The document summarizes key events and policies during the Russian Civil War and establishment of communist control under Lenin from 1917-1921. It discusses Lenin abandoning the Constituent Assembly in 1917, establishing the secret police Cheka to eliminate opponents, the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918, the Red Terror against enemies, and the success of the Red Army led by Trotsky in defeating anti-communist White forces by 1921. War Communism's strict policies hurt the economy and led to the Kronstadt Revolt in 1921, prompting Lenin to introduce the New Economic Policy to boost agriculture and industry through limited capitalism.

1. L E C T U R E I I – I N N E R
T U R M O I L
RUSSIAN
CIVIL WAR

2. Factors that help
Lenin impose
Communist
Control in Russia
1917 - 1920
Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk
1918
Civil War:
1918 - 1921
Execution of
Tsar Nicholas
& Family:
1918
Abandonment
of Constituent
Assembly
CHECKA
Success of
New
Economic
Policy
Kronstadt
Revolt: 1921
War for
Communism

3. ABANDONMENT OF CONSTITUENT
ASSEMBLY: 1917
• After October Revolution – Lenin promised to hold
elections for a Parliament to :Constituent Assembly.
• renamed the Bolshevik Party -Communist Party in order
to win wider support.
• Communists only won 175 seats out of 700, not enough for a
majority.
• Lenin shut down the Constituent Assembly after only
one day!
• This was the first step in setting up a Communist
Dictatorship.

4. THE CHEKA (SECRET POLICE):
DECEMBER 1917
• Agents spied on the Russian
people in factories and
villages.
• suspected anti-Communist
could be arrested, tortured,
and executed without a trial.
• After assassination attempt in
1918, launched the Red Terror
campaign against his enemies
• 50,000 executed in this period.
Three barefoot men face an improvised
firing squad in Latvia in May 1919,
moments before being shot to death and
toppling into their grave. This stunning
footage, recorded by an American
newsreel cameraman accompanying a
German occupation force, was to make an
appearance in twentieth-century politics,
history, and—in a grotesque way—
entertainment.

5. THE CHEKA: VIDEO CLIP
• Communists worried that the Tsar might be a
rallying point for the Whites.
• Tsar Nicholas, his wife, their five children and four
attendants were shot and bayoneted in July 1918.
• Overall, there was a period of strict governmental
and economic control known as War Communism.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrZ3dJiyKpU

6. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• How did Lenin maintain his control over Russia once
he came to power?

7. SIDES OF THE CIVIL WAR
• Lenin’s opponents had launched a full scale civil war
• The “Whites” vs the “Reds”
• Lenin’s army was able to win this war by 1920-21.

8. • Lenin’s army – Trotsky in
charge wasan efficient
leader
• Occupied the strategic
center of Russia
• strict military discipline
(deserters for example
were shot)
• Made use of Czarist
officers and their military
experience.
• Led by Admiral Kolchak
and Generals Deniken and
Wrangel
• Occupied the fringes of
Russia
• Diffent groups different
ideas
• Included reformists,
Mensheviks, Czarists
• This wartime coalition
proved to be incompatible
“The Reds” “The Whites”

9. THE WHITE ARMY:
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
• High numbers with
experienced military
generals and soldiers.
• United volunteer army
with Kuban Cossacks
• Had access to sea-going
and river-based naval
forces
• Surrounded Bolshevik
forces by obtaining
territory around them
• Received assistance from
Foreign powers
• Difficult to communicate
between four armed
groups
• Each group attacked
individually
• Some groups even hated
each other
• Bolsheviks had easier time
to defeat each group
• Russia’s size – difficult to
transport supplies and
soldiers
• Lack of an efficient railway
system

10. DISCUSSION QUESTION
• Explain how the White Army should have been able to
win the Civil War.

11. POLISH-SOVIET WAR:
BATTLE OF WARSAW
• Poland was a new country
formed by the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919.
• Lenin saw Poland as a
bridge to spread
communism in Europe.
• Poland wanted to expand
their territory into Ukraine
and Russia.
• Treaty of Riga March 1921
– Poland received parts of
Belorussia (now Belarus)
and Ukraine

12. THE KRONSTADT REVOLT – 1921
• War Communism made Lenin’s government very
unpopular.
• violence in the cities. Workers went on strike, in spite of
the death penalty for striking.
• March 1921. 10,000 sailors at the Kronstadt naval base
near Petrograd revolted.
• accused Lenin of breaking his promise to workers
• Red Army to put down the revolt.
• This caused 20,000 casualties and the leaders of the revolt were
executed.
• warning to Lenin that he might have to relax War
Communism.

13. MOBILIZATION:
WAR COMMUNISM
• State took control of the
factories and farms
• Forced labor and food was
rationed to only those who
worked
• unions were banned.
• Cheka seized all surplus
grain from the peasants
for .
• The peasants hid food or
preferred to grow less
• Drought and famine hit
Russia in 1921 – over 4
million people died.

14. DISCUSSION QUESTION
• How does War Communism differ from forms of
mobilizing for war?

15. CIVIL WAR ENDS
• By 1921, the Civil War was
over, but the Soviet land
and economy were
devastated
• Lenin created a program
of economic reform known
as the NEP.
• He also re-named his
nation the USSR.
Propaganda: Join the Red Calvary

16. NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
• Economic crisis w/ the conclusion of the wars
• Western Nations refused to trade w/ USSR for
their Communist ideals
• 1921 introduced the NEP
• attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry thru a
free market system(capitalism)
• caused a rift within the Communist Party:
• Strict communist against this
• nonconformists were shipped off to the gulags
• The NEP did work help improve food and
industrial production
• Plan to reinstate full communism
• 1922 Lenin had a stroke, and died in 1924:
• Fight for power between Trotsky and Stalin

17. NEP – VIDEO CLIP
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U5duV94Ocs