W , DC - NAIMUN - Georgetown International Relations Association

GEORGETOWN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ASSOCIATION
THE FIFTY-SECOND
NORTH AMERICAN INVITATIONAL
MODEL UNITED NATIONS
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RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR JCC – COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S
COMMISSARS
CHAIR: ADITYA SALGAME
CO-CRISIS MANAGERS: BRET PERRY & HARRISON BAKER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR ................................................................................................................. 2
LETTER FROM THE CRISIS MANAGER ............................................................................................ 4
STRUCTURE OF THE COMMITTEE ................................................................................................... 5
CRISIS ELEMENTS ................................................................................................................................................... 5
CHARACTERS AND PORTFOLIOS ............................................................................................................................ 5
THE NATURE OF A JOINT CRISIS COMMITTEE ..................................................................................................... 6
HISTORY OF RUSSIA: FROM ALEXANDER III TO THE TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK ....... 6
ALEXANDER III: THE REEMERGENCE OF AUTOCRACY ....................................................................................... 6
NICHOLAS II: THE LAST GASP OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ................................................................................... 7
FORMATION OF THE RSFSR ............................................................................................................. 12
THE ROLE OF 1905 ............................................................................................................................................ 12
THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION ............................................................................................................................ 13
DUAL POWER ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION .............................................................................................................................. 15
POLITICAL GROUPS OF NOTE: ............................................................................................................................ 16
MEMBERS COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS OF THE RUSSIAN SOVIET
FEDERATIVE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC .............................................................................................. 17
KEY ISSUES ............................................................................................................................................. 27
WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................................... 29
1
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Comrades,
Welcome! Recent months have seen us achieve an unprecedented victory for the proletariat. We have risen, and torn down the autocratic bourgeois oppressors that preceded the
rise of our great Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR).
But now is not the day to rest on our laurels. There is much work to be done, and you shall
be the ones to carry it out. We are lucky to have momentum on our side, but dissidents and
tellers of falsehoods remain - the so-called White Unified Command simply cannot be
allowed to ruin the fruits of our revolution. They are weak, and in more way than one. They
have no concrete ideology, no great cause to unite them the way we do, beyond their greed
and their desire for our downfall. We must be their end, and thereby spread the rule of the
Soviet everywhere. Now that our egregious wartime commitments are over, and our debts
annulled, we must destroy this last vestige of imperial oppression. But the White Command
is not alone; numerous international allies of theirs are there to contend with, including the
capitalist scum of the West - Britain, the United States, Japan, and others continue to seek to
corrupt Russia with their philosophies and take us once more down the road to ruin. We
cannot allow this.
We must look to answer a multitude of questions as we quell the Whites - what is the best
way to continue our progress in consolidating Bolshevik rule in the outer reaches of the
RSFSR? How should we best deal with the foreign powers threatening our doorstep? How
can we further galvanize the true ruling class of this country - the proletariat - in taking
down the White Unified Command?
Now is not yet the age of comfort. We will struggle as we have struggled already to defeat
the Whites - and we cannot yield. Resources will be thin, but we will prevail. Once we do, I
promise to every one of you - and do not forget the words - Peace, Bread, and Land! All
Power to the Soviets!
2
Aditya Salgame (a.salgame@gmail.com)
Chair, Red White and Blood: The Russian Civil War-Council of People’s Commissars of the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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LETTER FROM THE CRISIS MANAGER
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to Red, White, and Blood: The Russian Civil War Joint Crisis Committee. My name is
Harrison Baker, and it is an honor to serve as your Crisis Manager in what is sure to be one
of your most memorable Model UN experiences. I have served as a Crisis Manager for both
NAIMUN and our sister conference, the National Collegiate Security Conference (NCSC)
throughout my years at Georgetown. After serving as Director-General for NAIMUN LI this
past year, I am looking forward to returning to the committee room. On campus, I currently
help to lead our Model UN team, working to prepare and compete for the team. I am also
the founder and an active member of the Georgetown Club Golf Team and the Delta Phi
Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity. Model UN is, without a doubt, one of the
mainstays of my life here on the Hilltop.
This committee will begin on March 11th, 1917, just one week after the signing of the BrestLitovsk Treaty. Soviet Russia has officially withdrawn from the Great War, with Bolshevik
leader Vladimir Lenin looking inward and preparing to consolidate his rule. Anti-Bolshevik
leaders have decided to take the bold step to form the White Unified Command, a means of
synchronizing their efforts in order to fight Lenin’s Bolsheviks. It is clear that Lenin’s rule
will not go unchallenged. Each side will be pressed to arm themselves in order to eradicate
the other group; the existence of these diametrically opposed groups all but guarantees
conflict. Each committee will of course focus on battle strategy, but also must find ways to
secure support among the Russian population and seek to build credible, functioning
institutions in the territories they control. The goal, of course, is to control all of Russia.
How this brewing conflict is prosecuted and ultimately resolved is up to you, the delegates.
Our staff will do its absolute best to make this committee the pinnacle of the NCSC XLII, and
we all look forward to meeting you and seeing what you can do with this challenging
committee. This background guide is by no means exhaustive, but will serve as an excellent
start to your preparation. In the interim, please do not hesitate to contact me with any
questions or concerns about the committee. I look forward to meeting you in February.
Hoya Saxa,
Harrison Baker (hhb23@georgetown.edu)
Crisis Manager, Red White and Blood: The Russian Civil War
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especially those new to this form of
committee, should feel free to contact the
Chair or the Crisis Manager anytime
before or during the conference.
STRUCTURE OF THE COMMITTEE
CRISIS ELEMENTS
For a crisis simulation like this committee, while you and your fellow delegates
discuss and deliberate in committee, the
crisis staff is scheming and plotting in the
crisis suite, creating scenarios and updates meant to challenge you to think
harder about the issues at hand. Our
committee has a Crisis Manager, who
coordinates the work of three Crisis
Analysts. Before the conference, the focus
of their work is building the general
framework of crises that they will “throw”
at you, During the conference, they
respond to the actions that you take
individually and collectively in committee,
and also plans and presents new crisis
elements to either guide you or complicate matters for you. These crisis
elements include news updates, war
updates, or even actions taken by people
or organizations not simulated by delegates. For example, if a delegate requests
a meeting with an external group, a crisis
staffer would take on that role.
CHARACTERS AND PORTFOLIOS
In this committee, each of you will play a
character with a specific portfolio. You
should always remember that you have
two roles to which you need to cater.
Firstly, you are an independent political
entity, with political ambition who needs
to make friends (and take out enemies) to
advance or protect your career and
influence. Secondly, you are a state
official, which means you do have responsibilities to discharge and powers to
utilize.
You are encouraged to fulfill these roles in
a creative manner. However, only do so in
a plausible way. Conduct extensive
research on what your portfolio might
entail, or who your character was.
Delegates with questions about their
characters and portfolios should contact
the Chair or Crisis Manager anytime
before or during the conference.
It is important to note that the crisis staff
responds to delegates’ actions at the
Crisis Manager’s discretion. The decision
of the crisis staff is absolute and final.
