What Changed After October

4 What Changed after October? The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik). In November 1917, the Bolsheviks conducted the elections to the Constituent Assembly, but they failed to gain majority support. In January 1918, the Assembly rejected Bolshevik measures and Lenin dismissed the Assembly. He thought the All Russian Congress of Soviets was more democratic than an assembly Fig.12 – A soldier wearing the Soviet hat (budeonovka). elected in uncertain conditions. In March 1918, despite opposition by their political allies, the Bolsheviks made peace with Germany at Brest Litovsk. In the years that followed, the Bolsheviks became the only party to participate in the elections to the All Russian Congress of Soviets, which became the Parliament of the country. Russia became a one-party state. Trade unions were kept under party control. The secret police (called the Cheka first, and later OGPU and NKVD) punished those who criticised the Bolsheviks. Many young writers and artists rallied to the Party because it stood for socialism and for change. After October 1917, this led to experiments in the arts and architecture. But many became disillusioned because of the censorship the Party encouraged. Fig.13 – May Day demonstration in Moscow in 1918. Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution The Bolsheviks were totally opposed to private property. Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917. This meant that the government took over ownership and management. Land was declared social property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility. In cities, Bolsheviks enforced the partition of large houses according to family requirements. They banned the use of the old titles of aristocracy. To assert the change, new uniforms were designed for the army and officials, following a clothing competition organised in 1918 – when the Soviet hat (budeonovka) was chosen. Box 3 The October Revolution and the Russian Countryside: Two Views ‘News of the revolutionary uprising of October 25, 1917, reached the village the following day and was greeted with enthusiasm; to the peasants it meant free land and an end to the war. ...The day the news arrived, the landowner’s manor house was looted, his stock farms were “requisitioned” and his vast orchard was cut down and sold to the peasants for wood; all his far buildings were torn down and left in ruins while the land was distributed among the peasants who were prepared to live the new Soviet life’. From: Fedor Belov, The History of a Soviet Collective Farm A member of a landowning family wrote to a relative about what happened at the estate: ‘The “coup” happened quite painlessly, quietly and peacefully. …The first days were unbearable.. Mikhail Mikhailovich [the estate owner] was calm...The girls also…I must say the chairman behaves correctly and even politely. We were left two cows and two horses. The servants tell them all the time not to bother us. “Let them live. We vouch for their safety and property. We want them treated as humanely as possible….” …There are rumours that several villages are trying to evict the committees and return the estate to Mikhail Mikhailovich. I don’t know if this will happen, or if it’s good for us. But we rejoice that there is a conscience in our people...’ From: Serge Schmemann, Echoes of a Native Land. Two Centuries of a Russian Village (1997). 4.1 The Civil War Activity India and the Contemporary World Read the two views on the revolution in the When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up. Soldiers, mostly peasants, wished to go home for the redistribution and deserted. Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik uprising. Their leaders moved to south Russia and organised troops to fight the Bolsheviks (the ‘reds’). During 1918 and 1919, the ‘greens’ (Socialist Revolutionaries) and ‘whites’ (pro-Tsarists) controlled most of the Russian empire. They were backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops – all those forces who were worried at the growth of socialism in Russia. As these troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine became common. Supporters of private property among ‘whites’ took harsh steps with peasants who had seized land. Such actions led to the loss of popular support for the non-Bolsheviks. By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled most of the former Russian empire. They succeeded due countryside. Imagine yourself to be a witness to the events. Write a short account from the standpoint of: Ø an owner of an estate Ø a small peasant Ø a journalist to cooperation with non-Russian nationalities and Muslim jadidists. Cooperation did not work where Russian colonists themselves turned Bolshevik. In Khiva, in Central Asia, Bolshevik colonists brutally massacred local nationalists in the name of defending socialism. In this situation, many were confused about what the Bolshevik government represented. Partly to remedy this, most non-Russian nationalities were given political autonomy in the Soviet Union (USSR) – the state the Bolsheviks created from the Russian empire in December 1922. But since this was combined with unpopular policies that the Bolsheviks forced the local government to follow – like the harsh