During his lifetime, Lenin made many important decisions and policies which affected every citizen of Russia, although they did not always have a positive impact on them, they did eventually serve as a benefit to their country.

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Part A: Question 2

During his lifetime, Lenin made many important decisions and policies which affected every citizen of Russia, although they did not always have a positive impact on them, they did eventually serve as a benefit to their country. Some of the impacts were short-term whereas some were quite long-term ones and I am now going to analyse the impact of every one of Lenin’s policies and decisions on the different classes of the Russian population. I will begin my essay with an introduction to Lenin’s career and outline the major decisions that he made.

Vladimir Ulyanov better known as Lenin, was born in Simbirsk in 1870. He had been deeply affected by the execution of his brother who had been involved in an assassination attempt on Alexander II. This incident sparked Lenin’s deep resentment of the Tsar’s tyrannical rule and he became involved in a number of revolutionary activities and demonstrations to overthrow the present Government. Lenin’s struggle against the Government was also based upon the idea of Karl Marx theory of communism and the overthrowing of the noble class by the workers to create a socialist society. In 1900 Lenin joined the Social Democratic Party and later became a leading member of the Bolsheviks, when it was divided into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. Lenin worked in the Bolsheviks for many years anxiously looking for opportunities to overthrow the Tsar’s rule and create and was often arrested and sent into exile for his activities by the Tsar’s secret police. After a series of revolutions Lenin finally got his chance in 1917. Lenin from his place of exile urged the Bolshevik leaders to seize power at once and but they refused to do so. Lenin then returned to Petrograd in disguise and spent the night of 23rd October arguing and persuading the Bolsheviks leaders to seize power and they eventually gave in to his demands and the Bolsheviks managed to seize power of Russia on November 7th 1917. Lenin then introduced communism to Russia and as the new ruler steered he steered his country towards prosperity and success until his death in 1924.

At the time of the March Revolution the leader of the Bolsheviks, Lenin, was in exile in Switzerland. He wanted to start another revolution in Russia to create a new form of Government. When Lenin reached Petrograd on 16th of April 1917, he made a speech to the Bolsheviks demanding several things. An end to the war with Germany, distribution of all land to peasants, nationalization of banks, a change in the Bolshevik’s name to Communists, no support for the Provisional Government and all power to the Soviets.

In 1918 Lenin sent Trotsky to meet the Germans to negotiate a peace treaty, as Lenin  had promised an end to the war with Germany and it was important that he carry out his promises otherwise him support would disappear. The result was the harsh treaty of Brest-Litvosk in March 1918 and it was one of the harshest treaties ever made as Russia had to give away all her Western lands which included sixty-two million people, farm land, railways and iron ore and coal. A fine of 300 million gold roubles also had to be paid to Germany.

After peace with Germany had been established Russia came into conflict with another war but this time it was a civil war. The Bolsheviks controlled a small part of Russia and their enemies were determined that they should not remain in power for long. This was the beginning of a vicious civil war which was to tear Russia apart. They were three main sides; The Reds – Bolsheviks or communists, The Whites – opponents of the Bolsheviks, tsarists, nobles middle-class constitutional democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries and The Greens – independent groups of nationalists, peasants or bandits who roamed Russia at this time. During the Civil war the Bolsheviks took strict measures to organize industry and food supplies in the areas under their control. They had two aims: to keep the Red Army supplied with food and weapons, and to introduce a new form of communism, these were known as War Communism.

There were five aspects of War Communism:

  1. All factories with more than ten workers to be nationalized and would be told exactly what to produce.
  2. All workers under Government control. Strict discipline and punishment measures were introduced in factories. Unemployed to join ‘Labour armies’
  3. Private trading was banned, peasants sold their surplus food to government, couldn’t sell to make a profit.
  4. Use of money was abolished, people were to barter instead.
  5. Food was strictly rationed.

In March 1921 after a military revolt in the navy, Lenin realised that a change of policy was needed and War Communism was abandoned to introduce the  New Economic Policy was introduced or NEP.  The NEP said that:

  1. Peasants could sell their surplus food for profit again.
  2. Peasants who increased their food production would pay less tax.
  3. Factories with fewer than twenty workers would be given back to their owners.
  4. People could use money once again

The NEP was a very controversial change in Lenin’s policy and it brought the disapproval of many Bolshevik leaders who labeled it as a step back to capitalism, but Lenin said that by taking one step backwards they would later be able to take two steps forward towards communism. By 1925 the NEP began to work. As these figures show, food production went back up to the level it had been before the Great War while industrial output increased dramatically.

Although the April Theses consisted of four main points, its effect on the population was widespread and it was a positive impact for almost everyone. Every point in the theses was exactly what everyone wanted to hear and it helped to build support for the Bolsheviks.

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        The peasants were delighted that they would be given the opportunity to own their land. Until 1861 most of the majority of peasants had been serfs, owned by their masters. In 1861 they had been freed and were allocated a share of land which they could buy with money loaned by the Government. But they had to pay off the loans over many years. Moreover, the amount of land they got was often barely enough to survive or let alone pay off loans. The situation was getting worse by 1900 because their population was growing fast and there was ...

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