Also the Kornilov revolt showed Lenin’s planning and cunning. In the April Thesis Lenin stated that he wished for the end of the Provisional government. However the red army helped the provisional government fight against general Kornilov when he staged a revolt. Why would Lenin allow his army to help a group he was trying to overthrow? This was because Lenin knew that if Kornilov’ was successful in his revolt he would be harder opposition to overthrow, as he would have army power on his side and armies are organised and strategic. This again shows Lenin’s cunning and also his willingness to take a risk. The outcome could of led to the PG becoming stronger and therefore being harder to overthrow but Lenin took the gamble. This shows how much he craved revolution.
Another way in which Lenin influenced the revolution was through cunning planning. Lenin timed the revolution to when the provisional government was at its weakest and so therefore the Bolsheviks would have significantly more man and firepower so would be able to overthrow with ease. He also timed the revolution to be before the elections, as he knew the people of Russia would vote in this so would be happy with the leader as they would have voted for them so there would be less call for revolution.
Lenin calculated the Revolution and so therefore he played one of the most important roles in it.
After the revolution Lenin found that consolidation of power in Russia was not easy. They had insufficient military power to be able to dominate the whole of Russia. The Germans also occupied most of Western Russia, which halted their attempts to rule Russia properly. There was also still a very weak economy in Russia. There too were many groups vying to take power. One group of people were tsarist supporters who wanted a return to the old tsarist regime. This led to a civil war. The Bolshevik party won the civil war, which was in no small part due to Lenin. While fighting the civil war Russia were still involved in World War One. This meant that they were fighting an internal and external war at the same time. Russia was socially and economically drained at the time so could not fight both wars at the same time. One way in which Lenin influenced the war in favour of the Bolsheviks was by signing the Treaty of Brestlitvosk. The treaty was between Russia and Germany. It handed over significant amounts of Russian land to Germany. This included the Ukraine. However it also meant that Russia would not have to fight two wars at the same time and could focus on the internal civil war. This led to the Russia army being more prepared and equipped to win the civil war. This was another risk Lenin took in agreeing for Germany to take Russian land however Lenin believed that Russia would get the land back and was pragmatic in seeing that it was the only sensible option to take.
Another way in which Lenin influenced the Civil war was by employing Trotsky as Commissar for War. In this position Trotsky went on to win the war for the Bolsheviks with his skilled organisation and his shrewd planning.
Certain policies Lenin introduced during the war had an effect on the Bolshevik’s war effort. One of these was War Communism. This was an attempt to replace the free market with state control over all means of production and distribution. Lenin needed the peasants to feed the soldiers and workers in the cities. He used Grain requisitioning as a way of doing so. If a peasant refused to hand over grain they were either forced to using violence or referred to as a traitor. One way they did this was through the CHECKA. This was an organisation to prevent counter sabotage and revolution. This meant that the Bolsheviks could accuse anyone who spoke out against them as being a traitor and attempting a counter- revolution. This could be said to be a bad decision by Lenin as it lead to peasants refusing to give grain and caused upset among one of the Bolsheviks main support groups. This led to starvation and riots in the cities.
After the failure of war communism Lenin had to rethink his economic policy and replaced war communism with the NEP. This was the New Economic Policy. It was designed as a short-term solution to Russia’s economic problems. However it went against the Bolsheviks policy’s as it contained many capitalist policies. It included 94% of industrial enterprises returning to private ownership. Also, the peasantry were permitted to dispose of any surplus they had from farming. This was seen as a step back for the Bolsheviks and Lenin it went against their communist values.
Lenin left an important legacy after his death. One of the things in his legacy was the ban on factions. This meant no groups were allowed to form as way of preventing counter-revolution. His testament was also significant in criticizing Stalin’s character however not leaving a clear successor. These two factors importantly helped Stalin to gain power in Russia as he used the band on factions to accuse rivals of being traitors and he used the no clear leader as a way of manipulating himself into power by saying he had changed from the man Lenin knew him to be.
In conclusion Lenin made a major contribution to events in Russia between 1917 and 1924. Lenin’s shrewd planning and commitment were the main reason for the Bolshevik victory. Also, his planning was behind the civil war victory. Finally his legacy left question marks in the Bolshevik party, which Stalin exploited. Altogether it could be argued that Lenin was the main contributor to events in Russia during this period as his actions had such a big impact on Russia.
