Were the Bolsheviks a positive or negative force for change in Russia?

IB HL English

Under the leadership of the two Bolshevik dictators Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924) and Joseph Stalin (1924-1939), Russia underwent drastic political, social, and economic changes following the years of the 1917 revolution. Resulting in the rapid industrialization of Russia, such as the construction of power stations, factories and agricultural developments. The Bolsheviks allowed for the backward and primitive country of Russia to flourish and become one of the most industrialized countries in the world. It was clear that Russia had made significant progress in the years under the Bolshevik rule however, the methods and the techniques used were very brutal and cruel, destroying somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35 million Russian lives (Brooman). This thus leads us to believe that instead of Marx’s “dictatorship of the proletariat” it became merely the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. Consequently, historians have argued whether the Bolshevik rule was a positive or negative force for change in Russia.

The Bolsheviks came to power intending to introduce sweeping economic changes to wipe out “all exploitation of man by man” and to eliminate “the division of society into classes.” (Lowe) To start Lenin sought to fulfill the three promises he made during the revolution,” Bread, Peace, Land,” by issuing a number of decrees. The first in which he issued was the Land Decree, which took private property from noble and church estates and gave them to the peasants. The second decree issued was the Nationalizing Decree, which nationalized banks, foreign trade, and major industries. The third decree issued was the Peace Decree, which sought to make peace with Germany under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This pulled Russia out of World War I. Although this created peace it was at a heavy cost, Russia had to surrender control of: the Baltic Provinces (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), of Poland, of Finland, and of the Ukraine. This caused Russia to lose 46 million people of its population (Howarth). In addition it also created great resentment from the Russia’s former combat allies (U.S., Great Britain, and France), who would later support anti-revolutionaries in an attempt to overthrow Bolshevik rule.

In July 1918 the Bolsheviks called the Congress of the Soviets to decide on a number of things. 1) Abolition of all political parties except the Communist party. 2) Move the capital from Petrograd to Moscow. 3) Change the name of the country from Russia to the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (Lowe). Ironically the RSFSR was far from a republic and in that same year a terrible civil war broke out between the Bolsheviks and the Whites. The Whites were assisted by foreigners who were angry with Russia for pulling out of WWI and in the case of France, to collect the extensive debts of the Tsarist regime, not accepted by the Bolsheviks. The economy, which had been deteriorating, became even worse as the civil war raged on, and in reaction to the terrible economy the Bolsheviks tried to print more money, however it failed and ultimately resulted in inflation (Watson).

As a consequence to the country’s poor economy the peasants revolted in a series of attacks from 1918-1921, because they lacked the things promised in the Revolution. One, peace was not kept due to the civil war. Second, there was a lack of bread because of the failing economy, which could not provide enough food for the starving population. If matters were not worse in March 1921, sailors from the Kronstadt naval base in the Baltic Sea, who had once fought to put the Bolsheviks in to power, now fought to put them out of power. This became known as the Kronstadt Revolt, and after ten days of fighting Trotsky and the Red Army put down the revolt (Howarth). This thus revealed to the Russian people the ineffectiveness of the new government and foreshadowed their demise.

This is a preview of the whole essay

It was clear, if Lenin did not do something drastic the Bolsheviks would lose power, and with this in mind he relied on the Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution known as the Cheka to solve his problems. Initially the Cheka was implemented to maintain order in Russian cities by arresting various criminals for looting, theft, etc. However, after the Social Revolutionaries, a political party who had been banned under the Bolshevik constitution, started using terrorist attacks by assassinating Bolshevik leaders and even attempting to kill Lenin himself (Watson). The Cheka was then used to purge the country of all opposition. This later became called the Red Terror where the Cheka persecuted and killed over 750,000 people using fear and violence to prevent any further political opposition. Even though there was a significant amount of death it was necessary to maintain power, according to Felix Dxerzhinsky, leader of the Cheka:

It must take into account only one thing, the victory of the revolution over the bourgeoisie, so the Cheka must defend the revolution and conquer the enemy even if its sword falls occasionally of the heads of the innocent. (Lee)

It was quite obvious that the new government was failing already, however it still managed to maintain control.

