Bolshevik consolidation
communist dictatorship
One-party control:
- Bolshevik claim that they were acting in the interests of the
proletariat (ordinary working people of Russia)
- Democracy was believed by Lenin to belong to an old, class-ridden
world
- Lenin believed that establishing a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
would require the active repression of ‘counter-revolutionary’
elements
Removal of constituent assembly:
- 1917 November elections outcome: socialist revolutionaries – 53%,
Bolsheviks – 24%, Kadets – 5%
- Many of those voting in November did not live in major cities, so
likely had little idea of what was going and known little about the
Bolsheviks
- By 5 January 1918, Kadets had already been outlawed for
expressing approval of Kaledin, a Cossack general who had begun a
counter-revolutionary rebellion
- The Bolsheviks proposed that the meeting be chaired by a left-wing
social revolutionary, but were overruled by a right-wing social
revolutionary majority who chose Viktor Chernov
- The constituent assembly was forcibly closed and when civilians
demonstrated against, they were fired upon and 12 were killed
- In 1919, Lenin states that: “the dissolution of the constituent
assembly means the complete and open repudiation of democracy
in favour of dictatorship”
- Bourgeoisie lost the right to vote in July 1918
- In 1921, all other political parties were banned
Ending involvement in WW1:
- Lenin was convinced that the revolution would take over Germany
and that German workers would join their comrades would join
Russia, so a peace agreement would only be temporary
- Lenin knew that the Russian army could not stop the Germans, so a
compromise was the only practical way forwards
, - Bukharin led the ‘revolutionary war group’ of those who believed
that the war should go on, but others viewed this as a betrayal of
the Bolshevik promises
- Trotsky dragged proceedings out in hope that Germany would
undergo its own
- Trotsky called his approach ‘neither peace nor war’ which angered
the German negotiators – exasperated by Trotsky's behaviour, the
Germans began to renew their advance into Russia
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed 3rd March 1918 and ratified by an
emergency party congress
- In the treaty, Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Bessarabia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine
- Losses of the treaty amounted to 62 million people (a sixth of
Russia's population), 2 million square kilometres of land, 26% of
Russia's railway lines, 74% of its iron ore and coal supplies, and
Russia had to pay 3 billion roubles in reparations
- Lenin agreed that it was a ‘robber peace’ but that Russia had to
accept the ‘naked truth’
- Left-wing socialist revolutionaries argued strongly against the
acceptance of the treaty – walked out of the Sovnarkom in protest
against the treaty – the Bolsheviks formally adopted the title
‘communist party’ and governed alone
- Only after Lenin had threatened twice to resign did Russia accept
the treaty – Trotsky, Stalin and Zinoviev supported Lenin and
Bukharin, Kamenev and Dzerzhinsky voted against the peace
consolidation of one-party state:
- The Sovnarkom continued establishing its decrees which helped
define the one-party state
- Old red guards demobilised and new red army of workers and
peasants formed to protect
- Trotsky placed as head of the red army in March 1918
- In March 1918, the capital was transferred to Moscow, to be more
central
- Church and state separated and Russia became a secular state, with
the government providing no more support to the church
- The separation decree removed the church’s judicial powers and it's
right to own property, and many assets were seized
- Religious printing presses were closed, and the clergy became
disenfranchised, left without civil rights and vulnerable to
persecution
communist dictatorship
One-party control:
- Bolshevik claim that they were acting in the interests of the
proletariat (ordinary working people of Russia)
- Democracy was believed by Lenin to belong to an old, class-ridden
world
- Lenin believed that establishing a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
would require the active repression of ‘counter-revolutionary’
elements
Removal of constituent assembly:
- 1917 November elections outcome: socialist revolutionaries – 53%,
Bolsheviks – 24%, Kadets – 5%
- Many of those voting in November did not live in major cities, so
likely had little idea of what was going and known little about the
Bolsheviks
- By 5 January 1918, Kadets had already been outlawed for
expressing approval of Kaledin, a Cossack general who had begun a
counter-revolutionary rebellion
- The Bolsheviks proposed that the meeting be chaired by a left-wing
social revolutionary, but were overruled by a right-wing social
revolutionary majority who chose Viktor Chernov
- The constituent assembly was forcibly closed and when civilians
demonstrated against, they were fired upon and 12 were killed
- In 1919, Lenin states that: “the dissolution of the constituent
assembly means the complete and open repudiation of democracy
in favour of dictatorship”
- Bourgeoisie lost the right to vote in July 1918
- In 1921, all other political parties were banned
Ending involvement in WW1:
- Lenin was convinced that the revolution would take over Germany
and that German workers would join their comrades would join
Russia, so a peace agreement would only be temporary
- Lenin knew that the Russian army could not stop the Germans, so a
compromise was the only practical way forwards
, - Bukharin led the ‘revolutionary war group’ of those who believed
that the war should go on, but others viewed this as a betrayal of
the Bolshevik promises
- Trotsky dragged proceedings out in hope that Germany would
undergo its own
- Trotsky called his approach ‘neither peace nor war’ which angered
the German negotiators – exasperated by Trotsky's behaviour, the
Germans began to renew their advance into Russia
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed 3rd March 1918 and ratified by an
emergency party congress
- In the treaty, Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Bessarabia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine
- Losses of the treaty amounted to 62 million people (a sixth of
Russia's population), 2 million square kilometres of land, 26% of
Russia's railway lines, 74% of its iron ore and coal supplies, and
Russia had to pay 3 billion roubles in reparations
- Lenin agreed that it was a ‘robber peace’ but that Russia had to
accept the ‘naked truth’
- Left-wing socialist revolutionaries argued strongly against the
acceptance of the treaty – walked out of the Sovnarkom in protest
against the treaty – the Bolsheviks formally adopted the title
‘communist party’ and governed alone
- Only after Lenin had threatened twice to resign did Russia accept
the treaty – Trotsky, Stalin and Zinoviev supported Lenin and
Bukharin, Kamenev and Dzerzhinsky voted against the peace
consolidation of one-party state:
- The Sovnarkom continued establishing its decrees which helped
define the one-party state
- Old red guards demobilised and new red army of workers and
peasants formed to protect
- Trotsky placed as head of the red army in March 1918
- In March 1918, the capital was transferred to Moscow, to be more
central
- Church and state separated and Russia became a secular state, with
the government providing no more support to the church
- The separation decree removed the church’s judicial powers and it's
right to own property, and many assets were seized
- Religious printing presses were closed, and the clergy became
disenfranchised, left without civil rights and vulnerable to
persecution
