Bolshevik Policies During The Civil War Essay

"During the civil war the Bolsheviks laid the foundations of a new social order very different from the idealized socialist society they had envisaged before coming to power."
To what extent is this statement accurate in describing Bolshevik policy during the Civil war years?. Had the Bolsheviks abandoned their ideals by the end of the Civil War years and, if so why had this occurred?
The Statement made by David Christian is accurate. During the civil war the Bolsheviks changed their policy in order to remain in power and to win the war. They first outlined their policy and ideals in the April thesis. During the civil war they implemented war communism which laid the foundations of a new social order. The re-introduction of state controlled
land and industries was a signal of new social order. Co-ersive machinery was introduced to suppress the people. While the introduction of Centralism was a far cry from their idealized pre-war government plans.
The April theses was the major document published by the Bolsheviks which outlined their aims and ideologies before the revolution. Before the revolution they were a insignificant socialist party. Out of the 1500 seats in the Petrograd Soviet they obtained 44. When the April thesis was published on the 4th of April 1917 it attracted a lot of supporters for the Bolshevik party. Because it outlined the parties main aims and ideals it meant the party was organised, they had a set structure. This was in contrast with the rest of Russia which was in total chaos. They were able to capitalise on this chaos by unity the people behind one cause and these were: to bring end to the war and to give the peasants food and land. It also signalled the abolishment of co-ersive machinery by the government to oppress and rule the people. "The April thesis distinguished the Bolsheviks from all other socialist Parties"-David Christian.
"During the civil war the Bolsheviks laid the foundations of a new social order very different from the idealized socialist society they had envisaged before coming to power" . Just after the Revolution the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist party. This was to support more followers to the party, they became a famous party because of their socialist views not the fact they were called the Bolshevik party. They claimed to be a democratic government but all other parties were banned, It was resembled the rule of the Tsar just a few years earlier. Just as Trotsky proclaimed " Your role is finished and you may go where u belong- to the garbage tip of history".
The Bolshevik party realised that they couldn't rule Russia the way they had envisaged. This signalled the implementation of war communism. It was a new social order which allowed the Bolsheviks to retain power in Russia while fight the war against the whites. War communism saw the Bolsheviks abandoning all party policy and ideologies and taking control of industry and land . Lenin realised that in order to rule a country such as Russia was to rule it in a Autocratic manner just like the Tsar. This demonstrates that the Bolsheviks abandoned their ideologies to win the war.
War communism was a signal for the Bolsheviks true intentions. War communism changed the way the economy was handled. In urban areas they reinstated everything they had promised to relinquish. They re-instated managers in factories. This meant they had taken way the power of the working class. And all goods went to the war effort. In rural areas their policy was to enforce power with an iron fist. Their main priority was to supply bread to the towns and factories. Military force was used against the peasants in the process of grain acquisitioning. This meant that all the peasants grain, what they had worked for had to go to the government. This led to class division with in class division with the poor peasants pitted against the richer peasants. The Bolsheviks went against their own policies and ideologies. It went against their notion of peace, a classless society and power to the working class. As Lenin explained " The essence of war communism was that we actually took from the peasants...We took this in order to meet the requirements of the army and to sustain the workers". The Bolsheviks weren't worried about changing their ideologies, they were more concerned with winning the civil war and only instated social policies if it benefited them.
Coersive machinery was used to repress the Russian people during the war.
This was a total contrast from their policies previous to the war.. This changed during the civil war. With the threat of civil war real they built an army, a new police system, a disciplined ruling group and the fiscal machinery necessary to support these structures. The creation of the of the red army had one and only purpose. This was to fight the civil war. The generals appointed into the army were ex-loyalists to the Tsar. Conscription was introduced along with the abolition of soldiers committees. It also saw the introduction of a secret police system better known as the Checka. They were used to repress the people who spoke out against the government and hopefully meant for the Bolsheviks they would stay in power. The main purpose of the was " To defend the revolution and conquer the enemy even if its sword falls occasionally on the heads of the innocent".(Dzerzkinky-leading Bolshevik. The new social order was put in place to make sure the Bolsheviks could win the war. Propaganda was used as a tool for the Bolsheviks to stay in power. By the 28th of October they had banned all counter- revolutionary newspapers and had seized control of all forms of public communication. More and more the new revolutionary government was looking like that of the
Tsar.
Centralism was a policy introduced by the Bolsheviks during the civil war. Prior to the civil war the Bolsheviks promised equality to everyone and allowed everyone to have a say in how the country was run .Centralism in the government meant all decisions of a higher body were absolutely obligatory for lower ones. " To reject or debate the decisions of the centre was unthinkable"(David Christian). This became an avenue for people to gain power in the socialist society and even though unintentional the Bolsheviks had created a society with classes with the emergence of the ruling class. In fact most new party members were not intellectuals or factory workers but soldiers or bureaucrats. This is what they were trying to abolish at the beginning of the war. They abandoned their ideologies to win the war.

"During the civil war the Bolsheviks laid the foundations of a new social order very different from the idealized socialist society they had envisaged before coming to power" .This statement is accurate in describing Bolshevik policy during the civil war. By the end of the civil war their policy had changed and this was so they could win the war. They first outlined their policy and ideals in the April thesis. During the civil war they implemented war communism which laid the foundations of a new social order. The re-introduction of state controlled land and industries was a signal of new social order. Co-ersive machinery was introduced to maintain control in Russia. While the introduction of Centralism was a far cry from their idealized pre-war government plans.