Bolshevik Russia

Summary

In November 1917 the Bolsheviks set up an extreme Communist state. It implemented Communist principles, but it also brought in a 'dictatorship of the proletariat', where terror was used to force people to live like Communists.

The Bolsheviks needed to establish firm rule because their control of Russia was threatened by a Civil War.

Source A

On November 7 (October 25 according to the Old Calendar) 1917, a new new page was opened in the book of world history. It was written by the revolutionary workers, peasants and soldiers of Russia who proclaimed the country a Republic of Soviets. It marked the beginning of a new era ...

In 1917 the peoples of our country began the building of a new society, the first of its kind.

Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, What is the Soviet Union? (1980)

A propaganda booklet sent free to British teachers at the height of the Cold War. It claimed: '"Information for Peace and International Friendship" is the motto of the Novosti Press Agency'

Source B

In November 1917 a group of people called Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, overthrew the government. They said that they were doing it for the proletariat (or working class) ... However, in spite of all the seemingly good things that Lenin introduced there is much for which he and the Bolsheviks have been criticised...

Most decisions were taken by a small group of men called the Politburo. Lenin refused to negotiate with the soviets, who were the elected representatives of the workers and in whose name the Bolsheviks had come to power. Remember the slogan he used - All power to the soviets?

L Hartley, The Russian Revolution (1980)

A British school textbook published at the height of the Cold War.

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Old Bitesize - simple intro (pdf)

Lenin's Russia - notes (pdf)

War Communism

Women in Bolshevik Russia

The Cheka

Brest Litovsk and its interpretations

Soviet propaganda

BBC debate-podcast on Lenin

Murder of the Romanovs - BBC Witness History

YouTube

Bolshevik Russia - History File

Old textbook account of the Bolshevik State

Reed Brett, European History (1967)

Norman Lowe (1982)

What kind of state did Lenin set up 1917–1921?

[Great Big Changes Create Terrible War]

When the Bolsheviks came to power in October/November 1917, they faced exactly the same challenges that had toppled the Tsar and the Provisional Government: a collapsed economy facing shortages of everything, along with high inflation; a war they were losing badly; massive inequality, poverty and illiteracy; mutinous armed forces, a striking workforce, a rioting peasantry, and an intelligentsia seething with resentment.

So how did the Bolsheviks survive, where the Tsar and the Provisional Government had failed?

In the first nine months following the October/November revolution, the Bolsheviks passed more than 950 decrees and laws, completely remaking Russia into a Bolshevik country.

1. Government changes

Elections were held in November 1917 for a new government – the Assembly. The Bolsheviks won 175 seats and the Social Revolutionaries won 370 seats. When it met in 1918, Lenin used the Red Guards to close it, and killed anybody who objected.

The existing bourgeois state was completely dismantled – Duma, Ministries, courts, armed forces – and a new system of government created. The power of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies was confirmed, with supreme power given to the elected deputies in the All-Russia Congress of Soviets. A Council of People’s Commissars was set up, with Lenin in charge, and new ministries ('People’s Commissariats') were created.

This was confirmed in the Declaration Of Rights Of The Working And Exploited People in January 1918, which recognized the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' as the ruling class of the Russian Soviet Republic, the world's first socialist state.

= change from autocratic government to 'dictatorship of the proletariat' (i.e. the Communist Party)

2. Brest-Litovsk

One of the Bolsheviks' first acts was to pass the Decree on Peace calling for an end to the war with Germany (1917). The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave much of Russia’s best agricultural and industrial land to Germany – Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

= peace not war

3. Communist economy

The Bolsheviks:

A Supreme Economic Council was set up to control the economy.
The Decree on Land took the land from the tsar and nobles and redistributed it to the peasants.
Factories, banks, transport and the distribution of food were nationalised and put under the control of the workers.

= peasants owned their land & workers owned their factories.

4. Communist society

Lenin tried to make Russian society communist:

In 1918, the old calendar was abolished and the western calendar introduced, so that the first day after 31 January was February 14th.
the Bolsheviks banned religion, destroyed churches and killed priests, and alllowed civil marriage.
A swathe of Workers Decrees gave workers a minimum wage, an 8-hour day, unemployment pay and pensions.
The Family Code of 1918 gave women in Bolshevik Russia equal status to men. Communal childcare facilities were proposed to free women from household chores. In 1919, a Women’s Bureau (Zhenotdel) was established to achieve women's emancipation and engage them in Party work.
Education: Science was encouraged, and useless subjects like Latin and History were banned. There was a huge campaign to teach everyone to read.
In 1922 a Commissariat of Health was set up to develop a state-run health system for the whole country, and it took over hospitals and trained nurses.
Free love, divorce and abortion were allowed.
The Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia ensured the equality of the peoples of the country and the free development of all ethnic minorities.

= a different morality and style of life.

5. Terror

The Bolsheviks created a totalitarian state:

In September 1918, the Decree on the Red Terror declared that "securing the rear by means of terror is a direct necessity ... it is necessary to protect the Soviet Republic from class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps; that all persons connected with White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions are subject to execution".
The CHEKA (secret police) arrested, tortured and killed all opponents.
The Tsar and his family were killed ... or were they?
All newspapers were censored.
Lenin called this ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’ (a dictatorship was needed until Russia was changed into a Communist country)

= terror/ no political freedom

6. 'War Communism'

The Bolsheviks’ enemies tried to destroy the government, so in 1918-1921 the new government had to fight a Civil War. During the war, especially severe rules were introduced, which are (unhelpfully) called ‘War Communism’ in your textbooks. These measures included:

In February 1918, the decree-appeal: Socialist Homeland is in Danger! placed "the country's entire manpower and resources" at the service of revolutionary defence; set workers and peasants of places on the front line digging trenches and ordered them: "to defend every position to the last drop of blood"; suppressed opposition publications; and declared that "Enemy agents, profiteers, marauders, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators and German spies are to be shot on the spot".
Prodrazverstka – Peasants' grain surpluses were requisitioned by the government.
Military discipline in factories and strikers shot. From January 1920 compulsory labour and conscription were introduced, and ‘Subbotniki’ (unpaid 'voluntary' weekend work events) were common.
'Rationing' – the supply of food and many goods, free, from central distribution centres.
Factories, businesses and shops taken over by the government.
Propaganda to teach people to hate ‘enemies of the state’ such as Tsarists, bourgeois elements and rival socialist factions.

= a very harsh tyranny.

Source C

Bolshevik artists produced 3,600 propaganda posters in three years - this poster lists the Ten Commandments of the Proletarian (full list here), urging people to fight for Communist principles.

Source D

This Bolshevik poster reads: ‘Beat up the noblemen – and don’t forget the lords.’

Consider:

1. Compare Sources A amd B. How do they differ? Which interpretation do you think is the more accurate?

2. Identify the policies/actions which in your opinion most helped the Bolshevik Government to survive. Explain your suggestions.

3. How did life change for Russian people after 1917, including:
a. the nobles;
b. factory workers;
c. peasants;
d. women?

4. Traditionalist historians argued that these Bolshevik rules were simply an excuse to take dictatorial control of the people. Revisionist historians believe that the Bolsheviks genuinely wanted to create a new, idealistic socialist society. What do you think - explain why you hold that view.

AQA-style Questions

Edexcel-style Questions