InNo+hyejijun94+10.22.10

= Revolution in Russia Part 3  =
 * Lenin set up a government called **Sovnarkom**
 * Soviets took control of most cities and towns in Russia
 * Not all the Soviets were run by Bolsheviks
 * Most peasants supported the Socialist Revolutionaries (rivals of the Bolsheviks)
 * Provisional Government arranged elections for a new kind of parliament, called the Constituent Assembly

**'Peace At Any Price':**
__ The first decrees of Sovnarkom: __
 * Sovnarkom issued decrees on the day it the government was created
 * These decrees made changes to Russia:
 * Ex. a decree on land (to take lands from the Tsar and the nobles), a decree on peace (to make peace with Russia's enemies), a decree on work...etc

__The Constituent Assembly:__
 * November 1917: elections were held for Russia's new parliament, the **Constituent Assembly.**
 * First free elections in Russian history
 * Bolsheviks were badly beaten in the election
 * Socialist Revolutionaries gained more seats in the Assembly than other parties
 * 18 January 1918: The Constituent Assembly met for the first time
 * Shortly after, Sovnarkom ordered to stop meeting
 * Bolshevik Red Guards killed more than a hundred people who demonstrated in support of the Assembly
 * Red Guards then prevented the elected Deputies from entering the Assembly and closed it down permanently

__The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:__
 * Lenin believed that a quick end to the war against German and Austria was needed if the Bolsheviks were to stay in power
 * 3 December 1917: a peace conference between Russia, Gernmany and Austria Hungary began at Brest-Litovsk
 * **Leon Trotsky** was Russia's Commissar/minister for Foreign Affairs
 * At the peace conference, Leon Trotsky made a long speech hoping that a socialist revolution would begin in Germany
 * He thought that this could make a fair and democratic peace between Germany and Russia
 * February 1918: German army advanced into Russia
 * Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and Germany was one of the harshest treaties ever made
 * Russia had to give up all her western lands (Finland, Estonia, etc) and these were the richest areas of the country
 * Russia also had to pay a fine of 300 million gold roubles to Germany
 * Russia was not at peace
 * Lenin believed that this will give Bolsheviks to have some rest but a different problem faced them - a civil war

**Civil War and Foreign Intervention**

 * Enemies of the Bolsheviks in Russia got ready to fight them
 * Serious fighting began in May 1918

__The Czech Legion:__
 * May 1918, 45,000 Czech prisoners of war were taken across Russia on trains
 * They were put on to ships and sent back to their country by sea
 * One trainload of Czechs got into a quarrel with the Soviet of a town on he railway
 * This led the Czechs to take control of the town
 * More trainloads of Czech prisoners of war joined in the fight
 * By the end of 1918, nearly all the Trans-Siberian Railway and the towns along its route were under Czech's control
 * Enemies of the Bolsheviks joined the Czech Legion
 * They set up their own governments and claimed that they ruled Russia
 * Most important of these new governments was called **Komuch** (short for Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly)
 * Komuch organized the enemies of the Bolsheviks into a People's Army
 * People's Army advanced to Moscow
 * Bolshevik government was in Moscow and they took desperate measures to protect itself
 * They introduced conscription - men aged eighteen to forty had to serve in a new Bolshevik army - the **Red Army**
 * Leon Trotsky was in charge of organizing it
 * He appointed former officers of the Tsar's army to be in the Red Army
 * They were sent to prison camps if they refused

__Reds and Whites:__
 * Against the Red Army were the '**Whites**'
 * They were called Whites because white was traditional color of the Tsar
 * Not all the Whites were supporters of the Tsar, many were Socialist Revolutionaries, others were democrats
 * The White Armies included anyone who opposed the Bolsheviks regardless of their position in the society
 * By the end of 1918, White Armies attacked the heartland of Russia
 * The Bolsheviks were helped by foreign armies by the allies were angry at Russia's withdrawal from the war
 * White Armies + the foreign 'armies of intervention' (from Britain, France, etc) were against the Red Army
 * Ex-Tsar and his family were prisoners of the Bolsheviks
 * July 1918, the town seemed as if it was captured by the Czech Legion
 * The Bolsheviks feared that the ex-Tsar would become the leader of the White Armies
 * The local Bolsheviks shot Nicholas dead, along with his whole family
 * August 1918: The Bolsheviks nearly lost their leader - Lenin was shot three times by a Socialist Revolutionary named Fanya Kaplan
 * However, Lenin survived
 * After this event, Sovnarkom ordered the Cheka (secret political police) to begin a 'Red Terror'

