 starter activity

1. starter activity Propaganda poster typical of the civil war era, showing Trotsky. What accusations would Trotsky have to answer if was to win the propaganda war?

2. Why was there a civil war in Russia (1918-1920)?

3. Read p. 80 and note down the membership & aims of each of main groups involved in the fighting.  Your task

4. Reds • Kronstadt sailors • Red Guard • Workers & volunteers • Soldiers from Russian army • Pro-Revolution

5. Whites • Liberals • Tsarists or supporters of military dictatorship • Nationalists • Separatists • Socialist Revolutionaries • Moderate socialists • Yudenich (NW), Omsk govt. led by Kolchak including pro-monarchists (Siberia), Southern Volunteer Army (S) including Liberals & army officers; Komuch (former Const. Assemb.) including Soc. Revs. (Samara, E.) • Anti-Bolshevik

6. Greens • Peasants • Deserters • Interested in protecting own land or bandits • Nestor Makhno, anarchist, Ukraine • Supported Reds, Whites or exploited chaos to loot property

7.  Your task • You are a cartoonist. You are going to produce a satirical cartoon, lampooning the aims and membership of one of the 3 main groups in the Russian civil war. Write some notes for your paper’s editor describing the cartoon you intend to draw in order to get his approval. If you are feeling artistic you could even have a go at drawing the cartoon.

8. What were the key events of the Russian Civil War? 1918-20

9.  Your task • Watch the video clip and answer the questions in pairs. Student a answer all the odd numbers and student b the even number ones. • Imagine you are a propagandist for the Bolsheviks. Write a short press release to justify the reasons why it is important for the Red Army to win the Civil War. You may wish to refer to the aims of the Reds, the role of key individuals and groups, and the treatment of Bolsheviks by the White Army.

10.  Your task • Read p.81. Identify the different causes of the war: • Long term factors (events, changes that had been increasing tensions in Russia) • Short term factors (events that sparked the Civil War)

11. Long term factors (events, changes that had been increasing tensions in Russia) Bolshevik policies to create one-party state alienate allies (e.g. Soc Revs & Mensheviks) Liberals & Conservatives opposed closure of Const. Assembly & Sovnakom Short term factors (events that sparked the Civil War) Clashes between Bolsheviks & Czech Nationalists who were suspicious of Bolsheviks & attracted White support

12.  Your task • Study chart 6B, on p. 81, 6C on p. 82-3 and the information on p. 84 to plot the changing fortunes of the Red Army on a timeline. Annotate your timeline with key events that mark advances or declines in the fortunes of the Reds.

13.  Your task You each have 100 roubles. Read the statements on the Russian Civil War. If you think they are accurate and think they are worth keeping, you may decide to bid for them. If you bid successfully and the statement is correct you keep the sentence but of course you will have spend some of your money. If the sentence is incorrect you don’t get the sentence and you still lose your money. The winning team is the one with the most correct statements and the most money left in the bank.

14. Why were the Reds successful? The Russian Civil War, 1918-1920

15.  Your task • Read p.84-88 and complete a table similar to the one below:

16. Factors favouring Reds • Support from abroad, e.g. Germany some cities set up Communist govt. e.g. Munich • Russo-Polish War (1919-21) enabled Bolsheviks to portray themselves as defenders of nation • Personality of Trotsky – reorganised the Red Army along hierarchical lines, brought back Tsarist officers; political commissars attached to each unit; labour battalions of ‘former people’ formed; inspirational figure; use of technology – e.g. war train • Red Army – drew on workers & peasant conscripts; 5 million troops by 1921; strict discipline, e.g. death penalty for deserting • Geography – Reds controlled key cities, & moved capital to Moscow at centre of railway network; centre of industrial production; heavily populated • Propaganda – Reds won propaganda war as defenders of Russian territory, defenders of peasant land, prospect of new society • War Communism – provided food supplies

17. Factors against the Reds • Terms of the Treaty of Riga very harsh – surrendered large areas of White Russia & Ukraine to Poles • Personality of Trotsky – imprisoned families of White officers to ensure their loyalty; betrayal of Bolshevik ideals – return of hierarchy, use of Tsarist officers, ending of soldiers committees • Red Army – peasant conscripts were uncommitted, regular uprisings or joined Greens; 1 million desert in 1918, 4 million deserted by 1921; resentment of burzhui officers and anti-Semitism; strict discipline led to poor morale • War Communism – favoured army, peasants resented requisitioning