In 1921 the Bolsheviks developed a system known as War Communism, which essentially ruined the country but allowed them to win the civil war and maintain power. (Lee) Under this system, the Bolsheviks replaced the free market with a state controlled economy, a command economy, that ran all means of production and distribution. The Cheka then seized food from farmer peasants without payment and then gave it to the soldiers and town workers. Factory workers were put under military discipline, including the death penalty for striking; to make sure they provided enough war materials. Even the factories themselves were confiscated from the owners and put under government control. Lenin who said in regard to War Communism:

War Communism was thrust upon us by war and ruin. It was not, nor could be, a policy that corresponded to the economic tasks of the Proletariat. It was a temporary measure.(Watson)

As a result of War Communism, peasants stopped growing agricultural products and slaughtered many of their livestock to avoid giving it to the state, resulting in the famine of 1921and ultimately killing 7.5 million people. Thousands of young people became homeless orphans as result of the civil war and the famine and in this same year these homeless youngsters banded together to make a gang. This gang was known as the Bezprizornye, terrorizing towns committing thefts, murders, and other crimes. (Brooman)

Lenin needed to abandon War Communism and in 1921 he introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) preventing the government from seizing food from the peasants. Peasants were now allowed to sell their surplus goods to private traders and 91% of industrial enterprises were returned to private ownership (Brooman). This relaxed tensions with the peasants and the economy was slowly rising. Lenin thought of the NEP as just a “strategic retreat,” assuring the public that it was a mere transition until true communism could be reached:

We hoped…to found state industries and organize distribution on a communist basis in a country that was petit-bourgeois. Life has shown that we made a mistake. A succession of transition periods such as State Capitalism and Socialism was required to prepare, through many years preliminary work, the transition to Communism. (Lee)

Although the Bolsheviks made horrible mistakes in power they also made many reforms that contributed to the improvement of Russia. In 1918 the Marriage law was introduced allowing couples to marry by placing names in a public marriage register. In addition, divorce was permitted, if both parties agreed and abortion was allowed. In 1922 the Labor law was introduced which made eight hours work days, two weeks paid vacation, social insurance benefits (pay on sick day), and unemployment and old-age pensions (Lee). However in spite of all this unemployment was still on the rise and in 1924 unemployment was still 8.5 million. Education was also offered however, history and ancient languages were abolished, and sciences encouraged (Howarth).

Even though the Bolsheviks were able to hold onto power through the civil war, revolts, and famine, in 1924 Lenin died and the Bolsheviks were left without a leader. Everyone thought that the intelligent and notorious Trotsky, hero of the Bolshevik Revolution, would come to power, however, too much amazement this was not the case. The meticulous planning of the skillful politician Joseph Stalin, allowed him to come to power and become the new leader of the Bolshevik party. Improving Russia immensely through industrialization, increasing productivity and transforming Russia into one of the most powerful industrial nations in the world. However, although Stalin created great advances in the Russian economy, he still managed to cause the death of somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-35 million Russians. (Howarth)

The Russian economy was still very low despite the NEP’s progress, and therefore Stalin got rid of it and focused most of his energy on making the economy work because according to him:

We [Russia] are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in ten years. Either we do it or they crush us. (Watson)

However, Stalin encountered some problems in doing this. One being there was a lack of capital finance from foreign countries since no one would invest in the Communist state, so basically Russia was on its own. Despite this Stalin was determined to make it work, and in 1928 under Gosplan (massive economic planning) he introduced the first 5-year plan (1928-1932), which set quotas and expectations for the industrialization of Russia. Grueling paces were set for factories and almost impossible quotas were supposed to be met (Lee). Strict no late polices were adopted, tardiness or absenteeism meant severe punishment some as serious as deportation to Siberia. Stalin also issued uninterrupted week where the workers who usually got off for the weekend had to work the full seven days, hopefully to meet the quotas in four years instead of five. Those who felt that the work pace was too grueling and wanted to leave for more agreeable work were stopped by the NKVD, evolved from the Cheka, who introduced internal passports (1932) preventing workers from moving towns (. By the end of the 5-year plan, industrialization, coal, oil, and steel production had increased by almost 300%. Although this was a great accomplishment, it still did not meet the expectations of Stalin and those who criticized Stalin said that:

It is probably no exaggeration to claim that the First Five-year Plan represented a declaration of war by the state machine against the workers and peasants of the USSR who were subjected to a greater exploitation than any they had known under capitalism. (Lowe)

However, there were some rewards to those skilled diligent worker who received perks such as better housing, more pay and paid vacation. These individuals were called Stahanovites, after a worker who mined 100 tons of coal in a single shift.

Since Russia was not receiving any help from foreign investors, they had to make it without any help. One way that Russia received income to pay for vast projects to expand the country was through the exportation of grain. However, before this could have a significant impact, some changes had to be made. In 1928 Stalin said that Russia was 2 million tones under the minimum amount needed to support the people in Russia (. Thus resulting in the possibility of famine.

