Also I think that the victory of the revolution would not have been achieved as easily had it not been for the downfall of the Provisional Government. They were not well prepared at all. They did not have a good army, which was made up of women and war invalids. This army could not stand up to the Bolshevik army who were mostly fit, young men. They were only armed with light artillery and no machine guns. Also, the provisional Government had lost a lot of its support so when it was attacked no one tried to help it.
In conclusion, I believe that Lenin may have been able to rile the people up so that they wanted to start a Revolution, but the success of this Revolution would not have been achieved if it wasn’t for Trotsky’s careful planning and organisations and the downfall of the Provisional Government’s preparation and army. I think that Lenin was quite important but the Revolution probably could have occurred without him, it may just have taken a bit longer to be successful.
Was Lenin more significant for his actions in 1917 or for his subsequent actions from 1918 to 1924?
Lenin was a Russian revolutionary and was best known for being one of the main leaders of the October Revolution in 1917 and the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. But was Lenin more significant for his actions in 1917 or his subsequent actions from 1918 to 1924? That is the question I will be exploring in this essay and I will be thinking of all of his actions in the mentioned years.
Lenin’s main role in 1917 was to spearhead the revolution. In February 1917 the February Revolution took place, the result of an accumulation of social, political and economic problems caused by the war. In 1917 the war effort caused economic chaos and by February people in the towns of Russia were starving and freezing. Workers and soldiers set up the Petrograd Soviet which elected an Executive Committee, which contained independents and members of political groups, including Bolsheviks. Many of the more prominent Bolsheviks were abroad and powerless. Lenin’s own initial surprise at the news from Petrograd was quickly translated into feverish attempts to return home and catch up with the Revolution.
In April 1917 Lenin published his April Theses. This document outlined Lenin’s aims for the future: to end the war; to give all power to the Soviet; to give all property and land to the people and worldwide revolution. Lenin forced these ideas through despite opposition and skepticism form the party. The April Theses became the basis of the party’s policy. This brought the Bolsheviks much support and made them into strong competition against the provisional Government.
In October 1917 the Bolsheviks staged a coup to take over the provisional Government in Petrograd. Late at night, on the 25 October, Trotsky’s red Guards helped by the Kronstadt sailors took over the bridges in Petrograd and the telephones lines. They cut off Petrograd off from the rest of Russia. The Red Guards took over the Government buildings, the banks and the railway station. At 9.40pm they took over the Winter Palace. The Bolsheviks had seized control of Russia. The importance of Lenin in these events was not crucial, although his significance was seen in the events leading up to the coup and immediately afterwards. It was Lenin’s clarity of determination that enabled him to seize power in the vacuum which developed after the failure of the Provisional Government.
One of Lenin’s main priorities when he came to power was to end the war with Germany. Reconstruction would become impossible with the Germans on Russian soil. Therefore an armistice was signed with the Germans and peace negotiations began. Lenin ordered that any German conditions should be accepted but he had great difficulty in convincing his colleagues that this was the way forward. He realized that the Bolsheviks needed to get a quick treaty from the Germans to bring about the end of the war so that the Bolsheviks could concentrate on the work they needed to do in Russia. Eventually peace was signed in March 1918 in the form of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Under the treaty, Russia lost Riga, Lithuania, Livonia, Estonia and some of White Russia. These areas had great economic importance as they were some of the most fertile farming areas in Western Russia. Lenin’s practical and realistic approach enabled him to strengthen the Bolshevik party even more.
Another immediate issue for Lenin was with the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly was set up by the Provisional Government after Tsar Nicholas abdicated. In November 1917 elections took place. The Bolsheviks were disappointed with the results as the Socialist Revolutionaries won instead. On 5th January the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries was elected President. Later that day Lenin announced that the Constituent Assembly had been dissolved and ruled by decree. Soon afterwards all opposition political groups were banned in Russia. A secret police, the Cheka, was set up to deal with spies and counter-revolutionaries. There was a great deal of repression in Russia, such as all non-Bolshevik papers being banned. The freedom of opinion in Russia, which had been achieved by the Provisional Government, was lost in the space of two months. Banks were put under Bolshevik government control. The Bolsheviks banned religion and abolished the teaching of history and Latin.
Some things did improve for the workers. An eight-hour day was introduced as well as unemployment pay and pensions. The Bolsheviks gave the land previously owned by the nobles to the peasants, and factories were handed over to worker’s committees. There was also a huge campaign to teach everyone to read. Trains went around the country showing communist newsreels and giving lectures to teach peasants about Communism. A law of December 1919 decreed that the illiterate, who comprised of over half the country’s population, should attend school.
The Russian economy was already in a critical state at the time of the Revolution but the crisis worsened as World War was replaced by Civil War. In 1917 Lenin introduced ‘War Communism’ which meant that special measures were needed to deal with a national emergency. The period between 1918 and 1921 came to be known as the period of War Communism. Farms and factories were put under state control and private trade was banned. Food was taken for soldiers and industrial workers. Peasants who refused to hand it over to the red Army were shot or sent to labour camps. The Cheka hunted and executed any enemies of the state. Industrial workers weren’t allowed to strike or be absent from work and everyone between the ages of 16 and 60 had to work.
The Bolsheviks won the civil war and captured the different areas of the former Russian Empire. They organized them into socialist republics governed by the Soviet. In 1922 Lenin organized these republics into a united state - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In 1924 the USSR agreed a constitution where each Republic sent representatives to a Congress of Soviets in Moscow.
