Slide 1

Consolidation of powerSoviet RussiaPrivate citizens lost control of propertyclaimed by stateBanks became state monopolyOnly small withdrawals permittedPrivate trade forbidden at all levelsPeasants required to sell grain at governments priceElections for constituent assemblyBolsheviks came poor second, behind SRsBroke up 1st and last meeting of assembly with help of pro-bolshevik soldiersLiberal press suppressedEntire judicial system, including supreme court and senate replaced by peoples courtsLocal government abolished Opposition parties outlawedProvincial government, universities, learning societies and clubs all bolshevized in 8 monthsBrest Litovsk March 1918: 1.3 million square miles and 62 million people lostBolshevikscommunists March 1918, moved capital to moscowWhitessupported by russian orthodox church (their propaganda arm), reactionary monarchists, big landowners, middle class, some peasants (angry about grain), nationalists seeking self-determination, even moderate socialists (mensheviks, some SRs)lacked clear program, not cooperative and unorganizedRed armyhighly organized, homogenous, controlled major industrial centers and held interior lines of communications, especially Moscow-Petrograd railwayfacilitated movement of troops. Trotsky blackmailed old tsarist officers into fighting. Support of big landowners to whites alienated peasantry who feared loss of newly acquired land.

Communists won civil war but alienated bourgeoisie who lost their businesses, nobility who lost estates, peasantry who had crops confiscated or purchased at artificially low prices (war communism) and even workers who had trade unions abolished14,000-20,000 church officials and active laymen shot during Lenins regime, ecclesiastical land confiscated by officially atheist authorities3 million russians fled by end of civil warForeign governments outraged by communists indifference to international law and normal diplomatic relationsparticularly attempts to incite communist revolutions in other countriesSiege mentalityenemies within and withoutEarly 1921, area under cultivation