Russian Revolution (AOS2) 1917 - 1927

Post - October

Oct 26, 1917

• A week was spent fighting for power in Moscow
• Strike of Civil Servants against the Bolshevik party rulers
• Left SR's were taken into the Sovnarkom; only given low level positions (no Commissar's)

Phase 1 of Terror - from Below

Period: Oct 26, 1917 to Dec 1, 1917

• Post-rev anarchy of the masses
• Marxist principles to "eliminate the class enemy"
• 800 officers massacred in a 3 day rampage
• 50 military kadets promised amnesty were thrown into a blast furnace
• Largely susceptible to local grudge

Figes: "The terror erupted from below". "The Bolsheviks encouraged but did not create this mass terror"

Decree on Press

Oct 27, 1917

• Bans all political opposition press; on the claim of restricting their malign bourgeois influences (this included SR's and Menshevik press)

Phase 2 of Terror - Political Enemies

Period: Nov 1, 1917 to Jul 1, 1918

• After the elections and rise of the SR's
• Extraordinary Assembly of Plant and Factory Workers triggers the violence against the Left SR's
• Mensheviks and SR's expelled from Soviets
• Political Opponents become the main target of CHEKA and concentration camps

[Cheka] "assumed the functions of a security police" - Fitz

Sovnarkom rules by Decree

Nov 4, 1917

• Initially, the Sovnarkom (Upper parliament)would have to pass decrees through the Soviet Executive (Lower houses), which large size made it difficult to meet on a regular date.
• Sovnarkom would meet 1-2 times a day, and passed a decree allowing it to "pass urgent legislation without approval from the Soviet" - a clear breach of the Soviet Rule.
• Men/SR run Railway Mens Union threaten strike until Bol's take in Left SR's into the Sovnarkom

Reign of Terror

Period: Nov 8, 1917 to Feb 21, 1922

• Official Cheka reports state 8,500 were killed within the first year of terror, but most likely the Terror resulted in hundreds of thousands affected.
• Fitzpatrick quotes Cheka reports claiming they uncovered 142 counter-revolutionaries and faced 245 revolts in 1918 alone
• Official figures show 8,389 were shot and 87,000 arrested (1918)
• Smith claims the Cheka executed over 280,000 during the Civil War Era

"Terror may have saved communism but it totally corroded its soul" - Pipes

Initial Decrees (116 in first 6 months)

Period: Nov 8, 1917 to Jan 23, 1918

• Decree on Land (8th Nov 1917) - the CONFISCATIONS ACT
• Decree on Unemployment (Nov), Work (Nov), Worker Control (Dec)
• Decree on Press (Nov)
• Decree on Titles (Nov)
• Decree on Private Ownership (Dec)
• Decree on Banking (Dec)
• Decree on Political Parties (Dec)
• Decree on Marriage (Dec)
• Decree on the Separation of Church and State (Jan 23rd 1918)

"For the first few months of the new regime... both the internal situation and the combative power of the army actually improved" - Reed

Constituent Assembly Elections

Nov 25, 1917

Socialist Revolutionaries = 42% of vote - 370 deputies
Bolsheviks = 23.6% of vote (10 million) - 175 deputies. Received majority of the city vote - 33.6%
Kadets (4.9%) and Mensheviks (3.0%) also receive votes as conservative powers.

• Bolsheviks attempt to interfere and declare results invalid/unfair
• Bolshevik deputies are sent to intimidate voters at the polls

Union for the Defence of the Constituent Assembly

Nov 28, 1917

• Formed against the Bolshevik intimidation.
• (28th) The Union organises a mass demonstration to force Bolsheviks into the parliamentary opening.
• Demonstration (organised by the Kadet party) attacked by Bolsheviks as "counter-revolutionary"
• Bolsheviks arrest dozens of Kadet members, including many of the Constituent Assembly deputies.
• Later, SR's and Men's are arrested. "[this] was not so much a ban on a political party, as the declaration of civil war on a social class" - Figes

Ceasefire declared with Germany

Dec 2, 1917

• Bolsheviks were forced to sign a peace treaty with Germany
• Lenin feared their peasant army would overthrow the Bolshevik party if they continued the war effort- Other Bolsheviks (inc Trotsky) preferred to fight a "revolutionary war"with German to establish the "Permanent Revolution"

The Treaty (to Trotsky and others) was "an immortal endorsement of German Imperialism" (Perfect)

Lenin's C.A "thesis"

Dec 12, 1917

• Lenin publishes his thesis against the Constituent Assembly.
• Lenin argues the new roe of the C.A was endorse the changes made by the Sovnarkom, and not have any role in political enquires,
• Assembly should subordinate itself to the Sovnarkom.

