How Did Lenin Come To Power

The Bolshevik October Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. Lenin’s vow to end the war and open negotiations with the Germans provoked the Allies and led to the detachment of a military excursion to oppose the newly established government and aid rebels who had begun a civil war to oust the Bolsheviks.

Lenin was able to consolidate Bolshevik rule in Russia by combining popular policies and repression: To what extent do you agree with this statement.

The Russian Revolution was a series of two revolutions that consisted of the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The February Revolution of March 8th, 1917 was a revolution targeted and successfully removed Czar Nicholas II from power. The February Revolution first began to take place when strikes and public protests between 1916 and early 1917 started occurring. These strikes were created to protest against and to blame Czar Nicholas II for Russia’s poor performance in WWI and severe food shortages that the country facing. Soon, violence between protesters and authorities began to escalate, and on February 24th, 1917 in the city of Petrograd, hundreds of thousands of male and female workers flooded the streets. They all had the same purpose which was to protest against the “Great War” and the monarchy. The protests began to escalate and the vastly outnumbered police were unable to control the crowds. When news of the unrest reached the czar, he ordered the military to put an end to the riots by the next day, and on February 26th, 1917, several troops of a local guard regiment fired upon the crowds, but however many soldiers felt pity and empathy for the protesters than the czar, and on the next day, more than 80,000 soldiers join the protest even directly fighting the police.

On 24-26 October, the Bolshevik Party seized power from Kerensky’s Provisional Government. This was achieved with surprising ease. Retaining their newly acquired power, however, was to prove difficult. Nonetheless, the Bolsheviks proved successful in consolidating their power from 1917-1924, achieving this through a combination of pragmatic reforms and ruthless terror. This ultimately led the Bolsheviks far from their original goals and ideologies, and by 1924, the Soviet Union was a highly centralised one-party state.

According to History.com Staff, “The provisional government had created a group of leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin would alternatively call for a Soviet state that would be controlled directly by councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers.” (“Russian Revolution”). Both decided that the Soviets was going to be a useful instrument in the next revolution. They didn't want the Soviets to have all the power until they could control them. In the book, Rise and fall of Communism 2009, Archie Brown shows us that, “On 12 October, according to the old calendar, Trotsky took command of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet and on 25 October...the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd” (Brown 51). Insurrection was to start, but there were complications with the date set. In the book, The History of the Russian Revolution 1960, Leon Trotsky says, “At a session of the Petrograd Soviet on the 18th, Trotsky, in answer to a question raised by the enemy, declared that the Soviet had not set a date for an insurrection, in the coming days, but that if it became necessary to set one, the workers and soldiers would come out as one man” (Trotsky 162). There were forty thousand workers in the army of Petrograd.

The Russian Revolution is a series of political events that occurred during the years 1905 to 1924. The February Revolution, in which overthrew the imperial government and the October Revolution, placed the Bolsheviks in power (britannica.com). The Russian Revolution happened because of discontentment of with the tsar, poverty in Russia, and lack of control over the government. During the In January of 1905, protesters were protesting in front of the winter palace because of extreme poverty and starvation due to peasants’ wages decreasing. The Russian workers and peasants wanted a better working and living conditions. More than 1000 protesters were killed and injured after the tsar, Nicholas the II, ordered his army to gun down the protesters. This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, led to the 1905 revolution. During the 1905 revolution, Russian Social Democratic Social Party split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Later in October of 1905, Nicholas the II issued the October Manifesto, which ended the Russian Revolution of 1905. In July of 1914, World War I begun which caused the Russians a lot of damage because four million Russian soldiers killed, wounded or captured. The Russian Soldiers refused the fight and people back in Russian were starving because of the lack of income from the war. World War I also caused the tsar to lose control of Russia as the war has caused chaos in Russia. Soon, continuous protests and revolts led to the March Revolution of

The effects that Lenin’s arrival first had on the Bolsheviks party began with the weakening of the provisional government, primarily ending Russia’s fight in the war. Lenin had been gathering supporters since the 1890s with those apart of the forces in the war, alongside other supporters, travelling worldwide and spreading his word of Marxist ideals and a Russia that was no longer wrapped up in World War One. It wasn’t long before he garnered enough manpower to seize control and caused a great deal of uproar when he had turned the Russian Army against the Russian provisional government to completely wash Prime Minister Kerensky out. After seizing railroad stations, telegraph lines, and government offices, and subsequently sending out the people-elected provisional government, Lenin was able to intimidate the elected government out of office and have control.

