1. Key Challenge-Kronstadt Rebellion 1921
‘The Lightning flash that illustrated the true reality of things’
The most serious challenge to Bolshevik control since the October Revolution

2. Key Challenge-Kronstadt Rebellion 1921
February 26th 1921
Sailors who supported the October Revolution now revolted against the Bolsheviks “the pride and glory of the Revolution... the reddest of the red”.
Demanded an end to the harsh measures of War Communism.
Demanded an end to one party rule- An end to Bolshevik dictatorship.
Brutally suppressed- The Revolution devours its own children.
Significance- If life was so good in Bolshevik Russia why did this happen?

3. Here is a from Tukhachevskywho was the leader of the attack on the Kronstat, writing a report to Trotsky:
"The sailors fought like wild beasts. I cannot understand where they found the might for such rage... An entire company fought for an hour to capture one house and when the house was captured it was found to contain two or three soldiers at a machine gun. They seemed half dead, but they snatched their revolvers and gasped, 'We didn't shoot enough of you bastards'"
Red Army Soldiers attacking the sailors at Kronstadt
8 min clip

4. Kronstadt Postscript
Lenin & the Bolsheviks eventually crushed the mutiny in Kronstadt on the night of March 16th, Conspirators, sailors & fishermen were executed for their part in the mutiny.
50,000 Red Army troops were sent in to crush the rebellion.
Members of the CHEKA stood behind the red army soldiers with machines guns in case any of them tried to run away.
This represented the last significant effort to oust Bolshevism or alter its excessively dictatorial position and ideology.
The policies of ‘War Communism’, the closing of the National Assembly in January 1918 and suppression of democratic rights by the ‘Cheka’ had all contributed to the mutiny in Kronstadt.
(C) W. McSweeney 2011

5. Key Challenge-Kronstadt Rebellion 1921
Origins
War Communism and Chekka Terror.
Key demands of the sailors
New Elections
Freedom of Speech
End to Bolshevik monopoly on power
Communist response:
Orders crushing of the rising
Trotsky directs its brutal suppression
Aftermath
Leads Lenin Towards NEP

6. How successful was the New Economic Policy?
How was the Bolshevik State Consolidated ?
How successful was the New Economic Policy?

7. NEP – Introduced at the 10th party congress in March 1921.
NEP stands for New (sometimes also National) Economic Policy.
Policy of War Communism was ended and NEP introduced.
NEP was a new policy for the Russian economy. Lenin came to conclusion that "only by coming to an agreement with the peasants can we save the socialist revolution"
Lenin introduced the NEP in March, 1921.
Joseph Stalin got rid of the NEP policy and replaced it with 5year plan.
4mins

8. Watch the clip. What was the NEP? Why was it introduced?
4mins

9. 3qq3
4mins

10. The NEP’s rules
1. Requisition squads were ended and farmers were allowed to sell food in the open/free market.
2. Peasants could sell their surplus grain after the government took half.
3. They (peasants) could give a job to other people who would work for them.
3. NEP also allowed internal trade. Traders could buy, sell and make goods at a profit
4. Small factories (under 20 employees) were handed back to private ownership.
5. NEPmen were created. These were middle men who bought and sold goods.
6. Trade with foreign countries was encouraged. Anglo-Soviet trade agreement with UK.
7. A new currency was introduced in 1922 which helped to bring an end to the high level of inflation

11.  Your task – Murphy p89
Create a scales chart showing the successes and failures of the NEP.
Successes
Failures

12. Successes Small businesses reopened, e.g. shops, restaurants
Cereal production increased (20%, )
Markets returned to Russian towns and food shortages disappeared. Famine of 1921 ended.
Coal production doubled
NEPmen increased products available
Increased trade between villages of goods & produce
Political interference remained weak
International support: trade agreements (Germany, 1922; GB, 1924)

13. Failures
Successes measured against low baseline (Civil War, War Communism)
Distributions systems remained chaotic
NEPmen overly-important (controlled 3/4 retail trade)
Property speculation
Bribery
Trotsky’s ‘Scissors crisis’ – As agricultural production rose, price of agricultural goods fell. Meanwhile industrial prices rose, because of shortages.
Therefore, peasants – the majority of the population- had to pay more and more for manufactured goods at a time when they were getting less and less for their produce. The problem was called the scissors crisis because the gap in prices was said to resemble the widening blades of a pair of scissors when opened.