In response Stalin had the NKVD make raids on farms stealing food to be taken to the cities. This however was not good enough. For one thing, peasant farmers were still very inefficient, producing very little and still using primitive farming techniques such as the wooden plows and other wooden tools. More food would have to be produced to both feed the growing industrial population and to provide a surplus for export which would bring in foreign capital and profits for investments in industry. Therefore in 1929 Stalin introduced the system of collectivization for two reasons; 1) to make farming more efficient 2) to eliminate the prosperous Kulaks, who he thought could pose a threat to the advancement of Communism. Under this system, peasant farmers were asked to combine their farms with others into something known as Kolkhoz, a collective farm. It consisted of 50-100 families, together farming about 450 hectares. Stalin called this:

The way out is to unite the small and dwarf peasant farms gradually but surely, not by pressure but by example and persuasion, into large farms based on common, cooperative, collective cultivation of the land…there is no other way out. (Howarth)

However, Stalin did use pressure, threatening to deport those who opposed this idea to the slave camps in Siberia known as gulags. In addition as a result of collectivization, 5-6 million people died from the famine of 1930 in the countryside forcing many to become cannibals.

Despite this there was a class that opposed collectivization, known as the Kulaks, wealthy peasants. The Kulaks refused to give any food to the state and in 1929 decided to kill their livestock and hide their grain so as to not give to the sate. Stalin replied:

We have passed from the policy the policy of restricting the exploiting tendencies of the kulaks as a class…To launch an offensive against the kulaks means that we mist prepare for it and then strike at the kulaks, strike so hard as to prevent them from rising to their feet again…(Brooman)

Stalin thus commenced with the liquidation of the Kulaks and sent his NKVD to do the job. They then proceeded to divide the Kulaks into three categories; 1) actively hostile-handed over to NKVD (political police) who deported them to slave camps 2) wealthiest kulaks were deported to far regions of the country 3) least harmful kulaks were allowed to stay but given land with least fertility. In the end close to 10 million Kulaks were removed or executed (Brooman)

During the second 5-year plan, Stalin wanted the workers grueling pace to continue, and made even tougher quotas to be fulfilled by the end of 1937. This however ended in the same as the first 5-year Plan and even though there was tremendous progress made, it still was not enough to fulfill the impossible quotas set by Stalin. Workers and their managers were so afraid of Stalin’s ruthless “no failure policy" that they lied in their progress reports in regard to industrial growth to avoid the punishment of being sent to the gulags. So in 1937, when Stalin found out that the quotas were not met to avoid self-blame he told the Russian public that it was because of Saboteurs. Those of which who wanted to see the fall of Russia. To convince the public even further Stalin even held “show-trials” where fixed trials were planned to condemn random scapegoats to death and the gulags. (Brooman)

Starting in 1930, there was growing opposition within the Communist party, which aimed to slow down industrialization, allow peasants to leave collective farms, and remove Stalin from leadership. The man selected to do this was Sergei Kirov of the Leningrad Party, however on December 1934 Kirov was shot. The men held responsible for his death was Kamenev and Zinoviev, even though historians speculate that Stalin ordered Kirov’s death. This was not the end of Stalin’s purges and essentially no one was safe. This became known as the Great Terror and anyone suspected of opposing the government was arrested and sent to the gulags. Stalin started to purge old Bolshevik heroes, generals in the military, kulaks, and anyone else suspected of opposing the government.

Of the 139 members and candidates of the Party’s Central Committee who were elected at the 17th Congress, 98 persons, i.e. 70%, were arrested and shot…Of 1,966 delegates…1,108 persons were arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary crimes, i.e. decidedly more than half. (Howarth)

Over all the NKVD executed 300,00 people and sent 7 million people to the gulags, who died from harsh conditions.

However, no matter how ruthless Stalin was he did bring about great reforms to the people. Along with the increased industrialization that allowed them to compete with the rest of the world, Stalin also introduced education. In 1934 school became mandatory and the literacy rate increased 20% and higher learning was also available (Watson). Medical facilities became more available, allowing everyone to have access. Everyone was allowed to vote even though the polls were fixed. Workers received pensions, welfare, and trade unions were established.

In Conclusion it is quite obvious that the Bolsheviks in power led to the significant advancement of Russia. Industrializing the country to such a great extent that the Bolsheviks and Russia were able to survive WWII. However, the Bolsheviks did cause the death of millions and millions of Russians, which could have been avoided. Although it was necessary for reform in Russia, the extent of brutality by both leaders was immense.

Bibliography

Watson, Jack. Success in European History 1815-1941. London:John Murray ltd. 1985

Howarth, Tony. Twentieth Century History. London and New York: Longman. 1979

Brooman, Josh. Stalin and the Soveit Union, The USSR 1924-1953. London: Longman 1988.

Lowe, Norman. Mastering Modern World History. Macmillian, London: 1986

Lee, Stephen. Aspects of Modern European History. Routledge, London, 1992.