In March 1921 there was a revolt of 10,000 sailors at **Kronstadt**, a naval base near Petrograd. § K had been loyal to the Bs ever since the Revolution, but now the sailors said that WC was not what the Bs had promised in 1917. o Trotsky and other Red Army generals surrounded K with 60,000 troops. § They bombed the naval base and then attacked the sailors’ headquarters § Many sailors were killed in hand-to-hand combat. § The rest were captured and later shot by the Cheka. o The K rising was crushed, but Lenin realized that a change of policy was needed if there were to be no more rising like it. o In march 1921 Lenin abandoned WC and introduced the **New Economic policy or NEP.** o The NEP states that: § 1. Peasants could sell their surplus food for profit again. § 2. Peasants who increased their food production would pay less tax. § 3. Factories with fewer than twenty workers would be given baack to their ownder. § 4. People could use money once again. o Many Bs were shocked by the NEP. § They said it was a step backwards towards the old capitalist system. § Lenin said the by taking a stip back they would be able to take two steps forward toward Communism. o By 1925 the NEP had begun to work. · The 1923 Constitution o The start of 1923, Russia gained a new constitution and a new name. o The 1923 Constitution stated that Russia was a “**Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”** o The country was now a union of four republics: § Russia, § Byelorussia, § The Ukraine and the § Caucasus. o Each republic had its own government with control such issues such as public health, welfare and education. o The national government in Moscow, Sovnarkom retained control over national concerns such as the armed forces, industry, communication and the secret police. · Lenin’s Death o Lenin did not live to see the USSR grow to be one of the great powers of the twentieth century world. § In 192 an 1923 he suffered from a bunch of strokes and in January 1924, he died at the age of 53. o Lenin was not buried or cremated after his funeral. § His body was embalmed and put on display in a tomb in Red Square in Moscow. o Every year since his death, millions of visitors from all over the USSR and from other countries have queued to see Lenin’s corpse, a sign that he is regarded in the USSR as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century.
 * · War Communism **

Summary:

Lenin began making changes in Russia including on regulations on land and marriage. They formed a parliament but was broken up after only a day. Then Russia went to war with Germany but lost and in the Peace Treaty, they had to pay a lot of money and give a lot of land to Germany. Czech people started taking over Russia, so Trotsky formed a Red Army to save Russia. A civil started between the Bolsheviks and everyone who hated the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks won. Changes were made for communism, but it wasn’t successful, many revolted so Lenin changed the rules. The NEP was very good and a new constitution was formed. Russia is now called the USSR. Lenin died in 1924.

Question: 1. What four republic forms the USSR? 2. What was the red terror? 3. Why was War Communism not successful? 4. What was the result of the unsuccessful War Communism? 5. Why did non-Russians also join the White army?