How did the Bolsheviks consolidate their power in the first few months after the October 1917 Revolution? (30 marks)
Lenin’s Bolshevik takeover of power in Russia left the country confused and inquisitive into what the future may hold, with their recently adopted power only leaving them with a tenuous grip around the nation. The majority of Russia predicted that the Bolshevik’s would only last a matter of weeks, before worsening economic and social issues would leave their power insecure and prove too difficult for them to correct. Also the opposition was gathering momentum which Lenin knew had to be stopped in its tracks before any attacks were made on his newly formed government, consolidating power was key for the Bolsheviks and the first few months were paramount to their success.
Right from the start Lenin realised that opposition was plentiful to one-party rule and his emerging Bolshevik dictatorship. Still throughout the cities many working class citizens still supported the idea of Soviet power, not Bolshevik power. The majority expected the Socialist to remerge from the dismantled Provisional Government and reinstate their power over Russia, but Lenin had always proposed to rule alone and made it clear that his party were going to merciless to any opposition that came between him and total supremacy. At the top of Lenin’s list of objectives was forming his new government, named the Council of People’s Commissars, also known as the Sovnarkom. This came as a surprise to many as it was expected that the Soviet could and would have become the main body of government in Russia as many Soviets were in fact Bolsheviks. The reason that Lenin decided to not include the Soviet’s in his plans was that he believed to gain real strength and a robust grip around Russia, he had to have total control, any other political influence may lead to that grip being loosened and consequent forfeiting power to political rivals. At the end of the day, Lenin had no intention whatsoever of sharing power with opposition, including the Mensheviks, Socialists Revolutionaries and other socialist groups in the Soviet.
Lenin appointed fellow Bolsheviks to certain posts with the Sovnarkom wiith Lenin himself being Chairman, Trotsky initially as Commissar for Foreign Affairs (until becoming Commissar for War in February 1918) and Stalin and Commissar for Nationalities. Lenin knew that by employing people that respected him and he had one-hundred per cent trust in, Russia would be stable for the time being under the Bolsheviks as any problems initiated could be dealt with efficiently by the applicable Commissar leader. When the government started operating in was in an extremely precarious position, opposition leaders gave it now more than a few weeks, mainly due to the fact that the Sovnarkom’s power was incredibly limited, astonishingly the Soivets were still in control of many opposition parties including the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries. To many people’s surprise the Soviets never really made an explicit attempt to regain power over Russian, when it was quite a realistic chance that the Soviets could have defeated the Bolshevik’s and left Lenin in disarray. Also in the Russian Countryside Bolshevik influence and presence was basically absent. Many protests took place in th capital city of Petrograd as civil servants held strikes and to add to the problems for Lenin the State Bank initially refused to give any money to the Bolsheviks, adding to Lenin dismay, which led to him for the first time becoming worried over the future control of the Bolsheviks and consequently the whole of Russia. Despite his worries the Government did eventually get their hands on the money at this stage they desperately needed, however it wasn’t political negotiations that led to the banks agreeing to supply the money, it took armed force to make staff at the banks to open their vaults so the Sovnarkom could get their hands on as many roubles as they required. This was the first sign that Lenin was going to stand by his words and was going to be complete ruthless in his reign as the leader of Russia, showing that he wasn’t afraid to over power to state bank to steal an infinite amount of money illustrated this, but at the end of the day he knew it paramount to his success, without economic power the Bolshevik’s wouldn’t have been able to fund the regime, defeating opposition and bringing the Great War to an end was going to be an economic drain on the government, so it was incredibly necessary that he got his hands on the money.
The problems that Lenin had did beg the question of how did he manage to survive the first few months. Lenin had realised the problems that the Provisional had feel due to, so proposed to ignore the tide of popular aspiration and instead appease the workers and peasants in the hope of gaining support as a result, which would subsequently tighten his grip around the working class as a whole. As many of the Soviets were Bolsheviks Lenin gave power to them in order to manage their own affairs, and give the central government less to worry about. The Sovnarkom ruled by decree without going to the Soviet for their approval – this meant that Lenin and his government could make decisions on the running of the country without consulting any other political parties, therefore protecting any political influence. The three most important decrees were as follows, starting with the Land Decree. This decree gave the peasants the power they had been craving for years, the right to take over the estates of the gentry and then decide for them how to divide the land up amongst them. This made it no longer possible for any land to be bought, sold or rented, essentially the land belonged to the country, everyone. Despite this, it was not what the Bolsheviks wanted, but Lenin knew it was essential to appease the peasants and therefore gave them what they wanted t prevent any possible counter-revolution from them. Lenin had it in his plans that the peasants were going to play a vital role in his consolidation of power, with class warfare, as I will discuss later, essentially being Lenin’s answer to eliminating the middle-class. Secondly the Workers’ control decree gave factory committees control over the production and finance within the workplace, this was not what many Bolsheviks wanted, however it was inevitable that they would have to give in to pressure for worker’s pressure for reform. The final decree was the Rights of the people of Russia decree, which gave the right of self-determination to the national minorities, meaning that they could denounce themselves from Russia, despite this being opposite to Lenin’s intentions he knew that it was necessary to keeping the national minorities at bay.