Following this uprising, various socialist groups surfaced, with political views rooted in Marxist views – the main two being the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were led by Vladimir Lenin, a radical who had spent most of his life abroad, studying socialist ideals and building a following. The Mensheviks, with a majority of workers and intellectuals, favored an electoral system with European-style reforms. When Lenin returned to Russia in 1917, the Bolsheviks were bolstered, in both quantity and motivation. The war was dragging on and the Russian public was frustrated and desperate. A power struggle developed between the provincial government and the Bolshevik party. This lasted for several months until Lenin and his supporters overthrew the government in Petrograd, capturing the Winter Palace, former home of the Russian monarchs.

By March, the dictator of Russia had been placed under house arrest. In April Vladimir Lenin announced that the people should rise up and take control. In October, the revolution was over and the communist took control. Having the communist government in power was in a violent period. By 1922 Stalin there was the newly formed general secretary.

In 1917, a revolution took place in Russia that overthrew the traditional Tsarist regime and brought a single party state, the Bolshevik Party, into power. The Bolshevik party harnessed the revolutionary spirit from the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in order to overthrow the Provisional government and eventually seize power. There are several reasons that the Bolshevik Party went against tradition including the failure of the Tsarist regime and the failure of the Provisional

Lenin called for Stalin’s removal, but he maneuvered out of the situation and stayed in power. Lenin’s death left an open space for Stalin to fill. Ten months later, Stalin introduced the idea of “Socialism in One Country.” He believed that socialism could be established within the Soviet Union without outside help. The idea was very isolationist and pushed for rapid industrialization. To make way for socialism, Stalin rescinded the New Economic Policy Lenin had put in place.

The folly of the provisional government led by the untrusted Alexander Kerensky caused the people of Russia to move towards the various revolutionary groups. Bolsheviks gained large amounts of support from the military for their movement to end the war, which was a long-time request of the people declined by the provisional government. The Bolshevik effort was bolstered even further with the failure of Kornilov’s coup, which weakened the government even more; this caused

Richard Pipes gives a detailed account of the events that led up to the July event and the Bolsheviks’ preparedness. The Bolsheviks were opportunists and used propaganda to influence and agitate, gives credit to their political strategy. The Bolsheviks saw an opportunity and used it. They also understood that their timing had to be flawless. They did not want to quell the frenzy they had created among the mutineers; however, a premature large-scale uprising would give the Provisional Government an excuse to crush them. Although the July event was a setback for the Bolsheviks, it did create a growing dissatisfaction among the soldiers. Many had no more will to fight, and lost their faith in the government. This would prove crucial when Kerensky would, with failed attempts, call on them to defend the Winter Palace against insurgents in the October Revolution.

To a large extent the political predicament in Russia was unsuccessful due to the provisional government holding power. The provisional government set policies that weren’t under the autocratic government which lead them to be favoured by the people of Russian, an example of these policies included; “freedom of speech, freedom of the press, Immediate preparations for a vote to elect a constituent assembly consisting of representatives from the whole nation; when formed, the provisional government will cease to exist” and many others (Malone, 2009,P.108). However the provisional government went back on to their policies and this manifested into the July days. Thru the July days from 16th to the 19th over “568 factories closed down” with the factories closing down this made a huge impact on the economy as over “104000 workers loss their jobs” (Malone, 2009,P.116) which increased the unemployment dispute dramatically. The soldiers and industrial worker engages in spontaneous demonstrations against the Russian Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks tried to provide leadership to the demonstrations. However the military attacked the peaceful demonstrations and engaged in repression against the Bolsheviks. During this repression Lenin went into hiding, whilst other Bolshevik leaders were arrested (Malone, 2009,P, 115. P, 116). The aftermath of the July Days signified a temporary deterioration of growth, power and influence to the Bolsheviks. By the end of April and Russia still

Ten years in exile had not swayed Lenin?s determination to create and direct a powerful revolution. Lenin returned to Russia from exclusion in February 1917, believing that the time was ripe to seize power. The Russian economy was in ruin after the army was nearly defeated and the people exhausted as a result of the First World War. The country was in an unstable state, suitable for a revolution (Levinthal 119). Around October 20, Lenin, in disguise and at considerable personal risk, slipped into Petrograd and attended a secret meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee held on the evening of October 23. Not until after a heated 10-hour debate did he finally win a majority in favour of preparing an armed takeover. Now steps to enlist the support of soldiers and sailors and to train the Red Guards, the Bolshevik-led workers' militia, for an armed takeover proceeded openly under the guise of self-defense of the Petrograd Soviet. Even at great personal risk, Lenin was adamant in spurring a successful revolution.