InNo+Jeffooo+10.25.10

media type="custom" key="7324661" Here is a short thing i made, with the picture of Lenin, basically summarizing his achievements After Lenin's death in 1924 due to a series of strokes, his body was then preserved. This is a picture of him, still looking pretty well kept.

Peace at any price

The first decrees of Sovnarkom
 * Sovnarkom, who had Lenin in charge, started to issue decrees which made big changes to Russia

8 November 1917
 * A Decree on land
 * took 540 million acres of land away from the Tsar, Nobles, the church and other landlords
 * This land, was given to the peasants to divide among themselves

8 November
 * A Decree on peace
 * Intended to make peace with Russia's enemies

12 November
 * A Decree on work
 * An 8 hour day
 * A 48 hour week for all industrial workers
 * Laid down rules about overtime and holidays

14 November
 * A Decree on unemployment insurance
 * promised to give insurance to all workers for 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
 * Ordered an arrest of its leaders

20 December
 * Lenin set up a political police force
 * All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to fight Counter-Revolution and Espionage
 * Otherwise known as the **Cheka**
 * The job was to deal with opponents and enemies of the Bolsheviks

27 December
 * A Decree on workers control
 * Put all factories under the control of elected committees of workers

27 December
 * Decree on banking
 * Puts all the banking in Russia under Sovnarkom's control

31 December
 * A Decree on marriage
 * allowed couples to have non-religeous weddings and made it easier to get a divorce

The Constituent Assembly
 * In November 1917
 * Elections held for Russia's new parliament
 * The constitution assembly
 * First free elections in Russian history
 * Constituent Assembly met for the first time 18 January 1918
 * Less then 24hours later, the Sovnarkom ordered them to stop meeting
 * red guards killed and wounded more than 100 people who demonstrated in support of the Assembly outside its meeting place
 * Red guards prevented the elected Deputies from entering the Assembly and closed it down permanently

The treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 * Lenin believed that they needed a quick end to the war against Germany and Austria if the Bolsheviks were to stay in power
 * 3 December 1917 a peace conference between Germany Russia and Austria began at Brest-Litovsk
 * **Leon Trotsky** who was the Russian commissar or minister for foreign affairs
 * He hoped that a socialist revolution would begin in Germany as well as in Russia
 * he thought that 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
 * The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and Germany was one of the harshest treaties ever made
 * Russia had to give up all their western lands - finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Ukraine and Georgia
 * Because these were the richest lands of the country, Russia lost 62million people, 27% of farm land, 26%of railways and 74% of iron ore and coal
 * Russia also had to pay a fine of 300million gold roubles to Germany
 * Now Russia was in peace
 * Lenin said that the peace would give the Bolsheviks "breathing space" which would help them get a grip on the country
 * They were not in peace they were faced with a different but just as damaging kind of war - a civil war

Civil war and foreign intervention
 * The Bolsheviks inside Russia got ready to fight against the Germans after the peace
 * The fighting began in May 1918 when anti-Bolshevik soldiers took control of the Trans=Siberian Railway, which was Russia's link between east and west

The Czech Legion
 * During May 1918, 45000 Czech prisoners of war were being taken across Russia on trains to Vladivostok
 * They would be put on ships and sent back to their country
 * On the way, one of the trains got into a quarrel, with the Soviet of a town on the railway
 * The quarrel became a fight and the Czechs took control of the town
 * When Bolshevik troops arrived to restore order, more trainloads of Czech prisoners of war joined in the fight
 * Within two weeks they had taken over all important towns in the area
 * By the end of 1918 nearly all the Trans-Siberian Railway and the towns along its route were in Czech hands
 * Enemies of the Bolsheviks rushed to join the Czech in the fight
 * Under Czech protection, they set up their own governments and claimed that they ruled Russia
 * The most important of the goverments was called the **Komuch** short for committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly
 * Komuch quickly organized the enemies of the Bolsheviks into a People's Army which advanced on Moscow
 * On the way, it captured 650 million gold roubles in an attack on the governments gold reserve at Kazan
 * The Bolshevik government, which by now had moved to Moscow, took measures to protect itself
 * First came conscription, which means that men aged eighteen to forty had ti serve in a new Bolshevik army - the **Red Army**
 * Leon Trotsky was given the job of organising it
 * Leon Trostky's first problem was to find officers to lead the Red Army, for most of the troops were raw recruits
 * His solution was to appoint former officers of the Tsar's army
 * If they refused, were sent to prison camps
 * Any officer who tried to desert the enemy found his family taken hostage, and kept in prison
 * useing these methods Trotsky managed to find 22000 officers to command the 330000 men of the Red Army

