-InNo+Ho+Soo's+Notes+(Part+3)+Notebook+10.24.10

This is a picture of Leon Trotsky. He is very well known for tyranny and his leadership.
 * Awesomeness**


 * Notes**


 * Peace at any price **


 * Sovnarkom** - short for Council of Peoples Commissar.

The first decrees of Sovanarkom - Lenin became the chairman of Sovnarkom.

8 November 1917 - **A decree on land** took 540 million acres of land away from the Tsar, the nobles, the church and other landlords. - It was given to the peasants to divide among themselves.

8 November - **A decree on peace** started that Sovnarkom intended to make peace with Russia's enemies at once.

12 November - **A decree on work** established an eight-hour day and a forty-eight hour week for all industrial workers.

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 Party, 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' also known as **Cheka.**

27 December - **A decree on workers'** control put all factories under the control of elected Committees of workers.

27 December - **A decree on banking** put all banks in Russia under Sovnarkom's control.

31 December - **A decree on marriage** allowed couples to have non-religious weddings and made it easier to divorce.

- In November 1917, Russia's first free election was held. - The Socialist Revolutionaries gained more seats in the assembly than all the other parties put together. - Bolshevik Red Guards killed a hundred people who demonstrated in support of the Assembly outside its meeting place. - Red Guards then closed the meeting and banned people from coming in.
 * The Constituent Assembly**

- Lenin believed that Bolsheviks had to stay in power in order for a quick victory over the **Germans** and **Austrians**. - On 3 December 1917 a peace conference between Russia, Germany and Austria, Hungary began at Brest-Litovsk. (a town in Germany) - **Leon Trotsky** - was Russia's Commissar, or minister, for Foreign Affairs. - Trotsky made long speeches for nine weeks but no revolution began in Germany. - In February 1918, the German army went into Russia and got so close to Petrograd that Lenin decided to make peace at any price. - Russia had to give up all their western lands (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Ukraine and Georgia.) - Russia now in peace, Lenin said that the peace would give the Bolsheviks a **'breathing space'.**
 * The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk**

- Czech war prisoners were being taken across Russia on trians to Vladivostok. - They had a fight with the Soviets and eventually took control of the town. - By the end of 1918 nearly all the Trans-Siberian Railway and the towns along its route were in Czech hands.
 * The Czech Legion**

- Against the Red Army, or 'Reds' as they were known, was a great variety of enemies known as ' **Whites** '. - They were called Whites because white was the traditional color of the Tsar. - By the end of 1918 four White Armies were attacking the heartland of Russia which was held by the Bolsheviks. - Fights were often very savage. - Many thousands people on both sides were killed, including civilians. - The Bolsheviks nearly lost their own leader in August 1918.
 * Reds and Whites**

- The Cheka, led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, had its head quarters in Lubyanka Street in Moscow. - In the Red Army Leon Trotsky carried out his own form of terror. In 1918 he issued this order: 1. Every scoundrel who incites 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 throws away his rifle or sells part of his equipment will be shot... 6. Those guilty of harboring deserters are liable to be shot. 7. Houses in which deserters are found are liable to be burned down. - Trotsky was a very good military leader. - Gradually the REd Army began to win the Civil War. - By the end of 1919 only isolated groups of Whites were still fighting.
 * The Red Terror**


 * 'One step backwards...' War Communism and the Nep**

- There were five aspects of War Communism.  - War Communism succeeded in one of its aims: the Red Army was kept supplied with food and weapons and, as you read, it won the Civil War in 1920.
 * War Communism**

**The New Economic Policy** - In March 1921 there was a revolt of 10,000 sailors at Kronstadt (a naval base near Petrograd) - In March 1921 Lenin abandoned War Communism and introduced the New Economic Policy, or NEP, in its place.

**The 1923 Constitution** - The 1923 Constitution said that Russia was a ' Union of Soviet Socialist Republics '.

**Lenin's Death** - Lenin did not live to see the USSR grow to be one of the great powers of the twentieth century world. - Every year since his death, millions of visitors from all over the USSR and from other countries have queued to see Lenin's body, a sign that he is regarded in the USSR as one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century.

**Summary**

- Lenin and the Bolsheviks made peace with Germany, than enemies of the Bolsheviks inside Russia got ready to fight them. During the Civil War the Bolsheviks took strict measures to organize industry and food supplies in the areas under their control.

**Questions** 1. Who is Leon Trotsky? What is he famous for? 2. What is the Komuch? 3. Why did Lenin an the Bolsheviks made peace with Germany? 4. Who is the Red Army? 5. Why were the whites called whites?