Delegates with questions about crisis,
5
THE NATURE OF A JOINT CRISIS
COMMITTEE
ALEXANDER III: THE REEMERGENCE OF
AUTOCRACY
Finally, each of you should note that this
committee is a joint crisis committee
(JCC)—meaning that not only do the
directives and communiqués your committee pass effect an external world as
determined by the crisis staff, they will
also directly effect your JCC-paired committee. Similarly, the actions taken by our
JCC-paired committee will often affect
your committee. Please take care to
recognize how such a committee structure may affect the dynamics and
progression of your committee over the
course of the weekend.
Tsar Alexander III was born in St. Petersburg on March 10, 1845, the son of
Alexander II, “The Emancipator of the
Serfs,” and Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt, one
of many German brides to marry into
Russian royalty throughout the course of
the 19th century. In fact, during this time,
German nobility married into the Russian
throne “to the point that German blood
usurped that of the Romanoff [dynasty].”1
In manner and policy, Alexander III
shared little in common with his father;
he was rugged, physically imposing,
highly conservative, and generally viewed
as lacking culture and refinement. In
1865, Alexander’s older brother Nicholas
suddenly died, making Alexander III the
heir-apparent, and on March 1, 1881 his
father, Tsar Alexander II, was assassinated by the terrorist organization
Narodnaya Volya, or The People’s Will. It is
important to note the role of illness and
assassination in royal families as a crucial
factor impacting the trajectory of Russian
politics; Alexander III, like many historic
Russian leaders, would never have come
to power were it not for the unforeseen
death of a sibling. Having assumed the
HISTORY OF RUSSIA: FROM
ALEXANDER III TO THE TREATY
OF BREST-LITOVSK
In order to have a more solid understanding of the dynamics at play in this conflict,
it is important to understand recent
Russian history. What follows is a detailed
but non-exhaustive review of Russian
history from roughly 1860 to 1917, a
pivotal half-century in Russia that saw
attempts at Tsarist reform, only to fail in
the face of World War One and revolution.
Lowe, Charles. Alexander III of Russia. London: William
Heinemann, 1895.
1
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throne, he immediately sought to undo
the liberal policies initiated and ingrained
by his father and replace them with more
religiously
conservative,
ethnically
nationalistic, and politically autocratic
ones. For example, Alexander III immediately dissolved the council of advisors to
the monarch and weakened the zemstvo,
or system of local government established
in 1864 and, in doing so, strengthened
and consolidated his power.
Accordingly, Alexander’s response to the
budding fear of revolution meant the reestablishment of the “absolute autocracy”
that once characterized the Russian state.
For his relative pacifism in the realm of
foreign policy, Alexander III was labeled
mirotvorets, or the peacemaker. That is to
say, Alexander was cautious insofar as he
did not pursue expansion, did not engage
in any major conflicts, and continued to
strengthen the military for the purpose of
remaining in power. He did this because
he believed foreign conflict would exacerbate domestic, class-based issues. In
doing so, Russia began to turn isolationist,
the Anglo-Russian Entente notwithstanding.
Tsar Nicholas II, born in St. Petersburg in
May of 1868 as a member of the Romanov
Dynasty, ascended to the throne of the
Russian Empire in 1894. Unlike Alexander
III, Nicholas II viewed a non-expansionist
foreign policy as a threat to Russia’s
relevance in the global political sphere
and, accordingly, sought expansion into
Manchuria. Also unlike Alexander III,
Nicholas failed to understand that his
eastward expansion—ill advised and
ultimately disastrous—would provoke
class unrest.
In 1890, already tenuous relations with
Germany worsened when Kaiser Wilhelm
came to power, discharging Prussian
statesman and diplomat Otto von Bismarck. This hampering of positive RussoGerman relations, coupled with Alexander
III’s brazen desire for an ethnically and
religiously homogenous Russia, led to the
solidification of Russia’s political nonalignment, prestige, and autocracy.
And yet, despite this distinction in foreign
policy between Nicholas and his predecessor, both Tsars made foreign trade a
priority. Nicholas did so by creating the
Trans-Siberian railroad with the hopes of
opening trade to the Far East. In further
accord with his predecessor’s rule, Nicholas II embraced absolute autocracy,
shunning any notion of democracy in
In 1894, Tsar Alexander III fell ill with
nephritis and died shortly thereafter, thus
passing the throne to his eldest son
Nicholas II.
NICHOLAS II: THE LAST GASP OF THE
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
7
Imperial Russia and referring to widespread political participation through the
zemstvo system as a “senseless dream.”2
reconciling major European powers. In
the Far East, however, Nicholas II engaged
Japan in naval conflict for Manchuria
without the strategy or resources to
ensure victory, thus leading to the onset
of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. 4
Japan struck first by attacking Russia’s
Far East naval fleet at Port Arthur, rendering it powerless. As Russia’s only other
major naval force was stationed in the
Baltic Sea, Nicholas II, unwilling to withdraw from the Far East, sent his Baltic
fleet on a nine-month journey halfway
around the world, only to be immediately
and emphatically beaten in the Battle of
Tsushima Straight. For similar reasons
related to Russia’s inability to transport
troops and arms to the Far East, a true
land attack against Japan never materialized. In the Russo-Japanese war, Nicholas
II blatantly ignored the logistical impossibility of engaging in a war over five
thousand miles away, for which he paid
the cost. In March of 1905, he was ultimately forced to recognize the futility of
the conflict and sought peace with the
Japanese. A military engagement originally aimed at restoring Russia’s status as an
imposing world power, the RussoJapanese War ended in humiliating
failure, yielding the opposite result.
With Nicholas II dismissing the importance of the masses and stifling their
political voice, little wonder that his reign
is often characterized by clashes with and
general estrangement of the masses. Upon
his official coronation in 1896, Tsar
Nicholas II arranged for a celebration of
large proportions to be held in Khodynka
field, a military training ground just
outside of Moscow. The celebration was
to include free food and beverage, but
rumors of a food shortage inspired the
crowd to frantically rush for the food,
brutally trampling one another in the
process. This event claimed more then
1300 lives and was only the first of many
needless, gruesome, and chaotic manifestations of civil unrest during the reign of
Nicholas II.3
In the foreign policy arena, Nicholas II
sought peace with his European neighbors, though collective discussions at the
Hague Conventions—in which he was
actively engaged between 1899 and
1907—proved widely unsuccessful at
Radziwill, Catherine. Nicholas II, The Last of the Tsars.
London: Cassell And Company, 1931.
2
Warth, Robert. Nicholas II, The Life and Reign of
Russia's Last Monarch. Praeger, 1997.
3
Radzinsky, Edward. The Life and Death of Nicholas II.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011.
