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comm government in USSR - Lenin - Coggle Diagram
comm government in USSR - Lenin
party state
Lenin relied on Politburo during CW
→ preferred this bc they were smaller & could achieve decisions quicker
did not abolish
Sovnarkom
but it ceased to function as main centre of govern.
→ only approved decisions already made by Polit
senior coms preferred to work through Com party - did not trust soviets & therefore they were often bypassed in favour of communist
Nomenklatura
1921
- new govern. based on two structures:
Com party & soviet-state
CW continued - other political parties excluded from govern.
Soviet state
lost power
→ increasing party dom new form of govern. became known as
Party-state
→ no longer that of workers etc.
Red Terror
Dec 1917
Cheka created - political police force who defended the revolution
Chekists responsible for
raiding anarchist organisations
, closing down opp newspapers, expelling Mensheviks & SRs from the soviets
willing to imprison, torture or kill anyone viewed as a threat
→
Ukraine - church leaders impaled on spikes
women captured routinely raped
Lenin argued during revol. CW & terror were
necessary
to protect new govern. from enemies
Popular Unrest
1921
- comm won CW - but ruined economy & droughts threatened famine
TAMBOV peasants
Led by Antonov
started rebellion against
Grain requisitioning & Cheka brutality
→
Jan 1921
- gained 50,000 anti communist fighters
March 1921
- peasant attacks on govern. grain stores along
Volga river
1921 - Kronstadt sailors
demanded series of reforms after violent actions in Petrograd strikes :
fair & free elections
release of political prisoners
freedom of speech & press
abolition of Cheka
end to War Communism
→
March 1921
RA crushed Kronstadt uprising
→
May
- RA supressed rebellion by deporting
100,000
to labour camps & attacking villages w/ poison gas
One party state
responded to unrest by
supressing opp political parties
→ persecuted by Cheka
Feb 1921
- Cheka authorised to destroy other parties
→ end of feb - all Mensheviks in Petrograd & Moscow arrested & sent to prison
→
1922 22 SRs
put on trial & sentenced to prison or exile
1921 Party Congress
Recognised unrest reflected that ppl were dissatisfied w/ regime
→ Lenin intro. series of reforms in
1921 Party Congress
New Economic Policy
liberalised the economy & ban on factions tightened political control
HOWEVER opposition occurred -
Workers opposition - wanted workers' control of industry & Democratic centralists - make com party more democratic
→ intro.
On Party Unity
- banned factions inside party
if guilty punishment was
expulsion from party
→ helped strengthen Lenins position by making opp more difficult to organise
CONCLUSION
succeeded in creating
dictatorship of Proletariat
to defend revol.
destroyed soviet democracy & replaced w/ a One party state
institutions created after Oct. revol. lost its power to instis that emerged after civil war
during CW Russia became centralised -
one-party state & ban on factions increased political centralisation after CW
intro. police who played significant roles - created system where indiv. had no rights as Cheka was free to prosecute anyone