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starter activity. Who would have been happy and who would have been annoyed by this photograph of a bustling market place in Russia in the summer of 1921?. How was the Bolshevik state consolidated?. 1921-1924. Your task. What were the problems facing the Bolsheviks?
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starter activity Who would have been happy and who would have been annoyed by this photograph of a bustling market place in Russia in the summer of 1921?
Your task • What were the problems facing the Bolsheviks? • Read Fiehn, p.103- and list the problems facing the Bolsheviks. Take notes under the following headings • Problems in the economy • Threat from peasants • Opposition from workers • Problems from Kronstadt • Divisions in the party
Your task • Create a Venn Diagram identifying differences and points in common between the NEP & War Communism
Your task • Create a scales chart showing the successes and failures of the NEP. Successes Failures
Successes • Small businesses reopened, e.g. shops, restaurants • Cereal production increased (20%, 1920-23) • Factory output increased (200%, 1920-23) • NEPmen increased products available • Increased trade between villages of goods & produce • Political interference remained weak • International support: trade agreements (Germany, 1922; GB, 1924)
Failures • Successes measured against low baseline (Civil War, War Communism) • Distributions systems remained chaotic • NEPmen overly-important (controlled 3/4 retail trade) • Property speculation • Bribery • Conspicuous show of wealth • Moral decadence: prostitution & gambling • Trotsky’s ‘Scissors crisis’
Scissor Crisis • Problem • Abundance of food, prices dropped, peasants unwilling to sell grain • Lack of manufactured goods, prices increased, not enough goods • Resolution • Govt. capped industrial prices • Peasants paid tax in cash, not kind
Your task • Read source 7.16 on p.110 and list the changes the author notes to Russian life during this period • How reliable are Duranty’s observations on the NEP
starter activity Cynics argue that the NEP was merely a carrot to disguise a stick approach to governing Russia. How could the NEP have been a carrot? What sort of stick would the Bolsheviks use to govern Russia more effectively?
A conference on Bolshevik Russia You are going to become an expert for the day on political repression under the Bolsheviks. Look at p. 113 in your text book. Your teacher will give you a topic heading from the chart and you must take notes summarising the key points for that topic. You will then attend a conference on Bolshevik political repression, in which you share your expertise with other delegates. You must aim to complete your notes on all the other aspects of political repression through conversations with the other delegates at the conference. There will a prize for the delegate with the most detailed notes and the delegate who the class thinks is the best expert.
Censorship • 1922 writers & scholars deported • Pre-publication censorship introduced • Main Administration for Affairs of Literature & Publishing Houses (Glavlit) estd.
GPU (Cheka) • GPU (Main Political Administration) founded in 1992 • Arbitrary imprisonment & death penalty extended • Nepmen focus for attacks
Attacks on the Church • Church a potential opponent • 1921, Union of the Militant Godless estd. • 1922, churches stripped of wealth • Russian Orthodox Church leaders executed • 1000s priests imprisoned
Crushing of peasants • Harsh punishments for civil disturbances • 1922, Tambov region ‘purged’ by Red Army • Loyalty rewards – salt, manufactured goods • Propaganda campaign extolling benefits of NEP
Attacks on political rivals • Mensheviks & Socialist Revolutionaries arrested for supporting strikes & civil disturbances • 1921, 5000 Mensheviks arrested for counter-revolutionary activities • Mensheviks & SRs outlawed • Show trials: 34 Socialist Revolutionaries condemned as terrorists; 11 executed
Discussion • Who provided a greater threat to the Bolsheviks: intellectuals & writers, Church leaders, peasant communities or political opponents? • Which method of repression would have the greatest success: censorship, the use of secret police, direct attacks, for example on individuals, sweeping attacks for example on communities?