4
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On January 22, 1905, the reign of Nicholas
II produced a second major incidence of
civil unrest, appropriately labeled “Bloody
Sunday.” With Tsar Nicholas out of the
city and security forces on high alert,
Father Georgy Gapon, a Russian Orthodox
priest and social-political leader of the
working class, led thousands of followers
in peaceful protest towards St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace to hand the Tsar a
workers’ petition. Before they could reach
the palace, however, soldiers opened fire
on the crowd, killing ninety-two and
wounding hundreds more. Naturally, this
violent backlash to civil unrest only
exacerbated already strained relations
between the state and society and, in
doing so, set the stage for larger, more
widespread incidences of civil unrest,
including naval mutinies, worker strikes,
and sporadic eruptions of violence across
the country in what came to be known as
the Revolution of 1905. Spanning almost
two and a half years, the Revolution of
1905 was characterized by disorder,
violence, and mass discontentment, which
stemmed largely from the intensification
of ethnocentrism, Russia’s poorlyexecuted transition away from serfdom,
and general macroeconomic dysfunction.
during which over 3000 Jewish people
were killed.5
From an agrarian standpoint, Alexander
II’s “emancipation of the serfs” turned out
to be less liberating and more constraining than anticipated. That is to say, with
the emergence of brand new social
classes, the Russian state had little idea of
how to incorporate them into the nation’s
economy, supplanting serfdom with a
contrived land-allotment system in which
peasants would individually own (insufficiently) small tracts of a communal whole.
This system failed miserably, however, as
the allotted land was too small to live off
of, taxes on the peasants soared, and the
international price for grain plummeted,
making the agricultural sector even less
profitable and famine inevitable.
In response to these and other concerns
related to Russia’s wounded economy,
Minister of Finance Sergei Witte proposed
a series of reforms aimed at revitalization.
For example, Witte was a major proponent of the development of industry,
including wide-scale government investment in private industry, construction of
railroads, and solicitation of foreign
investment in the industry. While Witte’s
emphasis on industrial development did
From an ethnic standpoint, Russia had
developed rampant anti-Semitism along
with rigid ethnic and religious hierarchies, including anti-Jewish pogroms,
Taylor, Brian. Politics and the Russian Army: Civilmilitary Relations. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
5
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kick-start growth, spur productivity, and
increase exports, it did little to improve
working conditions for the poor and other
welfare-related issues, thus deepening
social-class-based wounds.
France and Britain, Russia made positive
and contributions to the war without
serious concessions. However, in 1915,
Nicholas II decided to take direct command of Russian forces, issuing in a series
of brutal and humiliating defeats. As if
financing the war were not trying enough,
Russia was ill equipped to compete
military with an industrialized Germany.
What began as small-scale military
mutinies in the Revolution of 1905 became widespread military rejection of
Nicholas II’s authority in 1917; Nicholas
had no choice but to abdicate in February
of that year.
Though the Revolution of 1905 resulted
from mounting ethno-religious tensions,
deep holes in the newfound agrarian
system, and fundamental economic
failures of the state, it was answered only
by limited and largely nominal political
reform, namely the establishment of a
Limited Constitutional Monarchy, a State
Duma, a multi-party system, and the
Russian Constitution of 1906. At first,
Tsar Nicholas II created the State Duma
purely as an advisory organ, lacking any
democratic character, but civilian backlash prompted him to sign Sergei Witte’s
October Manifesto, which specifically
addressed issues related to popular
political representation and would make
the Duma a central legislative body. And
yet, despite this major blow to Nicholas
II’s dearly-held conception of autocratic
Russia, he made sure to preserve key
elements of his autocracy through provisions in the 1906 Constitution. Not to
mention, Nicholas called upon the secret
police to quell radical uprisings.
Throughout this time, new ideologies and
ideological clashes began to emerge in the
revolutionary left of Russian society.
Founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov, the Bolshevik party was
the faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDPR) that won the
title of majority faction over Julius Martov’s Mensheviks in a decisive vote at the
Second Congress of the Russian Social
Democratic Party, held in Brussels and
London in 1903. Key ideological causes
for the fission center around differing
conceptions of party membership between Lenin and Martov. Lenin advocated
for more restricted party membership
with a fully committed cadre, as outlined
in his essay “What to Do?” published in
Germany in 1902. To Lenin, a formal
In August of 1914, Nicholas II authorized
the mobilization of troops in World War I.
At first the decision to enter the conflict
was not strictly negative. Allied with
10
revolution necessitated a rigid party
structure. To Martov, by contrast, the
party required a looser definition of
membership. Having first split from the
Mensheviks at the convening of the
Second Congress in 1903, the Bolsheviks
continued to grow and separate from the
Mensheviks with the publication of
Lenin’s ideals. During this time, Lenin
clashed not only with Martov, however,
but also with the Economists, a group
interested primarily in economic reform
but crucially, and fatally, lacking attention
to class struggle, Georgi Plekhanov, who
opposed Lenin’s notion of land nationalization, and eventually Leon Trotsky and
Alexander Bogdanov, to whom Lenin,
deeply loyal to his concept of socialist
utopia, was unwilling to concede even the
smallest tenets of the Bolshevik ideology.
In fact, between 1903 and 1912, the two
major factions tried—and failed—to unify
on several accounts, leading to the official
creation of the Russian Social Democratic
Labor Party (informally still the Bolsheviks) in 1912, and the creation of their
own Duma faction in 1913.6
direction that its predecessor had lacked.
At this point, civil instability had been
mounting for almost two decades: two
botched wars had left the economy in
pieces, military and civilian morale at an
all-time low, and growing economic
concerns contributed to the idea that
dysfunction in Imperial Russia was
insurmountable under the current political system. On March 8, 1917, crowds of
protestors, along with almost 100,000
men and women on strike, took to the
streets of St. Petersburg.7 Tsar Nicholas II
responded by quelling most outbreaks of
rebellion with force, occasionally opening
fire on crowds of protestors. On March 11,
he dissolved the Duma and shortly thereafter the Russian army stationed at
Petrograd threw their support behind the
protestors, critically tipping the conflict
and forcing Nicholas to abdicate the
throne just three days later. A provisional
government was established in the
interim to be managed by socialists and
liberals, but still consisting largely of
nobility. It was not, however, until October of 1917 that the Bolsheviks formally
came to power in the October Revolution.
In late October of 1917, the Bolshevik
Central Committee agreed that an armed
The Revolution of 1917, beginning in
February and coming to fruition in October, was imminent; it just needed the
Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks Come to
Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd. Pluto Press,
2004.
Neuberger, Joan. Hooliganism: Crime, Culture, and
Power in St. Petersburg, 1900-1914. University of
California Press, 1993.
6
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uprising was imminent and, on November
7, set into motion the insurrection, using
the newly-assembled Red Guard (later the
Red Army) to seize Petrograd and cede
control to the existing soviets, or local
councils of urban workers that had
assembled to critique the provisional
government and provide reform.8
1917 and 1922. It came into being at the
end of 1917, following successive revolutions, the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II,
and the rise of Vladimir Lenin and his
Bolsheviks. These revolutions, and the
complex political dynamics at play, paved
the way for the Communist state of the
RSFSR. The first, the February Revolution,
was the one to force the abdication of
Nicholas II and completely end the monarchic Romanov political regime that
had presided over Russia (until that
moment the Russian Empire) for over
three hundred years. The second, the
October Revolution, ended the hopes of
moderate democratic factions and gave
the Congress of Soviets governing authority over the country. The RSFSR also
represented the immediate culmination of
years of political sea change and unrest,
with roots going back even further to the
first decade of the 20th century.
