Leon Trotsky's Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up To 1922

Despite starting his political journey as a supporter of the Menshevik wing (peaceful communism), Leon Trotsky became one of the paramount powers of the Bolshevik party, leading their Red Army to victory during the Russian civil war of 1918 to 1921; so

From the initial seizure of power in 1917 until 1924, the Bolsheviks were confronted with a series of crises that threatened their ability to control and govern in Russia. The response and resolutions to these crises included Initial Reforms, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Civil War, Red terror, War Communism and the NEP. Under the leadership of Lenin, the execution of these responses were made possible and the Bolsheviks were able to maintain and expand their power. The Civil War however was the direct consequence of the Bolshevik’s actions as they tried to maintain their grasp on power. The victory in the Civil War was extremely pivotal for the Bolshevik consolidation of power as it brought control and power but more importantly it eliminated

Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first

Most modern historians agree that the peasants, workers and soldiers played a major part in the revolution and therefore it was the job of the Bolsheviks to capture this power and manipulate and use it for their own ends. This was made much easier as a result of Trotsky’s excellent rhetoric and Victor Serge, in ‘Memoirs of a Revolutionary’ (1945), recalled that ‘Trotsky was all tension and energy […] an orator of unique quality [whose voice] always infused with a truly spontaneous passion. He outshone Lenin through his great oratorical talent, through his organising ability, first with the army, then on the railways, and by his brilliant gifts as a theoretician. ’ Naturally, as a Bolshevik it was easier for Serge to agree with Trotsky and therefore, find his words inspiring and interesting. However, to make special note of his rhetoric suggests an unusually good quality to his work and this is further demonstrated by the number of people he managed to rally around his cause. Wood writes

This essay shall address the issue of how the far the brutality of Bolshevik Regime ensured the maintaining of it’s power between the years of 1917-24. This essay shall explore topics concerning the ‘Dictatorship Of The Proletariat’, The Cheka, War Communism, The Red Terror and other potential reasons for the Bolsheviks remaining in power. This essay shall also explore the various views put forth by various Historians such as Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes.

According to the History.com Staff, “The October Revolution began on November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar).” (Russian Revolution”). The October Revolution has also been called the Bolshevik Revolution since the Bolshevik Party played a crucial role in the revolution. The leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir Lenin was a big supporter of Karl Marx. Another Marxist who leads this revolution was Leon Trotsky. In an article by the History.com Staff, “Lenin had created an, almost, bloodless coup d’état against the provisional government.” (“Russian Revolution”). The Bolshevik revolution started when, Alexander Kerensky, rather than follow an order. On October 24th, Kerensky ordered troops that were loyal, to act against the Bolshevik. Encyclopædia Britannica tells us that, “Kerensky was a socialist revolutionary who served as head of the Russian Provisional Government.” (“Aleksandr Kerensky”).

Lev Davidovich Bronstein was a major political figure in the turn of the twentieth century for the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialists Republics) aka Russia. Bronstein’s impact was greater with national history than international history. He was born on November 7, 1879, Ukraine (Yanovka) and later changed his name to Leon Trotsky, the name of his prison guard at Odessa prison whilst in exile in Siberia. Trotsky was introduced to Marxism at a young age of 17 at a school in Nikolayev. Marxism is a political ideology crated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that presents the idea of having a revolution involving violence in order to obtain a classless society.

Leon Trotsky, originally known as Lev Davidovich Bronstein, was born November 7th in the year 1879. Born to a Jewish-Russian family of wealthy but illiterate farmers, he was sent to school in Odessa by age nine. Although he was enrolled in a German school, during his studies there the school was “Russified” during the Imperial Government’s policy of Russification. The environment of the town of Odessa contributed greatly to the development of Trotsky’s revolutionary ideas and his international outlook. Later on in his life, by 1896, he quickly became involved in revolutionary activities after moving to the harbor town of Nkdayev. As a narodnik, also known as a revolutionary populist, he was first introduced to Marxism, but disliked the core

Ultimately, ‘this had brought together two revolutionary leaders, committed to the overthrow of capitalism’ (Christian) and the Tsarist autocracy in Russia. This partnership between Lenin and Trotsky was imperative, as Lenin had viewed Trotsky as a valuable and vital asset to the revolution, where his leadership, ‘talent’ and ‘ability’ would play a major role.

Trotsky was part of the Bolshevic party during the early years of the USSR. He fought against Stalin for ruling power of the USSR. Stalin won and banished Trotsky

Furthermore, the many roles that Trotsky undertook in his political career, notably Commissar for War prove that Trotsky was most definitely ‘the most able of men’. According to Service, Trotsky as Commissar for War ‘surprised everyone with his organisational capacity and ruthlessness as he transformed the Red Army into a fighting force’. During his role as commissar Trotsky was able to increase the size of the Red army to three million, introduced conscription, maintained obedience and discipline by enforcing the oath of the red warrior and the death penalty for deserters and used ex-Tsarist officers to assist in the organisation of the army. Trotsky’s ability to successfully transform the Red Army and the significant role he played in Civil War are largely the reason for the Bolshevik victory and further highlight that Trotsky ‘was the most able of men’.

Firstly many members of the communist distrusted Trotsky due to his Menshevik past and didn’t see him as a true and Loyal Bolshevik. He didn’t join to Bolshevism until 1917 and this made the ‘old’ Bolsheviks suspect him. The distrust continued with his role as the commander of the Red Army and his opportunism is switching alliances against and with other colleagues like Zinoviev and Kamenev. Due to this many suspected him of becoming a dictator and they wanted

Trotsky in 1918 became the war commissar and he created the red army, and was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War 1918–20. He was a great public speaker and war tactician. However many Bolsheviks were afraid that he would become a military dictator such as Nicholas 2nd was. Also he had a reputation for being arrogant which made him unpopular within the party, also after Lenin died the triumvirate group established this group was made up of Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin their aim was not to get Stalin into power but to keep Trotsky out of reach of power.

Leon Trotsky was the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. The organization was that, under Lenin’s direction, that shown the overthrow of the state which is called or known “The October Revolution”

After hearing about the recent coup, throwing out the czar, Lenin came back to Russia from his exiled in Switzerland. Using his charisma and status, he helped kick start another revolution which knocked out the makeshift democracy. This made a place for the Bolsheviks (communists) to place themselves in a position of power in the government. (Rashid, Aatif). Lenin came to be an influential person in the Bolshevik party and used Karl Marx’s ideas to make Communism in Russia blossom. Two major things he did were make private industry and agriculture public and redistributed the land of wealthy proprietors to peasants. This went well for a few years, until the Russian Civil War ended in 1920. While they came out victorious, Russia was left in disaster. The economic productivity was insufficient and the people were starving and unhappy. Because of this, Lenin was desperate for a new change to benefit the people, so he announced the New Economic Policy. The state took control of large industries again, but people were encouraged to have private and individual businesses. Soon after this was out in place, another major change was about to occur in the Russian government. This occurred after Lenin died in 1924. Joseph Stalin took over his place and became the leader of the Communist Party. He began intimidating and doubting his rivals while also claiming to see spies everywhere. He cleared the party and general population of Russia or these so called “spies.” By executing or exiling rebels to Siberia, he struck fear into those who remained after his purging. Everyone lived in fear of Stalin’s secret police and he ruled over Russia with an iron fist from that point on until his death (Dagger,