How important was Lenin to the success of the October 1917 Revolution?

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How important was Lenin to the success of the October 1917 Revolution?

Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik Party. He was the heartbeat of the Bolsheviks, an intelligent individual who possessed a very technical-thinking mind. He had many qualities which he utilised to the best of his ability to try and gain Bolshevik support. For example, he was an excellent public speaker. Through his oratory ability to get across Bolshevik messages, slogans and ideas, the Bolsheviks gained lots of support. The greater the Bolshevik support, the greater the number of people in favour of a Bolshevik revolution. In this way he was influential toward the revolution.

On the other hand, Lenin was not one to get involved in fighting and war. He was more of an administrative person in the sense that he was the knowledge and intelligence behind the Bolshevik Revolution. His partner in crime, Leon Trotsky, was the opposite to Lenin, and used his tactical brain to full extent when completing the smooth takeover of power by the Bolsheviks and also when defeating the Whites in the Russian Civil War 1918-21.  Trotsky planned and organised how the Bolsheviks seized power. It was his idea to use the Congress as a cover to seize power and to claim that it was all done for the Soviet. One could therefore argue that Trotsky was much more instrumental than Lenin in the success of the revolution, because he adopted a much more involved role in the physical takeover of the Winter Palace.

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Lenin was ‘a skilled opportunist who, with a mixture of shrewd political judgment and luck, outmanoeuvred a collection of opponents who never matched him in sense of purpose and sheer determination.’ (Michael Lynch, 1992)

This shows how determined Lenin was to succeed in his endeavour. He took the ideas of Karl Marx and adapted them agriculturally and industrially to suit the modern-day model of Russia with the modern-day social situations. His interpretation of Marxism was ‘unquestionably great’ (John Laver).

The unpopularity of the Provisional Government can be seen as a factor of Bolshevik success that was not ...

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