Fitzpatrick (2011) ‘The Civil War as Formative Experience.’
Citation: Fitzpatrick, Sheila (2011) ‘The Civil War as Formative Experience.’
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Notes: Fitzpatrick (2011:127-128): Notes scholarly views that Civil War embedded a militaristic culture; provided imagery for First Five-Year Plan; provided model for collectivisation and industrialisation.
Fitzpatrick (2011:128): Sees Civil War as a “predictable outcome of the October coup,” and the path chosen by the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were already organised militarily before it began.
Fitzpatrick (2011:130): Bolsheviks forced to reassess their ideas in light of the failure of revolution in Europe. This undermined their internationalism, as did the emergence of nationalist opposition movements.
Fitzpatrick (2011:131): Interrogates question of whether the Civil War produced Bolshevik authoritarianism. In 1917, the Party did not match the highly organised, conspiratorial model advocated by Lenin; by 19-21 it was centralised and authoritarian. The question is whether the Civil War caused this. Agrees Civil War encouraged administrative centralisation and intolerance of dissent. Lenin clearly envisioned a coercive, centralised dictatorship. Rejects any idea that Lenin was not committed to a one-party state. Notes that having taken power the Bolsheviks needed to govern, and bureaucratization is an inevitable result of this.
Fitzpatrick (2011:140-141): “The Civil War circumstances encouraged or even required centralization and bureaucratization, provided a justification for coercion and terror against class enemies, and led to the formation of a ‘tough’ Bolshevik position on culture and the partial discrediting of the popular enlightenment ideals and relative cultural liberalism of the older generation of Bolshevik intellectuals. The party emerged from the Civil War as an ‘embattled vanguard,’ lacking social support, isolated, disappointed with the proletariat, and suspicious of and hostile to the intelligentsia.” First governing experience acquired in Civil War; many joined the Party at that time. On the other hand, Lenin appeared to seek out the civil war, and many of its features were predictable. Concludes it was “the formative experience they were looking for in the Civil War. it was the formative experience for which their past and thoughts had prepared them.”