Reds and Whites
 * Against the Red Army, were the variety of enemies known as "**Whites**"
 * They were called whites because white was the traditional colour of the Tsar
 * The White Armies included anyone who opposed the Bolsheviks
 * By the end of 1918 four White armies were attacking the heartland of Russia, which was held by the Bolsheviks
 * They were send by the Allies - the countries on whos side Russia had fought in the Great War
 * The Allies were angry at Russia's withdraw from the war and wanted to crush the Bolsheviks government
 * So in addition to the White Armies, the Red Army had to face foreign "armies of intervention" from Britain, France, America and Japan
 * Fights between the Reds and Whites were very bloody. Many thousands of people on both sides were killed, including civilians
 * July 1918, it seemed that the town would be captured by the Czech Legion
 * The Bolsheviks were afraid that the Tsar would become the leaders of the White armies
 * The local Bolsheviks did not want to risk that, so shot Nicholas II, Alexandria, their 4 daughters, servants and Alexis dead
 * The Bolsheviks nearly lost their own leader in 1918, when a Revolutionary named Fanya Kaplan shot Lenin 3 times

Red Terror
 * The checka led by Felix Fzerzhinsky had its headquarters in Lubyanka.
 * Checka agents tortured prisoners to extract confessions before executing them
 * Checka units killed and destroyed people who showed any support to the Whites
 * Red army Leon Trotsky also had his own form of order 1918
 * 1) Every scoundrel who incites anyone to retreat, to desert, or not to fulfill a millitary 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 which deserters are found are liable to be burned down
 * When a Red Army Battalion tried to run away, shortly after this order was made. Trotsky had 1 in 10 of the people shot by his firing squad
 * Trotsky was a good millitary leader, who was able to direct the red army, deliver supplies, give encouragement and deal with trouble makers
 * In 1919 the foreign armies of intervention were withdrawn from Russia, leaving the white armies to fight alone
 * By the end of 1919, only 1 more section of the white army was fighting. The Bolsheviks were safe for now

One step backwards... War communism and the NEP
 * During the civil war, the Bolsheviks took strict measures to organize industry and food supplies in the areas under their control
 * Their two aims were to keep the Red army supplied, and to introduce communism

War Communism
 * 5 aspects of war communism
 * 1) All factories with more than 10 workers are rationalized
 * 2) All workers are are under government control
 * 3) Private trading is banned
 * 4) Government allowed money to lose its value through inflation
 * 5) In cities, food was strictly rationed
 * War communism succeeded in supplying food and weapons to the Red Army, and win the civil war in 1920
 * War communism lost its aim to share russia's wealth equally
 * Because, the farmers in Russia, realized that the extra food they make, are sent away, and give them no gain so they started growing food only enough for their own use
 * in 1920 there was a food shortage, and a terrible famin in 1921. Starvation, cold weather and disease killed a total of seven million Russians.

The new economic policy
 * March 1921 revolt of 10000 sailors at **Kronstadt**, a naval base near Petrograd
 * Kronstadt had always been loyal to the Bolsheviks, however the Sailors stated that war communism was not what the Bolsheviks had promised in 1917
 * Leon Trotsky and the red army generals surrounded Kronstadt with 60000 troops, bombing the naval bass and attacked the sailor headquarters
 * Many were killed, and the ones who survived were later shot by the Cheka
 * The Kronstadt was defeated, however this made Lenin realize that there had to be changes, so that no more uprising would start
 * March 1921, Lenin abandoned War Communism, and introduced the **New Economic Policy,** or NEP, in its place. The NEP said that
 * 1) Peasants could sell, their surplus food for profit again
 * 2) Peasants who increased their food production would pay less taxes
 * 3) Factories with fewer then twenty workers would be given back their owners
 * 4) People could use money once again
 * Many Bolsheviks, disliked this, they thought it was a step backwards towards communism
 * Lenin said, it was a step backward, in order to take two steps forward in the future

The 1923 constitution
 * 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 in moscow, Sovnarkom, retained control over national concerns such as armed forces, industry, communications and the secret police

Lenin's Death
 * Lenin did not live to see the USSR grow to be one of the great powers of the twentieth century world
 * in 1921, and 1923, he suffered a series of strokes and died at 53 years old
 * Lenin was not buried or cremated after his funeral.
 * His body was embalmed and put as display in a tomb

Summary In November 1917, decrees of Sovnarkom started, the constituent was destroyed, and the war between Russia and Germany ended. In 1918, there was a Czech Legion, which was formed by prisoners who were getting transported across Russia, they took over the Siberian railways. The Red side, and the white side was formed. The Red side being the Bolsheviks, and the White being the Czech, and other enemies of the Bolsheviks. Lenin brought communism to Russia, however resulted badly, so then issued the New economic policy, which rose Russia's economy back again. Russia was renamed USSR in 1923, and Lenin later died in 1924.

Questions: 1. What was lost by the Russians in the Treaty of Brest-livosk? 2. What was the cause of the Red Terror? what happened? 3. What was the reason, which War Communism had failed, and caused Lenin to start the New economic policy? 4. When many Bolsheviks and supporters disliked his idea of New economic policy, what was Lenins reply? what does it mean? 5. What was Russia renamed as in 1923?

Works Cited "Blabberize.com - Viewing: Lenin." //Blabberize.com - Got a Picture? Blabberize It!// Web. 27 Oct. 2010. . "Shocking Images with Lenin’s Body." //Funny Pictures Blog - Funatiq//. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. .