Describe the problems that faced the Bolsheviks on their seizure of power in October 1917.
Describe the problems that faced the Bolsheviks on their seizure of power in October 1917.
The Provisional Government, set up after the abdication of the tsar after the February revolution, was badly organised, weak and hated. Many groups opposed this government and one group in particular, the Bolsheviks, planned to do something about it. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, told the people of Russia his simple aim, to get "Peace, bread and land" for his people, in what was called his "April Theses." The revolution of October was a well organised event planned and carried out by a party that aimed itself at the workers and peasants. Lenin also promised the people elections, which the Provisional Government refused to carry out. The Bolsheviks went about taking power in October 1917 by seizing the key positions all over Russia such as the railway network, bridges, power stations and police stations. The Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace, and power was then taken. It was not just the weakness of the Provisional Government which allowed the Bolsheviks to take over, but also the leaders Lenin and Trotsky were shown to be strong, and the plans for the take over were well thought out and highly skilful. After the Bolsheviks had gained power, however, they faced serious problems. Seizing power from the Provisional Government was the easy part, the difficult task which lay ahead now was to hold on to power and keep support. The promises the Bolsheviks had made to the people before they took over such as ending the war, holding elections and giving them "peace land and bread", combined with the opposition, lack of support and spreading communism were to test the Bolsheviks strength as a government and push their leaders to their limit, as well as trying the commitment of the Bolshevik party.
The War could be considered as the most trying problem that the Bolsheviks would face. The Bolsheviks had promised the people peace before they came into power, and so would have to do something about the war. If they made a separate peace with Germany, they would lose land, and Russia's allies might become hostile if the Bolsheviks withdrew from the war. This happened anyway and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was later signed, giving away much of Russia's population and land as well as over half her industry. Lenin however insisted they would get it back when ...
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The War could be considered as the most trying problem that the Bolsheviks would face. The Bolsheviks had promised the people peace before they came into power, and so would have to do something about the war. If they made a separate peace with Germany, they would lose land, and Russia's allies might become hostile if the Bolsheviks withdrew from the war. This happened anyway and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was later signed, giving away much of Russia's population and land as well as over half her industry. Lenin however insisted they would get it back when the Germans were defeated. Before the Bolsheviks came into power they had promised the people land as well as peace. They could do this by taking land off landowners and sharing it out equally amongst the people. A consequence of this however would be that the landowners would turn against the Bolsheviks. However, it would also get support from the peasants, and so was not such a serious threat as not giving the peasants land.
The Provisional Government when in power had been strongly criticized by Lenin for not allowing elections to take place. So, when the Bolsheviks seized power this was another problem that they faced. They did not really have a choice in the matter as they had promised the people that they would hold elections. Not holding elections would have caused the people to turn to other groups and rebellions to break out, so Lenin was backed into a corner, he had to hold elections. However, there was a strong possibility that the Bolsheviks would not gain a majority vote and therefore lose power, and Lenin knew this, but held elections anyway.
As Lenin guessed, the election results showed that the Bolsheviks had lost and the Social Revolutionaries had won the vote and so a Constituent Assembly was set up. Lenin dealt with this threat by condemning the assembly as an instrument of the Bourgeoisie and dissolving it, and replacing it with the All Russian Congress of Soviets, which was influenced by the Bolsheviks.
Widespread opposition from many different groups was another problem the Bolsheviks had to face, as the Bolsheviks regime was unpopular amongst them, and strongly opposed. The Bolsheviks could have tried to compromise with the groups and joined together in a coalition but this would've been almost impossible as the views of each party were very different. Dissolving the Constituent Assembly was the first blow to the opposition, as it deprived them of a valuable platform. They also restricted other party's newspapers and removed the vote from the middle non-Bolshevik classes, and used terror and violence to control the opposition. Finally, by 1921, they had banned all opposing parties, which was rather dictatorial, but all the same helped the Bolsheviks. Civil war was also a great problem that the Bolsheviks faced, as opposition was surely going to create this sooner or later. Withdrawal from the war helped this however because they could then use the money and goods from that to prepare for civil war. Also war communism that was later set up helped the Bolsheviks. Lack of support outside Moscow and Petrograd was the next problem they faced. They needed to spread Communism around Russia before they had a chance to begin spreading it to other countries, and to do this they faced even more problems. Propaganda would cause the party to have to spread out which would have weakened them somewhat, and also they had millions of illiterate people and national minorities to win over. They could have also delegated Bolshevik leaders to each region, but the people may have felt there was too much control over them.
The last problem that the Bolsheviks had to deal with was their commitment to Marxism. Russia in 1917 were simply unfit for a Socialist revolution. In 1917 Russia had barely got rid of the Tsar, an absolute autocrat, and this is still in the Feudalism stage. Russia needed to be in the Capitalist stage before having a Social revolution, which required great wealth and material goods, which Russia certainly didn't have in1917. In Feudalism the society is made up of mostly peasants and this is also true of Russia. The country only fitted in with a few points of Capitalism such as having industry, and was more in the Feudalism stage, so wasn't ready for a Social revolution. Therefore they were not really near the Communism stage and so needed to put more effort into creating a Marxist state, to do this they could have got rid of the social classes, creating resentment amongst the aristocracy, or persuade people about Marxism and educated everyone. The Bolsheviks dealt with these problems as they came to them, and along with a strong leader and commited party, the Bolsheviks managed to deal with them, where other groups would have failed.
The War which threatened the leadership of the Bolsheviks, elections which Lenin had no choice but to allow to go ahead because he had previously promised them to the people, opposition which threatened the very existence of the Bolshevik Government, lack of support which did not help the Bolsheviks maintain power, promise of "peace, land and bread" which would cause problems which ever way it was dealt with, and the commitment to Marxism all presented problems for the Bolshevik party. I personally would say that the War was the most important, followed closely by the opposition to the party. The decision that Lenin made about the war would make or break Bolshevism in Russia, so it was a very important problem. Making a separate peace with Germany would result in appearing to be weak to other countries, and also the allies would become hostile. Not ending the war and continuing, as the Tsarists and Provisional Government supporters wanted, would cause even more serious damage to Russia, so this wasn't really an option open to Lenin. Going with Trotsky's policy of "neither peace nor war" could result in more serious consequences for Russia, so in the eyes of Lenin, the only thing to do was to sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, and this is what he did after persuading the other Bolshevik leaders. The skilful planning and organisation of the Bolsheviks, aiming propaganda at the peasants, and having strong, decisive leaders were advantages that the Bolsheviks had when they overthrew the Provisional Government. Where other groups would have most likely failed when faced with so many difficult problems, the Bolsheviks pulled through because of these advantages, and remained strong and in power throughout Russia.
References
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Modern World by Tony Lancaster and Derek Peaple
