How the Bolsheviks Maintained Power After 1917

• The Bolsheviks Seize Power

• Due to the popularity of the Bolsheviks Lenin returns and
urges revolt. The peasants were taking land because
they were sick of waiting for the PG to give it to them.
Soldiers were deserting to front so they wouldn’t miss
out on the land grab. Kerensky had sent out punishment
squads to stop the seizure of land which made him and
the PG even more unpopular.

• The Bolsheviks rose up on the 7th November, 1917.
They took over the city with little resistance. Kerensky
tries to raise forces but fails and flees the city. All key
points such as bridges are controlled by the Bolsheviks.
On the next day the Bolsheviks seize the Winter Palace
where the PG is meeting and arrests them. By the end of
the day the Bolsheviks are in complete control.

HOW DID LENIN KEEP POWER

Lenin had to ensure
that he remained in
power. He did this by:

• distributing land to the peasants
• taking food from the countryside for the
cities
• ending WWI at a great cost to Russia
• holding the promised elections I January
1918. When the Bolsheviks did not
achieve a victory in these elections Lenin
marched in and closed the assembly.
• Relying on his new secret police, the
Cheka. Anyone who objected to
Bolshevik rule was arrested or shot.

• Not everyone was happy that the
Bolsheviks were in power.
• The Bolsheviks were sometimes called
‘The Reds’
• Those who still supported the Tzar were
called ‘The Whites’
• Other groups who were against the
Bolsheviks were ‘The Greens’

CIVIL WAR
A Civil War is a war in
which groups of people
from the SAME country are
fighting each other.

Stages of the Russian Civil War
• Nov. 1917 – Nov. 1918
Rising Tensions, Conflict, End of WWI
• Nov. 1918 – Nov. 1919
Peak of White Fortunes in South
• Nov. 1919 – July 1921
Red Victory by 1920, Death of Enver Pasha
• 1921 – Rebellions against the Soviets by
peasants, workers, and soldiers suppressed

• Lenin’s most pressing
problem after the
November Revolution
was to deal with his
opponents, who had
mounted a full-scale
civil war.
• These opponents
were loosely called
the “Whites”, while
Lenin’s forces were
known as the “Reds”.
• Lenin’s army was able
to win this war by
1920-21.

The Course of the Civil War 1918 - 21
There were 4 main stages to the Civil War:
Rising Tensions, Conflict, End of WWI –
Lenin changed the name from the Bolsheviks
to the Communists. This was unpopular
with some sections of Russia and worried
other countries because they didn’t want
Communism to spread to other countries.

Communism – An explanation

Fighting the Komuch and Czeck Legion
• The Komuch were the remains of the
Constituent Assembly. (Lenin closed this
assembly because he didn’t get a majority.
It only lasted a day!)

Admiral Kolchak (The Whites)
called himself supreme ruler and
was supported by Czeck soldiers
left behind after WW1. They had
control of the Trans-Siberian
railway so could move troops
around easily.

Kolchak defeated The Reds forcing them to
organise their army better for the future.
The Red Army decided to help the Czechs to
get back home and claim independence.
This meant Kolchak lost his Czech
supporters.
The Reds realised that if Kolchak lost the
Czeck troops his army would be weakened
and easier to defeat.

Peak of White Fortunes in South
General Deniken
(Denikin) a supporter
of the Tzar and lead
the Cossack troops
(fighters on
horseback).

Peak of White Fortune in the North
General Yudenich was
backed by the Poles and
Baltic groups. They wanted
to restore order to Russia
and get the Royal family
back in power.

Foreign Intervention
Britain
France
Japan
USA
Finland
Poland

All these countries were on the side of The Whites
and sent valuable supplies and weapons. Although
troops did arrive in Russia from these countries,
they did not fight.