Overall, the Sovnarkom didn’t have the experience or backing of political experts, however Lenin managed to fight his way through the struggle to come out of the struggle still in control of Russia as a whole. Decrees appeasing peasants was a paramount part to his success and he knew that he would need the backing of peasants later on to defeat and eradicate the bourgeois middle-class. By giving peasants the concessions that they desperately wanted, including eight-hour days, land and peace, the urban workers and peasants were beginning to come round to the idea of a Bolshevik run state.
Lenin knew that giving into the popular demands in certain aspects would go some way in consolidating his Bolshevik power within Russia, however he also knew that this technique wouldn't be enough, so pursued the idea of eradicating all political opposition. One of the very first measures that Lenin introduced was the close of opposition press, the newspapers of the opoosition centre and right were the first to be hit, closely followed by the socialist press. By doing this Lenin knew that he would be able to stop the opposiiton ideology from spreading across, stopping any momentum in it's tracks to try andmake Russia a strictly one party state. Lenin especially knew this as he has invested high amounts of money into the papers during the 1917 revolution, subsequently knowing the impact that any hostile press could have. Soon after Lenin turned his attention to the Kadets, quickly being outlawed by the Bolsheviks. Then on the 7th of December Lenin set up the Cheka, much like the Okrhana of past years, this force of dedicated Bolshevik supporters provided depdanable security, it soon became clear that the Cheka would be a vital part in holding the Bolshevik regime together. Lenin also encouraged class warfare, with his aim being to wipe out the middle class, and have the peasantry running the country. Workers, soldiers and peasants supported the end of privlege and them oves to a more egalitarian society. Titles were completely abolished and everyone was simply known by the title of 'comrade', this allowed no one to have power or dignity over anyone else and left everybody on a level playing field. Lenin knew that by doing this he would have the backing of the peasants, which he had already pleased after introducing numerous decrees as previously mentioned. The Socialist press made sure to publicise content which would spur on the peasantry t view the middle-class (burzhui) as 'enemies of the people'. Lenin had earned the respect of the peasants so knew he could rely on them to deal with the Burzhui in an aggressive manner to try and eradicate.
Also the abolishing of the Constituent Assembly aided Lenin in his pursuit of total the monopolisation of Russia. His intentions were to win the election and then rule Russia in a similar way that he was doing so pre-assembly. Lenin has his hands tied in his decision whether to form a Constituent Assembly as threats were made to disrupt his reign if orders weren't carried out, for example the Railwaymen's Union, backed by the post and telegraph union, threatened to cut of communications if the Bolsheviks did not hold talks with other political parties. The power they possessed would easily allow them to paralyse food supplies to Petrograd as well as contact with other cities. These demands gave Lenin with no option, so reluctantly had to hold talks with other parties about sharing his political powers. This was when Lenin was convinced to form the Constituent Assembly, Lenin believed that by doing this (if he won) he would be viewed to have legitimately gained power in Russia and no disruption could be made into the validity of his position and then subsequently consolidating his power as leader of Russia. However things didn't go to plan for Lenin, as when voting took place for the Assembly the Bolsheviks found that they had only won 175 seats against an enormous 410 won by the Socialist Revolutionaries, this was a disaster for Lenin, his plan was in tatters. Consequently, Lenin asserted that his Soviet Government represented a higher stage of democracy than an elected assembly. He said that the Constituent Assembly portrayed a bourgeois parliamentary democracy and then declared it redundant, after the Assembly just meeting once to discuss national matters. Interestingly a crowd demonstrating in favour of the Assembly were fired on by the soldiers, the first time soldiers had fired on citizens since February 1917, this demonstrated two things, firstly that Lenin was in no position to mess around with his new regime and that any backlash would be extinguished in the most remorseless manner and secondly the fact that the army were still loyal to the Bolsheviks, paramount to any success they were going to have in power. These factors were highly necessary for Lenin to be able to consolidate his Bolshevik parties power.
Overall, after seizing power in late 1917, Lenin knew that these steps were necessary to consolidating hi position in charge of Russia, and then factors such as forming a new government and suppressing opposition was pivotal to his success, which he carried on until his death in 1924.