From Civil War to NEP

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From Civil War to NEP
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• CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR
• Conflicts between classes could they have been
  contained through a democratic process?
• The Bolshevik coup of October 1917
• Foreign intervention. Motives
• Keep Russia in WWI
• Overthrow the Bolsheviks
• Take advantage of the Russian crisis

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• WAR COMMUNISM
• The Civil War made the main goal of the Soviet
  Government to survive and secure its control of
  the country
• What about the mass expectations about the
  revolution? Land, bread, freedom, worker control,
  Soviet democracy?
• The Civil War made all those expectations
  dependent on the victory of the Reds over the
  Whites
• To win the war, the Reds had to create a state
  strong enough to overcome the resistance

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• Create a new secret police the Cheka (The
  Emergency Commission for Struggle Against
  Counterrevolution and Sabotage)
• Create the Red Army
• Abolish civil rights and liberties use
  repressions ruthlessly
• Nationalize whatever economic assets are
  necessary to the Government
• Dictatorial methods of industrial management
• Food requisitioning in the countryside
• Use forced labour
• Build a colossal bureaucracy to control the
  country

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• WHY THE REDS WON
• Their declared goals were shared by many
  Russians, who saw the Whites as trying to restore
  the old order
• Their dictatorship could be rationalized as a
  temporary necessity
• Their dictatorship created a strong new battle
  order which overpowered the resistance
• With the end of WWI, foreign intervention melted
  away
• Effective propaganda
• Leadership

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• WHAT TO DO WITH THE VICTORY?
• The Communist Left (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev)
• Maintain War Communist methods no turning back
• Foster revolutions abroad or perish
• Russia cannot evolve towards communism it will
  have to be pushed there with an iron hand
• Otherwise, capitalism will be restored

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• Lenin and the Right (Bukharin, Stalin)
• If we continue with War Communism, well be
  overthrown (the Kronstadt rebellion, peasant
  uprisings)
• Socialism in one country the most realistic
  prospect. Let us experiment with evolutionary
  methods
• The main tasks are to rebuild the economy,
  improve social conditions, build a state on terms
  of social peace
• Restore a market economy and let the peasants
  work in it
• Allow some private sector activities (trade and
  services in particular)
• Seek foreign investments
• Normalize relations with the West
• Relax the dictatorial methods while maintaining
  the dictatorship
• Make concessions to nationalist demands a
  federation, not a unitary state (Stalin objected)

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• The Left saw Lenins program as a retreat, almost
  a betrayal of the communist revolution
• But it was the only way for the Soviet regime to
  survive

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• CONTRADICTIONS OF NEP
• Between the state and the market economy
• Between the dictatorship and the civil society
• Between the interests of the peasantry and those
  of the workers
• Between the centre and the periphery
• Between Bolshevik ideology and practice
• Between the real pluralism in society and the ban
  on pluralism within the Communist Party
• Between the need to maintain social peace and the
  need to industrialize the economy
• WERE THE CONTRADICTIONS MANAGEABLE?

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• If they were not, then the shift to Stalinist
  totalitarianism was inevitable
• If they were, then a different model of communism
  might have emerged in the 1920s
• Did China prove that it was possible?

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• The Soviets launch their foreign policy in a
  combination of diverse approaches
• Repudiate international obligations of the Empire
• Foster revolution abroad use propaganda,
  subversion, armed force if necessary. Creation of
  the Communist International (Comintern).
• Build a strong state and deal with other states
  on the basis of Realpolitik and use all the
  traditional tools of the state
• Support some liberal-internationalist ideas
• CONTRADICTIONS IN FOREIGN POLICY WILL THEY HURT
  OR HELP THE SOVIETS?

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• FIRST TASKS OF SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY
• 1.Extricate Russia from WWI
• Talks with Germany and its allies
• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk almost fatal to
  Soviets
• The eruption of the Civil War peace with
  Germany one of the causes
• 2.Win in the Civil War
• Defeat the Whites militarily and politically
• Repel foreign intervention
• 3.Help establish Soviet-type regimes around
  Russia
• Unsuccessful Germany, Finland, Baltic states,
  Hungary, Northern Iran
• Successful Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasus,
  Central Asia, Mongolia

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• Hallmarks of the period
• 1921 as the pivotal year
• End of the Civil War a devastated country
• Shift from War Communism to NEP
• World revolution is postponed
• Formation of the Soviet Union
• Normalization of relations with other countries
• Machiavellianism
• Use of the Comintern
• The rise of Stalin

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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed in
1922