However, once in power, Lenin and then later Stalin, had created there own hierarchy in society, even though this was totally against the original Marxist theories. All the Bolshevik government officials and party members became communist elites and grew very rich whilst leading lavish lives in comparison to the average ‘man on the street’. This became very similar to the autocracy that was under the Tsar’s rule. In comparison to the previous difference this ‘higher’ communist elite group completely backfires on Lenin’s ideologies of equality and is a sign towards him just being a ‘Red Tsar’ hiding beneath a communist mask.
Another similarity between the Romanovs and the ‘communists’ is that they both used the form of repression in order to maintain power. An example of the Tsars using repression was the November massacre where demonstrators were shot dead by Nicholas II’s army outside the winter palace. Similarly Lenin set up the Cheka (secret police) in order to get rid of any opposition standing in his way. Although the Cheka was supposedly only meant to be a short term group it still stands today as the KGB. This use of repression by the ‘communists’ was known as the ‘Red Terror’ and was carried out by the Cheka and the Red army. The use of repression by both the communists and the Tsars shows another strong link between the two, because neither didn’t mind using force and terror in order to maintain power over Russia.
However, when Lenin came into power he made new reforms which weren’t conservative like the previous reforms made by the Tsars. One of the reforms made by Lenin was to try and make the government democratic as this was seen as a large section of Marxism. He created the reform that Russians could elect their own local constituents. Although on paper this sounds democratic, this is in fact not so as the people could only vote for other Bolshevik party members as Russia was at this time a one-party state. Some historians still see this as a step in the right direction but the unfortunate scenario is that it could also arguably be the only step towards democracy under Lenin and Stalin’s rule. So this reform amongst others, such as the Decree on Land and the Decree on workers control of factories, was heading in the opposite direction to the Conservative Tsars and can be seen as a definite difference in their methods of governing Russia.
During the civil war (1918-1921), Lenin had to made several measures in order to win. One of these was the creation of ‘War Communism’. This basically meant that Russia’s economy was geared towards the war allowing Lenin to rid his opposition. Another factor of War Communism was grain requisitioning where the red army were sent out to peasant farms to steal grain for the people in the cities. These actions obviously clash against ‘true’ communism and could be classed as a similarity with the Romanovs.
Now we move onto a second debate on whether or not Stalin was more of a Red Tsar than Lenin. Both Lenin and Stalin used repressive tactics in order to keep power but it was Stalin who took it to another level. On one day alone he sentenced 6,000 of his own people to death. This number of murders in one day was more than the whole 100 year Romanov dynasty had accumulated. This gives us a very dark image of Stalin and shows that he was probably the most ruthless leader for Russia to have. This allows us to compare Stalin to the Tsars and shows that there were definite similarities between the two and it also allows us to see to what extend Stalin went in order to keep his power.
True communism can never really occur in the world unless every single person agrees with it and work towards it, which is impossible as everyone has different opinions on different matters. It is due to this that Lenin and Stalin were in fact just continuing the work of the Romanovs by becoming Red Tsars themselves. The reason being that many of their reforms and ‘creations’, e.g. the Cheka, were in fact anti-communist. Many historians believe that both Leninism and Stalinism were at times on the brink of fascism which is the complete opposite to their ‘supposed’ Marxist views. Overall it was only until recently that Russia finally managed to boost democracy and improve the way the government is run.
Tom Gunhouse