How Did Lenin Impose control On Russia.

How Did Lenin Impose control On Russia

Lenin was the ruler of the Bolshevik party. In 1917 he began the Civil War against the opposing force that was called The Whites. A few days after he had seized power in Petrograd, Kerensky sent troops to try and bring down Lenin and then bring back the provisional government. Unfortunately for Kerensky they were easily held back. They were stopped in the suburbs by a force of pro-Bolshevik workers, soldiers and sailors. Whilst this was going on, Lenin set up his new government called the Sovnakom. This stands for ‘The Council Of People’s Commissars’. Lenin was the chairman whilst Trotsky was commissar for war and Stalin was commissar for nationalities. Alexandra Kollontai was the only woman in the Sovnakom. When the Government was established he went on to try and keep his promises. To end the war, give land to the presents and get food to the cities. If he did not do this then his support would completely be lost. After doing this he set up the Cheka. These were the Bolsheviks secret police. The leader of this ruthless group was called Felix Dzerzhinski. The group was set up in Lubyanka, which was in Moscow.

By the time it had come to November Lenin had been forced to hold the elections promised by the provisional government. To Lenin’s horror the railway workers threatened to stop working and shut down the railways if Lenin did not go ahead with the first free elections. The elections were to choose a constituent assembly, which would work out a plan for Russia in the future. Due to the fact that the party with the most votes would win the election it posed a great threat to the future of the Bolshevik party.

The results of the elections are shown below.

After the Constituent assembly met in 1918, Lenin decided to send soldiers to shut the operation down for good. After he had done this Lenin decided to change the name of the Bolshevik party, They were now called the Communists.

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The results of the elections are shown below.

After he had fully regained power he sent Trotsky to have peace talks with the Germans. After he had talked to the Germans he walked out because the Germans had demanded so much territory from Russia. When he had got back to Russia and told Lenin what had happened Lenin sent him back as he was sure that the Bolsheviks would stay in power as long as they could end the war for Russia. The outcome of this treaty, which was, called the Brest-Litovsk treaty, was a huge amount of land being lost from Russia.

When it came to the summer of 1918 the communists found themselves under attack. This was the beginning of the vicious civil war. Lenin only controlled a small part of Russia and unfortunately his enemies were determined that he should not stay in power for long.

There were three main sides:

THE REDS: These were the Bolsheviks or communists. The reason that they were called the reds is that red was the colour of communism.

THE WHITES: This group consisted of all the people against the Communists, these were – Tsarists and Nobles, middle class constitutional democrats, Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries. They got their name from the fact that the Tsarist officers always wore white uniforms. This meant that they were always associated with the Tsar and the old system of Government.

THE GREENS: These were independent groups of nationalists who went around and raided villages and towns. They fought anyone who stood in their way.

The real fight though was between the Reds and the Whites. The greens were only fighting for themselves. They were not fighting for control over Russia like the Reds and the Whites were.

One of the main disadvantages that Reds faced was the fact that the Whites had the support of all the foreign powers. These were Britain, France, Japan and the USA. They all sent forces to help them beat the Reds. The foreign countries were too scared to see Communism spread into Europe. Although they supplied the Whites with expensive weapons none of the foreign men actually fought in the war. They were all tired of war and some of the soldiers were sympathetic to the Bolshevik cause. Overall the foreign armies were half-hearted and the attack did not cause damage to the Bolshevik cause.