What steps did the Communists take to maintain power during the years 1917 - 1922?

Authors Avatar

Michelle Chasey

What steps did the Communists take to maintain power during the years 1917 – 1922? (15 marks)

        Throughout the period of 1917 to 1922 the Bolsheviks faced many problems which they had to solve to maintain their power. These solutions came in many different shapes and forms, for example, the use of “red terror”, economic policies and the strengths of leadership.

        The first step that the Bolsheviks had to take to maintain power was to make sure that they were the only party who had control of Russia. After the Social Revolutionaries gained 40% of the vote on the 12th September 1917 the Bolsheviks decided that they did not want to share power. They refused to take part in a socialist coalition government and crushed the Constituent Assembly. Lenin had originally supported the Constituent assembly, but he calculated it would not be possible for his party to govern effectively alongside an assembly which was overwhelmingly non-Bolshevik. To maintain power, he was simple and ruthless in his response to the Constituent Assembly. In January 1918, after one days session the Constituent Assembly was dissolved at gun point by the Red Guards.

        The next step taken by the Bolsheviks were a number of policies which were introduced by Tortsky at Smolny. The first was “Separation of Chruch and State”, this policy was imposed because the church was the biggest group likely to oppose the Bolsheviks and it could have been seen as a potential alternative to Communism.  The church was already highly influential in Russian socitey so the Bolsheviks separated the church and state as a means of controlling society. The “Civillian marriage ceremony” was another policy introduced to express the separation of church and state. Local authorities became responsible for the collection and distribution of food, many people were starving and the Bolsheviks did not want to lose support like the Tsar had because of there being little food. Both domestic and foreign debts were cancelled, this was significant as it was seen as a political gesture and it caused a great deal of problems with those who had lent Russia money. Trotsky made sure that all banks were physically occupied which allowed Bolsheviks to control capital that could be used in the economy. Share dealings and dividends became prohibited as the Bolsheviks saw shareholders as capitalists and wanted a communist state. The Bolsheviks aimed to squeeze out all private capital and did this by taking away property that was privately owned because it favoured the wealthy.

Join now!

        Apart from political policies, like the ones stated in the paragraph above, the Bolsheviks, especially Lenin, introduced a number of Economic policies to help them to maintain their power. The first economic policy that was introduced was “War Communism”. There were two fundamental objectives to the economic policy, the first objective was to ensure that the government had control and could control the vital levers of the economy. The second objective was that they could “wipe out all exploitation of man by man and to eliminate the division of society into classes”.

Many things were introduced under war ...

This is a preview of the whole essay