• Lenin made use of Revolutionary
Terror (the Cheka – a secret
police force) to keep the citizens
in line.
• They were responsible for killing
the czar and his family, including
the youngest daughter Anastasia,
in 1918.
• Overall, there was a period of
strict governmental/eco. control
known as War Communism.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• If the Bolsheviks were to hold onto power
they needed to end the war as they had
promised.
• The terms of the Treaty were very harsh.
• The Germans knew that Russia could not
go on fighting and had to accept the
terms.
• From this point on Lenin could
concentrate on running Russia and sorting
out the problems.

• Foreign intervention (eight
western nations, notably France,
aided the Whites) promoted a
sense of nationalism that aided
the Reds. Lenin used this as a
propaganda device. The
intervention of the western
nations was based on
ideological grounds (a fear of
communism) and practical ones
(Lenin’s refusal to pay the czar’s
debts). This period is often
identified as the beginning of the
Cold War.
• By 1921, the Civil War was over,
but the Soviet land and economy
were devastated, leading Lenin
into a program of economic
reform known as the NEP. He
also re-named his nation the
USSR.

War Communism
War communism was a policy to help the Reds run
the country while there was a civil war on.

War Communism was the name given to the
economic system that existed in Russia from
1918 to 1921. War Communism was introduced
by Lenin to combat the economic problems
brought on by the civil war in Russia. It was a
combination of emergency measures and
socialist dogma.

One of the first measures of War Communism was
the nationalisation of land.
Nationalisation is when the government takes over
the running of industry essential to the country.
Banks and shipping were also nationalised and
foreign trade was declared a state monopoly.
This was the response when Lenin realised that the
Bolsheviks were simply unprepared to take over
the whole economic system of Russia.
Lenin stressed the importance of the workers
showing discipline and a will to work hard if the
revolution was to survive.

Some of the Reds wanted to go further and
use this opportunity to get rid of factory
managers. They wanted the workers to
take over the factories for themselves but
on behalf of the people.
It was felt that the workers would work
better if they believed they were working
for a cause as opposed to a system that
made some rich but many poor.
Unfortunately the Cheka were there to
make sure there was discipline in the
factory.

The civil war had made many in the Reds
even more against a class structure, as
there were many of the old guard (the
Whites) who were fighting to destroy the
Reds/Bolsheviks.

• There was severe food rationing in towns.
• Workers in the munitions factories (making
weapons for the civil war) were first to get the
rations that were available.
• Only the soldiers themselves were treated in
the same way.
• For many ordinary
people, life was as
hard as it had been
before the Reds took
over

How War Communism affected the
Countryside
• Peasants were forced to hand over their
grain to requisition squads, who were
normally Cheka/soldiers.
• Peasants protested by refusing to grow
more than they needed for themselves
because they weren’t making any profit.
• Surplus grain could not be sold for profit.
It had to be sold to the Government at a
fixed price.

Kronstadt Sailors 1921
• They were the most loyal
supporters of the Bolsheviks.
They had played an active part
in the seizure of Petrograd in
November 1917.
• The sailors believed that the
Bolsheviks had betrayed the
revolution and that they had
used their power to persecute
the people not free them.

The 3 main issues they had were:
• The Bolsheviks had stolen the people’s
food (War Communism)
• Elections to the Soviets had been rigged
(Lenin and War Communism)
• The secret police – the Cheka –
persecuted the people (Lenin and War
Communism)

• The soldiers blamed War Communism for
the terrible situation in Russia and they
were annoyed with Lenin for letting this
policy continue.
• What did they want:
• Elections to the Soviets
• Secret Voting
• Freedom of speech and Press
• The release of political prisoners
• The end of War Communism

Consequences of Uprising
• Lenin sent his most important
representative – Leon Trotsky to deal with
the sailors because they didn’t want this to
spread.
• Trotsky ordered them to surrender but the
sailors refused and the base was stormed
by Red soldiers.
• The rebels were caught and executed.
• The rising had been crushed.

