1. Civil War and War Communism, 1917-21 · 1. Civil War and War Communism, 1917-21 (while waiting for the world revolution) 2. The Crisis of 1920-21: Communist victory of one state,

1. Civil War and War

Communism, 1917-21

(while waiting for the

world revolution)

2. The Crisis of 1920-21:

Communist victory of one

state, no world revolution,

and the need to tone it

down.

3. The introduction of The

New Economic Policy,

1921-1928

4. The Death of Lenin

(1924), the rise of Stalin,

and the struggle for

power

From Revolution to Civil War, 1917-21

First Steps

26 October 1917:

The first Soviet of

People’s

Commissars is

formed

Stalin and Lenin 1917

7 December 1917:

Extraordinary Commission

for the Struggle Against

Counter-Revolution is

created (the Cheka) ЧК -

чрезвычайная комиссия

St. Petersburg, Moscow & the Mennonite story in Ukraine,

May 6-18, 2017

Possibility of

a October

2017 trip to

Russia with

me (Moscow

and St.

Petersburg);

deadline of

mid-February

519-885-2522or

1-800-565-0451

Death of a Monarch: 17 July 1918

It was all about

timing: By 25

July 1918 the

city had been

captured by

the White

Army

A new “icon” for a new age:

1919 in Petrograd

aka “our Lady of Petrograd)

(Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, 1920)

THE CRISIS OF 1920-1921“The State swelled up; the people grew lean”

(Kliuchevsky on Peter the Great, though no

less relevant by 1920)

How exactly, by 1921 (two ways)?

1. Soviet Power now extended from Poland to

Arctic Ocean to Black Sea and Transbaikal

to Pacific Ocean

2. State Administration expands under “War

Communism” as Lenin tries to nationalize

everything.

Urban:

Industry and Transport had been ruined: Industrial output

by 1920 was 20% of 1913 levels, as factories lack fuel to

even stay open

By August 1920, Moscow’s population 50% of what it had

been in 1914; and Petrograd was about 33%!

The approx. 8 million Bezprizorniki, rationing, and near-

chronic shortages

Is there an

(ideological)

problem with

these trends?

By 1920: mass starvation in

Western Siberia and

Ukraine..

February, 1921: More than

115 peasant uprisings

reported in country… and a

begrudging awareness by

Lenin and the Party:

“We know that in our

devastated country the peasant

economy has been destroyed,”

and that the peasant needs

goods, and not the paper

money which is being showed

on him in such profusion.”

6

Rural (Peasants)

Capstone of Societal Unrest:

The Kronstadt Rebellion, February 1921

15,000 sailors or so

and

a rich revolutionary tradition dating back to 1905

NEP as Economic Retreat…

and

Political consolidation after

1921- 1928

NEP, the 1920s: Peasants and small-scale capitalists win,

though political opposition is crushed.

Lenin responds:

FROM LENIN TO STALIN:

High Politics from 1917 to 1929

Lenin

Stalin

Trotsky Bukharin Zinoviev Kamenev

Krupskaia

Lenin:

A virtual unknown until 30 August 1918

Life for Lenin: 16 hour workdays…

\Kremlin and Smolny Institute

\An obsession with leadership

30.VIII.1918, Fanny Kaplan, and 3 shots

\Life in the balance, then recovery

and adulation.

From Bukharin: mighty Lenin, “with his pierced lungs

still spilling blood”, had immediately gone back to work.

From Zinoviev: “He is the chosen one of millions. Such

a leader is born once in 500

years in the life of mankind.”

Lenin now appears in a short

documentary film, to confirm

that he had not been killed.

Lenin posters now appear on

the streets for the first time:

http://media.hoover.org/images/

(this one c. 1920)

New poetry emerges:

“You came to us, to ease

our excruciating torment.

You came to us a leader, to

destroy the enemies of the

workers’ movement.

We will not forget your

suffering, That you, our

leader, endured for us.

You stood a martyr…”

The Decline of Health:

1921: complaint of

headaches and

exhaustion.

Lapses of memory

Slurring of speech

-Lead poisoning feared

from bullet

Then:

25 May 1922: First Major

Stroke: partial paralysis,

and temporary loss of

speech.

1922: Lenin is shifted to the

Gorkii estate for a hoped-for

recovery.

Concerns:

• Leadership in his absence

• Rivalry between Stalin and

Trotsky

May, 1922: Stalin appointed

first General Secretary of

party.

What we actually know about Stalin…

•Birth: 1878 or 1879 in Gori, Georgia,

as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili

•Childhood, parents, and sources.

•Destined for seminary, but then….

•Expulsion as a Socialist, 1899

•First revolutionary name: Koba

•Most Georgian revolutionaries go…

Menshevik, but not young Koba, who

joins the Bolsheviks early on..

•From Koba to Stalin, and repeated arrests and internal

exile.

•Value to Lenin:

•Loyal, and internal (was he a police agent?!); and a

Georgian.

•1913: Marxism and the National Question.But it follows that

Russian Marxists

cannot dispense with

the right of nations to

self-determination.

Thus, the right of self-

determination is an

essential element in

the solution of the

national question.

Lenin and Stalin, and

growing distrust (?):

1.Relations with

Krupskaia

2. Role as “gate-keeper

to Gorkii

3. Nationality question,

especially purging of

Georgian (Menshevik)

leadership..

Is that the best context

for Lenin’s “last

testament”?

“Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General,

has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I

am not sure whether he will always be capable of using

that authority with sufficient caution. Comrade Trotsky,

on the other hand, as his struggle against the C.C. on

the question of the People's Commissariat of

Communications has already proved, is distinguished

not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps

the most capable man in the present C.C., but he has

displayed excessive self-assurance and shown

excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative

side of the work.

These two qualities of the two outstanding leaders of

the present C.C. can inadvertently lead to a split, and

if our Party does not take steps to avert this, the split

may come unexpectedly…..” (www source for this)

…”Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite

tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us

Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-

General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think

about a way of removing Stalin from that post and

appointing another man in his stead who in all other

respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one

advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more

loyal, more polite and more considerate to the

comrades, less capricious, etc. This circumstance may

appear to be a negligible detail. But I think that from the

standpoint of safeguards against a split and from the

standpoint of what I wrote above about the relationship

between Stalin and Trotsky it is not a [minor] detail, but it

is a detail which can assume decisive importance.”

Death comes:

21 January 1924

Massive turnout for

funeral, and unexpected

devotion despite -35

degree cold.

One noted absence at

funeral…

https://www.youtube.com/w

atch?v=oStHN2xwWeE

A cult is born, and a body

preserved…

•Petrograd becomes Leningrad, and “Lenin corners”

•Institute of Leninism formed, as does Lenin

Museum.

• 1924 Stalin and “Foundations of Leninism”

The Struggle for Lenin’s Mantle, 1924-1928:

1.May 1924, The Central Committee of the CPSU hears

Lenin’s Last Testament… and decides to suppress it…

why?

2. Trotsky, is silent about Testament, and agrees to give

up posts as sign that he was not committed to power.

3. January 1925: Trotsky replaced as chief of Staff of

Red Army to lesser posts.

4. 1927: expelled from Party

5. 1928: exiled to Alma Ata

6. 1929: Exiled from USSR

…but was he still a threat???

Bottom Line, then, for Political Power after

1924:

1. 1924: Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin together.

2. 1925 Zinoviev and Kamenev seek reconciliation with

Trotsky… but too little too late, and now face their own

charges of disloyalty to the Party.

3. After 1925: alliance is with Bukharin and Stalin,

though mainly Stalin…

But was he strong enough to be a dictator.. And what

would that mean?