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RUSSIA image (TSAR: - 1918 image (Reasons for the February Revolution,…

- - - - Trotsky manipulated a walk-out by the non-Bolshevik parties at the All Russian Congress of 25th October 1917.
        
        Left Bolsheviks with a clear majority
        
        Trotsky could claim they were taking power in the name of the soviets and honouring the pledge of 'all power to the soviets'
        
        Bolsheviks not yet universally popular, wide range of different socialist ideas.
        
        Workers etc demanded talks with other parties, voting for constituent assembly would solve this in November 1918 (i.e later)
        
        "You pitiful isolated induviduals; you are bankrupts, your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on - into the dustbin of history!" - Trotsky to the Mensheviks who walked out of the 2nd All Russian Congress in October 1917
      - Bolsheviks became known as the All-Russian-Communist Party
      - Land Decree - peasants given the right to take over the land and estates of the elites. Land no longer bought or rented, it belonged to the entire people.
        
        Workers Control Decree - strength of worker pressure for reform led to factory committees controlling production, labour, finance.
        
        Rights of the People of Russia Decree - gave the right of self-determination to national minorities within Russia.
      - Nationalisation of the banks
      - Opposition press banned
      - Arrest of key political opponents
      - Politburo established in 1919, rapidly replaced Sovnarkom
    - - Lenin and the Bolsheviks had no desire to share power with others, but not holding elections to the Constituent Assembly would have made them seem dictatorial.
      - SR's got 21.8 million votes, 410 seats, 53% to the Bolsheviks' 10 million votes, 175 seats, 24%
        
        Serious threat to the Bolsheviks, wanted to rule alone, but nobody else wanted one-party rule, by most accounts a fair election.
        
        Lenin dismissed the results as a 'bourgeois democracy'
        
        First and last meeting of the Constituent Assembly 5th January 1918, slagged off, Red Guard then came and closed it and, shot at a demonstration in favour of the assembly.
        
        Condemned within Russia and in Europe, but democracy in Russia was over and left a one party state.
    - - Created in December 1917
      - Aim was 'removal of counter revolutionaries' by means of terror.
      - Headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky - ruthless, merciless, incorruptible, lacked any compassion. "The Cheka does not judge, it strikes"
      - Ignored legal basics such as evidence and proof of guilt and directed their persecution towards entire classes of people
      - Estimates suggest that between 1918 and 1920, the Cheka murdered 300,000 people.
      - Dubious motivation and intellect, many using their positions to carry out personal vendettas
      - Prison camps and concentration camps established to house political prisoners and 'counter revolutionaries'.
      - 50,000 people killed in 1918 alone
      - In March 1918, the Cheka had 120 employees. By 1921 it had 143,000
  - - - Could be amiable + friendly
        
        Reasonable + reliable
        
        Could keep long-term weaknesses hidden
        
        Vast knowledge of expanding party machinery
        Good at gaining loyalty of subordinates
        
        Close to Lenin during illness
      - Man of violence
        
        Intellectually inferior
        
        Rude
        
        Jealous
        
        Played only a minor role in the 1917 revolution
        
        Colleagues knew that Lenin had turned against him.
    - - Man of action, extraordinary organiser
        
        Brilliant intellectual + theorist, speechmaker
        
        Second only to Lenin during civil war
        
        Formidable political skills
        
        Ruthless authority
      - Many Bolsheviks feared him + red army
        
        Originally a Menshevik, so 'Old Bolsheviks' suspicious of them
        
        Arrogance + disdain for those below him, underestimated Stalin
        
        Made no serious attempt to build a base of support within the party
        Inconsistent and opportunist
        
        Serious errors of judgement, indecisive
    - - Old Bolshevik close to Lenin
        
        Strong power base in Moscow
        
        Thoughtful + intelligent
      - Reputation for inconsistency
        
        Too closely linked to Zinoviev
        
        Too soft, lacking the drive to be leader
        
        Seriously underestimated his rivals
    - - 'Old Bolshevik', respected
        
        Had been high in Lenin's favour before 1924
        
        Party boss in Leningrad
      - Opposition to Lenin in the timing of the Bolshevik coup
        
        Seriously underestimated opponents
        
        He + Kamanev left it too late to switch their support to Trotsky
    - - Popular within the Party
        
        Close to Lenin, friendly with Trotsky
        
        Widely regarded as the best __ in the party
        
        Was an expert on economics + agriculture, good about peasantry
      - Had no power base because he tried to remain on good terms with everyone
        
        Seriously underestimated Stalin + was more popular, making him a target for Stalin'd enmity.
        
        Made tactical mistakes, ie. left it too late to make an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamanev
    - - Respected, 'Old Bolshevik'
        
        Working class origins = popular
        
        Spokesman for trade unions = strong position
        
        Natural ally of moderate leaders
      - Hostile to Trotsky, which blinded him to the danger of Stalin
        
        Power base in trade unions made him an obvious target for Stalin
    - - Old Bolshevik
        
        Administrative ability in implementation of war commission
      - Heavy taxes on vodka
- - - - Responded with the Fundamental Laws:
        
        April 1906
        
        Duma created, but the Tsar can dissolve it, and can rule independently when not in session.
        
        Can appoint ministers of his choice.
      - 4 Dumas between 1906 and 1917, the first was dissolved after just 2 months.
        
        'Stolypin's necktie' public executions of social democrats.
      - Mostly filled with liberals, revolutionary groups suppressed, opposition muzzled7
  - - - In some encounters, regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets, and the troops began to waver.
        
        That day, Nicholas again dissolved the Dumas. When the frustrated Russian army at Petrograd unexpectedly switched their support to the demonstrators, the imperial government was forced to resign and a provisional government was established