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9 Cards in this Set
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What was the decree of land under Lenin? |
abolition of all private ownership of land “forever”. All land would be placed under the control of the state; rural landholdings would “become the property of the whole people, and shall pass into the use of those who cultivate it.”
In reality, this was an ex post facto decree because Russian peasants had begun seizing and reclaiming land before the February Revolution. The Decree on Land only validated these land seizures and encouraged more of the same.
This decree may well have been a ploy to draw Russia’s 100 million peasants into the revolution and to boost Bolshevik support outside industrial cities. The land decree also undermined the land reform agenda of the SRs, as well as the All-Russian Peasant Deputies, a ‘peasant soviet’ set up by the SRs in May 1917. |
Private ownership |
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What was the decree on peace? |
Lenin’s second edict was the Decree on Peace. This required the new government to seek immediate peace terms with Germany while conceding no loss of Russian land or people and no payment of reparations or indemnities.
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Germany |
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What was the sovnarkom? |
The first Sovnarkom was formed in November 1917 and contained 17 different commissars, each with a different portfolio or area of responsibility. The commissars, all Bolsheviks, were selected by the party’s central committee and endorsed by the Second Congress of Soviets. Among the Sovnarkom’s prominent members were Lenin (chairman), Trotsky (commissar for foreign affairs), Joseph Stalin (nationalities), Alexandra Kollontai (social welfare) and Alexander Shlyapnikov (labour). |
Chairman |
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What was the politburo? |
The Politburo was the highest organ of the party when the party Congress and the Central Committee were not in session. ... While nominally subordinate to the Central Committee and the Party Congress, in practice the Politburo was the true center of power in the CPSU, and its decisions de facto had the force of law. |
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What was Lenin’s ideology? |
Lenin seized power because he believed that a global revolution was needed to replace capitalism and imperialism with socialism. A new social system that would allow all people to actually be free and equal. He was a Marxist. |
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Lenin creating a soviet state... |
In October 1917, Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets – small democratic councils that had emerged in every town and village in Russia after February. Between February and October, the soviets played a key role in governing Russia. Additionally, the local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. (ARCOS) They met in June 1917 to discuss Russia’s future. Lenin and other senior Bolsheviks argued that the ARCOS should become the basis of the new Russian Government. The October Revolution formally handed power to the ARCOS. As the ARCOS was too big to meet regularly, they elected the Council of People’s Commissars – Sovnarkom to govern Russia on a day-to-day basis. |
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What decrees did the sovnarkom give out? |
Decree on Land (October 1917) – gave peasants the right to take land from the nobility and the Church. Decree of Peace (October 1917) – which committed the new government to withdrawing from WW1. Workers’ Decrees (November 1917) – which established an 8 hour maximum working day and a minimum wage. Decree of Workers’ Control (April 1918) – which allowed workers to elect committees to run factories. |
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Lenin’s democratic government |
Lenin and the Bolsheviks claimed that the new government was democratic. Lenin argued that the new state was based on committees of working people who participated in government on a day-to-day basis. Claimed the soviet-state was more democratic than the systems in Britain, the USA and France where people merely voted four-five years. |
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What was the constituent assembly? |
In January 1918, there was a clear indication that Lenin was turning against democracy. Lenin refused to recognise the results of a nationwide election held in November 1917. Election created a Constituent Assembly with a Bolshevik minority, which met for the first time in January 1918/ Lenin closed the Constituent Assembly after one day. Claimed that it posed a threat to the power of the soviets. Lenin was also willing to disregard the soviets. |
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