18. Factors favouring Whites • Allied troops based in Russia in theory to reopen E front against Germany • Churchill sent £100 supplies to help Whites • Expertise of military generals, e.g. Deniken & Yudenich & Admiral Kolchak

19. Factors going against them • Opposition abroad, e.g. Lloyd-George PM & British Labour Party • French were anti-Bolshevik, but troops lacked commitment & French fleet mutinied on Black Sea • Japanese interested in gaining territory on Pacific coastline • US troops preoccupied with stopping Japan annexing territories • Divisions – Soc Revs who set up Komuch (Comm. Of Membs. Of Const. assemb.) formed an unhappy alliance with Omsk govt. of conservatives & appointed Kolchak as C-in-C, who then executed leading Soc Revs.; Souther Volunteer Army fought with Cossacks, but in separate units and Cossacks unwilling to fight outside their territory • Brutality – ethnic cleansing, esp. by Cossacks & pogroms against Jews • White Army – peasant conscripts uncommitted since Whites wished to restore land to landowners; poor disciple, e.g. uniforms & equipment sold on black market, alcoholism rife amongst officers • Geography – large distances between armies; v. poor communications

20.  Your task • What do you think were the most important reasons why the Red Army eventually won the Civil War? Discuss them with your partner and write down your choice. Be prepared to justify your reasons. • Write a judgement paragraph explaining your decision.

21. What effect did the Civil War have on life in Russia?

22. Can you spot two famous faces in this crowd? starter activity Do you think this is propaganda?

23.  Your task • Read p.94-99 and note down the impact of Civil War & War Communism on the following groups: • Minority groups • Factory workers • Farmers & peasants • Political opposition groups • Tsar & his family • Middle-classes • Which group suffered the most?

24. Minority groups • Cossacks raped & murdered Jewish villages; 115,000 died in Ukraine alone • Whites challenged right of national & ethnic minorities to independence Anti-Jewish propaganda poster produced by Whites

25. Factory workers • Worker’s committees incapable of running factories – often voted themselves pay rises & stole goods • Industrial output shrank, esp. consumer goods leading to price inflation • Food prices increased, bread shortages – Feb 1918 bread ration in Petrograd reached 50 grams per person per day • Food riots • Workers fled from cities increasing problems with manufacturing & industrial output – Petrograd lost 60% of workforce by April 1918 • All industry nationalised and managed by Vesenkha (Supreme Council of National Economy) • New laws on labour discipline, e.g. fines for lateness & absenteeism, internal passports, piece-work rates reintroduced, bonuses & workbooks for rations • Working class & army members given priority over rations

26. Farmers & peasants • May 1918, Food Supplies Dictatorship estd. to forcibly requisition grain • Cheka helped enforce grain requisitioning • Resistance to requisition – brutal attacks on Cheka & grain collectors • Class warfare – Lenin encouraged Cheka to conduct public hangings of kulaks • Many peasants stop planting seed in protest, agricultural production fell back

27. Political opposition groups • Socialist Revolutionaries responsible for assassination attempt on Lenin & kidnapping of Dzerzhinsky • Summer 1918, Red Terror – SRs arrested, Mensheviks & SRs excluded from soviets, Kadets imprisoned or went into exile • 1918-20 13,000 prisoners executed (official records) – unofficial records 300,000 • Concentration & labour camps established

28. Tsar & his family • 17 July 1918 Tsar & family shot despite fears of antagonising Germany (Tsar cousin of Kaiser, Tsarina was German) Anastasia Why do you think each side deliberately fostered the myth that some of the Tsar’s children survived? Room in which the family were killed

29. Middle classes • All private trade & manufacture banned • Black market developed to meet demand • Former factory managers were put in charge of state-run factories instead of workers’ committees • Middle-class professionals below lower class workers in terms of rationing priorities • Burzhui referred to as ‘former people’ • Red Terror deliberately provoked class warfare, e.g. - some arrested for being near scenes of ‘bourgeois provocation) • Victims of personal vendettas

30.  Discussion Hold a mini debate on the issue of which group suffered the most? Explain your opinions with detailed factual evidence.

31.  Role play The Communist (Bolshevik) Party has decided to hold an enquiry into whether War Communism is justified in view of the impact it is having on Russian society. Nominate 3 people to be committee members whose job it is to question individuals summoned to speak. The rest of the class must imagine they are one of the individuals your teacher will assign you and prepare notes to help you answer any questions the committee members may pose. At the end of the enquiry the committee must reach a verdict on whether they think War Communism is justified.