Peace In Their Time

While the Soviet Union struggled internally, it did not neglect trying to continue the Revolution abroad. Attempting to rally the troops, the idea of a workers International was rebooted as the Comintern. It would be the home away from home for many Communists and during the first decade of its existence push numerous uprisings aimed at toppling Capitalism. Not with a lot of success, but their efforts kept the champions of Capital awake at night all the same. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hallas, Duncan The Comintern: A History of the Third International Haymarket Books 2008

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

Peacetime in the Soviet Union created an opportunity for social experimentation. The old order was gone, the Communist Party wasn't yet the juggernaut of state power it would become, and change seemed to be the order of the day. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

The first peacetime order of business in the new USSR was to re-build the economy. And to do that, they had to liberalize and turn towards a kind of state capitalism that was dubbed the New Economic Policy, the NEP. It wasn't perfect, and the new imbalances it created started conflicts in the Communist Party. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

One-hundred episodes! And to celebrate, here is a completely normal weekly episode. The Soviet Union wasn't built in a day, in fact it took five years for the Bolshevik leaders to finally hammer out the details as to the new nation. And that only happened after Lenin and Joseph Stalin clashed over the question of state power, a clash that was only settled by Lenin's declining health. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

The consequences of winning the Civil War at any cost came back to haunt the Bolsheviks, as it turned out the "any cost" meant millions of people starving to death in a gigantic famine. Agriculture was in ruins throughout Russia, and only the intervention of an unlikely ally prevented the problem from being worse. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

Just because the Civil War was over didn't the misery ended. With the Whites gone, all the non-Bolsheviks who had been tolerating Lenin's government and its excesses decided it was time to turn against it. Revolt and revolution spread across the country yet again, threatening to end the Communist regime right after all its military victories. 

Just as the Russian Civil War appeared to be winding down, a reborn Poland decided to make a play for some open land and invaded Soviet Russia. While the ensuing war would be an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to march on Europe, getting past the Poles proved easier said than done. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

Just as the Russian Civil War appeared to be winding down, a reborn Poland decided to make a play for some open land and invaded Soviet Russia. While the ensuing war would be an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to march on Europe, getting past the Poles proved easier said than done. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

During the Civil War, threats to the Revolution weren't just coming from the battlefield. The Bolsheviks very quickly realized that internal enemies in areas they controlled were a danger, and built-up their version of the secret police, the Cheka, to counter those enemies. They got out of hand. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the Soviet Union. But the pressures of war convinced the Bolsheviks to step up their centralizing efforts, laying the groundwork for the Communist state that everyone would come to know and love. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

This week we turn away from the battlefield and more towards what life was like on the ground in Bolshevik Russia. Long story short, the war wasn't an easy one on the civilian side either. This week in particular I touch on the precariousness of the food supply, and the collapse of urban life. 

Bibliography for this episode: 

1. Hosking, Geoffrey Russia and the Russians: A History The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2001

Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]