Lenin was responsible for the deaths of millions during the Russian Civil War Do you agree with this statement?
“Lenin was responsible for the deaths of millions during the Russian Civil War”— Do you agree with this statement?
In March 1918, Russia was forced to sign the costly Treaty of Brest-Litovsk where it had to cede a large part of its territory containing some 45 million people; including the breadbasket of Russia, Ukraine. There was finally a long overdue reprieve from the many years of fighting but that peace was not to last as the people of Russia would soon be entrenched once again in a heated and violent civil conflict that would cause more than 2.5 million military casualties as well as millions of civilian deaths due to collateral damage and famine. At first glance, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin could have been the main perpetrators of the whole conflict that led to the countless deaths. However, in this essay, we will attempt to analyse whether Lenin had made the key decisions that had led to the bloody deaths and confrontations during the Civil War and also if he really had that much of a choice to dictate the course of events that happened during the Civil War considering the circumstances of the time if even at all.
Lenin, in all fairness did contribute in no small part to the sparking of the Civil War. He was an advocate of maintaining power through the use of force and this was seen in his actions when he dissolved the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 rather than find some middle ground with some other political party to form government. Firstly, he did not believe in the idea of elections, which he felt were tools used by the bourgeoisie to keep themselves in power. Secondly, he did not deal in compromise and believed he could only govern by totally crushing all opposition despite knowing that this would almost certainly lead to a Civil War of some kind since his party did not form the majority at that time and his party lacked the mandate of the people to rule. Since the onset of Bolshevik control, Lenin had already recognized that the only way the Bolsheviks were going to have a realistic chance to stay in power would require some form of physical or military action to defend their vulnerable position. Lenin once said in 1918, “And yet it would be extremely stupid and absurdly utopian to assume that the transition from capitalism to socialism is possible without coercion and without dictatorship.” Here was a man who was not blinded by his ideology but was rather prepared to do what was necessary to keep his party in power. Lenin’s formation of the Cheka was congruent with his belief that he would use force to protect the assailable position of his party. Formed in December 1917 under the leadership of Felix Dzerzhinsky, it was granted unlimited powers to arrest and detain people in order to make them subservient. Lenin was unfazed by the atrocities committed by the Cheka, supporting their actions as being necessary to save the country at the expense of shooting thousands of people. The Cheka was also responsible for the requisitioning of grain by force in 1918. They were to take the grain from the peasants by force and in 1920, 100 Kulaks were hanged in public to terrify the entire population. All these repressive steps led to widespread famine by 1921. Exacerbated by the war and drought, grain harvests fell to below half that of 1913 levels. With one in five of the population starving, the Bolsheviks were forced to accept aid from foreign nations such as the American Relief Association (ARA).
