“Left Wing Single Party States Achieve Power as the Result of a Revolutionary Process Against Tradition.” Does This Adequately Explain How Any One Single Party State That You Have Studied Acquired Power?

In October 1917, there was enough opposition for Lenin to take power as leader of the Bolsheviks. The Provisional Government provided him with no majority support, with the Bolsheviks winning 24% and the SRs gaining 54% of votes. The Liberal period consisting of keeping workers and peasants happy left them with little power. Decree on land gives noble land to peasantry so that they have legal title to it, did it to stop rebellion and get peasant support in the civil war. 2. War Communism- Summer 1918 (civil war)- more authoritarian. 3. 1921- New Economic freedom for peasantry Economic policy- less authoritarian.

The Bolshevik Revolution exemplified the complexities and contradictions inherent in revolutionary transformation. From the 1830s to the 1920s, countries all over Europe were setting up revolutions to recreate European politics and society. Oppositions from without and divisions from within all set back and blunted these revolutions. Despite efforts put forth by monarchies, intellectual thinkers and even peasants, achieving a successful revolution was not an easy

The Marxists in Russia divided into two different political parties: The Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Lenin led the Bolsheviks, they believed that the only way Russia would prevail was if it where to be governed by a small elite core of revolutionaries. February of 1917, workers gave protesting another try and actually had the soldiers side with them. The Tsar finally admitted defeat and stepped down from the throne and a provisional government was put into place. The leader of the provisional government was Andrew Kerensky, and when he decided to continue fighting World War I many soldiers deserted him and everyone turned to the Bolsheviks. The only political party to be completely against the provisional government as well as World War 1.

In 1917, in the midst of the Great War, Russia faced one of the biggest political shifts that the Tsarist-ruled country had ever known-the Bolshevik Revolution. There are two significant time frames associated with the Bolshevik Revolution. In the February revolution Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne and a Provisional Government took control. In the October revolution the Bolsheviks took power by overthrowing the Provisional Government. How did the October revolution become a reality? What factors facilitated the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917? Two important factors were the July event at Taurida Palace, and the Kornilov Affair. Richard Pipes describes in detail how Lenin influenced the Bolshevik party throughout the

The Bolsheviks, commonly known as the Reds, had one aim: to take over the current government and create a

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.

There were many different equally important reasons why Lenin and the Bolsheviks were able to hold on to their power. For Lenin, and the Bolsheviks, winning political power was relatively easy, compared with retaining it. They had many different objects to overcome, such as; Russia was in chaos, politically and economically, and normal government had broken down in large areas, yet despite all these problems Lenin was able to consolidate his power – and create the world’s first communist state.

The revolution was an event that was constructed on a small scale of people that were made up of the Bolshevik party, for overturning the Provisional government into the Soviet Union. The revolution was a voluntarist revolution, as it explored the idea of individual agencies and the concept that the cause of an event is based on the actions of those participating themselves. For instance, in the October revolution, the uprising of the political change was due to the action of Lenin and the Bolshevik party. Without the participation of the party and the leadership of Lenin, the revolution would not have been executed in such magnitude. The October revolution is a voluntarist revolution for the following reasons, first, the leadership from Lenin, proved to be more progressive, compared to the traditional leaders at that time. Lenin instructed the affairs of the revolution in public, after writing the April These a speech that criticized the Provisional government and promoted that the Russian government falls under the Soviet Union. Lenin’s charismatic traits are essentially the reason behind the large amount of support that the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Union received, a famous line from the April These: “All Power to the Soviets”, was used in propaganda during the time of the revolution, it was a phrase that changed the course of

After overthrowing the Provisional Government and forming the Sovnarkom socialist government in the October Revolution (1917), the Bolsheviks were hampered by problems that arose over social, political and economic factors, however to consolidate their power, they used means of sabotage and appeasing the population. Many decrees were published to placate the masses, such as the Decree on land and the Decree on Workers’ Control, to control the economic situation. Politically, the Bolsheviks formed the Cheka to expose and investigate all counter-revolutionary and criminal activities. What sparked the consolidation of power was the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.

The Bolsheviks considered themselves to be in command of the working class of Russia. They believed in democratic centralism, or the freedom to vote on matters of the party, but major unity in their voting process.

The Bolsheviks (lit. “one for the majority”) were a Russian political party that was founded in 1903 by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov, when they split away from the Menshevik (lit. “one for the minority”) faction under the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. By 1905, the Bolsheviks were no longer a minor faction, but one that had over 8,400 members. This number increased to 46,000 by 1910, a time where the Mensheviks had only 38,000. The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks continued to both gain and lose the majority in their parent party, and in 1910, they were forced to band together due to their loss of numbers and pressure from the Tzar, even though Lenin was strongly against the idea. Then, in 1912, the Bolsheviks broke away

Known as the October Revolution or the Bolshevik Revolution, it was led by a group of revolutionary socialists called Bolsheviks. It brushed aside the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks hoped that their revolution would result in more fundamental changes to carry out socialist revolutions. The Provisional Government was made up of liberal leaders, and as well as some moderate socialists.

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.

During the 1900’s the Russian Government made it extremely hard for the Bolsheviks to progress which made them revolt against the government making this a prime matter for the start of the Revolution. The Czarist government was ostracized by the common people of Russia so Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the Provisional Government, whom later on were overthrown by Lenin and shortly after the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. Russia was hard to develop because of the major leaders who had control; Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism

According to Andrew Janos, “the price of economic progress has been political turmoil”. (Janos, pg. 21) If the Modernization Theory holds that countries tend to become more democratic the more they modernize, then political turmoil is to be expected in democracies. Certainly this can occur in both parliamentary and presidential systems: as Linz argues, the presidential system concentrates too much power on the president, resulting in “winner-take-all” politics (Linz, pg. 56) and the polarization of political parties. This is evident in the United States, where the president is elected separately and Congress is divided between the opposing Democrats and Republicans. Conversely, the parliamentary system in Britain, as well as that adapted by the former British colonies of Sri Lanka and Nigeria, has had its fair share of single-party hegemony and political abuse. (Horowitz, pg. 78) Democracy is therefore not a perfect form of government when put in practice, and much of its