Was terror the main method by which the Bolshevik leadership exercised control over the Party
between 1917 and 1924? Explain your answer
Between 1917 and 1924, the Bolshevik leadership cemented their control over the party and the use
of terror was most certainly the main method in allowing this to happen. In this context ‘main
method’ refers to the most crucial process or factor, which allowed the Bolshevik party to exert
ultimate control over the party. Therefore, the root of this debate lies in the efficacy of each of these
factors in creating a system where party members and officials essentially became slaves to the
leadership. The struggles of the civil war and the fact that the Bolsheviks were a minority party, who
ultimately were only able to gain power through force and revolution, meant that they were more
susceptible to fierce opposition from outside and, more importantly, within the party. As a result,
they had to create a system whereby enemies of the project were easily eradicated. By creating a
central body in which party members were periodically reviewed and subsequently purged was
extremely effective in allowing this to occur, highlighting the sheer importance of terror. However,
other factors such as the structure of government and the implementation of the Nomenklatura
system were also critical in establishing control over the party as they formed a basis for the
centralisation of power to the politburo and leading party members. Nevertheless, these factors are
not as significant as the use of terror as ultimately it was force and scaremongering, which
reinforced the power of the Bolshevik leadership.
The use of terror was the main method by which the Bolshevik leadership exercised control over the
party because it physically eliminated opposition from within and ensured that all members were
loyal to the leadership, creating a culture based upon herd mentality and absolute subordination to
party leadership. The use of terror included the formation of the Cheka (a party committee) in
December 1917, which was headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, and its official role was to deal with
counter-revolution, sabotage, and speculation. However, they soon began operating outside the
law- carrying out party expulsions, arrests, and executions without consulting official courts. At first
the committee dealt with opposition from within and outside the party, but by 1922 (just after the
civil war ended) it was replaced by the OGPU, which focused on opposition from within the party.
Consequently, terror became more bureaucratic and discreet. For example, party purges periodically
took place, and these were called ‘Chistka’, which in Russian means cleansing. It became a soviet
ritual, symbolising the power of the party leadership and its ability to physically get rid of any
opposition. In the first party purge of 1921, just after Lenin introduced the ‘New Economic Policy’
(NEP), 25% of party members lost their party cards and in total, 220,000 members were purged or
forced to leave the party. This reveals how the party leadership used to terror in order to
exterminate opposition and strengthen their control, by forging a rigid and almost routine process
which constantly allowed for threats to party leadership, policy, or culture to be periodically rooted
out. Furthermore, it implemented a sense of fear in the party, which meant that many members
were forced into declaring their loyalty and subordination to the party leadership in order to ensure
that they did not get expelled or, in some cases, executed. However, this point does also slightly
weaken the validity of the statement that terror was the main method of establishing control over
the party, as it reinforces the strength of the Nomenklatura system. This is because this idea that
many members displayed undisputed loyalty to the leadership, even if they did not share their
beliefs, was arguably more of a consequence of the implementation of the Nomenklatura system as
it forced members to pledge their allegiance to the party in order to keep their position or get
