How was the Bolshevik state consolidated between 1921 and 1924

1
How was the Bolshevik state consolidated between
1921 and 1924?

• IB History
• Andrea Luckie, Eboni Preston , Yona Park

2
Why were the Bolsheviks in trouble in 1921?

• Famine
• Drought -gt crop failures
• Bolshevik requisitioning program -gt depleted
  peasants reserve stocks of grain
• In some areas, there were reports of cannibalism

3

• Transport system -gt was on the point of total
  collapse
• Factories -gt could not get the materials they
  needed
• Grain production -gt had fallen to low level
• Famine -gt rampant in the South
• Disease -gt raged across northern Europe
• -gt Large sections of Russian society were not
  willing to put up with the continuations of
  wartime policies

4

• Main threat to the communist government-gt
  peasantry
• The most serious revolt -gt Tambov region where
  the Red Army was unable to deal with a peasant
  army led by Alexander Antonov

5
Urban workers were angry about..

• The food shortages
• The millitarised factories-workers could be
  imprisoned or shot if production targets were not
  reached
• The way the state had hijacked their unions,
  making them no more than instruments to keep the
  worker under control

6
The strikers in Petrograd

• Supported by the sailors at the nearly Kronstadt
  naval base
• Mutinied in the hope of starting a general revolt
  against the Bolsheviks
• Demanded multi-party democracy and civil rights
• Apperance of the Workers Oppostion grew up as a
  division in the party

7
Crisis

• Lenin needs to take radical action
• He realized that concessions to the peasants and
  some measure of economic liberalization were
  essential for the regime to survive
• His problem How to carry the party along with
  him and prevent a massive rift from opening up
  that might destroy the party altogether

8
How successful was the New Economic Policy?
9

• In March of 1921, Lenin was faced with an
  economic collapse as well as a widespread
  rebellion. He then felt compelled to make a
  radical turnaround in economic policy,
  simultaneously making significant concessions to
  private enterprise. This turnaround is known as
  the New Economic Policy (NEP).
• There was a genuine desire for unity and they
  were prepared to fall n behind Lenin as long as
  the NEP was a temporary measure.

We are making economic concessions to avoid
political concessions.
the NEP is a betrayal of the principles of the
October Revolution.
10
Key features of the New Economic Policy
Rationing was now abolished, meaning that people
now had to buy food and goods from their income.
Grain requisitioning was replaced by a tax in
kind. Peasants had to give a fixed portion of
their grain to the state, but the amount that
they had to hand over was much less than the
amounts taken by requisitioning. They could sell
any surplus on the open market.
The state kept control of large-scale heavy
industries like coal steel, and oil. It also
retained control of transport and the banking
system. Industry was organized into trusts that
had to buy materials and pay their workers from
their own budgets. If they failed to manage their
budgets efficiently , they could not expect the
state to bail them out.
Small-scale business under private ownership were
allowed to reopen and make a profit. This
included businesses like small workshops and
factories that made goods such as shoes, nails,
and clothes.
11
Economic Recovery

• By 1922 there was food in the markets in the
  cities and brisk trade in other goods.
• From 1920-23, factory output rose by almost 200
  percent.
• Nepmen scoured villages, buying up produce to
  take to the markets in the cities.

12
Urban Workers In the first two years of the NEP
unemployment rose steeply, particularly in the
large state-controlled trusts they cut their
workforce because they had to make profit. Wages
remained generally low and workers little
protection in the market place. It seemed to them
that the peasants were doing well at their
expense. They also objected to the power of the
single managers and bourgeois specialists who had
more privileges than them. Some workers called
the NEP the New Exploitation of the Proletariat.
13
Political repression during the period of the New
Economic Policy
Censorship
Censorship became more systematic. In the spring
of 1922, dozens of outstanding Russian writers
and scholars were not deported to convince the
intelligentsia that is was not a good idea to
criticize the government. In the same year,
pre-publication censorship was introduced. Books,
articles, poems, and other writings had to be
submitted to the Main Administration of Affairs
of Literature and Publishing Houses (Glavlit)
before they could be published.
14
Attacks on political rivals
Political pressure on the rival socialist parties
was intensified. The Mensheviks and Socialist
Revolutionaries had become much more popular
during the strikes and revolts and had played
some part in the encouraging them. The Bolsheviks
used this is an excuse to arrest some 5000
Mensheviks in 1921 for counter-revolutionary
activities. The Mensheviks and Socialists
Revolutionaries were outlawed as political
organizations.
The show trial made its appearance at the time of
the NEP. The Communists rounded up a large number
Socialists Revolutionaries and held a show trial,
during which former Socialist Revolutionaries who
had collaborated with the secret police accused
old colleagues of heinous crimes.
15
How did the centralised state develop in Russia
between 1918 and 1924?

• -Power became centralised as a result of the
  Civil War
• Economic chaos forced the party to nationalise
  banking to prevent economic collapse
• The Communist Party began to dominate the
  government during the Civil War, which was itself
  centralised (power was concentrated in the hands
  of a few people at the top)

16
How did the Communist Party come to dominate
government bodies?

• The Politburo was created in 1919 (an inner
  ruling group at the top of the Communist party)
• The Communist Party took over the Soviets at the
  local level
• The Communist Party put its own officials in
  charge of the Soviets. Positions that had
  previously been filled by people elected by the
  Soviets.

17
Key factors driving the growth of centralisation
in 1918

• The collapse of industry (the government
  nationalised industry to prevent a total
  industrial downfall)
• Railways (transport was taken under direct
  control by the government because it was
  essential during the war)
• The Civil War-Peasants (they were unwilling to
  supply the cities with food, therefore the
  government set up a system to collect and
  distribute food centrally

18
Impacts of the Civil War

• more peasants joined the party-the party became
  more centralised within itself (the Politburo)
• factory workers left the party-there was less
  discussion and debate in order to "promote unity
• the party saw the Civil War as a time of unity
  for them and claimed the war and the economic
  situation justified the increase of centralisation

19
How did the Party become more centralised and
less democratic?

• There was a ban placed on factions in 1921 (Lenin
  saw political parties as unnecessary and a
  disruption of unity, and banned such splits)
• The nomenklatura system (the Bolshevik leaders
  put Bolsheviks in key personnel positions in the
  public bodies. Those who wanted promotions did
  what they were told.)
• Decision-making was concentrated in a small
  number of hands

20
The structure of the Soviet government

• 1. Council of Peoples Commissars-the key
  decision-making body2. Central Executive
  Committee-made laws, but had little power
• 3. All-Russian Congress of Soviets-the supreme
  law-making authority
• 4. Provincial and city Soviets-oversaw
  administration of cities and regions
• 5. Local and district soviets-mode of contact for
  people who wanted to voice their opinions to
  higher authorities (so there was a level of
  interaction in government matters by the people)

21
The structure of the Communist Party

• 1. The Politburo-main decision-making body
• 2. Central Committee-discussed and voted on key
  party issues
• 3. Congress-debated issues facing the party
• 4. City and provincial parties
• 5. Local parties