"bourgeois parliamentarianism is outdated; it is completely incompatible with the construction of socialism" - Lenin

Formation of the Cheka

Dec 20, 1917

• Cheka formed with a team of 23 staff (by 1921 - 100,000 staff).
• Lenin states it was formed to "fight the counter-revolutionaries, and saboteurs"
• Immediately it operated outside the Law.
• 884 executions by June 1918
• 'Iron' Felix Dzerzhinsky was the Chairman.

Czech Legionarres

1918

• 1917 to 1918
• Czechoslovakian legionarres (prev POWs) join the SR's and Menshevik revolts in the Volga

War Communism begins

1918

Constituent Assembly Opens

Jan 5, 1918

• First session, Bolsheviks walk out in protest at the Dismissal of a Decree.
• Assembly refused to recognise the Sovnarkom or its self-acclaimed total power.
• Union for the Defence holds mass demonstration against Bolsheviks, claiming "All power to the Constituent Assembly"
• approx. 50,000 armed Civil Servants
• Fired upon by Bolshevik troops, killing 10 and injuring many.
• Buried on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

"Historical parallels did not go unnoticed" - Gorky

Constituent Assembly Dissolved

Jan 6, 1918

• When deputies went to meet for the second day, they were met with Bolshevik troops and locked doors.
• Deputies were presented by a Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly
• No reaction from the public on the dismissal

"Russia... lacked a sense of national cohesion" - Pipes
"Lenin's dismissal... was a prime example of the fragility of the Bolsheviks..." - Malone

Third Congress of Soviets

Jan 8, 1918

• Mass pressure from Bolsheviks (9 out of the 10 delegates present), congress passes all of the Sovnarkoms proposed measures.

"This was the only sort of parliament Lenin was ready to work with - one that would rubber stamp all of his decrees" - Figes

Germany Invades

Feb 18, 1918

• Germany invades Russia with 700,000 troops, unresisted by Russia, almost reaching Petrograd.
• After Trotsky refuses the proposed peace terms, Lenin accuses the resistors of "infantile disorder"
• Lenin forced to move the Russian capital to Moscow
• Germans take Ukraine (the "bread basket" of Russia)

Treaty of Brest-Litosvk

Mar 3, 1918

• Loss of territory (32% of the best farming land, inc Ukraine)
• Loss of population (34% - approx. 62 million)
• 3 billion roubles in Reparations
• 89% of Iron Ore and Coal reserves
• 64% of industrial enterprise
• 26% of railways
• Lenin was thereby pictured as the man of superior judgment and the pragmatic savior of Russia

"Russia must sign the peace to obtain a breathing space" - Lenin
"to secure a truce at present means to conquer the whole world" - Lenin (on permanent revolution).

Left SR's resign from Sovnarkom

Mar 19, 1918

• After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Leaves the Bolsheviks as the single party leaders of the state

Komuch formed

May 1, 1918

• Formed by SR's and Mens in Samara
• Self proclaimed alt-gvt with volunteer armies including the Czech legionarres
• Formed volunteer armies for the first green phase of the Civil War

Decree on Surplus Grain

May 13, 1918

• FIRST MOVEMENT OF WAR COMM - PIP
• Only 1/5 of 1918 grain levys were going into cities
• Jul-Aug '18: 200 peasant revolts in Tambov alone
• '17-'21: Land under cultivation falls 40%, Harvests only produce 37% of normal yeild - grain supply of 1919 was 1/3 of 1917's (which was already low).
• mid '19: 344 revolts

"in reality there was no real excess...took away 25% extra grain" - Malone
"organised robbery from the peasants" - Local commissar

Decree on Nationalisation

Jun 28, 1918

• Targeted 3,300 large businesses
• Managers, Wage differentials and harsh discipline brought back
• Nov. Decree furthered their control of factories
• Pet's population down by 70% and Moscow's down by 50% in 1920
• Worker pop in 1921 half of 1917 (3mil to 1.4)

"The ideals of equality had to be sacrificed in the interests of efficiency" - Figes
[in danger of becoming] "the vanguard of a non-existent class"

