What had the Bolsheviks achieved by 1924?

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What had the Bolsheviks achieved by 1924?

The October Revolutions of 1917 had saw the provisional government overthrown by the Bolshevik who with their Red Guards and aided by sailors of the Baltic Fleet moved through Petrograd and seized many important buildings and by 25 October 1917, the Bolsheviks led by the charismatic Lenin and Trotsky had by then seized the Winter Palace and arrested several key members of the Provisional Government, forcing Kerensky to leave the place. Since the October Revolution, Russia has seen the governance of the Bolsheviks for seven years from 1917-1924 when Lenin in the year 1924 passed away. Many historians have since debated furiously about how Russia has benefited under the Bolsheviks’ rule and thus, the pertaining issue regards about what the Bolsheviks under Lenin’s leadership have achieved by 1924.

One of the major achievements of the Bolsheviks was the success they had with withdrawing Russia from World War I (WWI). Lenin had realized that one of major source of opposition towards the Provisional Government and the downfall of it had arisen from the failure of them to withdraw Russia from the costly WWI and in order not to make the same mistake; Lenin had decided to withdraw Russia from the war at any cost. Indeed, the cost was heavy which can be seen from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which Russia lost control over the Baltic states comprising of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and other parts of Caucasus. By ceding over these lands to Germany, this had meant that Russia had lost about one-third of farmlands and being predominantly an agrarian economy, this was a heavy blow to Russia’s economy which drew heavy opposition from the Leftist Social Revolutionaries. However, Lenin was not going to compromise not even to opposition by Trotsky nor Bukharin and went further to secure the treaty by threatening to resign if the Bolshevik Central Committee did not agree to it. In this respect, it shoed that Lenin was a realist who was prepared to make compromises for the survival of Russia and his actions entailed the support of the people who were glad that they were finally relieved of a heavy burden from the war which Russia was incapable of winning in the first place.

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Another achievement of the Bolsheviks was the liberalization of Russia in matters of sex and morality. The Bolsheviks came into power with a radical program for the transformation of women and the family. Their reforming zeal was evidenced in the comprehensive “Code on Marriage, the Family, and Guardianship” which was ratified in October 1918. This equalized women’s legal status with men’s, allowed both spouses to retain the right to their own property and earnings, granted children born outside wedlock the same rights as those born within, and made divorce available upon request. Previously, women were treated as “inferior” compared to ...

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