Lenin In Charge (1917-1924): A Whole New Russia!!
Lenin Promises A New Day!
Land! Bread! 1917: Lenin’s Decree on Land - Land to be redistributed to the people!
Peace! Russia Gets out of WWI! 1918: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Russian Empire becomes: U.S.S.R.
Giotin: guillotine Traktorina: tractor Arvil: army of Vladimir Lenin Dinamit: dynamite Engelina: Engels Melor: Marx, Engels, Lenin, October Revolution Parizhkommuna: Paris Commune Proletkarii: proletariat Robesper: Robespierre Marlen: Marx, Lenin Ateist: Atheist Barrikada: Barricade New names! Revolutsia - Revolution Lenina - Lenin; Stalina - Stalin; Oktyabrina - from October - month of Revolution in 1917; Vladlena - from VLADimir iLich LENin; Ninel - Lenin inside out.
But…the seeds of dictatorship are also planted…
Lenin creates single-party dictatorship - Early 1918: Lenin holds elections for a new Parliament to be known as the Constituent Assembly. Lenin’s Bolsheviks, renamed the Communist Party, runs in the elections However, the Communists only won 175/700 seats So, Lenin shuts down the Constituent Assembly after only one day! All political parties EXCEPT the Communist Party are banned by Lenin Single-party dictatorship begins
Peace? Russian Civil War (1918-1922) Red Army (commies) fight anti-communist White Army Leon Trotsky: placed in command of Red Army
Royal Family Executed (July 1918)
Land? Bread? War Communism gov’t seizes control of land Food is severely rationed to support Red Army By 1921 @ 4 million Russians are dead from famine and war "Sometimes mothers and fathers feed their children human meat as a last resort. Sometimes a starving family eats the body of one of its junior members. Sometimes parents at night seize part of a body from a cemetery and feed it to their children”.
Oppression… 1921: Kronstadt Revolt Angry sailors angry about war communism and civil war revolt Trotsky orders Red Army to squash revolt Hundreds of sailors killed and hundreds executed for rebellion
Enforced Atheism!
New Secret Police Force: CHEKA
Post-civil war: A New Hope? New Economic Policy Early 1920s Soviet gov’t on brink of collapse War communism ended NEP: retreat from total communism to placate masses Small businesses allowed Peasants allowed to control own crops and sell them
- Leaving U.S.S.R. essentially a communist dictatorship BUT… 1924: Lenin dies - Leaving U.S.S.R. essentially a communist dictatorship