Romanov Family executed

Jul 17, 1918

• Romanov family shot
• Figes argues that the execution of the Romanov's was a show of power, to show that the individual does not matter under the communist rule

Phase 3 of Terror - Widespread

Period: Aug 1, 1918 to Nov 1, 1918

• After attempt on Lenin
• Official announcement of Terror, enabled conc camps, executions and mass imprisonment
• Fitz: In 20 provinces (1918- June 1919); 8,389 people shot without trail, 87,000 arrested
• 5% of prison pop were under 17
• June 1918; CHEKA has 10,000 staff
• Hang the Kulak directive "hang without fail"

[pop was] "terrorised into submission" - Figes
"The CHEKA is the defence of the revolution" - Dzerzhinsky

Hang the Kulaks directive

Aug 11, 1918

• After series of peasant revolts in the Penza region "hang (hang without fail, so the public can see) at least 100 notorious kulaks, publish their names, and... execute the hostages"

Lenin's Attempted Assassination

Aug 30, 1918

• Fanny Kaplan (an SR) attempts to assassinate Lenin; claiming he "betrayed the revolution"
• On the same day, Petrograd Cheka leader Uritsky is successfully assassinated.
• This leads to a massive escalation in Terror across all of the population.
• 'The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger' Decree gave the Cheka the right to "shoot on the spot... without any kind of trail".

Ufa Directorate

Sep 1, 1918

• Other anti-Bolshevik forces join to form Ufa Directorate
• SR and Menshevik led, largely commanded over peasants

Announcement of Red Terror

Sep 3, 1918

• Published in Izvestiya in an 'Appeal to the Working Class' the Bolsheviks called for the workers to "crush the hydra of counter-revolution with massive terror"

Decree on Red Terror

Sep 5, 1918

• Enabled the creation of concentration camps, to imprison class enemies and execute "anyone involved in the White Guard, conspiracies and rebellions"

The Whites

Nov 1, 1918

• Allies defeat Germany and attempt to assist White Armies, allowing the Bolsheviks to class the war as a patriotic/nationalist war
• Whites are scattered around the borders of central Russia (only 8-10mil people under White control); fight around southern russia, west siberia, northern russia and the baltic fronts

"Peasants did not love the Bolsheviks, but they loved the Whites even less" - Wolfson
"The one factor that united the Whites was their hatred of the Bols" - Perfect

Phase 4 of Terror - Civil War

Period: Nov 1, 1918 to Dec 30, 1921

• CHEKA executed 140,000 and killed another 140,000 during suppression of uprisings (Smith)
• 50,000 White Guards and civilians executed with Lenin's approval in Crimea (1920)
• Deserting Red Guards were shot/had family taken hostage (1/2mil arrested in 1919, 800,000 in 1920)
• Crushing of Kronstadt Rebellion was final demonstration of CHEKA power

"The CHEKA was to become a vast police state". "Terror became an integral part of the Bolshevik system in the Civil War" - Figes

The Greens

1921

• 165 Peasant Armies
• 36 provinces out of control
• 60,000 Peasants armed
• Bol's lost control of Siberia for 6 months
• SR's become the largest benefactors/leaders of the Green Armies

"far more dangerous than all the Denikens, Yudenichs and Kolchaks put together" - Lenin

The Red Army

Dec 31, 1921

• 1918; 22,000 ex-tsarist officers forced to join the RG (8,000 had already volunteered)
• Size of RG doubled within 6 months (1919 to 160,000 soldiers)
• 3 mil soldiers in 1919 grows to 5 mil in 1920
• 2 mil peasants desert in 1919, 4 mil deserters in 1921
• 80% illness rate
• Trotsky's agit-train

"An Army cannot be built without repression" - Trotsky

Effects of the Civil War

Dec 31, 1921

• 10 mil deaths, 9.5 of which were due to famine and disease. Only 350,000 deaths in combat
• 7mil orphans, 65,000 widows, 42% of prostitutes were 'former people' in Petrograd alone
• Petrograd pop falls by 70% and Moscow by 50% by 1920

- Formation of Workers Opposition party (with Kolontai) and Social Democrats (Kamenev) - who were for the empowerment of the Trade Unions and anti-bureaucratic

Cheka are "dissolved"

Feb 6, 1922

• Renamed GPU and OGPU, continuing its powers