• Lenin realised how unpopular War
Communism was because his most loyal
support had turned against him because of
this.
• He had no choice but to change the way he
ran the country.
• He now created a new policy to continue to
run Russia during the Civil War.
• He called this the New Economic Policy
(NEP)

Change from War Communism
• In March 1921 Lenin
abandoned War Communism
and NEP was very different
from War Communism.
• Not everyone welcomed
NEP. The old Bolsheviks
thought that a system which
promoted private ownership
with profit was a return to the
bad old days of Capitalism.

The Countryside
• Peasants could now sell their surplus food for
profit.
• Peasants who increased the amount of food they
produced were to pay less tax.

The Towns/Cities
• Small factories were to be returned to their former
owners who could run them as private businesses
and make profits from them.
• The large industries remained under strict State
control.
• Money could now be used again.

Complete the worksheet using these facts:
• The government told the factories what to make
• Money was worthless
• Large industries remained under strict State
control (x2)
• Peasants could sell their surplus food for profit
• Factories were returned to their owners who ran
them
• Peasants increased the amount of food as they
paid less tax and made a profit.
• Peasants had to give surplus food to the
government
• Peasants only grew enough food for their own
needs
• Money could be used again

Russian propaganda poster of World War I

The Struggle for Power
• Lenin suffered a series of strokes from
1922
• It was obvious by 1923 that Lenin health
was getting worse.
• The Communist Party realised they would
soon need a new leader.
• Trotsky and Stalin were the two who were
wanted to take over from Lenin.

Death of Lenin
• Lenin died January 1924, aged 53. When
doctors examined his brain it was almost
half the normal size.
• The series of strokes he’d suffered had
obviously affected his decision making.
• Lenin’s body was
embalmed and put on
display in a specially
build mausoleum.

• Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his
honour.
• Some people worshipped him and visited
his body many times.
• Historians are divided over how effective
Lenin was in leading Russia.

Collect a Worksheet –
then read page 76 and, using the
information in the blue box, complete
the worksheet.
• Read source 2 on page 77 and
answer the following question:
• Discuss the attitude of the author
of Source 2 towards Lenin. (3)

Homework
• You should create a Facebook page or
an obituary for a newspaper on Lenin.
Include facts on:
• how he came to power,
• his role during the civil war,
• what made him a good leader,
• what people didn’t like about him,
• his policies

What happened after Lenin died?
• Lenin’s will warned against Stalin:
• “I propose to the comrades that w way be
found to remove Stalin from that post and
replace him with someone else who differs
from Stalin in all respects”
• Stalin had angered Lenin by being brutal
towards the Georgians and he also insulted
Lenin’s wife.

• Lenin was worried about how powerful
Stalin was becoming as he had risen to
General Secretary of the Communist
Party.
• Lenin realised he might not recover and
wrote a detailed will giving all his views
on the main Communists.
• Stalin was seen as dull, called ‘The Grey
Blur’ and many people did not think he
was charismatic enough to be the new
leader.

Politics
• Stalin was in the middle of the party, the
rest was divided into left wing and right
wing.
Left wing Right wing
Trotsky Bukharin

Zinoviev Other leading
communists

Kamenev

Leon Trotsky
• He was the head of the Red
Army and organised the
Bolshevik revolution so many
people thought he would take
over from Lenin.
• He allowed people to believe he
had helped lead the Reds to
victory in the Civil War.
• Similar to Lenin he gave good
speeches which make people
believe in him. However, he had
not been in the party long so he
didn’t have many long term
supporters.

Trotsky’s Political Beliefs
• He wanted communism to be throughout the
world so communists in other countries would
join Russia.
• Leaders of other countries were concerned
and nervous as they didn’t want a communist
revolution in their country.

Task!!
• Using the Leon Trotsky information sheet,
collect a worksheet and then complete it.
• Use this word bank to help you ;
• Bolsheviks ; power ; Red Army; Whites
Social Democratic; escaped ; anti-Tzar;
Revolution ;

• Stick it into your jotter.

