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| 1917–21 |
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| SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY. The victorious Bolsheviks at once undertook the reorganization of society along collectivist lines. A Land Decree (Nov. 7) ordered immediate partition of the large estates and distribution of the land among the peasants. But on Feb. 19, 1918, the nationalization of the land was proclaimed (all land to be the property of the state, and only those willing to cultivate it themselves to be permitted to use it). No further efforts were made in the direction of collectivization, but when the civil war brought the cities and the armies into danger of starvation, the peasants were ordered (Dec. 14, 1920) to turn over to the government their entire surplus (the food levy). As they were reluctant to do so, and saw no prospect of any return in consumer goods, the government was driven to adopt forcible requisitioning, which created widespread discontent. | 1 |
| On their advent to power the Bolsheviks at once declared all banks nationalized, confiscating private accounts. The national debt was repudiated (Jan. 28, 1918). The workmen were given control over the factories (Nov. 28, 1917), and by the summer of 1918 all the larger plants (and subsequently the smaller ones) were nationalized (law of June 28, 1918). The workers were instructed to join government-controlled trade unions and were denied the right to strike. In emergencies the government resorted to a system of compulsory labor. Private trade was gradually suppressed, and the government undertook the distribution of food and other commodities among the urban populations, introducing a rationing system and making use also of the cooperatives. All church property was confiscated (Dec. 17, 1917), and all religious instruction in the schools was abolished. Only civil marriages were thenceforth to be recognized. The Gregorian calendar was introduced on Jan. 31, 1918. | 2 |
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| 1917–18 |
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| CONCLUSION OF PEACE WITH THE CENTRAL POWERS (See March 3). | 3 |
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| March 9 |
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| The government moved the capital from Petrograd (renamed Leningrad, Jan. 26, 1924) to Moscow. This was partly because of the exposed position of Petrograd with relation to the Germans and their satellites, and partly because of the threat of counterrevolution emanating from the borderlands. Monarchists and members of the propertied classes, who favored political and economic restoration, as well as Liberals and Moderate Socialists who were opposed to the Communist dictatorship, were all more or less united in their refusal to accept the disastrous Brest-Litovsk treaty. The British and French, who regarded the Bolsheviks as tools of the German general staff and were eager to keep supplies and munitions from falling into the hands of the Germans, encouraged and supported movements among the opponents of the Bolsheviks.Independent governments were established all along the Russian frontiers (Lithuania, Dec. 11, 1917; Moldova, Dec. 15; Republic of the Don, Jan. 10, 1918; Ukraine, Jan. 28; Transcaucasia, April 22; etc.). The revolt of the Don Cossacks, led by Gens. Kornilov and Kaledin, Dec. 9, 1917, may be said to mark the beginning of the civil war. | 4 |
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