14. Scissor Crisis Problem
Abundance of food, prices dropped, peasants unwilling to sell grain
Lack of manufactured goods, prices increased, not enough goods
Resolution
Govt. capped industrial prices
Peasants paid tax in cash, not kind

15. Impact of the NEP
Walter Duranty – American journalist (1935): “In a single year, the supply of food and goods jumped from starvation point to something nearly adequate and prices fell accordingly. This was the rich silt in NEP’s flood, whereas the gambling and debauchery were only froth and scum.”

16. Impact of the NEP

17. Impact of the NEP

18.
What happened next
Do not make the mistake that in addition to a freeing up of economic life there was also a freeing up of political life: far from it.
The introduction of the NEP saw a loosening of economic controls but a tightening of political control. From March 1921, Russia was governed by a dictatorship more absolute than any government under the tsarist autocracy.
See following slides

19. Censorship
Censorship increased 1922 – dozens of writers and scholars deported
Pre-publication censorship brought in. New body - Glavlit – to oversee

20. Attacking Rivals Political pressure on rival parties intensified
5,000 Mensheviks arrested in 1921
Mensheviks and SRs outlawed
Show Trials – SRs rounded up and put on public trial. Often accused of collaboration with Denikin or of trying to assassinate Lenin.
34 SR leaders condemned as terrorists, 11 executed

21. Secret Police Cheka renamed the GPU (later the OGPU) in 1922
Continued to arrest opponents and deal out death sentences
Attacked Nepmen as well as “class enemies” such as the church

22. Crushing Peasants & Church
Peasants who opposed the government dealt with harshly
Tambov region – destruction of whole villages – 240,000 killed and poison gas used in some cases
By 1921 Lenin directly challenging the Church
1922 – Orders given to seize wealth from churches to help famine victims
Opposition led to large numbers of arrests

23. Attacks on political rivals
Communist party members were no longer allowed to form groups independent of Lenin’s leadership.
Mensheviks & Socialist Revolutionaries arrested for supporting strikes & civil disturbances
1921, 5000 Mensheviks arrested for counter-revolutionary activities
Mensheviks & SRs outlawed
Show trials: 34 Socialist Revolutionaries condemned as terrorists; 11 executed

24. Crushing of peasants Harsh punishments for civil disturbances
1922, Tambov region ‘purged’ by Red Army
Loyalty rewards – salt, manufactured goods
Propaganda campaign extolling benefits of NEP

25. Censorship 1922 writers & scholars deported
Pre-publication censorship introduced
Main Administration for Affairs of Literature & Publishing Houses (Glavlit) estd.

26. GPU (Cheka) GPU (Main Political Administration) founded in 1922
Arbitrary imprisonment & death penalty extended
Nepmen focus for attacks

27. Attacks on the Church Church a potential opponent
1921, Union of the Militant Godless estd.
1922, churches stripped of wealth
Russian Orthodox Church leaders executed
1000s priests imprisoned

28. How far did the NEP meet Russia’s needs?
Not at all
Very far

29. Plenary 3 features of the NEP 2 groups who benefited from the NEP
1 way Lenin justified the NEP

30. Homework -
Draw up a list of similarities and differences between War Communism and the NEP

31.  Discussion
Who provided a greater threat to the Bolsheviks: intellectuals & writers, Church leaders, peasant communities or political opponents?
Which method of repression would have the greatest success: censorship, the use of secret police, direct attacks, for example on individuals, sweeping attacks for example on communities?