Josef Stalin
• Stalin had organised
money for the Communist
Party.
• He had held many different
Bolshevik government
posts and used this to put
in his own supporters to
key jobs.
• He wanted to concentrate
on communism in Russia.

Grigory Zinoviev
• Zinoviev was close to
Lenin and arrived in
Petrograd with Lenin in
1917.
• Zinoviev had been a
Bolshevik since 1903.
• He became Party
Secretary in St. Petersburg
and used this to build a
powerbase.

Kamenev
• Kamenev was also an
important Bolshevik.
• He disliked Trotsky because
he believed that if Trotsky
got into power he would
become a dictator.
• Kamenev politically was like
Trotsky and wanted to end
the NEP and industrialise
Russia.

Bukharin
• Bukharin supported the
NEP.
• He was very intelligent.
• He was a favourite of Lenin
who called him ‘the golden
boy of the Bolshevik Party’.
• Many of the young
Bolsheviks saw him as a
future leader.

Speech Task
• For this task you will work in pairs.
• Follow the instructions on the worksheets
and write a speech.

How Stalin Gained Power
• Stalin, in an a attempt to
sabotage Trotsky, gave
him the wrong date for
the funeral. Trotsky
would have likely been
the head mourner since
he was the right hand
man of Lenin, but since
he was absent, it was
Stalin's picture in the
newspaper as the head
mourner.

• Leading communists
decided not to make
Lenin’s will
(testament) public as
it contained criticisms
of them as well as
Stalin.
• Stalin was delighted
with this.

The first party congress after Lenin’s death was
held in 1924. Zinoviev and Kamenev (left
wing) joined Stalin to defeat Trotsky. Stalin
was Party Secretary and put his supporters
into Congress. Trotsky lost the votes and
soon after lost his job as Commissar for the
war. He no longer controlled the Red army.

• Stalin turned on
Zinoviev and
Kamenev in 1926.
• He joined forces
with Bukharin and
the right wing of the
party.
• Stalin still had his
supporters in
congress so easily
won important
votes.

• In 1926 Zinoviev
and Kamenev lost
their jobs in the
Politburo (the
executive and policy
making committee
of the Communist
Party).
•In 1927 they were • This means they
were no longer
involved in any
decision making in
Russia.

• Finally Stalin turned on
Bukharin and right-wing
MPs. He attacked the
NEP which they
supported, and had them
removed from their posts.
• In 1929 he celebrated his
50th birthday as total
leader of the USSR
(Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics)

Stalin’s 5 Year Plan
• There were three 5 Year Plans. This
replaced the NEP which Stalin didn’t like.
• The first 5 Year Plan began in 1928.
• Stalin set targets for both agriculture and
industry.
• These had to be achieved by the end of
the 5 years.

• The first Five Year Plan emphasised heavy
industries – coal, oil, iron and steel,
electricity – to allow future industries to start
and grow.
• The targets set were unbelievably high and
unrealistic, but remarkable results were
achieved.
• For example – 75 million tons of coal by
1932 from 35 million in 1927.
• Coal producing areas and local managers
were given their own specific targets.

Industry
• Peasants were encouraged to create new
industrial sites like Magnitogorsk where they
were promised:
• New machinery
• New production methods
• When peasants resisted they were forced to
stay by the secret police.
• The Planning Council decided which
industries would be developed, e.g. coal.
• The economy was centrally planned through
Gosplan using quotas and target setting.

INDUSTRY RESULTS

1st five year plan 2nd five year
1927 1932 plan 1937

Electricity (100m kw) 5.05 13.40 36.2

Coal (million tonnes) 35.40 64.30 128.00

Oil (million tonnes) 11.70 21.40 28.50

Iron ore (million tonnes) 5.70 12.10 17.60

Pig iron (million tonnes) 3.20 6.20 14.50

Steel (million tonnes) 4.00 5.90 17.70

Phosphates (m tonnes) 0.15 0.61 1.20

• On September 1, 1935, the newspaper
Pravda, organ of the Communist party,
reported that a Donbas miner named
Stakhanov had extracted 102 tons of coal in
a six-hour shift.
• This was more than five times the amount
produced by other miners.
• This began the Stakhanovite "movement" --
a campaign urging workers to emulate this
and other alleged feats of
super-productivity.