In 1921 the Kronstadt sailors, who had supported the Communists in 1917, mutinied and demanded an end to the strict rules of war Communism. Lenin was worried that dissent might spread when the ice around the island base thawed and let the sailors leave. Lenin realized that, as the civil war was over, there was no longer any justification for war Communism and it was time to pull back. In 1921 Lenin introduced a new policy called the New Economic Policy (NEP). He recognized that the ideal of communism could not be rushed and the people needed to be educated on the benefits of communism. The NEP created a mixed economy, where communism and capitalism developed side by side. Lenin noticed that he needed to have the support of the peasants to achieve communism. In May 1922 the Fundamental Law was passed in the USSR. This gave the peasants more rights in land ownership and more freedom to sell or lease their land. The economy picked up, and people were much happier. But many old Bolsheviks said Lenin had sold out to capitalism, and left the party.
In conclusion I believe that Lenin’s actions in 1918 to 1924 were of more significance because his actions in these years brought about the real change that was triggered by the Revolution in 1917. I think that Lenin is more prominent in the years that he is in power than he was in the revolution as his part in the revolution was vital. Lenin achieved great things in his years of power as there were important economic, political and social developments in Russia at this time that could not have been achieved without Lenin’s input. Lenin took over an empire that was breaking up, suffering from military defeat and in a state of economic and political crisis. He left a Soviet State which was asserting more control over what remained than the tsars had managed before him.
What was Lenin’s influence after his death in 1924?
Lenin was ill for much of his later years. His health had been damaged severely by the strains of revolution and war and also by his attempted assassination earlier in his life. In May 1922 Lenin had his first stroke and he suffered a second in December that same year, after which he resigned from active politics. In March 1923 he suffered his third stroke which left him bedridden for the remainder of his life. A severe attack in Moscow in January the next year was soon followed by a haemorrhage of the brain, and death. Lenin died on , , aged 53. In this essay I will be exploring the effects of Lenin’s death on Russia and his influence over the USSR even after his death.
As soon as it was obvious that Lenin was seriously ill there was a struggle about who should succeed him as leader. Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev were the chief contenders. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin effectively ran the Party in Lenin’s absence. Trotsky began to oppose them but his position was not strong. All of these contenders jockeyed for position but Stalin did so most effectively through his role as General Secretary which allowed him to promote his people in the Party and to prepare Party agendas. Lenin had to grapple with the situation of a struggle of power in his Testament, but it did not help the situation very much as Lenin gave no clear directive on how Lenin saw the future. Presumably he hoped for a collective leadership although this was never spelt out. It was believed that Lenin thought that no one person had the qualities to lead the party as he had. In the month that Lenin died Trotsky was away in the Caucasus and Lenin telegraphed him and said that the funeral would be held immediately so there was no point in taking the long trip back to Moscow. Thus Stalin forced Trotsky into being absent from the funeral and took a prominent and very public role in the mourning of the late leader. However, Lenin’s Testament, which warned the party against Stalin and suggested that he should be taken out of leadership, was read at the next Central Committee meeting. However, Trotsky kept silent and Stalin's allies, Kamenev and Zinoviev, came to his defense; Stalin retained his post as General Secretary. Stalin sustained his image as chief mourner and he appeared the rightful heir and by 1928 Stalin was completely in control of the Soviet Union.
After Lenin’s death Stalin invoked Lenin’s name in religious tones as a beacon to guide the Soviet Union into the future. It took only five days for Lenin to become an icon all over Russia. The city of Petrograd was renamed in his honor three days after Lenin's death. This name remained for a long time and was not replaced until the liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991. Lenin was as important not just for what he had achieved but as an icon of the Soviet Union. After his funeral Lenin’s body was embalmed and placed in a granite mausoleum in Red Square. Thousands of people would come to see Lenin’s body for decades to come. Lenin had become a father type figure of communism and was seen as a slogan of communism by which legitimacy could be conferred on any idea published by the Soviet Government.
Lenin’s influence after his death is also shown in the similarity between Lenin’s policy, War Communism, and Stalin’s policy of collectivization. Lenin’s policy of war communism was a harsh policy to the people of Russia. In war communism all industry was nationalised and state monopoly on foreign trade was introduced. Food was rationed and distributed in a centralised manner and private enterprise became illegal. Similarly, in the late 1920’s, after Stalin came to power he introduced the Collectivization of Agriculture policy. He wanted to increase the efficiency and output of agriculture in order to move towards an industrial revolution and eventually communism, like Lenin who introduced war communism as a way of forcing communism onto the people of Russia. In Stalin’s collectivization programme peasants were encouraged to join collectives and share their food between themselves and workers in industrial cities. This was similar to war communism as the peasants were working for each other instead of just looking after themselves. Although on the surface Stalin’s programme seemed more lenient than Lenin’s as the peasants were only ‘encouraged’, the facts suggest differently as any peasants who objected to Stalin’s plans were evicted from their land and many died while resisting eviction or in labour camps. Both Stalin and Lenin believed strongly in the ideal of communism and through these two policies were working hard to achieve this ideal.
Lenin’s influence after his death was seen everywhere and he was a national hero. Within the USSR Lenin remained as important after his death as before. He was beyond official criticism and he was seen by future leaders as the father of communism in Russia. Even when Lenin was no longer considered an icon, he was not classed with other Soviet leaders, such as Stalin and Brezhnev, who were greatly criticized for their policies of repression and cruelty. In my opinion Lenin was a great influence in Russia even many years after his death and this was shown in the public’s adoration of what he stood for; his iconic, heroic status in Russia; and the similarities between his own and future policies and programmes in the Soviet union.