__The Red Terror:__
 * The Cheka was led by Felix Dzerzhinsky
 * They had its headquarters in Lubyanka Street in Moscow
 * Cheka tortured anyone who helped the Whites
 * The Cheka aroused fear even among loyal Bolsheviks
 * In 1918, Leon Trotsky carried out his own form of terror
 * Trotsky was not just a tyrant but also was a very good military leader
 * Trotsky directed the Red Army to make sure the Red Army was an effective and united fighting force
 * Red Army began to win the Civil War
 * 1919: foreign armies of intervention were withdrawn from Russia
 * White Armies never came together as a united force
 * By the end of 1919: only isolated groups of Whites were fighting, the Bolsheviks were safe for that time

**'One Step Backwards...' War Communism and the Nep:**

 * During the Civil war, Bolsheviks took strict measures to organize industry and food supplies in areas under their control
 * Had to aims: to keep the Red Army supplied with food and weapons, to introduce a system of communism (the equal sharing of wealth)
 * These measures were known as War Communism

__War Communism:__
 * Five aspects of War Communism:
 * Factories with more than ten workers were nationalized - taken over by the government
 * Workers were under government control
 * Private trading was banned, peasants had to give their surplus food to the government
 * Government allowed money to lose its value through inflation, abolished rents, railway fares, and many other payments
 * In cities food was strictly rationed
 * War Communism achieved on of its aims - the Red Army was kept supplied with food and weapons, and also won the Civil War in 1920
 * War Communism failed in its other aim - to share Russia's wealth equally
 * Peasants started to sow less grain and breed fewer animals, they felt there was no point of making more food than needed for themselves
 * This led a food shortage in 1920 and a famine in 1921
 * 25 million Russians were living below subsistence level

__The New Economic Policy:__
 * March 1921: a revolt of 10,000 sailors at **Kronstadt** (a naval base near Petrograd) occurred
 * Kronstadt used to be loyal to the Bolsheviks but now the sailors thought that War Communism was not what Bolsheviks promised
 * They were ready to attack Petrograd
 * Red Army attacked the sailors' headquarters
 * Many sailors were killed and the revolt failed
 * Lenin thought that they needed a change to prevent further revolts
 * March 1921: Lenin abandoned War Communism and introduced the **New Economic Policy** (NEP)
 * NEP said that:
 * Peasants could sell their surplus food for profit
 * Peasants who increased their food production would pay less tax
 * Factories with fewer than twenty workers would be given back to their owners
 * People could use money
 * Many Bolsheviks were shocked that it was a step backwards towards the old capitalist system
 * 1925: the NEP had begun to work
 * Food production and industrial output increased

__The 1923 Constitution:__
 * 1923: Russia gained a new constitution and said that Russia was a **'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics'**
 * The country was a union of four republics - Russia, Byelorussia, the Ukraine and the Caucasus
 * Each republic had its own government
 * The national government in Moscow, retained control over armed forces, industry, communications and secret police

__Lenin's death:__
 * 1922 and 1923: Lenin suffered a series of strokes
 * January 1924: Lenin died at the age of fifty-three
 * Lenin's body was put on display in a tomb in Red Square in Moscow
 * People recognized him as one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century in the USSR

In November 1917, Russia's new parliament was made, known as the Constituent Assembly, but soon after the Sovnarkom ordered it to stop meeting. Lenin led a peace conference between Russia, Germany and Austria to end the war. However, civil wars occurred within the country by two opposing groups, the Red Army and the Whites. The Red Army was more united as a fighting force so they eventually won the war in in 1920.
 * Summary**

1. What important event led the civil war? 2. Why did the Sovnarkom ordered the Constituent Assembly to stop meeting? 3. What is the treaty of Brest-Litovsk 4. What led the food shortage in 1920? 5. After 1923, the country was a union of four republics. True/False
 * Questions**