Major Industrial Projects
• Construction of
Magnitogorsk, 1932
• This was a huge iron
and steel works built to
help Russia reach its
targets and allow new
industrial to be
developed.

• Dnepropetrovsk
hydro electrical plants
Yes
were built to provide
Asset Information : A142-00096

the electricity needed
to power the new
industries.

Agriculture
• Peasants were encouraged to go onto
Collective Farms where they were
promised:
• New machinery
• Tractors
• New crops
• New scientific methods of farming
• When peasants resisted, they were forced
by the secret police to go onto the farms.

Collectivisation
• Stalin decided that more food needed to be
produced for the people in Russia and to
sell for a profit abroad.
• In 1929 Stalin introduced a policy called
Collectivisation.
• The government collected all the small
farms together to make much larger farms.
• These larger farms were run by the
government.
• He thought that this was more in line with
Communism.

The reasons behind Collectivisation

• The NEP had not produced enough food for
the Russian people. There was also no food
to sell abroad for money.
• The NEP had created wealthier peasants
called Kulaks and they were hated by the
poorer peasants.
• Communists like Stalin believed that people
who owned property were going against the
principles of communism and were seen as
capitalists.

• Communists wanted everyone to be equal
and all would become working class.
• There would be an end to peasants and
nobility. This was unpopular with the nobility
as they would lose their wealth.
• For some peasants they would be better off,
but the Kulaks would lose all they had
managed to gain under the NEP.
• Larger farms meant that new methods of
farming and machinery could be used.
• Collective Farming meant the government
could control food supply and distribution.

There were two types of collective farm:
The Sovkhoz: Each farm labourer (peasant)
was paid a wage.
The Kolkhoz: Each worker (peasant) had land
to work on and any farm profits were shared
out among all the farm workers.
• By 1929 the USSR had changed 5% of the
farms to collective farms (collectivisation).
• Stalin planned that 25% would be changed to
collective farms the next year. (1930)

How was collectivisation achieved?
• The Russian people had no choice in what
happened to the farms.
• Collectivisation squads were sent into the
countryside to force collectivisation.
• Many farmers (wealthy peasants) did not want
to lose their independence.
• Some people who had been jealous of the
Kulaks’ wealth told the government who they
were.
• Kulaks were identified and some were killed.
Their land was distributed to the new
collective.

Disadvantages of Collectivisation
• Those who opposed Stalin’s ideas and
policies began to protest at what he was
doing.
• Richer peasants (Kulaks) did not want to
surrender their land so they killed their
animals, burnt the crops and fought with the
troops.
• Some farm workers deliberately worked
slowly and production of food fell.

• The Five Years Plans (p89 and figures
on p94)
• In what way did Soviet production under
the Five Year Plans look better than it
was?
• Supply evidence of production figures in
your answer.
• Explore why they might have been less
then expected
• Demonstrate reasons for inflating
results.

• The poorer peasants did not want to move
into the collective farms. They also
destroyed their animals.

• All these people were part of one collective.

Reaction of the Government
• Stalin forced the Kulaks off the land. Many
were killed (7 million) and some deported
with their families to areas that couldn’t be
farmed so it would be difficult to live.
• Troops forced the peasants to work on the
collective farms and stopped them from
leaving by:-
• Paying bonuses
• Taking away the food cards of uncooperative
workers
• They send serious opponents to Gulags
(labour camps)

• Critics were put on public trial and then
executed.
• Stalin then started his purges.