As the Bolsheviks had always held strong
opposition to Russia’s involvement in the
First World War, in March of 1918 they
signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria to end
their involvement in the conflict, thus
conceding defeat to the German and
Austro-Hungarian forces and defaulting
on financial debts to the Triple Entente.
The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
marked the true conclusion of Nicholas
II’s political legacy and the onset of the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RFSR), which supplanted the
provisional government following the
October Revolution.
THE ROLE OF 1905
Russia’s revolutionary struggles began
over a decade earlier, in fact, with the
Revolution of 1905. The causes are
manifold, as described above, but they
covered wide swathes of society and were
catalyzed by the Bloody Sunday massacre
in January. This included peasants, who
suffered from a stark scarcity in land (and
the land they did have they were forced to
pay for) and long struggles in search of
work; intelligentsia, whose views espe-
FORMATION OF THE RSFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic, or RSFSR for short, was the
name given to the Russian State between
Haimson, Leopold. The Problem of Social Stability in
Urban Russia: 1905-1917. Vol. 23. Slavic Review, 1964.
8
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cially at universities were being repressed; factory workers who suffered
poor working conditions and a lack of
representation; and minorities like Jews
and Poles who had long endured harsh
treatment9. These came together to create
strong anti-Tsarist sentiment, and forced
the Tsar to succumb to significant changes in his autocracy.
Duma and its members who eventually
forced Nicholas’ abdication, and eventually led to Alexander Kerensky’s short-lived
stint as Prime Minister.
THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION
By early 1917 the Tsarist regime was
nearing collapse. Economic instability had
been growing since the dawn of the
century following Russia’s expansive
growth in the 1890s, and social divisions
were deepening towards a point of no
return. To add to this, Russia’s war effort
could fairly be labeled a disaster. Though
intensely popular at its outset in 1914,
over the course of the next 2 years public
opinion began to slide swiftly toward the
opinion that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had
expressed, that the war was unwinnable
and could only hurt Russia.
What is important to understand, however, is that those changes only created the
potential for further polarization in
society and actually set the stage for the
country’s descent into the next stage of
revolutions in 1917. Part of the outcome
of the 1905 Revolution, through the
Constitution of 1906, was the establishment of the State Duma to share
legislative and supervisory power with
Nicholas II. However, this Duma was
comprised almost entirely of the landed
gentry and upper class. At the same time,
concessions to the rest of the country,
particularly agrarian and industrial labor
sectors of society rang hollow.
Citizens began to view the effort as futile,
and it had very little public support
beyond the crown. At this point, there had
been over six million casualties by 1917.10
Mutinies grew common, resources were
drained for the war, workers and peasants were impoverished and angry.
Additionally, while the Duma was initially
sold as fully democratic, the Tsar’s fear of
liberal as well as leftist sentiment in the
Duma induced him to restrict Duma
eligibility further in favor of landowners
and the upper class. Even so, it was the
Furthermore, a number of recent actions
by the Tsar, and scandals surrounding his
office such as that of Rasputin, made it
Service, Robert (2005). A history of modern Russia
from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin. Harvard University
Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01801-3.
10
Harcave, Sidney (1970). The Russian Revolution.
London: Collier Books.
9
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ever easier to direct anger directly at the
autocratic regime.11 As a result, protests
began rather spontaneously, from both
peasants and workers in Petrograd (now
St. Petersburg). On International Women’s Day, political gatherings began to
build upon one another until every
factory in Petrograd was shut down. To
quell this the Tsar sought to deploy
troops from the Imperial Army, of whom
180,000 were available in the city. 12
However, upon reaching the scenes of the
protests most soldiers began to mutiny
and join with them, in effect leaving the
Tsar with no recourse but abdication.
fight over influence in the Soviet would be
one of the most important determining
factors for what would happen later in the
year.
DUAL POWER
After the February Revolution, the political landscape of Russia was one of what
came to be known as dvoyevlastiye, or
‘Dual Power’ - the split of executive and
administrative responsibility between the
Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet (as well as other soviets).
Lenin would proceed to exploit this
inherently volatile structure, first by
indirectly influencing the Soviet and then
by force.
With the Duma legally paralyzed and
utter chaos in Petrograd, its members
decided to create two new bodies. First, a
Temporary Committee was formed, which
eventually became the Provisional Government announced a few days later. The
core of the Provisional Government was
made up of Kadets, or members of the
Constitutional Democratic Party, who
were relatively liberal and the rightmost
party at the time, as they were the only
party that was not socialist. Second, they
reformed the Petrograd Soviet, a council
representing workers and soldiers. The
The political position of the Petrograd
Soviet, and its transformation, is crucial.
Initially the Soviet did not even have the
support of many workers, as it was
headed primarily by intellectuals, members of political parties, and professionals.
Some even protested Soviet meetings. In
as far late as the beginning of April there
was no Bolshevik representation in the
Soviet, with representation mostly in the
hands of Mensheviks and other more
moderate
socialists
like
SocialistRevolutionaries. However, three events
utterly changed the composition of the
Petrograd Soviet and thus precipitated
the fall of the Provisional Government.
Firstly, the July Days protests, by dissatis-
Alexander Rabinowitch (2008). The Bolsheviks in
Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd.
Indiana UP. p. 1. ISBN 0253220424.
12 Beckett, Ian F.W. (2007). The Great war (2 ed.).
Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-1252-8.
11
14
fied workers and soldiers against the
Provisional Government. This increased
popular support for the Bolsheviks, who
developed slogans and attempted to
spearhead the protests. This was also
partially responsible for the next event:
Georgy Lvov decided to step down from
Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, lacking support, and Alexander
Kerensky rose from Minister of War to the
Prime Ministership. As a Trudovik, moderates who had broken away from the
Socialist-Revolutionaries
(the
large
political party among whom were both
pro-Bolshevik and anti-Bolshevik factions), Kerensky drew the ire of Lenin and
the far-leftists, increasing the polarization
of the country.
the hand of the Bolsheviks. Additionally,
he actually distributed weapons to city
workers, many of who ended up with the
Bolsheviks. Slowly, more moderate
socialists, apart from the small number
that consolidated around Kerensky, began
to leave the Soviets. Simultaneously, the
Bolsheviks began to dominate the councils, shifting the Soviets ever leftward and
away from the Provisional Government.
Beyond other existing disagreements, this
was further compounded by the Provisional Government’s pro-war policy.
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
By the end of August and beginning of
September, partly as a result of the
Kornilov Affair, the vast majority of
soviets had turned toward the Bolsheviks
- including the Petrograd and Moscow
Soviets. This culminated in the October
Days, where Lenin and the Bolsheviks
took advantage of German forces nearing
Petrograd, vetoed a proposal to evacuate
the government to Moscow, and dismantled the Provisional Government hold on
any remaining institutions in the city. In
what was essentially a bloodless coup,
Bolshevik forces took over every government office in the city, finishing with the
taking of the Winter Palace, where they
proceeded to arrest the remaining members of Kerensky’s government. This
forms a contrast with the February
Revolution, which was far less orchestrat-
The second event is the Kornilov affair.
