Russian History - Lenin (1917-1924)

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Last updated: May 31, 2024

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Hint	Answer
How many delegates arrived for the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 26 October 1917?	670
How many of these delegates voted in favour of a socialist government?	500
Why were the Mensheviks and right-wing SRs dismayed?	The majority of seats for a new executive committee to carry out the socialist government went to the Bolsheviks and more extreme left-wing SRs.
What did these 'moderates' then do in protest?	They walked out of the congress, leaving a Bolshevik and left-wing SR coalition in control (this action simply played into the Bolsheviks' hands).
What was the 'famous' quote Trotsky shouted at the retiring delegates?	'You're finished, you pitiful bunch of bankrupts. Get out of here to where you belong - in the dustbin of history.'
What did the executive committee establish as the new government and who was it comprised exclusively of?	The executive committee established the 'Soviet of People's Comissars' or 'Sovnarkom' as the new government. It was comprised exclusively of Bolsheviks.
What was Lenin's role in this new government?	Chairman
What was Trotsky's role in this new government?	Comissar for Foreign Affairs
What were the decrees that Lenin introduced designed to fulfil his promises of change and win support?	Decree on peace promised an end to war
	Decree on land abolished private ownership of land and legitimised peasant seizures of land
	Workers' control decree - workers right to 'supervise' management
	Nationality decree promised self-determination to parts of the former empire
	New legal system of elected people's courts
	Government outlawed sex discrimination
	Military decree removed class-ranks, saluting and military decorations from the army
	Decrees on the Church nationalised Church land and removed marriage and divorce from Church control
	Nationalisation of banks ended the private flow of capital
What did many civil servants do?	Many civil servants refused to serve under the Bolsheviks
What did bankers do?	Bankers refused to provide finance and had to made to give their reserves under threat of armed intervention.
What were some of Lenin's other means of combating opposition?	A propaganda campaign against political and 'class' enemies
	The closure of anti-Bolshevik newspapers
	A purge of civil service
	The establishment of the 'All-Russian Commission for the suppression of Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation' or 'Cheka'
	Leading Kadets, right-wing Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were rounded up and imprisoned in December
Which party won the most seats for the Constituent Assembly that Lenin surprisingly held elections to.	The SRs
What was Lenin's completely in-character reaction to these election results?	He was appalled and declared that 'we must not be deceived by the election figures. Elections prove nothing.'

Hint	Answer
	He argued the Constituent Assembly was a mere remnant of bourgeois parliamentary democracy and to accept its rulings would be to take a step back in Russia's historical development
What were the Constituent Assembly statistics for the Socialist Revolutionaries?	21.8 million votes
	410 seats
	53% of the vote
What were the Constituent Assembly statistics for the Bolsheviks?	10.0 million votes
	175 seats
	24% of the vote
How many days did the Constituent Assembly meet for?	1 day only - 5 January 1918 - after which Lenin dissolved it
What did Lenin believe the Bolsheviks understood better than the proletariat?	The needs of the proletariat themselves
Which country did the Bolsheviks believe that a similar 'revolution' to theirs was very close to happening in?	Germany
What were the Bolsheviks doing to the main German Government at this time?	They were both strengthening and weakening it - they were committed to rousing the German soldiers and workers against their imperial government but were simultaneously committed to pursuing peace with that government
What was Lenin's view of the German peace terms in which they wanted much Russian land?	Lenin held a pragmatic view that argued for the acceptance of the German terms
What was the peace treaty called?	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
When was it signed?	3rd March 1918
What did Russia lose from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?	Territory - Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bessarabia
	Semi-independent governments in Georgia, Belarus, the Ukraine
	Population - lost a sixth (62 million people)
	Land - 2 million square kilometres of land - including area that had produced almost a third of Russia's agricultural produce
	26% of Russian railway lines
	74% of iron ore & coal supplies
How did Lenin's government go against his pre October 1917 vision on what a government should be?	In 'State and Revolution', Lenin suggested that 'the people' would readily see that a Bolshevik government ruled in their interests and would support it. He wanted an expansion of democracy, with 'the people' managing their own affairs and a reduction in state bureaucracy.
	The Petrograd Soviet contained non-Bolshevik socialists so Lenin side-lined it and formed the Bolshevik-only Sovnarkom. It ruled by decree without seeking the Soviet's approval.
	The Bolshevik state became a one-party state
What happened when civilians demonstrated against Lenin's dispersal of the Constituent Assembly?	They were fired on and 12 were killed
What happened when the Bolsheviks formally adopted the title of 'Communist Party'?	From then on they governed alone. All other groupings whether former opponents or allies, were treated as 'enemies'.
During the Russian Civil War, new central controls were brought in to manage the economy - what was this known as?	War Communism