Unsurprisingly, opposition to the Bolshevik ruling developed and this progressed into the Civil war. Although the civil war wasn’t strictly a method the Bolsheviks used, triumph in the civil war helped to consolidate the Bolsheviks power and the fact that the Bolsheviks got involved in a civil war showed the instability of the country and wasn’t a strong point in their defence, once again showing a degree of success but also failure for the Bolsheviks.
During the Civil war, Russia’s economy was suffering horrendously. The current economic policy was State Capitalism, a policy introduced by the Bolsheviks, which consisted of giving the workers and peasants what they wanted and giving the management of factories to shop stewards and trade unionists. However, this was another unsuccessful method the Bolsheviks used to consolidate their position as it caused industrial output to slump creating shortages of food and fuel so things got more expensive and the Rouble gradually decreased in value until it became worthless. To make matters worse people in the big cities such as Petrograd and Moscow were starving and were left with no option but to flee to villages where there was more food. The method used by Lenin to combat this and at the same time move towards a more socialist state was the introduction of War Communism. War Communism basically comprised of; Nationalising industries and workers, introducing internal passports and requisitioning grain from peasants. However War Communism proved extremely unpopular to the majority of the population especially peasants who were starving and as a result, revolting. Lenin’s response to the revolting peasants was to abandon grain requisitioning. This was the first step in the introduction of the New Economic Policy. Consequently the Bolsheviks hadn’t achieved what they had aimed for with the introduction of War Communism and therefore this was an unsuccessful method used by the Bolsheviks to consolidate the economy and therefore there power.
The aims of the New Economic Policy were to ensure political survival. Lenin had evidently decided that a serious and many-sided retreat from Communist objectives (although a conditional and temporary one) was essential if the regime was not to be endangered by revolt from within by the very elements who had adhered to the Red side during the Civil War. One of their methods for doing this was to replace grain requisitioning with a ‘tax in kind’. This way the Bolsheviks could still obtain food from the peasants whilst also giving them a chance to trade what they had left over from the tax in kind. This aided the re-circulation of money and avoided a revolt. The peasants were no longer so discontented as they had been given an incentive to live. At the same time the country was heading towards a more stable economic state as trading blossomed. This would make the NEP appear as a successful method by the Bolsheviks but it also had negative results. The industries which remained under state control after 1921-1922 were expected to trade at a profit, and if they got into difficulties they were not baled out by the government. One of the consequences of this new regime was an increase in unemployment, which was caused by industries shedding surplus workers in order to increase efficiency. This increased hostility between the Peasantry and the Proletariat as it seemed as though the peasants were getting fairer treatment from the government.
The reason the Bolsheviks could implement an idea such as the N.E.P so quickly was partly due to centralisation. The process of centralisation and bureaucratisation began during the civil war because of the desperate situation they had found themselves in at the time. Power was adopted by the Politburo and dominated over that of the previously most powerful group the Sovnarkom. The Politburo consisted of around seven people at the top of the communist party. The Politburo were able appoint trusted people in key positions in soviets all around Russia to get tighter control on Soviets that defied Bolshevik ruling and were controlled by other people like mafia for example. This helped the Bolsheviks maintain power as it increased their presence in soviets all around Russia and gave them the capability to make quick decisive decisions.
In my opinion the most effective way that the Bolsheviks consolidated their position was by using terror (Cheka) to become the only party in Russia and prevent any formal opposition forming. Lenin also consolidated his position and the position of others in the Bolshevik party by banning the formation of factions within the party thus preventing any uprising against Lenin within the party itself. By doing this they were sure to maintain power even if they didn’t have much support in Russia. However, the use of force and terror was obviously unpopular among those who were at the receiving end and only encouraged them to oppose the Bolsheviks instead of support them. In other circumstances the actions of the Red Terror would have been seen as illegal, and, although they were illegal, it was justified as an act of war for the survival of the socialist revolution and so no action was taken against them by other countries as they recognised them as the government of Russia and therefore legitimate.
In conclusion I think that the Bolsheviks were successful in consolidating their position by 1924 as they had achieved their main goal, remaining in power. However they had steered away from Marxist ideology to do this and therefore alienated a lot of their supporters and members. They also created a lot of extra problems for themselves to get to this position and were only mildly successful in securing their position as they had eliminated almost all possibilities of opposition. Nevertheless one of the possibilities left was the fickle Peasantry sparking another civil war with a massive revolt; however, seeing as the Bolsheviks had established a more stable economy with the introduction of the N.E.P, giving the peasants a bigger incentive to live, this was unlikely. Overall I think that the Bolsheviks had consolidated their position successfully for moment.