General Lavr Kornilov was commanderin-chief of the Russian Army, as well as a
right-wing conservative and strongly
opposed to socialism of any kind. He felt
this to be manifested in the Petrograd
Soviet, and so attempted a coup to overthrow the Provisional Government, install
himself as leader, and destroy the Soviet.
Kerensky, at first glance, was too weak to
defend the city with only the powers of
the Provisional Government. He thus
sought assistance from the Bolsheviks’
forces. While their unity in opposition to
Kornilov may make it seem as though
they were aligned, this only strengthened
15
ed and not quite bloodless. The Bolsheviks then formed the Council of People’s
Commissars, or Sovnarkom, which proceeded to consolidate Bolshevik power
and arrest opposition politicians as well
as issue decrees for nationalization of
banking and a repudiation of international debts. Thus the Bolsheviks quite
painlessly transferred all power to the
Soviet and led directly to the establishment of the RSFSR, the world’s first
officially socialist state.
Russian Social Democratic Labour
Party: This party formed at the end of the
19th century, and split up into the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in 1903. The
former, headed by Julian Martov, believed
that Russia was not in a position to pass
over the required bourgeois regime
before full socialism could be implemented, with Lenin’s Bolsheviks obviously in
disagreement. The Bolsheviks were
actually the smaller of the two in terms of
headcount until Lenin’s consolidation of
power during and after the October
Revolution.
POLITICAL GROUPS OF NOTE:
Socialist-Revolutionaries: The SocialistRevolutionaries were the main Socialist
party in early 20th century Russia, though
they were not officially Marxist. They
differed on ideological issues with the
Social Democrats, especially in their
preference for land-socialization (distribution among the peasantry) over landnationalization. It is important to remember that while they were the largest
socialist party by far, and actually won a
small majority in the first post-revolution
elections in the RSFSR, its size played to
its disadvantage and resulted in several
irrevocable schisms by 1917. These
included Alexander Kerensky’s Trudoviks,
the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries (more
moderate and the core of the party) and
Victor Chernov, and the Left SocialistRevolutionaries led by Maria Spiridonova.
Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets): The Kadets were a group of
liberals, consisting mainly of intellectual
elite and middle-class professionals, were
known for their advocacy to democracy
and fair treatment of minorities, including
Jews. They were the majority of the
Provisional Government after the February Revolution, and due to the Socialist
domination of politics in that period were
the most liberal and rightward leaning
party in the system. Georgy Lvov was a
Kadet.
Trudoviks (Popular Socialists): The
Trudoviks were an offshoot of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and were moderate.
Alexander Kerensky counted himself
among their membership. The point of
separation occurred just after the Revolution of 1905, when the Trudoviks decided
16
to forgo the socialist boycott of the First
Duma and stood for election.
ies who educated, guided and lead the
proletariat. His idea of the “vanguard”
split many of his fellow revolutionaries,
resulting in the creation of two factions,
the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, within
the new Russian Social-Democratic
Workers Party (RSDWP). During the 1905
Revolution, Lenin joined up with his
fellow revolutionaries, but upon his
defeat he was exiled once again. In exile
once again, Lenin became shocked at the
wave of nationalism that swept socialist
and Marxist parties with the start of the
Great War in 1914. Lenin argued that the
war was a result of imperialist governments, the offspring of capitalism. With
the overthrow of the Tsar and the creation of the Petrograd Soviet in March,
Lenin returned to Petrograd in April,
eventually rallying the Bolsheviks of the
Soviet around him by criticizing the
Provisional Government and calling for
the power to be held by the workercontrolled Soviets. The Bolsheviks, initially a minority in the Soviets, increasingly
grew in power as support for Alexander
Kerensky’s
Provisional
Government
declined due to the continuation of the
war and the exhaustion of the economy.
In September, the Bolsheviks were elected to the majority in the Petrograd Soviet.
MEMBERS COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S
COMMISSARS OF THE RUSSIAN
SOVIET FEDERATIVE SOCIALIST
REPUBLIC
Vladimir Lenin: Chairman
Born to a highly cultured and welleducated family in 1870, Vladimir Ilych
Lenin came of age under the increasingly
autocratic, reactionary and politically
oppressive rule of the Romanovs. While
there was no clear event in his life that
caused him to turn to the left, the brutal
regime of the tsar impacted his life in
many ways that undoubtedly influenced
his turn to Marxism in 1889. As a young
lawyer, he joined the Marxist “Union for
the Struggle for the Liberation of the
Working Class,” but was arrested in 1895
and eventually exiled in Siberia.
In 1900, Lenin left Russia and met up with
Russian exiles in Europe to continue his
anti-government activities. Through his
newspaper, Iskra, Lenin managed to
recruit many of the Russian intelligentsia,
who were initially skeptical of Marxism.
During his time in exile, he came to the
conclusion that a socialist state required a
“vanguard,” a group of elite revolutionar-
Hiding in Finland due to persecution by
the Provisional Government, Lenin
returned in late October and held a secret
17
meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee, in which he declared his intention to
seize control and create a “dictatorship of
the proletariat.” Under his order, Leon
Trotsky, now chairman of the Petrograd
Soviet, began training the Red Guard.
From November 6-8, under orders from
Lenin, the Red Guard arrested members
of the Provisional Government and
deposed Kerensky. The Soviets overwhelmingly accepted the new Bolshevik
government and elected Lenin chairman
of the new Soviet government. While
Lenin initially agreed to allow the Mensheviks to join the government, their
rejection of the Soviet ideology in the
newly elected Assembly resulted in its
dissolution by Lenin, allowing him to
consolidate power in the new government. He organized the Treaty of BrestLitovsk on March 3, without the other
Allied powers, who refused to recognize
his government. Peace on the Eastern
Front has allowed Lenin, who has already
consolidated his power within the Soviet,
to turn to the anti-Soviet forces.13 Lenin
himself will chair this special meeting of
the People’s Commissars, along with his
secretary Nikolai Gorbunov.
Vladimir Milyutin:
Agriculture
Commissar
for
Vladimir Milyutin joined the RSDWP in
1903 and sided with the Bolsheviks
during their split with the Mensheviks. He
was one of the “leading Bolshevik economist[s],” and his fellow Bolsheviks
considered Milyutin an expert on the
“peasant question,” the issue of the
peasant class in the proletariat regime.14
Milyutin became People’s Commissar for
Agriculture upon Lenin’s appointment
and was an instrumental figure in the
1917 Decree on Land, one of Lenin’s
major early Marxist land reform policies
that abolished private property and
redistributed the land of the nobility to
the peasants.15
As Commissar of Agriculture, Milyutin
oversees land collectivization and redistribution and agricultural production, two
key points of reform for the new Soviet
government. Milyutin currently oversees
the reorganization of private land into
kolkhoz, the collective farm. His policies,
at the request of Lenin, are aimed at
breaking the power of the kulaks, the
Boris Souvarine, “D.B. Riazanov,” La Critique
sociale, no.2, July 1931, 54-5.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/riazanov/bio/
bio01.htm.
