Page 40 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

Mikhail Mikhailovich [the estate owner] was calm...The girls also…I must say the chairman
behaves correctly and even politely. We were left two cows and two horses. The servants tell
them all the time not to bother us. “Let them live. We vouch for their safety and property. We
want them treated as humanely as possible….”
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
…There are rumours that several villages are trying to evict the committees and return the
estate to Mikhail Mikhailovich. I don’t know if this will happen, or if it’s good for us. But we
rejoice that there is a conscience in our people...’

From: Serge Schmemann, Echoes of a Native Land. Two Centuries of a Russian Village (1997).

4.1 The Civil War
• The Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, causing the Russian army to disintegrate.
• Non-Bolshevik factions opposed the Bolshevik uprising and organised troops against
them.
• Most of the Russian Empire was controlled by the ‘Greens’ (Socialist Revolutionaries),
while ‘Whites’ (pro-Tsarists) were supported by French, American, British, and Japanese
troops.
• Looting, banditry, and famine were prevalent during the war.
• Harsh actions by ‘whites’ against peasants who seized land led to a loss of popular
support.
• By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled most of the former Russian empire through
cooperation with non-Russian nationalities and Muslim Jadidists.
• The Bolshevik government granted political autonomy to non-Russian nationalities in the
Soviet Union but faced challenges due to unpopular policies and the discouragement of
nomadism.
• In December 1922 the Soviet Union (USSR– Union of Soviet Socialist Republic)– was
the creation of the Bolsheviks from the Russian empire.

Activity
(Page no. 40)
Q. Rlead the two views on the revolution in the countryside. Imagine yourself to be a
witness to the events. Write a short account from the standpoint of:

 an owner of an estate
 a small peasant
 a journalist
Ans. (a) An Owner of an Estate: My property was captured by my farm labourers. They

spared me and my family, but now I am completely dependent on their leniency. They
are not telling me anything about whether my property will be returned to me in the
future or not.
(b) A Small Peasant: I am happy that together all of us have taken over the farm and
can now earn more by sharing the profits from the sale of the food grains produced
by us. Earlier entire profits were taken by the landowner without doing any work at
farm. I salute the revolutionaries, who has made our lives better.
(c) A Journalist: The news of the uprising has been welcomed by the peasants overpowering
the landowners and taking over the running of the farms collectively. The orchards have
been divided among the peasants who worked on them earlier, so that they can enjoy
the profits from it. Surely the revolution has ushered in prosperity for the common
man at the expense of the landowners.

History Class IX H-33