The days after Lenin’s death

– in the end, Stalin prevailed over
all of them, and Trotsky was
forced into exile and eventually
murdered in Mexico City in 1940
– Stalin went on to condemn all
deviation from the party line and
proclaimed himself vozhd
• This Rev. from above saw the
emergence of totalitarianism in the
USSR
• His style of leadership was that of
an “office dictator”, very different
from Mussolini’s charismatic style
– Stalin relied on his apparatchiks
• He also created a “Cult of Lenin”
and worked to connect himself to
the fallen leader

STALIN AND THE FIVE YEAR PLANS
• the Dec. 1927 Party Congress
saw the end of the NEP
• the 5 Yr. Plans were Stalin’s own
vision – they were intended to re-
org. Soviet ind./agri. and to
overhaul the eco. and catch up
w/ the West
– unrealistic production quotas
were set, and tremendous
sacrifices and ruthless methods
were used to reach them
– in agri., collectivization was
implemented – w/ the state
taking the proceeds from the
collective farms
• peasant opposition was
crushed/starved
• after some protest, the kulaks
were liquidated, starved in
order to feed urban workers
(the “terror famine”)
• by WWII, the peasants were
largely regimented

– ind./urban growth was also
stunning, but to achieve it,
sig. investment was needed
along w/ a decline in
consumption
• as people sacrificed, the
standard-of-living declined
• the plans did not emphasize
consumer goods; preference
was given to megaprojects
• workers were praised as
“heroes of Sov. labour”,
dealing w/ long hours and
horrid conditions
• living conditions also
deteriorated: overcrowding,
food and housing shortages
Memorial to Stalin's victims, Dnepropetrovsk
(and women who had gained
status following the rev. again
lost their freedoms – the
Zhenotdel was abolished)

• Stalin was able to do
this, unlike Lenin, b/c the
gov’t was firmly in place
and all threats had been
eliminated/reduced thru
state terror/propaganda
– Stalin combined
communism and
dictatorship in this time,
setting the tone for future
comm. leaders
– By 1941, the USSR was
among the top 3 eco.
powers

• Stalin’s paranoia
still wouldn’t rest…
The Great Purges
• They began in 1934
when Stalin’s deputy
Sergei Kirov was
murdered
• Stalin ordered the
NKVD to crack down on
potential opposition –
this soon penetrated all
levels of Soviet society
• Anyone perceived as a
threat was forced to
confess in public trials
and then
executed/shipped to a
gulag
• Millions disappeared
during this time; the
party leadership and
army officer corps was
esp. affected

Disadvantages of collectivisation
• Rationing and food shortages lasted well
into the 1940s affecting millions of
Russians.
• There were even reports of cannibalism
and a famine killed around 7 million people.

• Stalin’s wife committed suicide during the
famine because she was so upset at the
terrible conditions.
• All of this was kept secret from the Russian
people.
• People were still suffering many years later.

Stakhanovites
• Workers were encouraged to increase
production and were named after Alexei
Stakhanov.
• He mined 14 times his quota in coal, and
managed to dig 102 tonnes of coal in
under 6 hours.
• Later on it was revealed that this was
exaggerated but at the time workers were
given this as a target.

Magnitogorsk
• TASK

Answer question 3 on page 91 of the
Russian text book.

Purges

• One of the best examples of the way
Stalin dealt with opposition was the
Purges.
• They started from 1934 – 1938. This time
was known as the time of The Great
Purges.
• Millions of Russians were arrested and
either sent to labour camps or shot.

• Stalin believed in a totalitarian state (one
in which the state has total power over
every aspect of people’s lives.
• Stalin purged anyone who was against
him or who was behaving in a way Stalin
didn’t approve of.
• People had to be careful not to criticise
Stalin or any part of Russian life.
• Stalin used this time to get rid of his
political enemies.

• Look at source 5 on page 107.
• How useful is source 5 as evidence of
other counties’ views on Stalin.

How the Bolsheviks Maintained Power After 1917

How the Bolsheviks Maintained Power After 1917

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