15 Robert Service, Lenin: A Biography (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2000), 316.
14
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin", accessed December 30, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/335881
/Vladimir-Ilich-Lenin.
13
18
affluent farmers throughout the country
that oppose the collectivization reforms.
He also oversees Lenin’s new agricultural
policies, aimed at boosting food production that was destroyed during the Great
War.
the Soviet ground forces, which are weak
and in disarray. Lenin has charged
Krylenko with the defense of the land
from external threats.
Pavel Dybenko: Commissar for Navy
Affairs
Nikolai Krylenko: Commissar for War
Affairs
A Ukrainian by birth, Dybenko became
active in the revolutionary movement
after the failed 1905 Revolution. As a
sailor in the Baltic Fleet, he took part in
anti-government protests and helped
organized sailor demonstrations against
the Russian government. After leaving the
front in 1917, he became commander of
the Baltic Fleet and participated in the
naval defense of Petrograd during Lenin’s
takeover. He also commanded naval units
at Narva during the German approach on
Petrograd in February 1918.17
A participant in the 1905 Revolution,
Nikolai Krylenko was active in the party
in the pre-1917 Revolution years, writing
for several Marxist papers. He participated in Lenin’s Congresses in Switzerland
before returning to Russia, where he was
promptly arrested and sent to the front.
He returned to Petrograd during the
Revolution and was a deputy of the first
Congress of Soviets, and was a key figure
in the military wing of the Party and the
Petrograd Revolutionary Military Committee. When Lenin seized control, Lenin
appointed Krylenko as Commissar for
War Affairs and Supreme Commander-inChief.16
As Commissar for Navy Affairs, Dybenko
oversees the fleet of the Soviets. The naval
forces, like the ground forces, are weak
and in disarray, having suffered heavy
defeats at the hands of the Germans. The
main concentration of armed ships is
located in the Baltic; however, this fleet
has suffered heavy losses at the hands of
the Germans. With the peace of Brest-
Krylenko’s role as Commissar for War
Affairs gives him broad powers over the
control of troops on the foreign front.
Krylenko is the Supreme Commander of
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. S.v.
"Nikolai Krylenko." Retrieved December 30 2014 from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Nikolai+Kr
ylenko.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Pavel Dybenko." Retrieved December 30 2014 from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Pavel+Dyb
enko.
16
17
19
Litovsk, both the ground forces and the
naval forces can turn their attention
towards the anti-Bolshevik forces that
threaten Lenin’s government.
Anatoly Lunacharsky: Commissar for
Education
Anatoly Lunacharsky is an author, journalist and art critic, as well as an
influential Bolshevik. Initially opposed to
Lenin during his revolutionary activity
pre-1917, Lunacharsky took an active
stance against Lenin within the Bolshevik
organization. Their political differences
were eventually put aside when Lenin
appointed Lunacharsky as Commissar for
Education upon Lunacharsky’s return to
Russia in 1917. He has a strong commitment to the preservation of important
works of art and architecture, and attempted to resign as a sign of protest
during the bombing of the Kremlin in
November 1917.
Viktor Nogin: Commissar for Trade and
Industry
Viktor Nogin is an important Marxist of
the Moscow community. A party member
from the late 1800s, Nogin met with Lenin
in Europe. He eventually joined the
Bolsheviks and was active in Moscow
politics after 1905. Nogin became the
chairman of the Moscow Soviet in 1917,
and was eventually appointed as Commissar for Trade and Industry. Nogin
attempted to mediate between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, but was
unsuccessful.18
As Commissar for Education, Lunacharsky
is tasked with the reform of the education
system and the overseeing of culture
within Russia. Lunacharsky’s work
ensures that art, culture and education in
Russia align appropriately with the
country’s new ideologies. He has the
power to oversee the education system in
Russia, which is now entirely controlled
by the government. He can set new
education policies and oversees the
publication of works of art and writing,
As Commissar for Trade and Industry,
Nogin’s primary objectives involve industrialization of Russia. He oversees the
means of production to ensure that they
under the control of the proletariat. His
responsibilities also involved boosting
industrial production to support the
workers’ soviets.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Nogin, Viktor." Retrieved December 30 2014 from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Nogin%2c
+Viktor.
18
20
ensuring that they follow Marxist ideology.19
Leon Trotsky: Commissar for Foreign
Affairs
Ivan Teodorovich: Commissar for Food
Leon Trotsky is a highly influential Bolshevik and close compatriot of Lenin.
After his arrest and exile to Siberia,
Trotsky fled Russia and met up with other
exiled Marxists, including Lenin. Trotsky
worked closely with Lenin on Iskra, the
Marxist paper aimed at convincing the
Russian intelligentsia of the benefits of
Marxist revolution. Trotsky sided with the
Mensheviks after the split in the RSDWP,
believing that the democratic path was
the best course of action, and returned to
Russia in 1905, only to be jailed again.
After escaping jail, Trotsky spent time
abroad, returning to Russia in 1917 upon
the outbreak of the Revolution. He initially led the Mensheviks but eventually
joined the Bolshevik faction and took
command of the defense of Petrograd.
Trotsky defeated Kerensky’s attempts to
retake Petrograd after Lenin’s seizure of
power. Lenin appointed Trotsky as
Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Trotsky
called for a cease-fire across the front and
the Central Powers went to the table with
Russia. A fierce opponent of Russian
surrender, Trotsky suspended the BrestLitovsk talks and attempted to gain
support in Petrograd against the treaty.
Trotsky had hoped that a proletarian
revolution would materialize, making a
peace treaty irrelevant. However, with
Ivan Teodorovich came from a family of
revolutionaries. Teodorovich himself was
active in the RSDWP and was arrested
repeatedly before being exiled from
Russia. He returned to Russia, joining the
Petrograd Soviet and becoming a member
of the Central Committee.20
As Commissar for Food, Teodorovich is
charged with the responsibility of the
allocation of food supplies and industrial
goods. With Russia facing heavy shortages
of food and other goods, Teodorovich’s
duties involve the distribution and allocation of these resources that now fall
under the control of the government. He
is also responsible for supplying the
Soviet forces with food and other basic
supplies.
RT Russiapedia, “Anatoly Lunacharsky,”
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/politicsand-society/anatoly-lunacharsky/ (December 30,
2014).
19
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Ivan Teodorovich." Retrieved December 30 2014 from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ivan+Teod
orovich.
20
21
escalation by the Germans in February,
the Russians agreed to the Treaty and
brought peace on the front, despite
Trotsky’s opposition.21
Rykov became Commissar for Interior
Affairs.
Trotsky has very limited powers as
Commissar for Foreign Affairs, as the
RSFSR is currently unrecognized by other
countries. He has the authority to negotiate with other countries on behalf of the
RSFSR, but the government must authorize any agreement. There are rumors
circulating, however, that Trotsky could
be appointed to a military position in the
near future.