discouragement of nomadism – attempts to win over different nationalities were only partly successful. New words Autonomy – The right to govern themselves Nomadism – Lifestyle of those who do not live in one place but move from area to area to earn their living Activity Why did people in Central Asia respond to the Russian Revolution in different ways? Source B Central Asia of the October Revolution: Two Views ‘The chieftain was a benevolent old man; his attendant … a youth who … spoke Russian … He had heard of the Revolution, which had overthrown the Tsar and driven away the Generals who conquered the homeland of the Kirgiz. So, the Revolution meant that the Kirgiz were masters of their home again. “Long Live the Revolution” shouted the Kirgiz youth who seemed to be a born Bolshevik. The whole tribe joined.’ ‘The Kirghiz welcomed the first revolution (ie February Revolution) with joy and the second revolution with consternation and terror … [This] first revolution freed them from the oppression of the Tsarist regime and strengthened their hope that … autonomy would be realised. The second revolution (October Revolution) was accompanied by violence, pillage, taxes and the establishment of dictatorial power … Once a small group of Tsarist bureaucrats oppressed the Kirghiz. Now the same group of people … perpetuate the same regime ...’ Kazakh leader in 1919, quoted in Alexander Bennigsen and Chantal Quelquejay, Les Mouvements Nationaux chez les Musulmans de Russie, (1960). Source M.N.Roy, Memoirs (1964). Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution M.N.Roy was an Indian revolutionary, a founder of the Mexican Communist Party and prominent Comintern leader in India, China and Europe. He was in Central Asia at the time of the civil war in the 1920s. He wrote: 4.2 Making a Socialist Society During the civil war, the Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised. They permitted peasants to cultivate the land that had been socialised. Bolsheviks used confiscated land to demonstrate what collective work could be. A process of centralised planning was introduced. Officials assessed how the economy could work and set targets for a five-year period. On this basis they made the Five Year Plans. The government fixed all prices to promote industrial growth during the first two ‘Plans’ Box 4 Socialist Cultivation in a Village in the Ukraine ‘A commune was set up using two [confiscated] farms as a base. The commune consisted of thirteen families with a total of seventy persons … The farm tools taken from the … farms were turned over to the commune …The members ate in a communal dining hall and income was divided in accordance with the principles of “cooperative communism”. The entire proceeds of the members’ labor, as well as all dwellings and facilities belonging to the commune were shared by the commune members.’ Fedor Belov, The History of a Soviet Collective Farm (1955). India and the Contemporary World (1927-1932 and 1933-1938). Centralised planning led to economic growth. Industrial production increased (between 1929 and 1933 by 100 per cent in the case of oil, coal and steel). New factory cities came into being. However, rapid construction led to poor working conditions. In the city of Magnitogorsk, the construction of a steel plant was achieved in three years. Workers lived hard lives and the result was 550 stoppages of work in the first year alone. In living quarters, ‘in the wintertime, at 40 degrees below, people had to climb down from the fourth floor and dash across the street in order to go to the toilet’. An extended schooling system developed, and arrangements were made for factory workers and peasants to enter universities. Crèches were established in factories for the children of women workers. Cheap public health care was provided. Model living quarters were set up for workers. The effect of all this was uneven, though, since government resources were limited. Fig.14 – Factories came to be seen as a symbol of socialism. This poster states: ‘The smoke from the chimneys is the breathing of Soviet Russia.’ Fig.15 – Children at school in Soviet Russia in the 1930s. They are studying the Soviet economy. Fig.16 – A child in Magnitogorsk during the First Five Year Plan. He is working for Soviet Russia. Source C Dreams and Realities of a Soviet Childhood in 1933 My family is large, there are four children. We don’t have a father – he died, fighting for the worker’s cause, and my mother … is ailing … I want to study very much, but I cannot go to school. I had some old boots, but they are completely torn and no one can mend them. My mother is sick, we have no money and no bread, but I want to study very much. …there stands before us the task of studying, studying and studying. That is what Vladimir Ilich Lenin said. But I have to stop going to school. We have no relatives and there is no one to help us, so I have to go to work in a factory, to prevent the family from starving. Dear grandfather, I am 13, I study well and have no bad reports. I am in Class 5 … Letter of 1933 from a 13-year-old worker to Kalinin, Soviet President From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody (Moscow, 1997). Source Dear grandfather Kalinin … Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution Fig.17 – Factory dining hall in the 1930s. 4.3 Stalinism and Collectivisation The period of the early Planned Economy was linked to the disasters of the collectivisation of agriculture. By 19271928, the towns in Soviet Russia were facing an acute problem of grain supplies. The government fixed prices at which grain must be sold, but the peasants refused to sell their grain to government buyers at these prices. Stalin, who headed the party after the death of Lenin, introduced firm emergency measures. He believed that rich peasants and traders in the countryside were holding stocks in the hope of higher prices. Speculation had to be stopped and supplies confiscated. India and the Contemporary World In 1928, Party members toured the grain-producing areas, supervising enforced grain collections, and raiding ‘kulaks’ – the name for wellto-do peasants. As shortages continued, the decision was taken to collectivise farms. It was argued that grain shortages were partly due to the small size of holdings. After 1917, land had been given over to peasants. These small-sized peasant farms could not be modernised. To develop modern farms, and run them along industrial lines with machinery, it was necessary to ‘eliminate kulaks’, take away land from peasants, and establish state-controlled large farms. Fig.18 – A poster during collectivisation. It states: ‘We shall strike at the kulak working for the decrease in cultivation.’ What followed was Stalin’s collectivisation programme. From 1929, the Party forced all peasants to cultivate in collective farms (kolkhoz). The bulk of land and implements were transferred to the ownership of collective farms. Peasants worked on the land, and the kolkhoz profit was shared. Enraged peasants resisted the authorities and destroyed their livestock. Between 1929 and 1931, the number of cattle fell by one-third. Those who resisted collectivisation were severely punished. Many were deported and exiled. As they resisted collectivisation, peasants argued that they were not rich and they were not against socialism. They merely did not want to work in collective farms for a variety of reasons. Stalin’s government allowed some independent cultivation, but treated such cultivators unsympathetically. In spite of collectivisation, production did not increase immediately. In fact, the bad harvests of 1930-1933 led to one of most devastating famines in Soviet history when over 4 million died. New words Deported – Forcibly removed from one’s own country. Exiled – Forced to live away from one’s own country. Fig.19 – Peasant women being gathered to work in the large collective farms. Source D Official view of the opposition to collectivisation and the government response ‘From the second half of February of this year, in various regions of the Ukraine … mass insurrections of the peasantry have taken place, caused by distortions of the Party’s line by a section of the lower ranks of the Party and the Soviet apparatus in the course of the introduction of collectivisation and preparatory work for the spring harvest. Within a short time, large scale activities from the above-mentioned regions carried over into neighbouring areas – and the most aggressive insurrections have taken place near the border. The greater part of the peasant insurrections have been linked with outright demands for the return of collectivised stocks of grain, livestock and tools … Source Between 1st February and 15th March, 25,000 have been arrested … 656 have been executed, 3673 have been imprisoned in labour camps and 5580 exiled …’ Report of K.M. Karlson, President of the State Police Administration of the Ukraine to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, on 19 March 1930. From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody Source E This is a letter written by a peasant who did not want to join the collective farm. ‘… I am a natural working peasant born in 1879 … there are 6 members in my family, my wife was born in 1881, my son is 16, two daughters 19, all three go to school, my sister is 71. From 1932, heavy taxes have been levied on me that I have found impossible. From 1935, local authorities have increased the taxes on me … and I was unable to handle them and all my property was registered: my horse, cow, calf, sheep with lambs, all my implements, furniture and my reserve of wood for repair of buildings and they sold the lot for the taxes. In 1936, they sold two of my buildings … the kolkhoz bought them. In 1937, of two huts I had, one was sold and one was confiscated …’ Afanasii Dedorovich Frebenev, an independent cultivator. From: V. Sokolov (ed), Obshchestvo I Vlast, v 1930-ye gody. Source To the newspaper Krestianskaia Gazeta (Peasant Newspaper) Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution Many within the Party criticised the confusion in industrial production under the Planned Economy and the consequences of collectivisation. Stalin and his sympathisers charged these critics with conspiracy against socialism. Accusations were made throughout the country, and by 1939, over 2 million were in prisons or labour camps. Most were innocent of the crimes, but no one spoke for them. A large number were forced to make false confessions under torture and were executed – several among them were talented professionals.