In 1914, Lenin opposed the First World War. The Bolsheviks believed that the war only benefited the rich capitalists (factory owners) as weapons had to be made and this meant that the capitalists would get a lot of profit. If the war was won by Russia, the nobles would get a lot of land so this was unpopular with the peasants and they wanted land too. As they made up 80% of the population, they made the Bolsheviks popular. Lenin also believed that workers shouldn’t kill workers. Eventually people started to turn against the war.
In March 1917, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland so the revolution caught him by surprise. He made it back to Russia on a sealed train through Germany. When Lenin returned to Russia he sorted out the Bolsheviks.
Lenin wrote the April theses, which portrayed his ideas to the community. In the April Theses, Lenin stated that the Bolsheviks should not cooperate with the provisional government. This was clever as the provisional government were unpopular and Lenin did not want to be associated with them. This meant that the Bolsheviks would look like the better option and therefore, people would vote for the Bolsheviks over the provisional government. Another one of Lenin’s ideas in the April theses was that the war should be ended straight away. Most people hated the war because they were losing, solders were dying (this effected anyone who had lost or known someone in war which was a lot of people) and fuel and food were scarce. Because of this, a lot of people would also vote for the Bolsheviks. Another idea was that land was to be given to the peasants. Great deals of the population (80%) were peasants and as land is what they really wanted, most of them would vote for the Bolsheviks in order to get land. The last item in the April Theses was that all power should be given to the soviets. However, the Bolsheviks didn’t really want to share power, they were just telling the people what they wanted to hear. It made the Bolsheviks look good and as if they cared al lot about the workers and soldiers, therefore most of the soldiers and workers would vote for Lenin too. It also made the Bolsheviks look democratic.
However, you could argue that Lenin did not help in the development of the Bolshevik party because he was in exile white a lot in other countries. This meant that he wasn’t supporting the Bolsheviks.
Lenin was good at propaganda. He made up important slogans such as, ‘peace, bread, land’ and ‘all power to the soviets.’ These slogans pleased the people of Russia because this is what they wanted to hear. He was a good speaker and could persuade people to even change their beliefs on politics.
In conclusion, Lenin used all means possible to make the Bolsheviks the best that he could so that they would be able to take over Russia.
