Corin claims that by the summer of 1917 Lenin’s Bolshevik party’s popularity had soared partly due to the continual lack of expectation with the policies of the provisional government. In the period called the “July days,” frustration was rampant on the faces of soldiers, peasants, and workers alike. (Corin) With an agricultural system largely based around peasants and a population continually suffering through a cold, bitter northern climate, the very little young industry that existed struggled to stay on its feet. Wikipedia insists that at this point, that Russia was in the middle of developing modern infrastructure and transport systems. Expansions to the railway system failed miserably. This consequently affected the transportation of supplies along vast distances during the war. A discontented army already in anguish over the humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese war now also had to face more problems with logistics and being led by incompetent generals and officers. Russia’s outdated economy created an uneasy environment- a combination of poverty, inequality, and poor working conditions. (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia’s article on the Russian Revolution puts forth some social causes leading towards the October Revolution including lower class oppression. Peasants were resentful towards the payments they were made to pay to the state and the inequitable laws that bound the ownership of land. When a conscription policy was put in place and young men went to war leaving a demand for workers in factories, famine then struck causing many to abandon the city in search of food. Among such depression, rapid industrialization seemed to only add to the mounting pressure creating overcrowding, poor conditions in urban areas. (Wikipedia)
Imperialistic conflicts were not the only areas in discussion anymore as temperatures started to rise and blood began to boil within Russian boundaries. The tsar was reluctant in listening to the people’s demands and reacted with such violence resulting in a wide disapproval with the autocracy system.
Steven Kreis states that the decision to mount the coup was made by Lenin on October 10, a few days following an uproar at a pre-parliament meeting where Leon Trotsky, Lenin’s right hand man and the “famous leader of the bandits and hooligans,” accused the government and bourgeoisie of promoting the “bony hand of hunger” simply in order to prevent a revolution. Trotsky’s claims that the government planned to give up the capital as a part of a conspiracy elicit an outcry. The Bolsheviks all walked out of the meeting fueled with the lust for blood and extreme hatred needed to plan the perfect takeover against the autocratic regime, starting with tactics and deception- two things that Trotsky only knew all too well. (Kreis)
As Corin states, “Lenin is given a key role as the leader who directed the party and had the insight to make crucial decisions.” Lenin made one such decision when he called for the revolution to be carried out, even when others opposed him. In a letter written by Zinoviev and Kamenev that was published in Novaia zhizn on 18 October 1917, the two important Bolshevik leaders speculate on the current political situation. “If we take power now and are forced into a revolutionary war; the mass of soldiers will not support us.” Both leaders were echoing the fears of many of those in the party; for fear that there would be a lack of support available for their upheaval. Even Trotsky urged Lenin to wait until the Second Congress of All-Russian Soviets on 26 October as to put on the appearance that the “seizure of power was done with the support of the soviets rather than by the Bolsheviks.” (Corin, 55) History’s glimpse into the takeover presents is as a somewhat painless achievement though according to Corin, Lenin and Trotsky were besides themselves with worry in anticipating the public’s reaction and response from the provisional government’s troops. It is clear that Trotsky had a major role in the operation alongside his comrade, Lenin including setting up the Military revolutionary committee, organizing the details of the attack and persuading Lenin to wait until October. Corin puts for the theory that some speculated whether “he was more important than Lenin in the actual seizure of power.”
However, it was not all smooth sailing for Lenin who had to ride the swells of the opposition against the Bolshevik’s emerging dictatorship and one-party rule. Cronin claims that although the public supported soviet rule, they did not necessarily support Bolshevik rule. While the public expected democracy, Lenin was prepared to go to desperate measures to establish and affirm his power. A newly elected constituent assembly rose as a new threat as well as the issue of a settlement with Germany but first Lenin had to make it clear that he had no intention to share the power with the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries and other socialist groups in the Soviet. Lenin justified the rule in the State and Revolution where he said, “there would be a period called ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat’, during which the bourgeois state would be crushed and bourgeois attitudes and values squeezed out of society.” (Corin, 72) There were two strategies that Lenin and the Bolsheviks implemented in order for them to stay in power and one was to “go along with popular demands, the other was to build its forces of terror and wipe out the opposition.” (Corin, 73)
In the next few years, a vicious civil war ensued against the Bolsheviks and its enemies. It seemed that after dropping out of the First World War, severe adversity and discrepancy were rife once again. Famine and epidemics swept through Russia wiping out up to ten million people, according to Corin. (Corin, 79) In the end, the Bolsheviks won the war through its geographical advantages and the terrific organization of its forces by Leon Trotsky. It was now time for Lenin to take the reigns. In his quest to further consolidate the Bolshevik state, Lenin introduced the cruel strategy of War Communism, banning private trade, requisitioning a portion of the peasants’ grains, introduced labor discipline as well as rationing. The survival of the state came at a high cost as the war communism in time caused industry to decline and a major shortage of food due to restrictions among the supply lines. With the civil war well under wraps, many workers and peasants expected to see an improvement, but instead were meant with more and more hardship to endure. The Bolsheviks were really on the verge of disaster, so much so that open revolt and other factors finally forced Lenin to introduce the New Economic Policy (NEP) in1921. According to Corin, the NEP was “accompanied by political repression and a strengthening of the centralized one-party state.” (Corin, 103)
Perhaps more books have been written about the Russian Revolution than any other major event in the twentieth century and yet, who could blame? According to Lynch, Marxists today agree that the Revolution was a “momentous stage in the development of human society,” as the oppression between classes were “swept away.” They had expected the revolution to be the first of many revolutions to sweep across the world and destroy all capitalist governments while reinstating the workers rule. Fast-forward, and we today know that was not how the story ended. There was no international revolution. In fact if anything was proven, it was that communism is not meant to be in our co-existence. The terms “economical failure” and “political repression” now stain the concept of what once was deemed to be a “dawn in human history.” (Lynch)
As indispensable as Lenin’s actions were, when it comes to assessing his role in the revolution up to the time of the state’s consolidation which almost coincide with his death, it is plausible to conclude that, although Lenin played a key role in all aspects of the movement, the causes or upheavals that occurred and inspired revolution would have happened with or without him. The drive for land and freedom that triggered revolts in the peasant population are a prime example. Another example is the mutinies that took place in response to the war. However, it is also important to note that without the Bolsheviks it is highly unlikely that a collection of workers, soldiers and peasants would succeed alone in establishing rule. If we can accredit Lenin’s contribution to the party, we can also therefore recognize him for playing a major part in the revolution. Vladimir Lenin is a man to be both admired and feared for the audacious leap of faith that we now remember as an attempt to transform human society, to transform the world.
WORKS CITED LIST
- Corin, Chris. Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin. Advanced History Core Texts. Hodder. 2002.
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Kreis, Steven. The Aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. September 6th 2006. The History Guide. February 28th 2006.
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Kreis, Steven. The Russian Revolution: Red Ocober and the Bolshevik Coup. September 5th 2006. The History Guide. February 28th 2006.
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Lynch, Michael. The Roles of Lenin & Stalin in the Russian Revolution. September 4th 2006. Questia. 2000.
- Lynch, Michael. Reaction & Revolutions: Russia 1881-1924. Access To History. Hodder. 2000.
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Mosley, Philip. The Russian Revolution. September 5th 2006. May Zine. No Date.
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The Russian Revolution of 1917. September 2006.
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Vladimir Lenin. September 2006.
