1. Lecture II – Inner Turmoil
Russian Civil War
Lecture II – Inner Turmoil

2. Factors that help Lenin impose Communist Control in Russia 1917 - 1920
Abandonment of Constituent Assembly
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
CHECKA
Factors that help Lenin impose Communist Control in Russia
Success of New Economic Policy
Civil War:
Execution of Tsar Nicholas & Family: 1918
War for Communism
Kronstadt Revolt: 1921

3. Abandonment of Constituent Assembly: 1917
After October Revolution – Lenin promised to hold elections for a Parliament to be known as the Constituent Assembly.
Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party as the Communist Party in order to win wider support. However, the Communists only won 175 seats out of 700, not enough for a majority.
Therefore Lenin shut down the Constituent Assembly after only one day!
Lenin was not prepared to share power with anyone. This was the first step in setting up a Communist Dictatorship.

4. The Cheka (secret police): December 1917
Agents spied on the Russian people in factories and villages.
Anyone suspected of being anti-Communist could be arrested, tortured, and executed without a trial.
When opponents tried to assassinate Lenin in 1918, he launched the Red Terror campaign against his enemies. It is said that 50,000 people were arrested and executed in this period.
Three barefoot men face an improvised firing squad in Latvia in May 1919, moments before being shot to death and toppling into their grave. This stunning footage, recorded by an American newsreel cameraman accompanying a German occupation force, was to make an appearance in twentieth-century politics, history, and—in a grotesque way—entertainment.

5. The Cheka: Video Clip
Cheka killed the Czar and his family, including the youngest daughter Anastasia, in 1918.
Local communists were worried that the Tsar might be a rallying point for the Whites. As a result, Tsar Nicholas, his wife, their five children and four attendants were shot and bayoneted in Ekaterinburg, July 1918.
Overall, there was a period of strict governmental and economic control known as War Communism.

6. Discussion Questions
How did Lenin maintain his control over Russia once he came to power?

7. Sides of the Civil War
Lenin’s opponents had launched a full scale civil war
The “Whites” vs the “Reds”
Lenin’s army was able to win this war by

8. “The Reds” “The Whites”
Lenin’s army – Trotsky in charge
Occupied the strategic center of Russia
Trotsky increased the efficiency of the Red Army
Introducing strict military discipline (deserters for example were shot)
Made use of Czarist officers and their military experience.
Led by Admiral Kolchak and Generals Deniken and Wrangel
Occupied the fringes of Russia
Ideologically fragmented
Included reformists, Mensheviks, Czarists
This wartime coalition proved to be incompatible

9. The White Army: Strengths and Weaknesses
High numbers with experienced military generals and soldiers.
United volunteer army with Kuban Cossacks
Had access to sea-going and river-based naval forces
Surrounded Bolshevik forces by obtaining territory around them
Received assistance from Foreign powers
Difficult to communicate between four armed groups
Each group attacked individually
Some groups even hated each other
Bolsheviks had easier time to defeat each group
Russia’s size – difficult to transport supplies and soldiers
Lack of an efficient railway system

10. Discussion Question
Explain how the White Army should have been able to win the Civil War.

11. Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw
Poland was a new country formed by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Lenin saw Poland as a bridge to connect other European nations to communism.
Poland wanted to expand their territory into Ukraine, a territory of Russia.
Treaty of Riga signed March 1921 – Poland received parts of Belorussia (now Belarus) and Ukraine

12. The Kronstadt Revolt – 1921
War Communism made Lenin’s government very unpopular.
Discontent amongst the peasants led to violence in the cities. Workers went on strike, in spite of the death penalty for striking.
The most serious opposition to Lenin’s government came in March ,000 sailors at the Kronstadt naval base near Petrograd revolted. They accused Lenin of breaking his promise to help the workers.
Lenin ordered the Red Army to put down the revolt. This caused 20,000 casualties and the leaders of the revolt were executed. However, the mutiny was a warning to Lenin that he might have to relax War Communism.

13. Mobilization: War Communism
State took control of the factories and appointed managers to run them.
Work was hard and long, food was rationed to only those who worked and trade unions were banned.
To get enough food, the Cheka seized all surplus grain from the peasants.
The peasants hid food or preferred to grow less rather than give it away free to feed the towns.
Drought and famine hit Russia in 1921 – over 4 million people died.

14. Discussion Question
How does War Communism differ from forms of mobilizing for war?

15. Propaganda: Join the Red Calvary
Civil War Ends
By 1921, the Civil War was over, but the Soviet land and economy were devastated
Lenin created a program of economic reform known as the NEP.
He also re-named his nation the USSR.
Propaganda: Join the Red Calvary

16. New Economic Policy Economic crisis w/ the conclusion of the wars
Western Nations refused to trade w/ USSR, and Lenin was at 1st determined to apply his Marxist principles, which failed
In Mar Lenin relented and introduced the NEP
It was an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry thru a free market system
Pragmatic measure: Lenin could not yet take on the peasants; it did cause a rift within the Communist Party
Many nonconformists were shipped off to the gulags
The NEP did work; Lenin was presumably ready to return to Marxist principles
But his health deteriorated after a 1922 stroke, and Lenin died in 1924: this created a power vacuum and a struggle between Trotsky and Stalin

17. NEP – Video Clip