Lenin had also assured peasants that he would give them land. He did this by introducing the land decree. He would land of the rich and give them to the poor. This was a success with the peasants but not so much with the bourgeoisies. He had also ensured to the workers that they would have more control in the work place and he did by giving them the workers decree. This was well-liked measure as it gave workers the ability to choose their own wages and times to work. But later on when the civil war started, the workers decree was taken away because it was believed that the workers could not organise themselves. There was also another decree, which was the right of people of Russia decree but this did not work out that very well.
When Lenin came in power he needed to enforce order do this he created the Cheka. The Cheka was the secret police force though many people did not know this. The Cheka was established on the 20th December 1917. This was Lenin’s use of terror and it was very unpopular. This was one of the reasons why Civil war broke out in summer 1918. The strength of the Cheka grew continuously especially after the attempted assassination on Lenin. The Cheka launched the red terror in the summer of 1918 and arrested anyone suspicious plotting against the Bolsheviks. The cheka also carried out the execution of the Tsars family so there would be not attempt for Tsarism to come back. Any socialist revolutionaries or anarchists, kadets or any sort of opposition were arrested. Also other measures were taken. Newspapers of opposition groups were stopped and also Lenin dissolved the constituent assembly in 1918 because Lenin did want to share his power.
Lenin tried to stay on his power towards communism by following Karl Marx’s theory but he took a shortcut and missed out capitalism because he wanted to please everyone. His war communism policies were not working out after the civil war so he adopted the NEP (new economic policies). This was one of his popular measures. It was introduced because Russia was about to face major economic collapse and also Lenin felt compelled to make a radical turnaround and also to secure his position and revolution. In his NEP, he had grain requisitioning abolished, small businesses had been reopened and there was a ban on private trade and there was state control of heavy industry. This was a big development of the communist party and it seemed to gain support.
It seemed clear that Lenin’s main aim was to become a one party state. He had taken several processes to ensure this. He first dissolved the constituent assembly. He had banned many opposition parties and had their newspapers closed down.
It would seem that without Lenin, the Bolsheviks would not have succeeded and would not have gained power. With Lenin’s role in the consolidation of power, it gave them a centralised aim. The white army did not have this.
The steps taken by the Bolsheviks seemed very necessary in order to gain power. Like the dissolution of the constituent party and banning of the opposition parties. By issuing the workers decree and land decree he gained support from the people of Russia. Without the Cheka, he could not establish order. It seemed like by the end of 1921, Lenin was an untouchable and seemed more God like.
