Transcript Your task - ktjhistory

 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)?
 Your task

Read p. 80 and note down the membership &
aims of each of main groups involved in the
fighting.
Reds
Whites
Greens
Reds
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Kronstadt sailors
Red Guard
Workers & volunteers
Soldiers from Russian army
Pro-Revolution
Whites
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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
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Peasants
Deserters
Interested in protecting own land or bandits
Nestor Makhno, anarchist, Ukraine
Supported Reds, Whites or exploited chaos to
loot property
 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?
1918-20
 Your task
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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
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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)
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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
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Short term factors (events
that sparked the Civil War)
Clashes between Bolsheviks
& Czech Nationalists who
were suspicious of
Bolsheviks & attracted White
support
 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
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?
The Russian Civil War, 1918-1920
 Your task

Read p.84-88 and complete a table similar to the one
below:
Factors
favouring
Reds
Factors
Factors
against Reds favouring
Whites
Factors
against
Whites
Factors favouring Reds
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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
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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 antiSemitism; strict discipline led to poor morale
War Communism – favoured army, peasants resented
requisitioning
Factors favouring Whites
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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
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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
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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?
Can you spot two
famous faces in this
crowd?
 starter activity
Do you
think this is
propaganda
?
 Your task
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Read p.94-99 and note down the impact of Civil War &
War Communism on the following groups:
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Minority groups
Factory workers
Farmers & peasants
Political opposition groups
Tsar & his family
Middle-classes
Which group suffered the most?
Minority groups
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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All private trade & manufacture banned
Black market developed to meet demand
Former factory managers were put in charge of staterun 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
Hold a mini debate on the issue of which group
suffered the most? Explain your opinions with
detailed factual evidence.
 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.