How did the Communist Party maintain power between 1917 and 1921?

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How did the Communist Party maintain power between 1917 and 1921?

The strategies employed by the Communist Party were of fundamental importance in the consolidation of Bolshevik power between 1917- 1921. This was achieved through the Leadership of Leon Trotsky and the Red Army, a combination of pragmatic reforms and ruthless terrorism used as a weapon of government policy. The implication of war communism, the New Economic Policy and ultimately the leadership and ideologies of Vladimir Lenin, thus enabled the overthrow of the Provisional government, while forming the Soviet Union into a highly centralised one-party state.

Leon Trotsky's political career was marked by many successes that in turn proved to play a significant role towards the consolidation of Bolshevik power. Recognised as a revolutionist and a Russian Marxist theorist, it was essentially Trotsky's organisational skills, ideological beliefs and the ability to be flexible in his position of Commissar of War in relation to the Red Army. The Red Army was officially established on January 28, 1918 out of the old Imperial Russian military forces. Its purpose at the outset was to defend the Soviet Union's frontiers and protect the Revolution from its enemies. Recruitment was originally meant