How Successful Was Lenin In Imposing Bolshevik Control On Russia In the Years 1918-24?
How successful was Lenin in imposing Bolshevik control on Russia in the years 1918-24
Communists came to power in November 1917 after a relatively peaceful revolution. Whilst the transition from the provisional government was easy, the communists had a number of problems they had to face. These included how to fulfil Lenin's promises to the Russian people and how to gain full control over Russia.
Lenin achieved his aim of peace by pulling out of World War I this included signing the harsh treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Unfortunately for the Russia, people the peace was short lived due to the start of the civil war a few months later in the summer of 1918. The communists found themselves surrounded, under attack and only having control of a small area of Russia. This didn't seem to matter as by 1921 they had won the civil war due to the fact that they had one aim which was to stay in control of Russia, they had a good leader in Trotsky and they managed to get all the former Tsarist army officers to be incharged of their army and they were in a central area where they had all their people together and had control of the main industrial districts so they could build all the equipment they needed.
In the April Theses he promised the proletariat bread, the people in the cities were starving due to the fact that the Provisional Government had not dealt with the issue of land so there was no-one growing things to sent to the cities for the people to eat. Lenin found this promise hard to fulfil because Russia had lost some of the good farming land to the Germans and the peasants wanted to keep the food for themselves, the combat this problem Lenin introduced the Cheka who went out and took grain from all the people who weren't willing to give it up. During the civil war things got so bad that Lenin had to introduce a policy called war communism which was when Lenin stepped up the Red terror (Cheka), took control of the factories and told them what to produce, the factories were taken out of the power of the workers commitees, prevented the Tsarists from leaving the cities, making sure that only the people who were working got the food, sending out the Cheka to take surplus grain and killing anyone who was hoarding crops. War communism failed because it was too strict and it put the economy of Russia in ruins, Robbery and Burglary became common, orphans wondering the streets were not a rarity, the black market was at full force, the peasants stopped producing as much grain so it wouldn't be taken away and there was a drought, to help put Russia back on its feet there was a massive international campaign led by USA. When Lenin realised that war communism wasn't working he decided to change to the New Economic policy (NEP) this brought an end to grain requisitioning but the peasants would give a certain amount of grain to the government as tax and they could sell the surplus on the open market. Also traders could buy and sell goods which had been illegal during war communism. The smaller factories were allowed to sell their goods for a profit, some larger industry remained in state control but some were allowed to sell their products to make a profit. The electrification of Russia, Lenin believed that this would bring forward industry. Whilst the NEP was around some of the production levels had risen to pre 1914 levels.
Communists came to power in November 1917 after a relatively peaceful revolution. Whilst the transition from the provisional government was easy, the communists had a number of problems they had to face. These included how to fulfil Lenin's promises to the Russian people and how to gain full control over Russia.
Lenin achieved his aim of peace by pulling out of World War I this included signing the harsh treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Unfortunately for the Russia, people the peace was short lived due to the start of the civil war a few months later in the summer of 1918. The communists found themselves surrounded, under attack and only having control of a small area of Russia. This didn't seem to matter as by 1921 they had won the civil war due to the fact that they had one aim which was to stay in control of Russia, they had a good leader in Trotsky and they managed to get all the former Tsarist army officers to be incharged of their army and they were in a central area where they had all their people together and had control of the main industrial districts so they could build all the equipment they needed.
In the April Theses he promised the proletariat bread, the people in the cities were starving due to the fact that the Provisional Government had not dealt with the issue of land so there was no-one growing things to sent to the cities for the people to eat. Lenin found this promise hard to fulfil because Russia had lost some of the good farming land to the Germans and the peasants wanted to keep the food for themselves, the combat this problem Lenin introduced the Cheka who went out and took grain from all the people who weren't willing to give it up. During the civil war things got so bad that Lenin had to introduce a policy called war communism which was when Lenin stepped up the Red terror (Cheka), took control of the factories and told them what to produce, the factories were taken out of the power of the workers commitees, prevented the Tsarists from leaving the cities, making sure that only the people who were working got the food, sending out the Cheka to take surplus grain and killing anyone who was hoarding crops. War communism failed because it was too strict and it put the economy of Russia in ruins, Robbery and Burglary became common, orphans wondering the streets were not a rarity, the black market was at full force, the peasants stopped producing as much grain so it wouldn't be taken away and there was a drought, to help put Russia back on its feet there was a massive international campaign led by USA. When Lenin realised that war communism wasn't working he decided to change to the New Economic policy (NEP) this brought an end to grain requisitioning but the peasants would give a certain amount of grain to the government as tax and they could sell the surplus on the open market. Also traders could buy and sell goods which had been illegal during war communism. The smaller factories were allowed to sell their goods for a profit, some larger industry remained in state control but some were allowed to sell their products to make a profit. The electrification of Russia, Lenin believed that this would bring forward industry. Whilst the NEP was around some of the production levels had risen to pre 1914 levels.
