Lenin, Class War, Peasants

Lenin, the Peasants and Class War Kings Monkton History

While the Bolsheviks were seizing power in Petrograd and other cities across Russia, a separate revolution was happening in the countryside, totally independent of the Bolsheviks. Peasants who had hated the landowners for centuries went on the rampage, killing, looting and burning. Extreme hatred was directed towards anyone who was thought of as being wealthy or none peasant

Why do you think that Lenin was happy for the countryside to be in open revolt? ______________________________________________

What would the results of this chaos be and why might they benefit the Bolsheviks?

FAR FROM PREVENTING THE BLOODSHED THE BOLSHEVIKS ENCOURAGED IT!

This meant that at some point in the future, once the peasants had driven off the landowners, that they would have to be brought back in line. Was this war against the rich the start of the Civil War?

Trotsky actively wanted a Civil War: He thought that if there was a civil war it would complete the revolution because it would be fought along class lines, the bourgeoisie would try to get back into power and this would be the opportunity to wipe them out as a class. This would require extraordinary brutality and cruelty By the Spring of 1918 Kornilov and various other counter revolutionary figures were beginning to form armies on the edges of Bolshevik territory (The Bolsheviks commanded most of Central and Siberian Russia). Those that joined the White Army included the Cadets, who wished to continue the war against the Central Powers. Some Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries that were opposed to

Others who joined included landowners who had lost their estates, factory owners who had their property nationalized, devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church who objected to the government's