Slide1 : 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?
Why was there a civil war in Russia (1918-1920)? : Why was there a civil war in Russia (1918-1920)?
Your task : Your task Read p. 80 and note down the membership & aims of each of main groups involved in the fighting.
Reds : Reds Kronstadt sailors
Red Guard
Workers & volunteers
Soldiers from Russian army
Pro-Revolution
Whites : 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
Greens : Greens Peasants
Deserters
Interested in protecting own land or bandits
Nestor Makhno, anarchist, Ukraine
Supported Reds, Whites or exploited chaos to loot property
Your task : 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.
What were the key events of the Russian Civil War? : What were the key events of the Russian Civil War? 1918-20
Your task : 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.
Your task : 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)
Slide11 : 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
Your task : 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.
Your task : 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.
Why were the Reds successful? : Why were the Reds successful? The Russian Civil War, 1918-1920
Your task : Your task Read p.84-88 and complete a table similar to the one below:
Factors favouring Reds : 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
Factors against the Reds : 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
Factors favouring Whites : 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
Factors going against them : 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
Your task : 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.
What effect did the Civil War have on life in Russia? : What effect did the Civil War have on life in Russia?
Slide22 : Can you spot two famous faces in this crowd? Do you think this is propaganda? starter activity
Your task : 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?
Minority groups : 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
Factory workers : 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
Farmers & peasants : 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
Political opposition groups : 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
Tsar & his family : Tsar & his family 17 July 1918 Tsar & family shot despite fears of antagonising Germany (Tsar cousin of Kaiser, Tsarina was German) Anastasia Room in which the family were killed Why do you think each side deliberately fostered the myth that some of the Tsar’s children survived?
Middle classes : 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
Discussion : Discussion Hold a mini debate on the issue of which group suffered the most? Explain your opinions with detailed factual evidence.
Role play : 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.