Communist government in the USSR 1917 – 85 COMPLETE NOTES
Introduction
- The October revolution of 1917 saw the establishment of the world’s first communist state
- The government system established by the Bolsheviks was authoritarian, highly centralised
and based on the use of terror to reinforce the dominant position of the Party.
Bolshevik aims
- Bolshevik party had been established in 1903 as one of the revolutionary groups that wished
to bring about change in Russia.
- The chaos brought about in 1917 provided the Bolsheviks with an unexpected opportunity to
seize power.
- Bolsheviks believed the old system should be replaced with a socialist system which would
then turn to communism.
Karl Marx view of historical change
- Primitive communism: no social classes and no concept of private property as can been seen
in the Stone Age
- Feudalism: society would be controlled by land owning aristocrats
- Capitalism: the growth of trade and industry produced two classes; proletarians were
exploited.
o Believed the proletariats would eventually rise up and get ride of the bourgerious
- Socialism: in this phase, workers organisation would form a dictatorship of the proletariat to
rule on their own behalf
- Communism: less need to regulate society; government would be unnecessary
How Lenin used Marx to fuel the revolution
- Lenin beloved that the Bolshevik party could be used as the vanguard of the revolution.
- Lenin believed that a highly centralised and disciplined party should seize power on behalf of
the proletariat.
- Power would then be taken away from the bourgeoise and placed in the hand of the
Bolshevik party
The October revolution, 1917
- The Bolsheviks seized power in October using a well-planned and well executed uprising.
- At the time, the Bolsheviks were still a small party of about of 300,000 members.
o In order to justify Bolshevik rule, they claimed to be representing the interests of the
workers.
- Propaganda presented the vent as a heroic stomping of the Winter Palace with mass support
o The reality was very different with the only troops left guarding the palace were the
Women’s death battalion
o They opened the gates to let the Bolsheviks in
- The nature of the revolution determined much of what the Bolsheviks did next
o They had seized power with very limited support
o Force would be needed to ensure the minority party maintained control
How did the Bolsheviks establish a one party state between 1917 and 1924
The creation of a one-party state and the party congress of 1921
- The Bolsheviks faced renounces difficulties in attempting in secure their hold on power
o These difficulties stemmed form the fact that, despite the Party size growing since
the revolution, they remained a relative small group
- The Bolsheviks faced opposition to their rule from a range of groups
, o Other left wing groups who were denied a share of power by the Bolsheviks, such as
the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks
o Groups on the right and liberal groups
o Nationalist groups within the Russian empire such as the Poles and Ukraine
How did the Bolsheviks deal with the other left – wing groups?
- Many other left wing groups shared many of the socialist aims of the Bolsheviks
o As a results, groups such as SR’s and Mensheviks hope that they would be given a
share in the new government
o Lenin made it clear there would be no sharing of power
o Yet for some practical reasons, some left wing SR’s did join the Bolsheviks
government in the beginning.
- The SR’s and the Mensheviks hoped that the calling of parliament, the Constituent Assembly,
in January 1918 would be a change to regain the initiative
o The Assembly was to be democratically elected and this played to the strengths of
the SR’s
- The results were not in the Bolshevik favour
o They gained 175 seats with the SR’s emerging as the largest single party with 410
seats and 21 million votes
- Lenin, therefore dissolved for the Assembly after one meeting and condemned it as an
instrument of the bourgerious
- In place of the assembly, Lenin used the All Russian Congress of Soviets as an instrument of
popular support
The destruction of other political parties
- Removal of vote from bourgeoise classes such as employers and priests
- The Mensheviks and SR’s found it had to publish their newspapers due to restriction imposed
by the Bolsheviks
- The left wing SR’s who had been given a role in government in 197 lost infelunce when they
walked out of the government in march 1918 after the decision to pull out of WW1
- In march 1918, the Bolshevik party renamed themselves itself the communist party and all
other parties were effectively banned in 1921
- In April 1921, Lenin declared the place for the Mensheviks and SR’s is in prison
o During the first three months of 1921, 5,000 Mensheviks were arrested
The treaty of Brest Litovsk, 1918
- The demoralised conservatives found a cause of outrange when peace was concluded
through the Treaty of Brest Litovsk
- The treaty took Russia out of the war at a great costs
o Russia lost control over the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Finland and
part of the Caucasus region
- It was a national humiliation for the conservatives
o They believed the only way to restore Russia’s pride was to overthrow the Bolshevik
regime and reject the treaty
o The treaty also provided necessary spur to those who wished to fight against the
Bolsheviks, known as the whites
Why did Lenin sign the treaty
- He knew it would increase likelihood of civil war and increase in opposition
- However, he was aware that the collapse of the Tsarist regime and provisional government
had largely resulted from the war
o It sapped energy and resources of the government
o He realised if he wished to consolidate his power, it needed to pull out of the war to
deal with internal enemies