With the dissolution of the czar’s police
force and the creation of the People’s
militsiya, the Commissariat of Interior
Affairs role involves the oversight and
training of the new police force, as well as
the supervision of local governments and
firefighting. As Commissar for Interior
Affairs, Rykov is responsible for the
internal security of Russia. He has control
of the militsiya and oversees local security. However, the militsiya is both poorly
equipped and poorly trained.22
Alexei Rykov: Commissar for Interior
Affairs
Georgy
Justice
Alexey Rykov joined the RSDWP at the
age of 18 and sided with Lenin’s Bolsheviks after the ideological split. After the
failure of 1905, he attempted to reconcile
with the Mensheviks, but was arrested
and exiled to Siberia. With the February
Revolution of 1917, Rykov returned to
Western Russia, advocating for a coalition
between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
He joined up with Lenin in Petrograd in
November and supported the Bolshevik
rule. Upon Lenin’s seizure of power,
Georgy Oppokov is a Left Communist and
member of the Bolsheviks. He was announced as Commissar for Justice after
Lenin took control of the Petrograd
Soviet.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Leon
Trotsky", accessed December 30, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/606722
/Leon-Trotsky.
22
Oppokov:
Commissar
for
As Commissar for Justice, Oppokov is
responsible for the justice and legal
system of Russia. His primary responsibility is the implementation of socialist law
and the implementation of proletariat
justice. His role is to ensure that individu-
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Aleksey
Ivanovich Rykov", accessed December 30, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/514559
/Aleksey-Ivanovich-Rykov.
21
22
als follow the laws of the proletariat and
to prosecute those who violate those laws
at revolutionary tribunals.
workers. He oversees the transfer of
authority of industry to the workers and
also assists in the nationalization of
Russian industry.
Alexander Shlyapnikov: Commissar for
Labour
Joseph Stalin: Commissar of Nationalities
Alexander Shlyapnikov joined the Bolsheviks soon after their formation and
participated in the 1905 Revolution.
Shlyapnikov was jailed repeatedly and
eventually went into exile, where he met
Lenin. A mechanic by trade, Shlyapnikov
returned to Russia in 1916 and became a
union leader. He was instrumental in the
organization and creation of the Petrograd Soviet and organized key antigovernment activity that severely weakened the Provisional Government. He
joined the Central Committee and Lenin
appointed him as Commissar for Labour
upon his return to politics in November.
Many revolutionaries consider him to be
one of the most important figures in the
rise of the new Soviet state, as he was
instrumental in the creation and rise of
the Petrograd Soviet.23
A Georgian by birth, Joseph Stalin became
a Marxist at a young age. Heavily influenced by international Communism, he
joined revolutionary movements in the
Caucasus before becoming a Bolshevik
and disciple of Lenin. Stalin rose up the
ranks of the Party, serving on the first
Central Committee in 1912 as Lenin’s
representative. He was in exile in Siberia
from 1913, but returned to Petrograd in
1917 and advocated Lenin’s proposal of a
violent overthrow of the Provisional
Government. He developed a rivalry with
Trotsky while in Petrograd, and, upon
Lenin’s coup, became Commissar of
Nationalities.24
As Commissar of Nationalities, Stalin must
deal with the national question of Russia.
With the country’s diverse ethnic makeup,
the Commissariat deals with issues of
non-Russian nationalities.
As Commissar for Labour, Shlyapnikov is
tasked with overseeing labor unions and
protecting the rights and interests of
Barbara C. Allen, “Alexander Shliapnikov,” MIA
Library,
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/s/h.htm#sh
liapnikov-alexander (30 December 30, 2014).
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Joseph
Stalin", accessed December 30, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/562617
/Joseph-Stalin.
23
24
23
Nikolai Glebov-Avilov: Commissar for
Posts & Telegraphs
and after the November Revolution, he
served on the Moscow Revolutionary
Military Committee. Lenin appointed him
to serve as Commissar for Finance in
1917.26
Nikolai Glebov-Avilov was an active party
member before 1917 and was subject to
multiple arrests and imprisonments. After
the February Revolution, Glebov-Avilov
joined the Petrograd Soviet, working with
trade and labor unions before joining the
Central Committee. After Lenin’s coup,
Glebov-Avilov became Commissar for
Posts & Telegraphs.25
As Commissar for Finance, SkvorstovStepanov is responsible for maintaining
the finances of Russia. With the country
strapped for cash, his responsibility is to
find and create finances within the proletariat structure to fund the spending of
the Soviets, primarily with regards to
defense. There is no Central Bank, and
while the Commissariat takes some
responsibility for tax collection, the
Commissariat for Agriculture handles
most of the issues on the kolkhoz. The
Commissariat is working with the Commissariat for Agriculture to determine
lands suitable for seizure to fund spending.
As Commissar for Posts & Telegraphs,
Glebov-Avilov oversees and has authority
over the postal and telegraphs system
across the country.
Ivan Skvorstov-Stepanov: Commissar
for Finance
A teacher by trade, Ivan SkvorstovStepanov became involved in revolutionary activity in the 1890s. His antigovernment activity resulted in multiple
arrests. He joined the RSDWP in its early
formation and was active in Moscow
during and after the 1905 revolution. He
joined the Bolsheviks and became a
member of the Moscow Soviet. During
Alexandra Kollontai: Commissar for
Social Welfare
Of Cossack descent, Alexandra Kollontai is
an important Marxist revolutionary. The
ideas of the proletariat and the commune
drew Kollontai to Marxism early on. She
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Glebov-Avilov, Nikolai." Retrieved December 30 2014
from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/GlebovAvilov%2c+Nikolai.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov." Retrieved December 30
2014 from
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ivan+Skvo
rtsov-Stepanov.
25
26
24
participated in various revolutionary
activities as a young woman and studied
abroad. She met Vladimir Lenin when he
was still in Russia, and witnessed Bloody
Sunday in 1905. Exiled to Germany, she
returned to Russia because she, like many
of the Russian Marxist exiles, was disillusioned with Marxist party support of the
war. She officially joined the Bolsheviks in
1915 and returned to Russia in 1917.
After marrying fellow revolutionary Pavel
Dybenko, she became Commissar for
Social Welfare.
violent removal of the Provisional Government. A committed Bolshevik, Aminev
was arrested multiple times for his antigovernment activity. After going into
exile, Aminev returned to Moscow in
1917, working with the rail workers’
unions and eventually becoming a member of the Moscow Soviet. Lenin
appointed him as Commissar for Railways
after the October Revolution.
As Commissar for Railways, Aminev
oversees the construction and maintenance of the Russian railway system.
Lenin has charged Aminev with the
rehabilitation and expansion of the
internal railway system to further develop industrialization, food production and
military capabilities.
