The first thing Lenin did after the Bolsheviks had seized power from the Provisional Government during the November Revolution was to make some Decrees to try and establish more control in Russia. Some of these decrees were popular with the peasants, workers and soldiers, some made Russia more democratic but others restricted the freedom of the Russian people. The positive decrees made by Lenin included abolishing all ranks and classes, declaring the land the property of the people and starting negotiations for peace, but the negative decrees included the censorship of anti-government press and Lenin’s use of the Cheka to arrest or murder anyone who was considered an enemy of the Bolsheviks. These decrees made by Lenin show us that he used both force and compromise to try and establish control in Russia, decrees like the government starting negotiations for peace and the land being made the property of the people are examples of Lenin using compromise and Lenin using the Cheka to arrest or murder anyone considered enemy of the Bolsheviks is an example of force being used by Lenin.
In January 1918 elections were held and even though Lenin expected to win because he and the Bolsheviks (now called the Communist Party) had seized power off the Provisional Government who were making many mistakes while in power, the Communist Party actually lost the elections to the Social Revolutionaries who won 267 seats out of 707 whereas the Communist Party only won 161 seats. These results indicated that there was a lack of support for the Communist Party, and that many people in Russia were still very suspicious of them. However, Lenin decided that the people didn’t know what was best for them and he closed the Parliament in order to keep power, he also sent Trotsky’s Red Guards to the newly elected Social Revolutionary representatives, the next day. Lenin’s actions show us that he truly believed that his views were the best way to go for Russia, and he was willing to do anything to stay in power. This method was effective in keeping Lenin and the Communist Party in power but it is also an example of force used by Lenin, Lenin didn’t get the power he wanted, so he took it by force.
The continuation of the war and the economic crisis were two of the things which were preventing Lenin making progress in 1918, so Lenin was determined to make peace with Germany because he couldn’t provide food for the Russians or solve the economic crisis until the war was stopped. Therefore, a peace treaty was signed between Russia and Germany in Brest Litovsk. The Treaty of Brest Litovsk took away 25% of Russia’s population, 25% of the railway system, 37% of the grain production and 70% of the industry which caused some Russians to see the treaty as shameful. The Treaty of Brest Litovsk is another example of Lenin using compromise, but another example of him using force to establish control is the “Red Terror”. This was when the Cheka and Trotsky’s Red Army began a campaign of violence and terror in the hope of crushing any opposition the Communist Party might have. The Cheka would go into factories and villages all over Russia and pretend to be against Lenin and the Communists. In this way they would find out the leaders of possible opposition, these possible trouble-makers were then tortured until they gave names of accomplices and then shot. It is estimated that during the summer of the “Red Terror” in 1918, 50,000 people were executed.
By the summer of 1918 the Communists found themselves under attack and the Civil War began. The Communists only controlled a small part of Russia and their enemies, the Tsarists, nobles, middle class constitutional democrats, Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, were determined that they wouldn’t stay in power long. The Civil War broke out for many reasons, some of these include the Communists not having control of all of Russia, Lenin taking power by force when the Social Revolutionaries won the January elections, the “Red Terror”, the Treaty of Brest Litovsk being unpopular with many Russians and also the fact some Russians wanted the return of the Tsar. During the this time Lenin used War Communism to get Russia through the Civil War, a positive point for using this method was that it could be argued it got Russia through the Civil War but it had many negative points as well. War Communism was brutal and caused a famine, where 5 million died, because Lenin ordered the Cheka to seize grain from the peasants to give to the soldiers and the workers in the towns so some peasants stopped growing enough grain, also during War Communism strikes were made illegal, peasants were murdered and families and workers were sent away to work. The Civil War ended though with the Communists winning as they were united and had one aim unlike their enemies, they controlled the main industrial areas and railways, the Communists used Propaganda and they also had Trotsky who built up the Red Army, brought in experienced officers and was a good organiser. Before the Civil War Lenin didn’t have control of all Russia, the Civil War shows us that he was willing to use force on his own people to establish control, which was effective this time as he gained him control of the whole of Russia.
After the Civil War, War Communism had left Russia in a mess and Lenin knew he had to try and improve things, so he introduced the New Economic Policy, or the NEP, which was the opposite of War Communism. Peasants were now allowed to farm their own land, the Government took a percentage of the products made but the peasants were now allowed to sell the rest, people were now allowed to run and own their own businesses and Lenin paid experts to work in the factories. The NEP had both successes and failures, some positive impacts the NEP had were that industrial and agricultural production increased, education improved and illiteracy decreased, but some of the negative impacts were that unemployment was still a serious problem, many peasants remained poor and carried on using backwards methods of farming and Kulaks were hated by many due to how rich they became. The NEP was not a Communist idea though and it actually made Russia more Capitalist as the Russia people could keep their own profits, so the NEP was an example of Lenin using compromise, as he compromised with his people and his own ideas to get the country back on its feet.
The NEP soon began a campaign against illiteracy because in 1917 75% of the Russian population was illiterate. Universities were encouraged to accept more people, emphasis was placed on science and PE and by 1939 illiteracy was rare. This campaign against illiteracy was an example of Lenin looking to the future of Russia, and trying to find ways to improve it. Lenin used force again though when it came to religion as he believed that people should worship Communism rather then God, he had lots of priests arrested and so forced religious his ideas on the Russian people. Communists, like Lenin, believed that Marxism was the only possible bases for education and morality.
Then in 1924 Lenin died, when he had been shot in 1918 he had been left him with two bullets in his body and in 1922 he had his first big stroke. When he did die, Lenin was embalmed and put on display in Red Square until the demise of Communism in 1991. By some people in Russia Lenin was and still is praised as the man who led the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 which overthrew the Provisional Government and introduced Communism to Russia.
Initially, after the November Revolution, Lenin only had control of Petrograd, but by the time of his death in 1924 he had effectively established control of the whole of Russia, and he did this by using both force and compromise. Lenin was determined to make his Communist ideas work in Russia, he was willing to fight his own people in a Civil War and the NEP shows us he was even willing to compromise with his own ideas to keep power, we know that Lenin truly believed in his views though, as this is shown when he closes Parliament after the Communist Party lose the January elections. Lenin wasn’t always effective in his attempts to establish control though and it wasn’t until the Civil War was won by the Communists that he had control of all of Russia, but from when he first seized power off the Provisional Government until his death, Lenin kept establishing more and more control and became the first Communist leader in the world.