As Commissar for Social Welfare, Kollontai is responsible for shaping policy for
women and children in Russia. Her
primary concern is with the role and
status of women in Russian society, and
the reshaping of women’s roles in the new
proletariat society.27
Felix Dzerzhinsky: Director of the
Cheka
Dmitry Aminev: Commissar for Railways
As a young student, Felix Dzerzhinsky
was involved in revolutionary activities,
resulting in multiple arrests. A Pole by
birth, Dzerzhinsky joined the Lithuanian
wing of the SDWP before spending time in
exile in Siberia and abroad. After the 1905
Revolution was suppressed, he was jailed
once again. After his release, he joined the
RSDWP but spent much of the next ten
years in and out of prison for his revolutionary activity. Released after the
February Revolution, Dzerzhinsky intended to return to Poland to work with
Dmitry Aminev took part in Marxist
activity beginning in the early 1900s. A
railway worker by trade, Aminev helped
organize workers’ strikes and demonstrations in Moscow. He joined the RSDWP in
1908 and supported Lenin’s idea of
Barbara Evans, Bolshevik Feminist: The Life of
Alexandra Kollontai (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1979).
27
25
the Marxists there, but decided to stay
and Moscow and joined the Bolsheviks.
Dzerzhinsky became a close follower of
Lenin and served on the Petrograd RMC
in November, and took charge of security
for the Bolsheviks. With the dissolution of
the tsar’s police and the okhrana (secret
police), the militsiya, under the control of
the Commissar for Interior Affairs, was to
take the role of internal security. However, Lenin recognized that the militsiya was
not fit for the task, and the Council established the Cheka, the first state security
organ of the Soviet. Dzerzhinsky’s close
ideological relationship with Lenin
resulted in his appointment as director of
the Cheka.
sees fit. It must report all counterrevolutionary activity to the Council.28
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky:
Commander of the 5th Army
An officer of the Imperial Army, Mikhail
Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky served on the
front against the Germans. He was captured as a prisoner of war multiple times,
before escaping on his fifth attempt in
1917. He would return to find Russia in
upheaval, and after the October Revolution, joined the Bolsheviks. He was given
command of the Fifth Army.
As Commander of the Fifth Army, Tukhachevsky’s primary charge is with the
defense of Moscow. The Fifth Army is a
ragtag group of revolutionaries that come
from all walks of life. It is poorly trained
and not well equipped but it will fight to
the end for the defense of Soviet Russia.
As Director of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky is
tasked with rooting out enemies of the
proletariat and the revolution. The Cheka
has broad powers to collect information
on enemies of the revolution, and sabotage and undermine counterrevolutionary
movements. As the secret police of the
Soviet, the Cheka has been given large
resources to weed out and destroy counterrevolutionary movements. The Cheka
has the authority to monitor and arrest
anyone who may be a threat to the revolution and deliver those individuals to
revolutionary tribunals, as well as execute
enemies of the revolution as the Director
Jukums Vācietis: Commander of the
Red Latvian Riflemen
A Latvian, Jukums Vācietis joined the
Imperial Russian Army and served as a
commander of the Latvian Riflemen unit,
and helped defend Riga from the Germans
in 1917 at great cost to his units. After the
RT Russiapedia, “Felix Dzerzhinsky,”
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/politicsand-society/felix-dzerzhinsky/ (December 30, 2014).
28
26
February Revolution, Vācietis professed
support of an independent Latvia, but
sided with the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and became commander
of the Red Latvian Riflemen.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze: Commander of the Southern Army Group
Born in 1885, Mikhail Frunze was involved in revolutionary activity as early
as 1903, siding with Vladimir Lenin
during the Bolshevik/Menshevik split.31
Frunze spent a decade in Siberian prisons
for his activity, but after escaping became
president of the Byelorussian Soviet after
the February Revolution. During the
October Revolution, he led nearly two
thousand men in the Bolshevik takeover
of Moscow. As the Whites mobilized and
Lenin’s Bolsheviks began to charter the
Red Army, Frunze was appointed commander of the Southern Army Group.
As commander of the Red Latvian Riflemen, Vācietis has been tasked with the
suppression of Polish troops in Belarus.
His small but hardy forces help hold the
eastern front against counterrevolutionary forces.29
Sergey Sergeyevich Kamenev: Commander of the Eastern Front
Sergey Sergeyevich Kamenev was an
officer and a member of the General Staff
of the Imperial Army during the Great
War. After the October Revolution, Kamenev rose up to command posts in the
forces of the Soviet, eventually becoming
commander of the eastern front.
KEY ISSUES
The Russian Civil War will test both sides
and require the Bolsheviks to carefully
track their resources. This challenge has
led to the emergence of war communism,
a special economic policy that is being
considered for implementation for the
duration of the conflict. War communism
features multiple socialist economic
policies, some of which include the
As Commander of the Eastern Front,
Kamenev defends the Soviet against the
counterrevolutionary troops massing in
the east.30
1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the
First World War, s.v. Jukums Vācietis”, accessed
December 30, 2014, http://encyclopedia.1914-1918online.net/article/vacietis_jukums/2014-10-08.
29
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Sergei+Ka
menev.
http://spartacuseducational.com/RUSfrunze.htm
31
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition . S.v.
"Sergei Kamenev." Retrieved December 30 2014 from
30
27
nationalization of all businesses in all
industries, outlawing private enterprise,
food rationing, and prodrazvyorstka (the
confiscation of excess grain produces).32
Russia arms and military assistance with
Kerensky at the helm of the government.33
A significant amount of the Russian
population did not support Russia’s
involvement in the war—providing the
Red’s popular support.34
Due to its intensity, the Reds are debating
how war communism should be implemented. Some Bolsheviks, such as Lenin,
believe that the wartime conditions and
requirements mandate these harsh
economic policies. Other Bolsheviks, such
as Yuri Larin and Leonid Krasin, argue
that war communism is a method to
eliminate private property and achieve
total socialism. War communism could
inflict considerable pain on the peasantry,
though it may prove key to supplying Red
troops.
As WWI continues, some foreign forces
had been deployed to Russia supporting
the anti-Bolshevik forces, including from
the UK, US, Greece, France, Estonia,
Canada, and other nations. A buildup of
these forces could pose a considerable
threat to the existence of the RSFSR.
Lastly, the Reds must decide how to
govern the population. Harsh economic
policies, such as war communism and
prodrazvyorstka, could antagonize the
population; the peasantry—especially in
rural areas—may not survive the war
while obeying these strict policies. While
the growth of an expansive black market
could alleviate some concerns, many
farmers could revolt against the Red
control. How we respond to potential
The involvement of foreign states in the
Russian Civil War will also challenge the
Bolshevik leadership.
Much of this
involvement can be understood by understanding the greater geostrategic issues at
play. During this period, World War I has
reached its peak; the US, UK, France, and
dozens of other states are trying to
determine how to defeat Germany.
Russia—due to its position on the Eastern
Front—was considered a key ally (despite
its political turmoil); even after Nicholas
II had been removed, the US is sending
Moore, Joel R.; Mead, Harry H.; Jahns, Lewis E. (2003).
The History of the American Expedition Fighting the
Bolsheviki. Nashville, Tenn.: The Battery Press. pp. 47–
50. ISBN 089839323X.
33
Beyer, Rick (2003). The Greatest Stories Never Told.
A&E Television Networks / The History Channel.
ISBN 0-06-001401-6.
34
Szamuely, Laszlo (1974), First models of the socialist
economic system, Budapest, pp. 45–61
32
28
insurrection has yet to be discussed and
decided.
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